(CR) Tomodachi Game

[magnumcyclonex]

I'm liking how complicated this show is. Some of it is over the top, but I'll suspend disbelief for the sake of entertainment.

It's interesting how it's similar to Squid Game but not. No death, but there is an audience (two sets - the two girls in the control room, and chat audience - who would those ppl be?).

I'm not sure why it has to be a high school setting though. Friends can be friends throughout life, and when it comes to debt, unless it's a family debt that the students are trying to get out of, it's usually adults who run into this problem.

But I guess the relationships are closer in school as these 5 see each other everyday.

I really wonder...there had to be an initial traitor to get them all into the game, and as the games went on, one by one, each person will or has become a traitor to the others. At this point, it's hard to trust anyone, and any reveal of information needs to be judged and scrutinized by each other player, even confessions of love are not immune.

[Jan-Poo]

Well... I didn't expect them to show the treacherous thoughts of a character and revealing his identity so early.

Though, I guess the intent is to give the impression that he is the only culprit and then subvert it later.

I'm pretty sure he's just going to be the first and soon we'll see the ugly side of the rest of the cast. After all we know that it isn't just one person who started writing stuff on the notes, and like I said before, it's very likely that everyone hid something from the first game.

[Decel]

They stretched out that second part of the episode way too much. It got annoying.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep3:

Well, at least we got to see Yutori wearing a swimsuit and all of that good stuff. Anime was worth something then.

Also yeah, I'm pretty sure this is one of those "everyone is an asshole" thing, so it was just kinda funny seeing Megane act like he's god of the new world
Also, wait, we're still doing this game next episode? Come to think of it, they only proceeded like one or two turns. Wait, just one turn?

[Dengar]

So the most suspicious guy turned out to be the mastermind. Whoda thunk? I am amused by this show for how wacky and different it is. But the twist does not impress me. Everything from his motivations to is M.O was already blatantly advertised from the start.

[grecefar]

Yeah it was not a surprise that megane was the traitor with an obsession on sawaragi.

I just want to see how yuiichi will twist this and destroy megane.

[Ghostfriendly]

Welp, more stereotyped and incapable female characters set up for shaming and suffering. The male characters are fairly clichéd as well, but that isn't part of a systemic problem, just poor writing. The set up of the games, as in Liar Game, is a lot more interesting than Squid Game thanks to the original manga format. Explanations seem quite rushed though ( more rushed than the manga?) and resolutions a bit weak so far. Also, even more so than Liar Game, the story doesn't really tie into the social problem of uncontrollable debt, as was Squid Game's main selling point. Possibly making unsupervised students responsible for large sums of money is a problem in Japanese high schools? The impact of secrets and conflicts on friendship could be better expressed by a high school drama, or simple battle royale; extravagant games like this can never get away from the feeling of a rather contrived rigamarole. The op is good, at least.

[grecefar]

I do hate the innocent girl act when she is the biggest bitch ever, yutori is going to my shit list.

And there is tenji, he is talking too much and he is giving himself away but with that arrogance he can't see it.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep4:

"Adults would totally judge a kid by his parents. Kids wouldn't!"

"We will find a dark secret he is hiding! Which is... about his parent! That he doesn't know!"

...
...'Kay. Well, that was kinda funny, I guess. Still not as funny as Ousama Games though. The story being stupid is one key factor in the comedy, but visually, still a bit lacking. We only got Megane making weird faces for 20 minutes.

[Dengar]

I.... Do not think the girls are incapable at all.

But yeah, not impressed. The one thing that keeps me watching is just to see what the MC does next.

[Tenzen12]

Yutori feels plenty of capable. Compared to heavy handedTenji her manipulation and emotional blackmail is in completely different league...

[Ghostfriendly]

Originally Posted by Dengar

I.... Do not think the girls are incapable at all.

Incapable because the writing prevents them (and all but the MC so far) from doing anything meaningful to resolve their problems, rather than lack of ability. Police-girl did manage to take out a dozen thugs...so readily that it was meaningless, insulting, and part of the reason Goblin Slayer could go to the opposite extreme and be called 'realism', rather than idiotically contrived rape porn.

Speaking of which, at least police-girl is a fit martial artist. A smol girl escaping rape, in the situation shown, by 'running away' isn't impossible, but is most definitely bull. A 'cross your legs' insult to rape survivors, that downplays the very real danger of rape in compensated dating, and repeats the miserable slut-shaming that demands virginity from heroines.

The emphasis on virginity in dialog, rather than sexual assault survival, is sickening. The assumption that being approached, tempted, groomed and abuse is something wrong that this child did is disgusting. The description in this thread of Yutori as manipulative, and emotionally blackmailing rather than a survivor above anything else, who deserves all the pity and help in the world, is disturbing. If MC wants extra points because he doesn't care whether a girl was raped but still accepts her, he can die in a fire. The unspoken, unchallenged assumption of the characters is that Yutori was responsible for what happened to her, which is a damnable lie. She was an incredibly vulnerable victim of grooming who did not accept a payment for what she was very reasonably afraid would be done beyond what she had consented to. If this anime does want to demonize her as manipulative, absolutely down with this miserable anime, but it's only victim blamed her so far in the first three eps, under a sickening facade of compassion. If Yutori turns out to be lying about being groomed and assaulted, as in Shield Hero, down with this miserable anime again.

[Tenzen12]

Putting other points aside, victims don't have to have good personality to be victims. Yutori deserves pitty for being victim of assault that is certainly true, but that is where it ends. Just because she got assaulted once doesn't mean she gets free pass for rest of her life for anything she does.

And if she lies about it, that's not really problem either. People who lies about it exist. It doesn't matter if they doing it out of revenge on their ex or just to get cloud. When it's used in fiction it doesn't mean author downplaying how terrible rape is. Shield Hero itself is complete trash anime but not because fake assault.

[Ghostfriendly]

What does she need a free pass for? If she's honestly telling what happened to her, it isn't manipulation or emotional blackmail; she's asking with tears for the sympathy and recognition of victimhood she deserves, and isn't getting in universe, or out of it; your post seems more concerned with alleged character flaws than pity (although lack of empathy for a poorly-written fictional character is perfectly understandable). 'Anything she does' is going to be influenced by the trauma inflicted on her; what she does isn't the point so much as what was done to a child. Mitsuko Souma murdering schoolkids isn't justified by abuse, but it is made pitiful; I'd forgive Yutori all the 'emotional blackmail' in the world if that's the only way she can cope.

It takes better writing than this to avoid the perceived implication that a victim with a bad personality deserved what was done to them (unless flaws clearly result from trauma), or that unwise decisions by victims are responsible for rape, and even the possibility of these implications is unacceptable. These are more important issues than a seasonal anime. Like the vast majority of fictional false rape accusations, loaded, dangerously general statements like 'people who lie exist', and poisonously misleading insinuations about 'revenge' and 'clout', really giving aid and comfort to the real, incredibly dangerous lie that women cannot be believed about rape. It doesn't even take bad intent for truth to be worse than a lie, just a useful idiot. It does downplay and demean the suffering of real victims, I assure you. In our present society its a dangerous trope that 90% of fiction writers should avoid like the plague, a thing that no sensible person should have any objections to.

[Tenzen12]

There is nothing wrong with her honestly telling what happen to her, it wasn't even her who brought that topic, that was Tenji. That said it's misguided reduce her whole character to mere victim with no agency or responsibility. Given her personality her flaws precede that assault anyway.

This whole "preceived implication" is something noone on this whole thread does. You say it exist, but only evidence is you word that someone somewhere maybe think she deserved it. To be fair someone somewhere probably does, but these weirdos will not stop exist if this anime never aired anyway.

As for fake assaults, there is nothing dangerous about talking about that. No group of people of any gender, race or religion can be unconditionaly trusted about anything at all. Ever. Best thing we can do is giving everyone benefit of doubt, listen their story, giving them support if they need it and thoroughly investigate. Any notion that people should be trusted by default is more dangerous, then not trusting someone who is innocent.

[Dengar]

I'm with Tenzen on this. Just because she went through something really bad, doesn't mean she's free to use that fact as a bludgeon to manipulate people into feeling sorry for her. She already pretty much admitted to wanting to use every tool she has to win over Yuichi.

Regarding her being able to run away. You could just call her lucky that the guy wasn't chasing after her. The odds of that actually happening aren't really relevant.

Regardless, the point is moot. Since all of it was already an elaborate trap for four-eyes. Which was already advertised in the previous episode. The trap was probably laid out at the point where we were following four-eyes' internal monologue in the room, before Yuichi even suggested the fake plan of having everyone badmouth themselves.

[Marina2]

I would encourage people to follow the tip and watch the second game from the start like the show said to see all hints for the traps.

It's important to remember that 2 people who has been watching everything from monitor room also didn't notice 'the traps' until they re-watched the video. Keep that in mind when making a guess.

[grecefar]

I know as the viewer is easy just to point tenji as the traitor, but his acting, words, mannerism, tone of voice when talking, how he was always pushing sawaragi around to get away from them, it was too obvious.

[Tenzen12]

I think this was first genuinely good episode so far. It wouldn't be as good if there wasn't proper setup in previous episodes of 2nd game, but lot of tension got ruined with overtop acting, especially on Tenji part.

[Gerard07]

Seen the chapter, Yuuichi caught Tenji and in the next chapter they will show how he did it, I think they are animating the manga well, I hope they continue like this, waiting for the next chapter.
Questions: How many chapters will the anime have? the other, do you know how successful the anime has been in Japan?.