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]

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Background

The series was awarded the 2016 Nogizaka46 Award (a Monthly Newtype Joint Special Award).

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Joker Game: The Animation
Side story:	Joker Game: Kuroneko Yoru no Bouken

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

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

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Isogai, Noritomo

Producer

Eguchi, Shougo

Producer

Shiraishi, Youko

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Reason Triangle" by QUADRANGLE

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Ending Theme

"Double" by MAGIC OF LiFE

Reviews

Feb 8, 2022

hakirimakii

Recommended

I really enjoyed watching it, it's the rare anime's that make you want to rate it a 10. The plot and the characters are very unique, loved the animation and art-style, it's really similar to Persona and Run With The Wind. This is quite underrated and it is for sure a must see. It is unfortunate that there are only 12 episodes, I'm thinking of reading the manga (it IS that unique for me to want to read even the manga)

Both the opening and the ending are enjoyable, specially the ending. The ost (background music) could have been better but the plot and animation makes ...

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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, ...

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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.

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novel license theek1 - Jul 12, 2022	1 replies	by NemuriNezumi »» Jan 14, 6:55 PM
Poll: Joker Game Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 5, 2016	347 replies	by Samir1237 »» Apr 22, 2023 7:21 PM
Poll: Joker Game Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Jun 21, 2016	154 replies	by canadianvice »» Oct 28, 2022 4:17 PM
Why such low score ? Shomix - May 21, 2016	22 replies	by ina6_- »» Jul 9, 2022 8:13 AM
Poll: Joker Game Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Apr 26, 2016	207 replies	by metawin »» Aug 6, 2021 9:52 PM

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Joker Game

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Joker Game

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Information

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Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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