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riemaynineDuring these previous days, news about an upcoming drama, Tomodachi Game R4, starring Bi Shounen members and two HiHi Jets members Inoue Mizuki and Igari Soya, has been lifted. Teasers have also been uploaded in the official Johnny and Associates Youtube channel. The series will premiere on July 23, 2022 via TV Asahi and will be broadcasted every Saturday at 11 pm JST.
I was not actually aware, until said drama was announced, that there was already the live action adaptation of the manga aired in 2017, so before watching the upcoming drama (but not in real time, as usual), and also due to curiosity about the story, I decided to watch these.
Title: トモダチゲーム (Tomodachi Game/Friends Game)
Genre: Psychological, Suspense, Drama
This is a 4-episode series, each episode is about 23 minutes. Katagiri Yuichi (Yoshizawa Ryo) is a poor high school student yet he values his friends more than money. One time, due to stolen school funds, he, together with his friends, were forced by a mascot named Manabu to participate in games to pay for the debt, which will eventually test their friendship and their trust with one another. The series features the first game, Kokkuri-san, which is more like Japanese ouija board game.
WHERE TO WATCH: Eien no Aidoru subbed the four episodes of this drama!
Continuation of the "trust" games, Yuichi and his friends (also known as Team C) played sugoroku (a Japanese board game with the same rule as Monopoly) as the second game, but with a twist, since this would involve revealing secrets.
The last game, wherein Team C needs to compete with another team, Team K, in a game of hide and seek. This movie would also reveal everything about who is the real traitor and who is the one behind these games of betrayal.
All I can say is that, the series + movies are just intense, and the plot twist was amazing! Even I was suspecting who among them is the traitor lol.
Kudos to Oryo, his acting, his facial expressions (the gaze and the smirk, oh my...!) had impressed me!
Manabu is cute, but creepy lol.
And this has also caught my attention lol. As mentioned in the earlier part of this entry, Bi Shounen members will appear in the upcoming adaptation of Tomodachi Game. Look at Mikasa Tenji (Yamada Yuki) and Shibe Makoto (Okura Shimon), they resemble Ryuga and Naakun, right?! 😁 What is more mindblowing to me is the fact that Ryuga will be playing the role same as Yuki in the upcoming series! However, Miju will be playing as Shibe and Naakun will be a member of Team K.
But I'm also thinking that Ryuga has more androgynous features than Yuki. And of course, Naakun is way shorter than Shimon huehue.
By the way, just a little spoiler, there's a kiss scene between Oryo and Yuki lol. Since Ukki will be the upcoming series' Yuichi, so if ever this series will follow that scene, so Ukki and Ryuga will... EH?! 🤭
Anyway, as I've also mentioned in my previous review on Zero: Ikkakusenkin Game, the lessons that we can learn from this type of drama is that, trust is actually hard to gain, but easy to break. And real friendship is actually rare, since it also involves accepting your friends' real selves.
