Tomodachi Game
A short review of the first season
[May 10, 2022]1
Tomodachi Game is a reliably clever and surprisingly charming thriller. The game show format is a fun premise — who doesn’t like puzzles? — but the story builds on well-defined characters and their murky relationships. The danger and drama are appropriately dangerous and dramatic for a teenage cast: this isn’t a Saw film. After only six episodes, I’m completely invested because I trust the writers to deliver.
With careful pacing, the show maintains a high level of intensity without either exhausting the viewer or resorting to edgy gimmicks. Instead of a normal protagonist trapped in an extreme situation, which is perhaps more typical of a thriller, Tomodachi Game gives us an extreme protagonist driving an already extreme situation further out of control, and I think it works wonderfully. Occasional clues leading up to well timed reveals will reward your attention even on repeat viewing. Serious subject matter is taken seriously, while at the same time the show invites us to have fun figuring out the latest mystery, at times practically breaking the fourth wall to do so.
Essentially, you could say it’s Death Note at Degrassi High, as troubled teens match wits in a reasonably high-stakes game whose rules are clearly defined but entertainingly exploitable. The format demands unusually accurate translation; fortunately, both the English subtitles and the English dub are very good. The animation is serviceable.
I actually watched every episode more than once, trying to spot all the clues and figure out the answer, and the next episode’s reveal was never disappointing. I recommend avoiding all spoilers so you can enjoy the show at your own pace as well.
The start of a new broadcast season, and by this point, I knew what to expect: critics, and to some extent viewers, tend to overlook well-written genre fiction with cheap animation. Of all the common criticisms, the two least fair are these: that the show is similar to some other work in the same genre, and that it lacks “realism.” Yes, game-based thrillers already exist — none of them are very much like Tomodachi Game, but they do exist: well spotted. And yes, this is not a work of literary realism: you will be asked to suspend your disbelief. Even Hamlet has a ghost and a pirate ship. If you want realism, go see Look Back in Anger.