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Joker Game
Episode 7

by Jacob Chapman,

How would you rate episode 7 of
Joker Game ?
Community score: 4.0

Maybe it struck you in episode 3, with its convenient "amnesia by blunt force trauma" plot. Maybe it struck you in episode 4, with the comically manic implosion of its pederast villain. Maybe it struck you in episode 6, when its suave star spy pulled a carrier pigeon out of his coat. But if it hasn't hit you yet, episode 7 goes out of its way to cement that Joker Game is not very serious by historical fiction standards. Yes, even though it's playing with a sensitive period in history, and even though it's speaking from a strong political perspective, Joker Game never shies away from excess and melodrama to keep the thrills and pathos high even if the believability swings a little lower in the process. But since I came away from this episode with the strong impression that it was one of the show's best yet, I can't say Joker Game's grander flights of fancy bother me. After all, this premise itself was always a fantasy.

Let's face it, there probably never was a counter-fascist agency of super-spies sabotaging the early efforts of the Third Reich from inside Japan while protecting the nation's domestic safety. It's just a progressive author's opportunity to romanticize the period while still criticizing the war, giving him a platform for both action-adventure and a wee bit of social commentary. So what kind of message, if any, can you get from a tragically adorable story about a ladykiller spy who somehow walks away from a nearly disastrous mission with a brand-new daughter and pet scotty dog? Well, apart from the little girl and Scottish terrier, this episode is actually pretty similar to the previous one: a foreign spy of interest is murdered, political reasons are suspected at first, but the actual cause turns out to be a desperate apolitical action taken by a sympathetic victim instead. Both culprits are even women! That's a pretty big clue. Joker Game's thematic focus has shifted from a vicious takedown of nationalism as an ethos to a softer look at how individual people function in a war with supposedly distinct sides. Earlier episodes showed how even the most dogmatic nationalists succumbed to the pressures of their individuals needs and beliefs (or else were swallowed up by the system they worshipped.) So these newer episodes explore how those individual needs and beliefs change the course of war in unexpected ways, presenting us with a villainous British agent and a sympathetic German agent who both happened to cross paths with an abnormally considerate and patient neutral party named Amari.

Last week's Agent Tazaki quickly won viewers over as the most charismatic D Agency fellow yet, but Amari definitely gives him a run for his money. For one thing, in one of Joker Game's greatest flights of fancy yet, Amari is apparently the goddamn beastmaster because he can somehow summon dolphins alongside the cruise ship with a friendly whistle! However, he's already my favorite spy for a different reason. His specialty is underrated but essential for espionage: being a great judge of character! His mission is initially just to identify and detain British agent McCloud before he can sneak into Japan, but it turns into so much more when the ruthless geezer keels over from cyanide poisoning while cursing some German agent codenamed Cerberus. Amari doesn't recognize the name, but he'll be the most likely suspect in McCloud's murder if too many questions are asked, and he definitely can't be taken by the British navy when they break international law just to search the civilian vessel for their runaway spy. (I mean, since this is Joker Game and all, Amari could probably dive off the boat onto the back of a waiting dolphin friend and make his escape.) Still, if the real killer isn't turned over soon, everyone on the cruise ship might be in trouble. I mean, it is a Japanese boat, and just because the Brits were fighting for the "right side" in a large-scale conflict doesn't mean they didn't commit cruelties on a small scale.

That's the thesis of this episode in a nutshell. McCloud was a bad man who did bad things that caused the deaths of innocent people to help the right side win the war, and his killer, Synthia Grane, joined the wrong side in the war purely to exact revenge for the death of her good husband. Things get even more twisted when you consider that she's aiding the Nazis, who actually pulled the trigger on her husband without knowing the scheme behind it, so she could get revenge on a fellow Englishman who knew when and why that trigger would be pulled. One man sacrificed his friend's life for the sake of his country, and in response, one woman betrayed her country for the sake of her lost loved one. It sounds complicated on the surface, but it's painfully obvious which side the story wants you to take, and it all comes back to nationalism once again. Even in one of the most clear-cut "good vs. evil" wars in human history, the actions and motives of individual people paint a much clearer picture of the truth than the nations they served. Evil done in the name of good is still evil, and even a deed done under the service of the Nazis could seem understandable if you look at everyone as complex individuals instead of pieces in some larger system. That's a very liberal message for a very conservative time in history, so it's novel at the very least to see a WWII-era story where the whole Axis and Allies thing has no bearing on the morality of the conflict. It's definitely the only time you'll see a British woman who sold out to the Nazis portrayed as the good guy and a mastermind of the Enigma Machine portrayed as the bad guy, without even a drop of fascist apologia in the process.

All that said, this episode is insanely over-the-top even compared to everything that's come before it, so viewers looking for a more sober spy experience might lose their patience at the story's frequent dips into silliness. McCloud's outlandish monologuing and Amari summoning a pod of dolphins are definitely out there, but the cherry on top really comes when poor Mrs. Grane must turn herself over to the British navy and decides to just entrust her daughter and dog to Amari because, well, he bears a downright uncanny resemblance to her late husband! So now Amari is headed back to Japan with a new daughter and dog! I'm sure it'll all work out somehow. Joker Game's character designer seems to think so! Outlandish melodrama aside, this is the most emotionally impactful episode of Joker Game yet, with a nice little message about the greyer interpersonal tragedies that get lost in such a seemingly black-and-white war. I'm happy to weather more faux-historical silliness if it's this entertaining and even warms up my cynical heart.

Rating: A

Joker Game is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Jake has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.


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