I ended up stumbling across this hidden gem while taking a study break from finals. By the time you read this, I'll actually be done so then I can binge this in all its glory. Welcome to "Joker Game," one of the numerous new titles this season.
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The show takes place in 1937 during Japan's occupation of Manchuria, The main character, Sakuma is a loyal soldier in the Imperial Army, willing to lay his life down for his country at any moment. His still serves as an officer but his role has been switched from combat on the frontlines to serving as a liaison between the newly established spy agency, The D-Agency, headed by Liutenant Colonel Yuuki, a former spy himself.
Yuuki is an older man training the spies and he even continues his spy disguise outside of training and long after his mission was completed. Sakuma hates the job and spies as an extension because he sees their work as cowardly and not as honorable as fighting the enemy face to face. Regardless of the differences between him and the eight-man team of spies, Sakuma continues to work with them. Even becoming slight acquaintances through playing card games with Odagiri, Fukumoto, Hatano, Jitsui, Kaminaga, Amari, Tazaki, and Miyoshi. The really cool thing about them is that these are the names given to them by the D-Agency.
The audience knows nothing of their original backgrounds adding another layer to the mystery of the path they have chosen. Another thing to note is that the entire cast is full of young adults and not teenage youths. It serves as a nice break from the high school student life.
The first episode starts and ends strong. I got deeply invested in this world and I hadn't even reached the halfway point. There's a really great moment where the Sakuma is straight up told he's an idiot by everyone for the way he would handle his cover being blown if he was a spy. This is one of his moments for change as he's told in so many ways, that there is more than one way to skin a cat and this leads to a really cool development for his character in the the next episode.
This show is like if "Ocean's Eleven" met "James Bond" and was split into an eight-man team. Their first mission has them going undercover as military police with Sakuma acting as the captain, searching a suspected American spy's home for a microfilm containing government secrets. Little did they know an earlier search happened and to compensate for inconveniencing him one of the spies tells him Sakuma will commit sepukku. They aren't able to find anything and just as Sakuma is about to kill himself; he remembers a secret hiding spot within the home and they come away successful. The exciting part is the thrill of all the action. It really knows how to pace itself and it doesn't feel slow at all.
One of the biggest things that attracted me to this show is its style. Its has great pacing and the show has beautiful cinematography. Shout out to Production I.G. for animating this top quality show. It reminded me of Baccano! and if you can remind me of another great anime, you've got me sold. "Joker Game" has me locked in for the rest of the season for its episode run adding to the already massively long list of shows, anime and movies I have to catch up on.
Add this one to your list, you definitely won't regret it.
