Episode 1 – “Huh? Yuichi-kun Suspects His Friends?” – April 6, 2022
Episode Summary
Yuichi Katagiri is excitedly looking forward to the school trip with his four closest friends: Makoto Shibe, Shiho Sawaragi, Tenji Mikasa, and Yutori Kokorogi. Although the fee to attend is steep, Yuichi is happy to pay it to spend time with his pals. Later at school, someone steals the entire class’s trip fund. Despite desperate pleading, no one steps up to admit their guilt.
Disappointed but unsure of what to do, Yuichi begrudgingly accepts that the trip won’t happen.
Later that night, Yuichi gets a strange letter, signed by Shiho, telling him to go to the school’s gate. But when he gets there, he is surprised to find his entire group waiting there. Except, something is immediately wrong. Yuichi might have gotten a summons from Shiho, except the rest got one from him.
Before they can react, an unseen organization kidnaps the friends. They wake up an unknown amount of time later in a mysterious room. As everyone is trying to figure out what is happening, the gang gets a most unusual visitor: Manabu-kun, a character from an old anime.
Manabu-kun informs the friends that one of them is severely in debt, which everyone is now splitting. To help this individual, the group has a chance to erase said debt by playing a simple game. The group scoffs at the idea, but Manabu-kun tells them he has already accepted the entrance fee, which is the exact amount of the stolen school trip fund.
Up first is the Kokkuri-san game, in which the friends must answer yes to a question. The group needs to agree on the answer, but if there is one person who disagrees, it is an automatic no. There are five rounds, and only one yes answer will win the game.
For each round, one person reads the question. If someone who is not the reader speaks during the round, their share of the debt doubles.
The game begins, and Makoto picks up an envelope with the first question and reads. To everyone’s surprise, the question is ridiculously easy, and a “yes” is the only possible answer. Nevertheless, someone in the group must have disagreed. Thus, the answer is an automatic no.
For the next two rounds, the result is the same. The question is super easy, but someone picks “no.” It is now Yuichi’s turn, and he reads his card. To his horror, there is no question, only a set of instructions telling him to think of his own question. AND if Yuichi chooses “no,” his share of the debt will be halved.
Yuichi grows infuriated, thinking his friends must have had the same task and taken the deal. With Yutori the last to go, Yuichi refuses to let the group dump the entire debt on her. Yuichi picks his question and hopes everyone will pick “yes.” But once again, the answer becomes “no.”
Yutori is last, but unlike Yuichi, she had a real question: “Will we be friends forever.”
If the group picks “no” one more time, they will lose and will have to pay the debt. But before the round begins, Yuichi breaks the rules and speaks.
Episode Impressions
I feel like I’ve seen this show before. Hell, I know I have – Ousama Game, anyone? God, I hope this show doesn’t become that hot mess of garbage.
That said, this episode was awkwardly fast; this series was screwing around. There was just one problem:
Why should I care about any of these characters? We know nothing about them, and suddenly we should be concerned about their friendship?
It really does feel like this show will be going more for shock than intrigue. I’m not optimistic, but I have no problem being wrong.
