Joker Game

[Buffalobiian]

http://i.imgur.com/Te6cJnW.png

Alternative title:
ジョーカー・ゲーム (Japanese)

Genres: mystery
Themes: historical, spies, World War II

Plot Summary: In 1937, before World War II begins in earnest. Lieutenant Colonel Yūki of the Imperial Japanese Army forms the "D Agency," an army intelligence outfit under his command and tutelage. Army General Staff attaches Lieutenant Sakuma to observe the unit's performance. D Agency casts a wide net to find agents beyond Japanese military personnel, and Yūki establishes D Agency's tenets, which go against IJA doctrine: "Don't kill, don't get killed, don't get captured." With this, Yūki trains a team of operatives who conduct missions against domestic and foreign powers. -ANN

Links: ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=17534), AniDB (https://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=11481), MAL (http://myanimelist.net/anime/31405/Joker_Game), Official (http://jokergame.jp/).

Download: Episode 01 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=800252)


-----------------------















This ain't bad. The setting is refreshing at the very least. The biggest problem is whether they can keep up the tension and mystery for long without being absurd.

[MFauli]

First episode was okay. Not sure I really got it: So the spy agency he just entered already trapped the hero?

[Buffalobiian]

First episode was okay. Not sure I really got it: So the spy agency he just entered already trapped the hero?

No. No one actually wanted to trap the hero.

The general/big boss fellow who made this order wanted to destroy the spy agency for unknown reasons by making them look like shit. No evidence was in the house.

The spies will plant evidence in the house and accuse the white guy. They set up the MC on the spot to show how powerful and necessary spies are since he looks down on it so much. It'll vex him that honour would have killed him while cowardly manipulation would save him.

These spies actually give of Monster vibes for me. That's probably why I'm watching.

[MFauli]

Ah, okay, so the big boss who gave the order is NOT directly responsible for the spies agency. That´s where I was confused. I can see you sensing Monster vibes, but I´d say it´s too flashy to really draw that comparison. Although it wholly depends on how this goes.

[neflight86]

Well said on the Monster vibes. The more I think about it, the more apt comparison in seems. Looking forward to the second ep and a helping of humble pie for our honorable MC.

[shinta|hikari]

But this is a sausage fest.

Where's my cute Anna?

[Buffalobiian]

Anna's no longer a loli. Move on, shoo shoo.

HS - Episode 02

--------------------------------------------

















Well that didn't go 100% as expected. That's cool. I like surprises. What doesn't quite make sense is that a prosthetic hand back then could pick things up. I can't imagine that happening at all.

[shinta|hikari]

I thought that as well, until I realized super spies can do something like that easily. It's all about defying physics.

Kidding aside, I think he just casually pulled it towards his shoe and used the shoe to push the case into his hand.

That, or the protagonist went insane and the old guy was laughing inside the like bad ass spy that he is.

[David75]

Or he's fucked up and it's just a fake hand so that when he gets serious he can fight back like an elite he is.

[MFauli]

Yeah, the perfect cyborg prothesis felt off, lol.

It wasn´t a good second episode, but it wasn´t bad either. I didn´t feel bored, so to say. Now I hope thing get more interesting from here on. What I see as a problem, and what would be a problem for me if I was the hero, too, is that becoming a spy seems like giving up your life. You turn into a tool for political goals and stuff. No family, no friends, not even trustworthy comrades, because everybody thinks only of himself. Without any valuable relationships, I feel kinda pressured to imagine how this will turn out good for the hero.

[shinta|hikari]

Especially because he isn't a narcissist. All the other spies are doing the work for their personal pride, while he doesn't seem to have too much of that. He's just brainwashed into having way too much pride for his country.

[Edort4]

This time jump, and character focus change, left me at a loss but ended appreciating it. Their "escape" tecnique was a bit dumb but I liked the "twists" and the pace change. Episode 2 was slow as hell and almost a complete let down but this one was back on track. Dunno if we are going back to 1936 or we are going right into pre Pearl Harbor time. I wonder if they will hint that the operation was a partial false flag.

[MFauli]

I liked episode 3, but I´m not sure if I´ll keep following this anime if it´s all small, independent stories. So I hope that it´s all coming together VERY soon.

[Munsu]

Planning to begin watching over he weekend, one of the series I've been most interested in.

[shinta|hikari]

This show needs more girls.

I like how the spies are doing this for their egos. It makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, no one would do such a demanding yet thankless job.

[Buffalobiian]

Girls sabotage spy missions.

[Munsu]

Well, so far I'm really enjoying this one. Not much to add at the moment aside from that. I do think it'll be interesting to see the POV of Japan during World War II particularly through the eyes of a spy organization.

But we'll see, hard to say just from watching these episodes the direction this series is going to take and the plot they'll be pursuing story wise.

[Edort4]

This last episode just left me totally lost. Now they jumped to late 1942 or early 1943? The implication of the james inspector seems to hint that they actually mean it as the SIS time period but that ended in 1941 after pearl harbor and the british evacuation was in 1940. If the commander has been there for 5 years, shangai was occupied at november 1937, it doesnt match up. Could be a translation issue.

[Buffalobiian]

I just don't think they expected anyone to know their history :P

They probably also don't care, since they go out of their way each episode to say how factitious this anime is.

[Munsu]

Assuming you guys are talking about episode 4?
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=806514



Honestly didn't care for this episode. I'm not a fan at all of anthology types of series, so disappointed a bit so far that we're going through all these scattered stories. I'll have to make due. I enjoyed the previous one though, but this one just didn't do anything for me.

[MFauli]

I might give this one more chance, but if it keeps being random singular stories, then I´ll drop it. Really dry episode this week.

[Munsu]

Episode 5 is out:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=808546




I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit. A big fan of interrogation stories, so this one worked quite well for me.



I might give this one more chance, but if it keeps being random singular stories, then I´ll drop it. Really dry episode this week.


Sadly the episodic singular stories continues. Not sure if it'll pay off at some point and start interconnecting them. But this episode was much better than the previous one in my opinion.

[Munsu]

Episode 6 is out:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=810581






I rather enjoyed this latest one. The D-Agency spy using kids to do some spy work was charming, though questionable. But overall, a fun episode for me even though it was heavy on narration.

Last portion of the episode started making some allusions to the information gathering all the D-Agency agents have acquired in their missions and how valuable it is or isn't. So at least we can see that the story intends to connect them somehow. More importantly, the after credit scenes alludes to a bigger ongoing plot which we'll partake in the future.

Still, it seems like we'll keep going with the episodic nature of the series for a bit more.