Joker Game episode 1 gave me a peek into a world I don’t enjoy and can’t imagine spending any amount of time with, but I can’t say that it’s badly done. It’s always a weird feeling to review something that is technically sound on every level but that you simply do not like, but that’s my experience with Joker Game episode 1.
The premise is a spy training school in autumn of 1937. The anime starts right off with a big ol’ fiction disclaimer, which is important, as Japan’s World War II years are infamous for atrocities that are beyond the scope of an anime review to discuss. It’s a really sensitive historical time period and especially touchy to bring up in the current Japanese political climate. Still, to make the choice to adapt a novel (not a light novel, an actual novel) set in those times isn’t really a choice made lightly, so I expected Joker Game to have something to say.
The thing is, I’m not sure that it does. Episode 1 of Joker Game is all about a muddy palette both visually and thematically, as well as endless cynical commentary on suckers and fools, using the metaphor of a card game to make equally sweeping statements about international politics and human nature. It feels like the obverse of a pleasant but soulless feel-good anime like Bakuon , determined to soak the viewer in its grim, edgy worldview but leaving one just as hollow after watching.
The main character, Sakuma, is a military liaison to this super-elite spy academy. He’s childishly naive and straightforward, pretty much the worst possible choice for a snakes’ den like the one this spy academy is supposed to be. I actually like Sakuma’s sunny attitude and his hopeful need to hold onto some kind of positive thinking, even though he seems to be set up as a chump. His blind patriotism is an obvious problem -- this is Japan in 1937, and Sakuma is a military man -- but I’m not sure how subtly Joker Game plans to tackle that.
The other characters are still interchangeable for now with little personality to distinguish them, though care was clearly taken with their faces to keep them looking distinct. I’m not sure whether Sakuma will ultimately find some level of comradeship within the snakes’ den, or if they’re going to start taking each other out with their little cheaters’ card game. With Sakuma the only character providing a mote of light in this muddy world, I can’t help but hope for some kind of positive resolution for him, but in all this darkness I doubt what form that might take.
Joker Game is beautiful and has great, jazzy music. Still shots are lovingly detailed, lit with a hazy glow. The palette is consistent with the faded feel of photographs from that era, like you’re walking through an antique photo album, though it winds up feeling like the swampy grays and browns are just unrelenting. Even the blonde, blue-eyed American looks faded, though his accent in both languages is hilariously overwrought and about the only nugget of humor in the entire episode.
But to use a setting as wrought and sensitive as anything touching the Japanese military in World War II and throw it away on conclusions as cheap as “don’t believe in anything, everyone’s a danger” feel like a waste. Joker Game is technically proficient in every way an anime can be, but if it doesn’t find its soul, all that production quality will make it feel ultimately pointless and hollow.
Should you watch Joker Game?
Joker Game ’s high production values and charged premise merit a look. Production IG (the studio behind last season’s Erased ) has done fine work on Joker’s Game. I didn’t like it at all, but it’s still an objectively well-executed show. Whether or not its philosophy evolves to some nuance remains to be seen.
Joker Game airs every Tuesday at 1 PM on Crunchyroll here .
