Michelle Topham 
Tomodachi Game, the long-running psychological thriller manga series, will come to an end later this year.
Yep, after more than a decade writing and illustrating the hit manga, mangaka Yuki Sato has decided it is time to bring the story to a close.
It was announced late last week that Tomodachi Game, Volume 26, which is due to be published in the fall, will be its last.
The plot of Tomodachi Game
The manga series follows protagonist Yuuich Katagiri, a poor high school student who manages to save enough money to join his classmates on a school trip.
When the money goes missing, however, two of his friends — Shiho Sawaragi and Makoto Shibe — accept responsibility for allowing it to be stolen.
Not long after the boys are tricked into meeting, only to be attacked and knocked unconscious.
When they wake up, they are locked in a room and are introduced to Manabu-kun, a children’s show character from a show that was shut down after airing evil content.
Manabu-kun then tells the boys they must play a series of games that will test their trust in each other.
Through those games, Yuuichi now has to discover which of his friends he can trust, and find out who is the traitor in their midst.
The Tomodachi Game manga
The manga began being serialized in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine back in late 2013, and was then published consistently until December, 2019 when the mangaka went on hiatus.
Tomodachi Game re-emerged in the magazine two months later, but only for one chapter, before it disappeared again until August, 2020, from when it has been published consistently.
It also spawned a hit anime series, which premiered in April, 2022 and ran through June of the same year.
A live-action drama and a couple of movies have also been made based on the manga’s material.
With its long run, though, and as a long-time reader, even I have to admit it is more than time for Tomodachi Game to be wrapped up.
Much of the material from the last couple of years has dragged interminably, especially the most recent game, with it seeming to be more of a money grab from the mangaka and the publisher recently than anything else.
Yes, I have stuck with it, but I can’t say I will be sorry to see it end.
Let’s just hope Yuki Sato manages to wrap it up properly and deliver a satisfying ending.
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