Friend Game
Studio: Okuruto Noboru
Genre: Psychological, Mystery
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Friend Game is a psychological mystery series which could easily be mistaken for a Squid Game clone on first glance. The anime follows a group of friends, through the eyes of our protagonist, poor higher schooler Yuuichi Katagiri who end up embroiled in a series of twisted games in order to pay off a debt that one of them has incurred. Despite the premise however this isn’t a death game but more of a mind game – the games require the group to work together but seeds of distrust are sown early on. The penalty for losing the game is a rising in debt for the losing person… and likely the breakup of the friendship for losing them all.
It’s an interesting premise and one which drew me in straight away, especially as the original manga series (written by Mikoto Yamaguchi with art by Yuuki Satou) is rated quite highly and seems to have a good amount of popularity. It’s the execution however in the first episode of the anime which falls a little flat. We start with a cold open which instantly sets out the darker tone the show will eventually take as well as making it clear how our protagonist is rather twisted in his own rate. It’s a shame this was revealed right from the get-go as it makes the eventual surprise of his unreliable narration easier to foresee and you already don’t quite trust him. We then have a lightning fast introduction to his friends, with a brief scene amongst them all which is supposed to make you believe the group are best buddies, while giving blink and you’ll miss it biographical info. Unfortunately their introductions are so quick that no real sense of connection is really gained from the characters and they come across just as simple tropes with no real deep relationship to one another. This is later resolved further through the use of some flashbacks but as we are already deep into the first game by this point, it makes you care for the characters a little too late.
The pacing is probably the worst problem with the series as we are barely halfway through the first episode before the characters are thrust into their first mind game. Whilst the mind game itself is interesting and offers some nice look at the character’s psychology the fact remains that it feels so rushed, the audience has no real connection to the characters at this point. The animation in the series is rather average – not dreadful but the character designs and animation itself are not particularly memorable, and the usage of cgi for the mascot character jarrs in scenes where it’s shown. There’s not much creativity shown in the scenes and so the overall impression is that the animation is just rather bland and uninspired. I’ve not read the original manga series so I can’t tell if this was in the original story but it feels like too many of the story’s secrets are revealed early on also – particularly by showing the perpetrators behind the game which could have been easily been left a mystery.
There are spots of greatness there amongst the mediocrity. The mind game itself is intelligently conveyed and genuinely does play into the psychology between the characters in a decent way. The soundtrack is decent, with Nana Mizuki singing the theme song. The soundtrack itself is reminiscent of the catchy beats of other survival series such as Dangan Ronpa, and this really adds to the atmosphere. The opening animation itself makes it clear that everyone, not just our protagonist, is hiding secrets from the others and there is defintite intrigue to find out how or if they will be revealed.
Over all, this first episode had some great ideas but lacked a lot in terms of execution. Whilst i can’t say I had favourable impressions after finishing the episode, I adore psychological thrillers and the fact that the manga is rated so highly makes me want to give this series a few more episodes to see if it can make up for it’s rough beginning. If the production quality and story-telling improves over the course of the show then this could be a fun psychological thriller with some great twists to come.
