Joker Game

With World War II right around the corner, intelligence on other countries' social and economic situation has become a valuable asset. As a result, Japan has established a new spy organization known as the "D Agency" to obtain this weapon.

Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki, eight agents have been assigned to infiltrate and observe some of the most powerful countries, reporting on any developments associated with the war. In order to carry out these dangerous tasks, these men have trained their bodies to survive in extreme conditions and studied numerous fields such as communications and languages. However, their greatest strength lies in their ability to manipulate people in order to obtain the information necessary to give their nation the upper hand.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Miyoshi Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Yuuki Main

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Tazaki Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Sakuma Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Kaminaga Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Hatano Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Fukumoto Main

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Amari Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Jitsui Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Odagiri Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Isogai, Noritomo Producer

Oonuki, Kazuo Producer

Banshou, Kouichi Producer

Reviews

Sep 19, 2024

Mosuwain

Recommended

Joker Game excels in its intricate storytelling, setting it apart as a thoughtful espionage thriller. The art and music create a fitting atmosphere for the pre-WWII era, and the episodic structure provides snapshots of covert operations across different countries. Each episode offers a self-contained narrative, often delving into morally gray areas.

However, character development is a notable weak spot. Aside from Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki, the other agents feel underdeveloped, which may leave viewers disconnected from the cast. This intentional anonymity enhances the show's theme of secrecy but sacrifices emotional investment. Despite this, the show's strong pacing and sharp plot twists make it a captivating watch for ... fans of spy dramas.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 23, 2024

xshiraori

Mixed Feelings

It certainly is better in quality than most of the series out there, but that being said; Joker Game is challenging to watch, for me at least.

I acknowledge that it is part of the "mystery", but storytelling is just confusing and often very hard to follow. Okay, some things are happening and agents find themselves in different scenarios, but you as the viewer, have no damn clue why and how is this agent doing that thing. This could be the "mystery" only if it was solvable by the viewer but when you do it intentionally so that everybody have no idea what is going on, ... this just becomes confusing.

As I said, it is still a very well-done series. Intrigue, action, mind games, heroes, and villains; Joker Game offers everything that makes an anime worth spending your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 10, 2020

Scheveningen

Not Recommended

Joker Game is a show that is hard to place. It has a fascinating premise for anyone interested in history, yet seemed to do so little with it. It lacks a clarity in signalling what the promise of the show is. Whether it is going to be some form of grand strategy narrative with the spies as pieces, if it is going to be about looking at the nature of spy craft, or if it is just a mystery thriller. The last one I only managed to establish as a possibility after I went out of my way to see what kind of source material ... it had. The problem is that Joker Game never really fulfils any of these very well and the show never confirms with the viewer what it is really going to be about. The tone is the only thing that is established fairly well in that it is going to be fairly gritty and dark. Essentially the only thing it rules out immediately is that it is a spy film in the vein of James Bond.

The first story that was adapted gives us an outside look into the spy organization from the perspective of the standard military. The issue here is not so much that the show is locked into this perspective or exploring its premise from this angle only, but rather is that it fails to communicate any other ideas that can be picked up later. To its credit, the first episode is actually a reasonable introduction point and perspective to a spy show. However, what it misleads people into thinking is that the agency as an organization will be central to some kind of unifying plot moving forward.

Only half-way through the series, when I realized there was no real through line for the stories, did I do some more research to find out that most of the source material were largely independent short stories. The show's opening exposition monologue implicitly sells this idea that Japan's spy agency will be affecting the course of the war in some way. Though most of the time we are either never told why agents are in the scenarios they are, or how the information they gain affects the decisions of the agency or Japan. Again, this is not an issue on its own. The problem comes from the failure to communicate the promise of the show accurately. The agency largely takes a backseat since there are only a few episodes where any of the spies are working as a group. Even then it focuses on an individual which suffers from a lack of characterization. It is meant to be more of stories of espionage encounters than any attempt to tell the story of an agency's work.

The issue with this show as a mystery-thriller then is that the mysteries are largely unsolvable from the viewer's perspective. Some of them are interesting and well done stories, in particular the Asia Express and Double Joker, which had intrigue with a clear objective. Most of the time there is a complete lack of information given to the viewer and the intrigue is generated by having many unknowns instead of titbits of important information that we can piece together something from. For the large part, it means watching events unfold with the only inclination of where they are going based on intuiting where a story in this genre this would go than anything told by the narrative. Again, this would not be bad in itself if the characters were compelling and we were attached to them. But the show largely fails at that with very little done. We have little idea of who the characters are before any of the stories making it difficult to empathise with them or anticipate what they would do. If it is not about the characters or the premise, then what is left?

Joker Game was in part particularly disappointing as someone interested in history and historical fiction since it never seems to embrace its settings. Much of their WWII era setting is just window dressing or flavouring to the stories instead of being about anything central to it. You could change this to the Cold War era and most of it would remain intact with only minor alterations. This also means they largely sidestep any controversy or issues regarding historical fiction of that period, especially given Japan's actual history. While this is understandable, it begs the question of why the setting, which is sold as being central to the premise, is important at all. As a result the show feels like it has nothing important or interesting to say. Either as a piece of historical commentary or as a piece of historical fiction since it never utilizes its setting.

Ultimately, Joker Game is a show that is run into the ground by its own premise and lack of ability to control expectations using just its text. It is kept vague enough that it is tantalizing to viewers with an interest in it and then never delivers. The episodes that are well done are strictly in the sense of them being contained short stories with a flavour of the WWII era than any kind of larger examination of things. The others come off as mystery for the sake of it since its resolution is obtuse to the viewer. I can definitely see how this would function as a work of short fiction since it seems the main draw is the internal workings of the characters. That has always been the strength of writing as a medium as opposed to the strengths of animation in showing so much more of the world.

With that said, Joker Game seems like a disappointing misfit. Even if one were to understand that the series were a set of WWII era flavoured mystery-thrillers short stories, it would still be hard to justify more than a 6 out of 10 at best.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Joker Game Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Jun 21, 2016	155 replies	by yveltalkyogre »» Sep 25, 6:09 PM
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