What they say:
“Joker Game (Part 1)”
In autumn of 1937, as the coals of World War II are beginning to smolder, Lt. Col. Yuuki of the Imperial Army secretly establishes a spy training organization called the “D Agency.” Those chosen as members of the agency, in opposition to the national trend toward reverence of native-born soldiers in the army, are civilian university graduates who pass the superhuman selection test with flying colors. Under the resourceful Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki, they learn not only how to work with gunpowder, wireless communications, vehicles, and airplanes, but also various skills essential for spies…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on Kôji Yanagi’s novel of the same name (which would later get two sequels); the story takes place in 1937 before World War II exploded. We are introduced to the Greater East Asia Cultural Society, a training school for spies under the guise of, well, a cultural society. Here, young men from all over Japan come to train, undergoing severe conditions and harsh tests until only a few are chosen to stay. What do they do with the ones that fail? How do they get them to stay silent about the spy training academy? And why are there no women? Is there a separate school for women? It seems to me, women would be able to get into some places men wouldn’t, especially for that time period. Anyway, I’m just wondering, none of these questions are really relevant to the plot; I just thought I’d get them out of the way early on. And you know what’s funny? It’s okay that we don´t know because they’re spies and we’re not supposed to know or else they wouldn’t be very good spies.
Of course, this agency is not autonomous and so the Army general sends Lieutenant Sakuma to oversee their activities. It is obvious from the get go that his ideals are in complete opposition to everything the agency represents. Sakuma is a straight lace, honor bound and loyal military man. He considers spies to be cowardly and scary at the same time, and he does not understand how are they able to live a lie filled with lies and deceit, where not even your closest acquaintances know your real name. But nevertheless orders are orders and he will do his job even if he disapproves. It seems to me Sakuma is supposed to be our point of view character, our “window” as it were, into this world of intrigue. Whether you agree or disagree with his opinion is up to you, but I quite like the dichotomy between his ideals and the spies’ pragmatism. It could have been boring to present the story just from the point of view of the spies and their world, I’ve seen this done before and it makes for very flat narrative.
Now on to the title of the story: Joker game. As Sakuma learns one night when he stumbles upon what he thinks is a late game of poker and ends up losing badly, in the Joker game the participants are not just the ones at the table. It’s a spy game where they peak over shoulders and signal each other, but it is up to the players to determine if the signals are true or not and the main objective of the game is to get your opponent’s spy to work for you. I would say it’s a metaphor, except they do that for me already and I’m pretty sure this will setup the rest of the series. Sakuma is livid as he believes in fair play, of course, no surprise there, and this is where it gets interesting. Sakuma is asked what he would do if he were a spy and got discovered. His answer: kill them or commit suicide. Now this is what we have learned from every TV series, book, or movie dealing with spies, so I was very surprised when they laugh at him and tell him those are the worst possible options for a spy to take. The good kind of surprise, I felt their ideas to be smarter and more practical than the usual cliché. The whole discussion was very interesting, including the bit about how people will change ideologies and embrace the opposite if theirs fail. It reminded me a bit of George Orwell’s 1984 and the way people just accepted it when the country changed enemies and allies at the drop of a hat.
Later on, Sakuma will have a chance to prove just how strong his resolve is, when he gets sent, along with one of the spies, Miyoshi, to the house of a foreigner suspected of being a spy himself. In order to be let in, Miyoshi promises the man, that if they don´t find anything, Sakuma will commit hara-kiri.
Summary:
To get the technical aspects out of the way first, this is Production I.G and I never expect anything ugly looking to come out from this studio. They don´t disappoint here, the art is realistic but very detailed with somber colors that give it a sepia quality which works well for a period piece. As far as the story goes, this strikes me as something that could have been very pretentious, but instead of vague ideas and posing, it turns out to be effortlessly smart and intriguing. If I had to criticize one thing it would be the terrible English (and I’m sure we’ll get some terrible Chinese as well along the way, the kind you know it’s wrong even if you don´t speak Chinese). There was this one scene at the end, a very tense scene, and I admit it, I was smiling if not laughing a bit because of this. I usually ignore it but the guy would not shut up, it was not easy. Now, for me, this is a very small criticism because if you see enough anime, you eventually get used to it and there are plenty of great stories I would have to miss if this was a deal breaker, too many actually, but if this really annoys you, it may be a problem. So far, I would recommend this anime if you’re looking for something serious and subtle, although I have a feeling it’s about to get complicated.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
