secret goals is to take over the world. Friend's face is hidden in shadow or by a mask throughout the series. His true identity is one of the driving mysteries of the series. By the year 2000, the Friendship Democratic Party (FDP) is established as a political group with government representatives such as Manjome Inshu. Over the course of the series, two people assume the identity of Friend: Fukubei, who is one of Kenji's schoolmates, initially appears to be one of Kenji's allies, and Katsumata, another of Kenji's schoolmates, the latter of whom actually possesses special powers. In the kanzenban edition of the series, which has a different ending, Kenji realizes that Fukubei died after elementary school graduation and Katsumata learned everything about him to imitate him perfectly and take on his identity as a child, meaning Katsumata was Friend throughout the entire series. A junk-peddling con artist allied with Friend who becomes one of the Friendship Democratic Party leaders. His real name is . He originally met the boys in the early 1970s when selling knick-knacks such as space food and spoons, claiming them to be cutting edge modern innovations from NASA. Upon discovering that Fukubei had a spoon bending talent, he recruited him for a TV show in 1972, but the two were labelled frauds. In 1980, the financially struggling Manjome was recruited by Fukubei to aid him in creating "Friend". In 3FE, after Friend reveals to him his intention to destroy humanity and that he is not Fukubei, Manjome asks Kanna and Otcho to kill Friend. Manjome is killed by Takasu while playing the virtual reality game created for Friend Land. Kenji's childhood friend, whose real name is . Around 1988, he was sent to Thailand by his Japanese trading company, but went missing for a week; upon his return he quit the company and divorced, and a year later was in India. Originally suspected to be Friend (perhaps due to the fact that he was the one who thought of the symbol which Friend's cult uses), he actually went to receive enlightenment and training from a monk after the death of his son, and was simply living in Asia's seedy underground. In 2000, Otcho is in Thailand doing jobs such as "saving" kidnapped tourists, going under the alias . In prime physical shape, he has escaped certain death many times, but a local drug boss allied