Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Joker Game
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1447 |
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I haven't read the novels, but I couldn't help noticing the next episode begins a two-parter titled "Double Joker", which is the title of the second novel, just like the show's inaugural two-parter was titled "Joker Game" after the first novel. It looks like the show might cover all three novels after all, but I wonder how they were structured. For instance, are these stand-alone stories from episodes 3-7 part of the first novel? |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11454 |
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And now having done so, I see that the Tokimaru left San Francisco bound for Japan, via Hawaii. So that at least makes more sense. Also, it's now June of 1940. Apparently McCloud was going to Japan after having a falling out with MI6 over his methods? Which then raises the new questions of why Japan didn't want him and why he was so glad to see the British come for him. Seems like he could've been as much an asset as anyone else they've turned. On an unrelated note, I thought it was kinda fun that the Enigma text they used as an example was the last stanza of Lord Byron's "Epitaph for a Dog." 
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LightYapper
 Posts: 131 Location: Somewhere on Earth |
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I guess either the staff is saving the last few episodes for the 3rd chapter, or that they are keeping it for another cour, along with more stand-alone stories. Really enjoyed Joker Game so far, so I'm biased towards the latter. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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As much as i pity poor Chou, that would be pretty disappointing. Up until now it seemed like our superspies were able to smotthly sail through life (and war) without really getting their hands dirty, so i found this development quite refreshing. The rest of the story not so much, though... |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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"Chou" in this case is just the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese family name "Zhang" (usually spelled "Chang" at the time), so it's closer in meaning to "archer"  Also, depending on whether he's from the mainland or from Taiwan, he's either not a Japanese citizen/subject at all or essentially a second class citizen, which adds an extra dimension to the power dynamic between him and Gamou.
The scene where Gamou kills Chou reminded me of something Nick Creamer said recently, to the effect that a good plot twist isn't one that makes you go "Whoah, wait, what? She's evil now?!!", but one that makes you go "Well of course she's evil, it all makes sense now!" The sight of a D-Agency spy killing his contact in cold blood was both very surprising, given what we've seen of their training and methods so far, but almost immediately it clicks why Gamou came across so different from the other guys, like Jacob described in the review - more aggressive, more hands-on, more flashy, etc. I've seen people express hope that he may still have conflicting loyalties and end up siding with Yuuki eventually, but personally I can't see this scenario working as of now. We haven't really spent enough time with the agency as a group for this to become an engaging internal conflict, and I agree with Merida that Jacob's fakeout scenario would feel like a copout. Either way, I'm still looking forward to seeing how the inter-agency conflict plays out, at least to see if the author has anything else to say about militarism and totalitarianism. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5420 |
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I have feeling that a lot of peoples overall enjoyment of the show will be strongly reliant on whether or not it gets another season. If what has been said about this part about the story being more of a prequel to the main story, then peoples complaints about the characters may be resolved.
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v1cious
 Posts: 6211 Location: Houston, TX |
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It's based on a book that's already been adapted into a movie. I doubt there's much story left to cover. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 908 |
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Gamou is not, nor was he ever, a part of D-Agency. There are ten D-Agency members
if you include Yuuki and Sakuma, but there have always been eleven characters featured in the opening. Gamou is that mysterious eleventh person in the lineup who never shows up in D-Agency group shots. The formula up until now was meant to get us used to following a new spy every week, with their similar appearances giving us a sense for what D-Agency members all look like even when switching between characters. Except for this one, where we didn't realize until the end that we weren't actually following a D-Agency spy at all. Some formulas are a crutch that never gets cast aside. Others exist to give the audience a false sense of security for the impact it adds to reveals like this one. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11454 |
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Episode 8
We're now at ~Sept 10, 1940, a bit over two weeks away from the signing of the Tripartite Pact.
I think you're seeing double agents where there are none. Yes, Chou was a double, ostensibly spying on Gamou for Graham while actually spying on Graham for Gamou, but Graham was simply a spy for Great Britain, posing as a consul. He wasn't actually spying for anyone else at the same time.
Whether Gamou is a double agent isn't yet clear. Given that he's pictured with D-Agency in the OP, I suspect he's either already a plant in the Wind Agency by Yuuki, or will eventually be turned by D-Agency into working for them as their spy in the Wind Agency. I rather expect the latter, since I don't think one of Yuuki's own would have killed Chou so callously (the unreliable narrator misdirection is still plausible; however, the framing of the kill was so dramatic that I'm skeptical). But for the moment he too seems to simply be a Japanese agent spying on the Brits rather than a double agent. While there's a third possibility - that he's a plant in D-Agency by the Wind Agency - the quote from Yuuki about never allowing a military man into D-Agency even accidentally makes me rule that out, since I don't think this story is about to make Yuuki eat his words. Btw, if he made sure there was nothing to connect him with Chou's death, why make it look like Chou was robbing him? For that matter, how does a body stabbed in the back in an alley, with or without money strewn about, look like self-defense from a robbery? oO Also, anybody have any theories about what the deal with the contacts was? They didn't appear to change his eye color or anything. What was their purpose? Hidden microdots? Hopefully they'll tell us next week.
This dueling agencies scenario seems pretty representative of the divisions within the Japanese forces at large. One of the obstacles for Japan moving materiel and supplies around their wide theater of operations was the squabbling between the Army and Navy, with no one with the authority to settle the disputes except the Emperor. On an intelligence level, I suppose it's like the CIA, NSA, FBI and local police letting things slip through their nets because who gets credit is more important than sharing intel with those authorized to act on it. |
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wolf10
Posts: 908 |
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This episode was amazing to watch on a first go if you could figure out (it wasn't hard) that spoiler[Morishima was actually Jitsui of the D-Agency. Having Jun Fukuyama do the opening narration was kind of a dead giveaway]. Did you just show your hand, Joker Game?
But the result was that instead of spoiler[worrying over the fate of our obviously unbeatable team, I spent the majority of the episode cackling maniacally and rubbing my hands together, waiting for the other shoe to drop and the Wind Agency to realize how badly they'd been played.] A+ entertainment. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11454 |
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Episode 9
Every episode has opened with the narration being provided by the spy of the week, and Jitsui is one of the more recognizable faces in the group, so I wouldn't say they gave anything away that wasn't obvious. I wonder what they did with Gamou? Also, I'm more annoyed than last week that they didn't explain his contact lenses. They even included them in this episode's recap!
Akimasa only assumed that himself (not sure why he ever thought the documents were still there in the house even after everyone fled). But I can't figure out if the intel was even left behind or not. If Shirahata was too afraid to take it with him when he fled, surely he destroyed it himself. If not, he would've taken it and passed it along in Shanghai. Not sure if Yuuki would have let him though. On one hand he thinks the information is worthless, on the other, taking it from him would make him less useful in the future. Maybe only Graham was deemed useful though, and Yuuki still felt the Grand Strategy would be harmful in that it made the Japanese military look like fools. Hmm, yeah, I think Shirahata burned the papers before skipping town. Um, Yuuki is actually kinda hot when he's playing sweet old guy. ">.> |
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Niello
Posts: 302 |
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@Gina Szanboti
The deal with the contact lenses in episode 8 was more or less shown. Gamou marked the Umbrella with an invisible ink so that he could track what hands the umbrella past through. The contact lenses' purpose is just for seeing that ink. As for episode 9, This is my take on it. Yuuki was actually the one who secretly alerted Shirahata, which caused him to flee the house. The reason for this was because he doesn't really care if the information is leaked. As he said, the Grand Strategy itself isn't anything useful. What is important to Yuuki though, is to observe Shirahata and possibly to continue the observation even after this incident. He already planted his spy there for a year after all. However, he can't let the Wind Agency win so he can't let them stop Shirahata from giving away the information either. So I think that's why he let him fled and why he told the Wind Agency not to intefer with his plan for something like trying to prove their superiority. Sorry if my English's a bit off. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11454 |
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I totally did not make that connection. I did wonder how he saw the ink though. But I still don't see how that would work with clear lenses.
I was also wondering why he needed full scleral lenses instead of just corneal lenses, but then I learned that corneal lenses weren't invented until 1949. 
Thanks! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11454 |
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Episode 10
Probably a lot of people won't like this episode, but I had a lot of fun with it. Yuuki is just not a man who will be pinned down. Price did a pretty good job of it though, even though like the Alice pics on his wall, he got sent down the rabbit hole. Did anyone else think his sweet wife was going to betray him? I'm happy she didn't. Trivia: I don't know why Price was sending his messages in Latin, but what he was writing was 1 Corinthians 13, with roughly verses 10-12 shown onscreen. And this is apparently the photo from which Smith-Cumming's artwork was taken: 
I'm starting to wonder now if Lt. Col. Howard Marks (Sir Creepy Spymaster in episode 5) is actually based on a real person too... Oh let's hope not. |
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Merida
Posts: 1945 |
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Well, Yuuki is the most interesting of the bunch by far, so even an episode that's kinda sorta about a largely absent Yuuki and which doesn't tell us much more about him than that he's apparently even more awesome than we already knew, is still a better episode than most.
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