F.R.I.E.N.D.s.

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F.R.I.E.N.D.s.
F.R.I.E.N.D.s.
Species F.R.I.E.N.D.s.
Height Various
Length Various
Allies Humans
Enemies Black-Cloaked Four
Created by Takashi Murakami, Yoshihiro Nishimura
Played by CGI All, Puppets Before, Suit Luxor
First appearance Latest appearance
Jellyfish Eyes Jellyfish Eyes: Part 2
Masashi!
„ 

— Kurage-Bo

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. (an acronym for Life-Form Resonance Inner Energy Negative Emotion and Disaster Preventions) are apparitions who first appeared in the 2013 film, Jellyfish Eyes.

Development

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. are puppets made from silicon and then programmed into CGI F.R.I.E.N.D.s.

Design

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. can come in any different form.

Origins

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. are made from negative energy of children by the Black-Cloaked Four.

History

Jellyfish Eyes

While the Black-Cloaked Four are trying to make a monster, a mysterious pink creature watches in on the factory.

A year after an unspecified natural disaster, two evacuees prepare to begin a new life in a rural town. Before long, young Masashi Kusakabe notices strange things in he and his mother's apartment: glimpses of a small figure's shadow and chee-kama (cheese-and-fish-cake stick) wrappers strewn about the floor.

The next day, Masashi returns home from a visit to his new elementary school to find it ransacked. Suddenly, a box of chee-kama launches itself towards him. He pins it to the ground and discovers the pink creature inside, who he names Kurage-bo (Jellyfish Boy). They quickly become friends, playing soccer and practicing martial arts at a shrine. That night, Masashi dreams about eating chee-kama and talking to his dead father, who made the snack as part of his job. They are interrupted by a tsunami shimmering with unnatural colors, a single eye at its center.

On the first day of school, Masashi brings Kurage-bo in his backpack, sneaking him chee-kama when he gets hungry. To his surprise, everyone in his class has a similar companion, who they call F.R.I.E.N.D.s. (Life-Form Resonance Inner Energy Negative Emotion and Disaster Preventions) Smartphone-like devices allow them to summon and control these creatures, who emerge en masse as soon as their teacher turns around to write equations on the board. A frog-like F.R.I.E.N.D., Yupi, menaces Masashi at the whim of its owner, Tatsuya, but Kurage-bo defeats it in a fierce battle.

After school, Masashi overhears the researcher, his uncle Naoto, warning his mother than the town is dangerous. He tells Masashi a different story - that the laboratory is trying to bring happiness to the world - but asks the boy to let him know if he sees anything unusual. He spots Kurage-bo hiding in Masashi's backpack but says nothing. At work, he watches an old video of the Black-Cloaked Four claiming they've tapped into a source of life energy that will allow them to prevent natural disasters. Since this energy is strongest in children expressing negative emotions, they attempted to collect it with a magic circle, only to for the energy to form into F.R.I.E.N.D.s who bonded with the children.

While playing with Kurage-bo, Masashi comes upon a group of his classmates holding F.R.I.E.N.D. battles near the shrine. When they discover him, they menace him with their creatures until Kurage-bo intervenes, riding atop Luxor, a furry, human-sized F.R.I.E.N.D. Yupi battles Kurage-bo again, but even with the help of Juran's F.R.I.E.N.D., the rocket-powered Shimon, Masashi's monster still prevails. Luxor's human turns out to be a girl from Masashi's class, Saki. She explains to Masashi that he's the only kid in town with a F.R.I.E.N.D. but no device. She received hers after a meeting of the cult her mother joined, the Earth Salvation Society, from the Black-Cloaked Four. While Luxor is clearly the strongest F.R.I.E.N.D., she despises the fighting her classmates use the creatures for.

Saki's mother tries to drag her into an Earth Salvation Society protest against the laboratory during a festival, but Masashi pulls her away and they hide inside the mysterious structure. They discover the magic circle, which activates when Masashi steps onto it. Naoto directs him and Saki to the exit and shuts it down, but the Black-Cloaked Four have taken an interest in him.

One of Masashi's classmates overhears him talking to Saki about his uncle working at the laboratory and tells the rest of the class. After swimming lessons, one group abducts Kurage-bo and stuffs him inside a locker at a junkyard, while Tatsuya attacks Masashi with Yupi. When Saki tries to intervene, the frog accidentally knocks her unconscious. The boys are berated by their parents after a teacher discovers what they've done, Tatsuya's father even knocking him to the ground. Visiting Masashi in the hospital, a man who appears to be Naoto gives him a device. As the Earth Salvation Society continues to protest in front of the laboratory, the man jumps off the roof. When Masashi's mother tells him the news, his devices activates, funneling incredible power to the magic circle.

The Black-Cloaked Four dispatch tournament invitations to every device in town, offering a power-up to the victor. Tatsuya and Juran find themselves facing Koh, an orphan who hacked characters from a fighting game into his device, with the magic circle as the arena. He calls upon Ko2, an anime woman who completely outclasses Yupi and Shimon. Though despondent at Naoto's death and Kurage-bo's disappearance, Masashi agrees to help Saki try and stop the fighting. As they reach the laboratory, lightning bursts out of the roof and strikes a nearby building. Luxor blocks debris from hitting bystanders. After dispatching Yupi and Shimon, Ko2 trains her fire on their owners, but Masashi pushes them out of the way. Tatsuya apologizes and they agree to work together. Koh climbs up some scaffolding, followed by Tatsuya and Juran, while the fake Naoto, revealed to be a F.R.I.E.N.D., pins Masashi to the magic circle. His cry for help revives Kurage-bo, who rockets to his rescue, tackling the fake Naoto. The fake crashes through the door to the room where the Four were holding the real Naoto. Kurage-bo takes on Ko2 while Naoto battles his copy. Both malevolent F.R.I.E.N.D.s seize the upper hand while the magic circle continues drawing power from Masashi with bolts of lightning. The same monster the Four briefly summoned on Kurage-bo's first night begins to take form again. Koh falls from the scaffolding, but the other boys catch him. He instructs Ko2 to turn her attention to the fake Naoto, who she throws into the monster's jaws. The monster shoots out of the laboratory, then crashes back down onto it, taking on a kaiju-sized physical form: Oval. The Four are delighted, calling him a F.R.I.E.N.D. that will change Japan through destruction. They flee, with one grabbing Masashi's device.

As the rest of the populace flees, Saki's mother reverentially walks towards Oval, believing him to be the answer to the Earth Salvation Society's prayers. Naoto asks Koh to connect his hacked device to the Four's computers to determine Oval's weakness. As the monster crashes down, Saki saves her mother with Luxor, only for it to walk off with her as a metal barrier becomes caught in its teeth. Tatsuya calls one of his classmates, Manato, at school, and convinces him to lead an attack on Oval with all the school's F.R.I.E.N.D.s. With coordinated charges, they irritate Oval enough for him to drop Saki. Held aloft by Kurage-bo, Masashi catches her, and she summons Luxor to break their fall.

Koh completes his analysis: Oval's weak point is the gem on the tip of his snout, the manifestation of all the childrens' negative emotions. Naoto cautions the kids that destroying Oval will likely mean the loss of their F.R.I.E.N.D.s., but they press on. As the rest of the class makes a final push, Kurage-bo flies Masashi to the gem, which he stabs with a metal pole. The cracked gem consumes Oval and the rest of the F.R.I.E.N.D.s, even Kurage-bo, who slips from Masashi's grasp. But as Masashi and Saki weep, Koh uses his device to revive all of the childrens' F.R.I.E.N.D.s, who rush to embrace them.

Jellyfish Eyes: Part 2

TBA

Types of F.R.I.E.N.D.s.

Abilities

Flight

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. can fly by using anti-gravity.

Strength

Luxor is strong enough to easily pick up people and block a collapsing wall.

Fighting

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. have a fighting ability.

Extendable Tongue

Yupi has a tongue that can go from 1 foot.

Weaknesses

The F.R.I.E.N.D.s. can disappear if there are adults around here. All of the F.R.I.E.N.D.s. disappear in a black hole when Oval gets hit in the gem.

Filmography

In other languages

Language Name Meaning
Flagicon Japan.png Japanese ふれんど Furendo Transliteration of English name

Trivia

  • Luxor is the only F.R.I.E.N.D. to be portrayed by a suit.
  • Hayao is a reference to Hayao Miyazaki.
  • Ko2 is based on his well-known 1997 sculpture, "Miss Ko2."
  • Oval is based on the Oval Buddha.
  • Tyranno-chan is a reference to the Tyrannosaurus rex.
  • Hammerhead-kun is a reference to the Hammerhead Shark.
  • Big Arm is a reference to Bigfoot.

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