Tomodachi Game is a great anime for psychological fans. The harder you think, the more enjoyable these anime tend to be. This is what makes it hard to enjoy for anime fans that prefer not using their brain when watching anime.
When I rate an anime, I take five categories into consideration: sound/music, visuals, characters, story, and ending. The sound is good, the opening is amazing, and the ending is great. The visuals are okay, and the creepy smile Yuichi gives is very thrilling.
Yuichi is the main protagonist and he is one of my favorite characters out of every anime for three reasons.
Spoiler, click to view
First, his intelligence and brutality are refreshing amongst anime with protagonists that don't kill people who try to kill them, but it doesn't go too far and turn him into a monster. Second, his inner war between the value of money and the value of friendship makes him more interesting as a character. We see this when he keeps the friendship of the opposing team in game three intact and when he breaks his finger instead of Hyakutarou's finger. He doesn't lose his brutality because he explains that if his plan didn't work, he would've resorted to breaking Hyakutarou's finger instead. Lastly, his methods of healing his friends take a rough approach which I'll talk more about in the story category.Tenji is the next most developed character out of Yuichi's group.
Spoiler, click to view
His main motivation for what he did during the second game is to claim revenge for what Sawaragi did to his friend group. You could claim that he should've cared more about his friends, but he does have guilt, it just doesn't outweigh his grudge against Sawaragi. His intelligence isn't anything to scoff at, and his loyalty to Yuichi is admirable.Sawaragi, Shibe, and Kokorogi don't get much development other than the tidbits we learn from the second game, but they don't detract from the show. Kokorogi has an interesting conflict that I will discuss in the story category later.
The five boys in the opposing team during the third game are all static characters, but they are round and not flat. All of them belong in the friend group, and the dynamics of their friendship are interesting to watch.
Manabu is a flaw of the show. I wish they had done away with the non-realistic robot or costume or whatever it is, opting instead for an intercom and monitor system. It doesn't feel like it belongs in the anime, and it weirds me out.
The workers that watch the games are static characters and relatively flat, but they make for an interesting perspective to watch from.
The story is great.
Spoiler, click to view
From the first game that hooks you in on the first episode with many questions to who the bad guy is to the third game that establishes Yuichi's and Tenji's bond, most of the arcs are good.The first game is perfect, and it sets up interesting questions for the viewer to ponder.
Spoiler, click to view
Who is everyone? Who's not voting with the others? Why aren't they doing so? Who has the debt?The second game wasn't as interesting as the other two, but it provided more information on the characters.
Spoiler, click to view
The third game took the most developed characters of the group and focused on them, providing a really enjoyable watch. The way that they won was also unpredictable, and this anime shines in providing solutions that you can't easily figure out. The plot twists are also really entertaining. The beginning of the fourth game established that Yuichi cares about Kokorogi. This makes his harsh reprimanding of Kokorogi into an attempt to make her take her life into her own hands instead of relying on others. Kokorogi has a self-confidence problem, and this is the way Yuichi is trying to fix it. It's either that or Yuichi is manipulating Kokorogi into trusting him completely. The ending of the fourth game could justify this conclusion considering that he switched to good cop and didn't force Kokorogi into making a decision. Either way, it makes finding conclusions an interesting part of the story. The only problem I have with the story might be the way it tells us what Yuichi was trying to achieve and how he did it. This show's fans are going to be able to figure that out by the end without the explanation so it could do without. The famous quote, "Show, don't tell," applies here as well.The ending was perfect.
Spoiler, click to view
It solidified Kokorogi and Tenji under Yuichi, and the exclusion of Yuichi in the fourth game makes an interesting break from the usual.Let's just hope that Yuichi can manipulate Crunchyroll into giving us a season two.
