- "Disgraceful! Don't you know who I am!? Enough, I'm leaving! How utterly infuriating..."
- — Buddy to Ken Doi
Buddy Rapids, known in the Japanese version as Tomo Riba (りば★トモ), is a minor character in NEO: The World Ends with You.
He is the Shibuya Historical Society Extra-Honorary President. He is revered by Shibuyamaniacs and riverphiles, and his online lectures have gained a fair number of followers. He is also a reviewer of curry, has a poor sense of direction and often gets lost, spending more time looking for restaurants than actually eating at them.
Story[]
On Week 2, Day 4, Buddy eats at the curry restaurant owned by Ken Doi. However, he is offended that he was not given a glass of water, viewing it as an insult, especially given his reputation with food critics. He took it as a personal slight against him, when in actuality, Ken simply forgot, leading to a misunderstanding. Even though Buddy enjoyed the meal a lot, he debates leaving Ken a 1/5 star review online on a food website that will hurt Ken's reputation. It is up to to the Wicked Twisters to make Buddy reconsider.
When Beat says Buddy has a stick up his ass over some lousy water, Nagi encourages Beat to try not to vilify Buddy and asks him to try to empathize with Buddy, mentioning Buddy is unaware it was an honest mistake, telling them he genuinely feels hurt and devalued as a human being, and that the lack of water probably made Buddy feel unwelcome in the restaurant with his basic expectations being unmet. She mentions Buddy's feelings and hurt are very real nonetheless, even if they are something which may seem trivial and inconsequential to them. She proceeds to say getting upset over what appear to be minor things is simply part of the human mind.
If the sidequest is complete, Buddy decides to not leave the negative review. Instead, he will spread positive word to his fellow curry enthusiasts.