The latest game has begun with just three people on our main characters’ sides. Tomodachi Game Episode 8 promises the best game of the series so far, or is it?. Let’s get right to the review!
Tomodachi Game Episode 8 Overview
Tomodachi Game, or Friends Game in English, is a psychological strategy anime belonging to the Death Game genre, a kind of anime that pits several characters against each other in a bid to make one of them outlast them all. It is based on a manga written by Mikoto Yamaguchi and illustrated by Yuuki Satou. This episode of the show is also referred to as Friends Game Episode 8.
The anime adaptation is developed by Studio Okuroto Noboru, a studio with only two full-length anime adaptations in its catalogue, Special Training in the Secret Dungeon and the second season of How Not To Summon A Demon Lord. The show is directed by Hirofumi Ogura, the director behind several well-known shows such as Black Butler and Cells At Work. You can read our review of the previous episode here!
– Friends Game Episode 8 Review does not contain any spoilers –
Tomodachi Game Episode 8 Review- To And Fro
As the title suggests, watching this episode was an exercise in frustration for multiple reasons. Everyone who said that the show was going to get interesting after the mid-season twist needs to reevaluate their tastes because in no way is this even passable television. The worst part about it is that you see that there are signs of a good show underneath the charred and overcooked while still somehow raw remains of this show. This needed a lot more effort to be done well, which it obviously isn’t.
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Why does the show think that one guy sitting in a cave and monologuing to himself is interesting in any way? That’s not even counting the fact that Tenji hasn’t earned an iota of pity or trust from the audience or Yuichi, who clearly has a lot more up his sleeve than we know. The show tried to add more intrigue to the proceedings by adding a bunch of rules that inspire betrayal, but all to no avail. This is an extremely stupid concept for a game at this point in the series, and all the window dressing in the world wouldn’t have been enough to hide that.
Then there is also the fact that this show thinks very little of its audience and their ability to perceive what is happening in the show at any given moment. Every scene that is even somewhat smart or planned out is ruined by these incessant explanations that are entirely unnecessary. The show spells out every tiny detail, some of which are as simple as “I’m the smallest one here”, said a person who is clearly and visibly shorter than all his teammates. Insightful commentary of this ilk is a huge detriment to a show that considers itself a psychological thriller.
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It even insists on describing each insignificant enemy character in unnecessary detail, when one look at them tells you all that you need to know about them. The commentary isn’t even all that interesting. The track just says the bare minimum stereotype about each character and leaves it at that. If that was all it wanted to do, couldn’t it have just skipped the intros altogether in favour of a more organic introduction that didn’t trigger everyone’s common sense alarms? Why can’t the show let its story play out for once without interrupting it like a helicopter parent every few minutes?
The hide and seek game Tomodachi Game Episode 8 set-up wasn’t very fun to watch in the first place, but how the episode was structured made it even worse. From the first frames of this episode, you could tell that nothing was going to happen here. For one, the show doesn’t do subtlety, and so this was blatantly obvious. Secondly, the show likes to spring Yuichi’s plans out of absolutely nowhere, which wasn’t getting revealed until the scenario was just right. Just right doesn’t mean good in this scenario, however. Also, this is redundant by this point, but the episode also looked awful.
Verdict
Tomodachi Game Episode 8 was a highly disappointing episode that featured a tepid game with awful characters and worse worldbuilding. Whoever said this was going to be better now was lying.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!