To its credit, the first episode is actually a reasonable introduction point and perspective to a spy show. 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. The first story that was adapted gives us an outside look into the spy organization from the perspective of the standard military. Essentially the only thing it rules out immediately is that it is a spy film in the vein of James Bond. The tone is the only thing that is established fairly well in that it is going to be fairly gritty and dark. 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 last one I only managed to establish as a possibility after I went out of my way to see what kind of source material 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. It lacks a clarity in signalling what the promise of the show is. It has a fascinating premise for anyone interested in history, yet seemed to do so little with it. Joker Game is a show that is hard to place. If you can overlook some of the shoddy writing, there's still much to enjoy from Joker Game.

I wouldn't aggressively recommend this, but neither would I tell you to avoid it. It's not every day that you get an anime about spies and spying set in the backdrop of WW2. I can't say that I regret going through all 12 eps (and the OVAs). The second half of the show did improve considerably, but the final arc bombed again. The first half of the show was mediocre to say the least. Instead, in each episode, you'll be scratching your head because your logical thinking skills were able to point out the plot holes and logical inconsistencies along the way. Unfortunately, in many cases, the story was not convincing enough to allow me to rate Joker Game as a masterpiece of Each episode usually deals with a certain spy faced with a unique set of challenges in his mission. Joker Game basically involves a group of spies in the secretive D-Agency of the IJA engaging in espionage and intelligence gathering in various locations around the world. Looking at the synopsis, the show would have been of interest to fans of spy movies and shows. Joker Game seems to have failed to live up to its full potential, but at the very least, it was still worth watching.

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