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| Gorgeous art and animation, as usual from Production IG. Nice OP and soundtrack. The poker scene was a fascinating setup to the dynamics that'll likely play out in this series. "Order them to taking dare shoe!" Ugh. The Engrish and the sudden John Gordon drama was a bit cheesy and bruised my enjoyment. I want that Shirato watch. 4/5 |
rsc-pl said: Comic_Sans said: An anime about WW2 huh? I wonder how they're going to portray Japanese actions during WW2 Hopefully they won't try to whitewash anythingDon't see what there is to complain about In fact it's the best Engrish I've heard in a long while Yeah, but muricans tends to complain every time when they hear English in anime :p If the engrish isn't on the same level as the japanese voice acting it detracts from the experience. This was one of the better I've heard but it still ruined the episode for me. I can't take the show seriously anymore, I wish I could. I'm swedish btw. |
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| I liked the atmosphere for the whole thing except toward the end; mostly because of the MC, I feel like he is far too ideological and naive to be on a team like that. Additionally, I may rewatch this dubbed, because the homogeneity of the Japanese VAs is just killing me. Great music, great animation, interesting exposition, decent characters. |
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huddycleve said: I was also actually thinking how cool this would be dubbed, but it doesn't seem like anyone licensed this yet and I can't wait, it got me too excited!Additionally, I may rewatch this dubbed, because the homogeneity of the Japanese VAs is just killing me. |
| Oh boy . This was intense and got me hooked from the start . Joker game is definitely an interesting one . Now if only bungou stray dogs starts good also , i'll be so happy . Looking forward for episode 2 |
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Raz1515 said: huddycleve said: I was also actually thinking how cool this would be dubbed, but it doesn't seem like anyone licensed this yet and I can't wait, it got me too excited!Additionally, I may rewatch this dubbed, because the homogeneity of the Japanese VAs is just killing me. Agreed i'd like this dubbed too |
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| Great OST, cinematography was on point too, love the film-noir/hard-boiled detective theme. I could see this going wrong in many ways, but so far this is probably the best first impression so far aside from Jojo. Also lol @ people complaining there are no waifus/fap material XD |
LoneWolfApr 5, 2016 12:52 PM
 "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Friedrich Nietzsche |
| Now he has to cut his stomach lolz |
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| Wow first episode was graet that clifhanger had me excited for the next episode to come out I felt that there were some psychological elements and that's a reason to like the anime even more I wonder how will the characters develop because I think that there is a big potential for them soo any way this season is going to be great so everyone hold on tight because we're going to a have a great season this one soo everybody take care |
| Went into this one completely blind because "Seinen", so far it's decent but let's see for how long this military stuff can keep me going. |
| I don't like the main character much, his philosophies don't make much sense. But this is probably the most ambitious show this season. That OP song is just okay to me, but goddamn is it gorgeous. Based I.G. |
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Fai said: Hmm, decent episode. The undecided: - The MC is a complete idiot. I know it is usual to have a "straightforward guy" as MC, but it was outright second hand embarrassment through the whole episode to watch him. I hope for some sort of twist. He was the MC for the first episode, but I don't think the show is about him. The focus was clearly on D-agency and the Lieutenant just was used to introduce them to us. |
| Pretty interesting first episode. I really like it's style. Also setting like these are always a plus! :D 4/5 |
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| Yuuki has established a spy school under the army with Sakuma coming from HQ. The spies here aren't army men but are your "ordinary" citizens. And after going through all their training, they are now monsters. They have fake everythings – names, age, past, no one knows what is true and what isn't. And that's how these spies work – they are trained to become invisible and adapt to whatever situation they come across. No one will know who they really are. The Joker Game thing was interesting. They weren't playing a simple card game, they were basically fooling each other. No one knows for sure who is on who's side and who knows how much. One guy may be telling someone the opponents cards in one turn and then be telling his cards to someone else in the next. They had to get the most people on their side and keep them on their side to win because if one guy switches sides, you're gonna lose. This was an advanced form of cheating lol. They were giving each other information through different signals which didn't look like signals. An American businessman, John Gordon is suspected of being a spy and the D Agency was told to investigate him and find even the slightest bit of evidence against him. Yuuki tried to get away with not going there by saying that even if a spy is suspected, he's dead as a spy. But he eventually has Miyoshi dispatched there as a military police officer with Sakuma playing the role of captain. It turns out that the place was searched a few days ago too but nothing was found and the same happens again. Miyoshi had told John that if they don't find anything, Sakuma would kill himself. It seems that Sakuma has been a victim of the Joker Game. All this is complicated. HQ is trying to have the D Agency fail at something and they deliberately sent them to a place cleared not too long ago. Miyoshi just played with Sakuma and is now having him kill himself, but maybe Miyoshi has some plan in mind and will somehow find the evidence. That evil smile could either mean that Miyoshi knows where the evidence could be, or it means that Miyoshi is saying goodbye to Sakuma. Now Yuuki and his boys could also know about HQ's intentions and were playing along to get rid of Sakuma who is from HQ. Maybe killing off Sakuma is part of a plan to keep the existence of these men a secret. This is interesting and a sure keeper. That cliffhanger though. Right in the first episode. |
BlueBalls said: If the engrish isn't on the same level as the japanese voice acting it detracts from the experience. You must not like many shows then considering the majority do amateur grade things like have women make "cutesy" voices for girls or, worse, put on a ridiculous voice for a boy. But I haven't visited a Japanese high school, maybe all the boys there do sound like an adult woman making a ridiculous voice. However it seems unlikely. |
| So far this show I'm looking forward the most this season. The first episode was interesting !! |
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Sokah said: BlueBalls said: If the engrish isn't on the same level as the japanese voice acting it detracts from the experience. You must not like many shows then considering the majority do amateur grade things like have women make "cutesy" voices for girls or, worse, put on a ridiculous voice for a boy. But I haven't visited a Japanese high school, maybe all the boys there do sound like an adult woman making a ridiculous voice. However it seems unlikely. If some KyoAni big-eyed moe character appeared and had her skirt blown away by the wind it would feel out of place in a show like this that is supposedly serious and stylish. They could have just had the yank speak broken japanese like he obviously was able to, instead they turned an important part of the first eisode into a joke. I guess people on this board are very tolerant of this kind of shit, good for them. For me this is just unacceptable in a show like this. It is as if Vito Corleone from The Godfather started speaking horrid Italian in an important scene -it would just fucking ruin the movie. I'm dissapointed as fuck that they did this, been looking forward to Joker Game for months. |
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Drake1000 said: Hmm interesting, an anime that isn't blatant waifu pandering. Aside from Nippon Patriotism-kun and the spies boss, the 8 students all look bland and have same face syndrome, hopefully they all get some individual characterization even though they're spies. I think you didn't get the point. If the show stays true to what it tried to do in ep1 then you won't see any real characterisation of those characters. Maybe fake ones but that's it. |
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Nagirah said: Every time someone compares this to Baccano, a puppy dies somewhere. Yes this. Sadly the same will happen with Bungou stray dogs. Any period piece will be compared to it for no other reason than trivial similarities in clothing. |
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| No way.... i hate that cliffhanger |
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| That was probably the best Engrish I've heard in any anime lol. I don't like how the characters all look more or less the same, it might make it harder for me to remember their names. Oh well, other than that, this was pretty good. So far, I like what I'm seeing, which is good because this was one of the shows I was looking forward to the most this season. Hopefully IG delivers for the remainder of the show. |
| People on MAL refuse to actually enjoy watching anime. Your taste in anime isn't a personality trait. MAL is literally just anime Twitter as its own website lol. |
Fai said: Hmm, decent episode. The undecided: - The MC is a complete idiot. I know it is usual to have a "straightforward guy" as MC, but it was outright second hand embarrassment through the whole episode to watch him. I hope for some sort of twist. The Bad: - Under-developed characters. Apart from "MR.Nippon Banzai" MC, all of the other characters except for the school's boss, look bland and samey. Introducing a shitload of characters at once usually takes a lot of writing chops and in this case seems to have been a mistake. - Nationalistic propaganda. There are multiple scenes in the episode where, albeit subtly, the narrative is trying to whitewash Japanese actions during WW2. And lots of "badguy evil americans". I can only hope the whole "yay japan" subtext gets subverted hard to fit the otherwise very gray morality world, as there are signs towards that happening through episode. - Sausage main characters. Not a single female character. Seriously is it so hard to add female characters? Overall solid 7/10 so far. Well he's part of the military, he's trained to listen and give orders clearly and directly. That's how it is. Discipline, and I think that was very well done, a good portrayal of a real soldier back in those days. It's not like today where small tactical units are free to make decisions. it's not like he don't have some basic characterization, give it time to develop. Under-developed characters.. it's the first episode.... Nationalistic, maybe for now, but from the Japanese perspective of the time, this is certainly how they feel about the Washington naval treaty. It should also be noted the guy is a IJA officer, and is trained with that in mind. Err... Females aren't in the armed forces back in those days.... They were in a very niche role and discriminated against in separate units. So yes it is definitely hard to introduce a leading female character. Maybe a informant, but that would have to be later if they ever decide to introduce an important female character. |
zcv45Apr 5, 2016 1:46 PM
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| Solid start for the series. It has potential to be a good mature series, and i get the feeling that it'll be alot of feelings of being betrayed going on later down the road. Calling spies cowards is stupid, i understand where he was trying to come from but still, it's stupid to flat out say spy's behavior is cowardly. IMO spies are more like people that do the dirty work but instead of using physical tactics, they use conversations and then analyze others actions until they gain all the info they can. |
| I find it very hard to remember their names and they all look so similar. But that was really intriguing. |
| There's little seinen content nowadays so I was pleased to see this series was coming. As a WW2 buff, so much the better. Pretty promising start. I think they will focus more on the spy games and relationship between characters than dwell into any political aspects. And if they do, whitewashing is to be expected. Most Japanese are seriously uninformed about their country's behaviour in that period. BlueBalls said: Sokah said: You must not like many shows then considering the majority do amateur grade things like have women make "cutesy" voices for girls or, worse, put on a ridiculous voice for a boy. But I haven't visited a Japanese high school, maybe all the boys there do sound like an adult woman making a ridiculous voice. However it seems unlikely. If some KyoAni big-eyed moe character appeared and had her skirt blown away by the wind it would feel out of place in a show like this that is supposedly serious and stylish. They could have just had the yank speak broken japanese like he obviously was able to, instead they turned an important part of the first eisode into a joke. I guess people on this board are very tolerant of this kind of shit, good for them. For me this is just unacceptable in a show like this. It is as if Vito Corleone from The Godfather started speaking horrid Italian in an important scene -it would just fucking ruin the movie. I'm dissapointed as fuck that they did this, been looking forward to Joker Game for months. Do you watch much anime? When have you ever seen an anime were they speak English with native command of the language? It just doesn't happen or happens so incredibly rarely that it's hardly worth mentioning. You need to manage your expectations. Most Japanese don't speak good English and this show is marketed for Japan. Most people watching this will there actually think that the guy doing the voice did a fantastic voice with. I don't think it was too bad myself for anime standards. Anyway, Hollywood for all it's reach and money does it too. Breaking Bad is one of the finest series I have ever seen, but every time supposedly Mexican characters spoke Spanish in the series I cringed inside at how bad it was. I kept on asking myself how hard it could be to find fluent Spanish speaking actors in the friggin' USA? But the producers just hire who they are familiar with. It's no different in Japan. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| Damn, those spies are really slick bastards. Interesting first episode. I'm liking it so far, and it looks promising as well. I'll be keeping my eyes on this one. Sucks that this first episode ended immediately on a cliffhanger, though. |
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| @Farabeuf Yeah, I've learned the hard way that japs can't manage an english sentence to save their lives. What I'm saying is that the makers of Joker game should have been aware and subsequently avoided bad english. They had an easy way to that, I'm really disappointed that they didn't. It ruined the immersion for me and I can't take the episode -maybe even the entire show if this continues- seriously anymore. I'm not a hater, I want to like this anime it was my most anticipated for spring but they really fucked up here imo. |
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Fai said: - Sausage main characters. Not a single female character. Seriously is it so hard to add female characters? This. Like even if you're tryna be "time-period accurate"... they're spies, like I feel like female spies would even be less suspicious The music is probably my favorite thing so far. I was hoping the op would go the Baccano route with a jazzy "no-lyrics" kinda thing, but it wasn't bad. The Baccano vibes are real tho. Now I want to rewatch it |
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Wasn't that the point though? they're spies, they shouldn't have distinguishable features, they should be able to blend in anywhere |
| ERMAGHERD ITS IN THE '30 IT HAS TO BE LIKE BACCANO RIGHT ?????????????????????????????????666666666666 Seriously tho, it was really interesting. Best engrish i've heard in anime. I didn't really care about that. The MC has his own ideology about spies but i'm pretty sure it will change pretty soon in the future. Lol at the people calling it Nationalistic propaganda. Hollywood does it fairly regularly in their movies but its ok becuz MURICA FUCK YEAH but because its Japan, OMFG FUCKING PROPAGANDA MAN 8/10 easy. |
DatRandomDudeApr 5, 2016 1:54 PM
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| Interesting so far, a lot of mind games are going on. Looking forward to the 2nd episode. |
| Nice ep. extreme mind games and manipulation. Sakuma is too pure for this world :'( I can already see the US nationalists hating on this. Here's a good example of the US gov and media's brain washing at it's finest. Fai said: - Nationalistic propaganda. There are multiple scenes in the episode where, albeit subtly, the narrative is trying to whitewash Japanese actions during WW2. And lots of "badguy evil americans". I can only hope the whole "yay japan" subtext gets subverted hard to fit the otherwise very gray morality world, as there are signs towards that happening through episode. 'murica is innocent and can do no wrong, am I right? |
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| So they are like playing the joker game through Out the series. Pretty intense for the first episode |
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LoneWolf said: Great OST, cinematography was on point too, love the film-noir/hard-boiled detective theme. I could see this going wrong in many ways, but so far this is probably the best first impression so far aside from Jojo. Agreed :) I'm really liking the atmosphere of the series. Nothing particularly felt like it was in your face, there was tension, but it was controlled. We already got the title drop in the first episode too, and the concept is really interesting. Sakuma is clearly meant to be a foil to the rest of the characters, as he is too straightforward and honest. Really sucks for him when he realized at the end what was happening. Definitely the best first episode so far that I've seen this season. edit: wrote the wrong name |
tingyApr 5, 2016 9:00 PM
Eyepatch_Ghoul said: I'm glad to not be the only one who thinks that the American guy behave like a weeb with that admiration towards Japan xDHoly shit, the American spy masquerading as a weeb was glorious. I misheard him say "that's my treasure" as "that's my trigger", had a nice laugh. Now about the series, it has been a nice and interesting first episode. The tension was all over the place, the thing about the Joker Game was good and I like the XX century feeling it has. However, I expect that the main characters has at least more characterization, because it was hard to distinguish some of them from each other apart of their voice. Hope they don't portray Japan's actions in the WWII in a tame way and at least they try to give the series a gray portray. |
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| Looked like the msot promising title of this season beforehand....aaaaaaaaand it delivered... srsly, I cannot wait for the next episode Also,I love the setting...I need more of this D: Baccano (it's in murica though), rainbow, now Joker game.. I want more anime with this setting D: |
| Engrish from the very start is how you start an anime folks! That aside, what an awesome first episode. I love the theme going on and the ending. The spies are an interesting bunch so I'm curious on how they'll develop the show. I'm hoping the show won't disappoint and will stay consistent, if not better throughout. |
| I have high expectations, the opening is amazing! 1937, a "spy school", only 8 people (or "monsters") survived to the training. So we already know what the Joker Game is. The "school" is called D Agency, and has been ordered to find clues about John Gordon being a spy. Police already came, was it a trap? Superb quality, amazing OST, the hype is real. |
A_Little_Birdy said: The thing is Japan likes to glorify their war efforts when it is in truth just genocide, torture and rape. I am not an American but even I can tell the propaganda themes in this show like the part where they made japan look like the Victims in that television broadcast flashback about how they got tricked or some shit like that. It sickens me even today that they would pull out the victim card despite the atrocities that they have done, the people in Japan must be brainwashed to the max to even be able to believe what they did was right. Is it propaganda though or just a realistic portrayal of how the Japanese would feel at the time? During a War everyone believes they're fighting for the right side, They may now realize that they were wrong but for the purpose of this show it should emphasize how it was at the time and not how it is now. |
A_Little_Birdy said: ichii_1 said: Nice ep. extreme mind games and manipulation. Sakuma is too pure for this world :'( I can already see the US nationalists hating on this. Here's a good example of the US gov and media's brain washing at it's finest. 'murica is innocent and can do no wrong, am I right? The thing is Japan likes to glorify their war efforts when it is in truth just genocide, torture and rape. I am not an American but even I can tell the propaganda themes in this show like the part where they made japan look like the Victims in that television broadcast flashback about how they got tricked or some shit like that. It sickens me even today that they would pull out the victim card despite the atrocities that they have done, the people in Japan must be brainwashed to the max to even be able to believe what they did was right. Every county has those war crimes, so why are you so focused on Japan? Do you think america, france, korea etc.. are truly sorry for all the genocide they have committed and hidden? america is proud they nuked hundred of thousands of people and have never paid for their crimes, keep being brainwashed. |
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| Damn they all looking fresh as fuck in those suits. I wonder how will they do it when the group splits across the world, will we follow each guy for a episode or two or what. |
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ichii_1 said: A_Little_Birdy said: The thing is Japan likes to glorify their war efforts when it is in truth just genocide, torture and rape. I am not an American but even I can tell the propaganda themes in this show like the part where they made japan look like the Victims in that television broadcast flashback about how they got tricked or some shit like that. It sickens me even today that they would pull out the victim card despite the atrocities that they have done, the people in Japan must be brainwashed to the max to even be able to believe what they did was right. Every county has those war crimes, so why are you so focused on Japan? Do you think america, france, korea etc.. are truly sorry for all the genocide they have committed and hidden? america is proud they nuked hundred of thousands of people and have never paid for their crimes, keep being brainwashed. The only countries comparable to Japan in terms of atrocities during WW2 are Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. "others did it too" is not an excuse. What USA did in Hiroshima in Nagasaki was a war crime. So was everything japs did in their little invasion to china and attack on pearl harbor. |
AhenshihaelApr 5, 2016 2:54 PM
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Fai said: Under-developed characters. Apart from "MR.Nippon Banzai" MC, all of the other characters except for the school's boss, look bland and samey. Introducing a shitload of characters at once usually takes a lot of writing chops and in this case seems to have been a mistake. You are forgetting that they have been institutionalized. Their values, behaviours, thought process, everything has been molded such as to turn them into the bland and samey you mentioned. True spies don't have personalities. And since they don't have personalities, they can take the shape of the cup they are poured in to. They are usually nobodies unlike what Hollywood makes us think. Lt. Sakuma isn't even the main character. As annoying as he has been (with his blah blah ideologies), he is just an observer of the so called Monsters. This anime will most likely deliver. It's gonna be a Game of Patience. Bonus: Itou Shizuka in the cast! <3 |
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