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Oct 6, 2017

Re-watching Joker Game: Ep 9 Double Joker (Part 2)

So, as I proposed a re-watching, here I go continuing on doing the re-watching. Hopefully someone else will join! ^_-

Also, hopefully there’s someone out there that read all this stuff… as I know it’s pretty long… shame on me for analyzing things too in deep…

Mind you, what follows are my ramblings over Ep 9, comprehensive of my impression on how the frames were structured and so on with some occasional reference to the other Joker Game media.

Also, for personal comfort, I’ll use the characters’ names even if the anime hasn’t stated them yet. In short, as this is a re-watching and not a first watching, you’ll also get a telling that’s mixed with my knowledge of the future. Consider yourself warned.

And now, let’s start.

So yes, like in the previous episode I starts with the preview for this episode that was in Ep 8.

Now, we’re again in whatever place the previews take place.

And the new guy, which by now we know is Gamō Jirō a member of Wind Agency, is playing chess with Odagiri.

Why Odagiri and not Jitsui, one might wonder? Of course maybe it’s at random but, more likely, it’s because they’re both Army men and Joker Game is trying to subtly tell us that. Our Odagiri, like Gamō, is from the Army.

…and this reminds me how Joker Game likes to make a point of how Army men (as in people who were raised to become soldier and went through a military school after the other) aren’t fit to be spies even when they’ve the potential. Yūki felt Sakuma could have done it but Sakuma refused as he doesn’t feel he’s cut for the job. Odagiri, who underwent all the training and technically also passed it (he solved his graduation case after all) still felt he wasn’t cut for it and retired. Gamō and Kazato (who likely are even more Army men than Sakuma and Odagiri) think they can do it… and fail spectacularly.

No, Joker Game doesn’t think Army men can do it. But back to the preview where it’s clearly shown that D Agency Odagiri has the black pieces while Wind Agency Gamō has the white ones.

Odagiri is deep in thought and he’s not moving his pieces so Gamō asks him what’s wrong. Odagiri finally moves claiming that ‘you’ve to destroy your opponent’s composure to win’. I’m not into chess that much so I won’t discuss this one, Odagiri… though considering how in the episode Yūki trashed Kazato so much the guy ended up committing suicide… well, Odagiri, your words are taking a dark note.

Or maybe, on a tamer note, this is a hint that Yūki wanted to force Kazato’s hand so he would betray himself? I mean, it’s because Kazato decided to hurry and get rid of Jitsui that the maid at the inn ended up on warning Shirahata…

Back to the preview, Gamō reports what he’d been taught at Wind Agency and in the Army. ‘Chess isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about living or dying,’ and saying so he knocks down Odagiri’s Rock with his Horse.

Now… remember early, really early on when Sakuma felt the D Agency boys were taking matters too lightly, that for them this was all a game played to prove they’re smarter than everyone? Gamō’s sentence reminds me of this. It’s as if Gamō is saying he’s taking this much more seriously than Odagiri.

It’s not going to help him but well… he tried.

And now let’s dig into the episode.

‘Sakudō’ [策動 Planning] begins playing and we can see that the first scenes are… well, nothing else but scenes we saw in the previous episode, fundamentally Mutō introducing us to who Shirahata is, how Shirahata is suspected to have stolen ‘Grand Strategy’, how Gamō investigated on Graham and proved he’s guilty, how he killed Chou, Wind Agency’s motto, Akutsu pinning Kazato against Yūki, and Kazato’s report to Akutsu at the end of the previous episode.

It’s 1:15 minutes of summary and, as far as I’m involved, it’s pointless as we’ll see scenes of the past episode also when we’ll be explained AGAIN what D Agency is as it happens in all the episodes. Okay, okay, it’s probably there for who couldn’t see the previous episode and therefore needs a recap to get into this one but still…

Anyway now we see Gamō and Kazato in front of a building…

…but this one isn’t the Sanbō Honbu (参謀本部 General Staff Headquarters) even if it resembles it.

It’s the Rikugunshō (陸軍省 Army Ministry or Ministry of War).

Why are they there? No idea, maybe this time Kazato and Akutsu’s meeting took place there (even though Akutsu and Mutō always met at the General Staff Headquarters…). Or maybe they’re looking at it because although both Wind Angecy and D Agency depends on the General Staff Headquarters for orders, their survival depends on the Ministry of War (which was also the one who allowed the founding of D Agency… and possibly of Wind Agency?).

The two building were on the same square, so it’s entirely possible that Kazato met Akutsu at the General Staff Headquarters and then, getting out of it, looked at the Ministry of War.

Anyway, as they look at it, Kazato comments that the mission will decide everything, everything being if Kazato’s Wind Agency can win D Agency and… he trails off and claims that they will be the winner. As he does so he touches his chest.

No, not the place where his heart is it’s the place in which he keeps the Tenposen, the proof he was a War College, hidden. In a way, that is his heart and his pride and a sign he view this battle as a battle between Yūki and the War College graduates whom he represents.

‘Kikan’ [機関 Agency] starts and we gets Jitsui telling us the usual shortened version of the explanation of what D Agency is.

Then this ends and we get…

…the opening. Which is the same as usual. Jitsui is the sixth spy who appears, and he’s reading a book, a nod to how in this episode he’ll play the role of a student… but a drama cd hinted also how Jitsui deeply loves book so maybe it’s a subtle way to give us info about him.

Also note how the wind raises his hair. Maybe it’s coincidental, but it sort of makes me think to how in this episode he’ll have a different hairstyle.

Jitsui is also seen at the end tossing something. LOL, no, it’s not tossing Gamō over his shoulder.

Anyway the opening ends and we resume with Joker Game.

It’s night and we’re watching what the novel label the Yamadashi inn (山出し旅館 Yamadashi Ryokan) but that in the anime seems to have a different name, Arai inn (新井旅館 Arai Ryokan).

No idea why they felt the need to change the name of the inn… maybe because the Arai inn is a real inn and they draw this episode inn using it as a model?

Anyway we hear Kazato’s voice singing something, which should be ‘Makkuroke bushi’ (まっくろけ節 “Black as pitch tune” though on Youtube you find it also written as マックロ節) which was popular during that time. It’s an interesting choice as the bit he sings talks of a man dreaming as he travels and then ending up in a tunnel that gets pitch black due to the smoke. It’s sort of a hint of his state, who’s dreaming success and who’s about to see all black due to the failure he’s going to face.

Anyway at first we don’t see Kazato but the women working at the inn and serving the Mist room where Kazato is staying. It’s interesting how, when the maid and Kazato crosses paths, she gives him an odd look, follows him with her gaze and then raises her gaze up at the sky. No, she’s not exasperated because he’s singing, she figured out that he’s actually an Army guy pretending to be a businessman. I can feel her thinking ‘oh my God, is this moron thinking his disguise is tricking someone?’

And yes, Kazato comes out as even more of a moron as he hadn’t noticed at all and, to show us even better how much of a mess he is, he opens the wrong door and, instead than his happy team of Wind spies he finds himself facing an old man being served sake by a maid.

Instead than realizing his mistake, Kazato is just surprised (was he drinking too? Had he drank too much?) and stares at the scene.

The maid turns to him and redirect him toward where his room is.

He apologizes for the interruption and the old man with his face flushed and to whom was being served Sake assures him he shouldn’t worry about it.

Now… admire Yūki’s disguising ability. I know the old man is Yūki but, each time I see him, I still can’t believe they’re the same person. Kazato, you should take notes.

Anyway Kazato leaves but pauses into the corridor so as to eavesdrop the conversation between the maid and the old man and now his gaze his attentive and sharp, nothing like the one he wore when he entered in the wrong room.

Now… this gives me hope. Maybe he did enter in the wrong room on purpose, maybe he only wanted an excuse to check who was in it, so he pretended he got the wrong room. Maybe. This would make him much more smarter than Mutō who tattled out everything to a maid while Yūki was in the next room and didn’t even realize how things went. Still, in the anime it’s hard to say, our only clue seems to be him stopping outside to eavesdrop the conversation, but it seems that in the novel this is the case so if this applies to the anime as well kudos for him. Still Kazato hadn’t noticed the odd glance of the maid he crossed and this isn’t good.

Anyway Kazato hears the old man asking the maid who was the guy who entered in their room and the maid told him he was merely the one using the next room over, someone who works for a company in Tokyo and is training there. The old man seems to lose interest and well, he points out he’s still young, basically hinting at how he would like to spend the night with the maid. She laughs and tells him to stop. At this Kazato decides to walk away.

‘Senzai’ [潜在 Potential] begins playing.

We see that Graham is leaving his home. He looks around suspiciously before getting in his car. As the car leaves the place we see that there’s a man in a dark corner, spying it. No, it’s not Gamō although he’s dressed up as Gamō was in his spying missions. He’s still another member of Wind Agency though.

As soon as Graham’s car leaves, he leaves as well.

Back to the inn and to the mist room a maid mentioned in the beginning. We see inside it they’re serving rather good food (Wind Agency definitely has a better budget than D Agency) which is probably based on the one they really serve there…

…and that the ones inside are Wind Agency members who’re talking in ‘code’ language.

Fundamentally they’re saying what they’re meaning to say but they’re switching the names of the people involved with codenames. Shirahata is now called Huxley, while a certain Morishima is renamed as ‘flower arrangement’.

I guess this worked better in the novel but I fear it couldn’t helped, anyway, each time a codename is mentioned, we see superimposed below the ‘translation’. Of course since we barely know Shirahata and we didn’t see Morishima yet nor heard about him, even if they hadn’t translated the codenames we would have had troubles to understand the discussion just the same. But well, let’s go on.

A side note here. There’s people who don’t like how the Wind Agency members look as they aren’t as cool as our boys at D Agency. Well, since Wind Agency boys are meant to be accomplished soldiers or military policemen who likely went to the Army College I can guess they also were meant to be older (D Agency recruits were university students or, at best, from the Army Academy which, it helps to remember, is not the same as the Army College as you need to attend to Army Academy PRIOR to going to the Army College). What’s however even more relevant is that they weren’t created by Miwa Shiro like our D Agency boys but by Yahagi Toshiyuki using as a model the staff members that were present in that moment… and I guess the staff members weren’t chosen for their good looks… :P

We see that Kazato is seated among them, smoking and, from his position, although they aren’t seated around a single table, we can get he’s the toastmaster and everyone’s boss.

Gamō gets in the room and informs Kazato that ‘the cutomer’, a codename for Graham, has just left. Evidently the guy who was spying on Graham just made his report… still it’s a bit confusing because, since he was dressed as Gamō had previously, one can think the person we saw only for a brief moment is Gamō. Kazato seems satisfied. In that moment a maid interrupts them claiming another person from their party is there and that he’s not going to say his name as they would know who he is without needing to hear it. She adds that person is there to see the manager, Kazato in short.

Kazato orders her to let him in. The one who enters is what looks like a boy in a student uniform.

It’s actually a university student uniform so think at someone in between 19 and 22 but well, he looks younger and we’re so used to high school students in anime we could mistake him for one of them. Anyway… even though we should be expecting Jitsui, since he’s the one who made the D Agency introduction, they gave him glasses (like they did with Hatano) and changed his hairstyle. Add to this that we’re at episode 9 and Jitsui had no speaking role on Ep 1 and 2, that yes, we saw him on a preview but it wasn’t the one for this episode but the one for the episode prior to this (and this is genius as we might be mislead to think that, if there’s a D Agency spy that’s going to show up, that one is Odagiri who was playing chess against Gamō) so we totally might not think that this scared looking boy is a D Agency spy.

A sidenote here. I mean… Kazato and Co are supposedly playing the role of someone who works for a company in Tokyo and is training there. How are they going to think that the visit of a student that works at Shirahata’s villa isn’t going to stand out? Are they thinking it’ll look like they’re recruiting him? And it’ll turn out they didn’t even do their homework well as, apart from what Morishima was ‘trying to hide’ they’ve no idea he’s popular and which are his habits. Really guys, no wonder Yūki makes fun of you.

Anyway so far we’ve no idea who the boy is as we weren’t told yet his name. So more time is gone between the time the Wind Agency boys talked of a ‘flower arrangement’ (codename for Morishima) and the time in which we’ll learn this boy is Morishima. True, Joker Game tells us to pay attentions to details and to remember things, and the fact that ‘the flower arrangement (Morishima) was delivered’ might hint at how they meant Morishima was carried there or something like that but the whole dialogue between Wind Agency members wasn’t really relevant and it’s in a risk to remain unconnected so… I don’t know I would have focused on other matters (the deleted scene on how Shirahata got ‘Grand strategy’ for example would have been more interesting).

Change of scene. We see a house and then a dog sleeping in his doghouse.

The name written on said doghouse is ‘Churchill’.

Are we at Graham’s?, No, the next shot shows us we’re at Shirahata’s house…

…and the dog’s name is a clear hint of how Shirahata is an English sympathizer.

Shirahata is talking with one of the maids of his villa, telling her she can go to sleep and won’t need to wake him up next morning. She bows declaring she’ll comply with his wishes and then… Shirahata turns around and asks her if… she contacted Churchill. The woman replied she did so before Morishima left. Shirahata claims Morishima should have gone to the inn to see a certain waitress again.

This is also pure genius because you can be mislead to think that’s an excuse Morishima gave to justify his going to the inn when no, there’s really a waitress that knows him well.

Now… if you’re wondering how could the maid contact Churchill… that’s actually a mistranslation. What Shirahata is asking is if Churchill, the dog, had been chained, not if the maid had phoned to Winston Churchill. In fact 繋ぐ can mean ‘to transfer a phone call’… but it also means ‘to tie’, ‘to fasten’. Evidently who subbed this episode didn’t notice the dog’s name written on the doghouse and, due to this, went on and assumed they were talking of the much more famous Churchill… so, since the maid couldn’t tie Winston Churchill somewhere, the only option left was that she contacted him.

Back to our story. The maid claims she envies how close Morishima and the maid are which, I guess, it’s a hint that whatever relationship Morishima has with the maid, the whole Shirahata house approves of it. Later we’ll hear that the waitress had a doting look when Morishima was involved so I’ve the feeling they’re so supportive because it’s not romantic but more family like? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, really Kazato, Morishima really had strong ties with a waitress at the inn and everyone knew. Why did you miss such detail?

Shirahata’s maid wishes him good night and leaves him. As she does so, please pay attention to the door near Shirahata as it’s relevant and Joker Game helped you to remember it by drawing birds on it.

Shirahata’s expression switches into a serious one and then he goes to his study.

The clock shows it’s 10:13 PM.

Shirahata nods to himself (evidently he’s waiting for a specific hour), then goes to his desk, opens up a secret drawer in which we can see there’s a document…

…and watches it smiling. It’s not so difficult to figure out it’s the ‘Grand Strategy’.

Back to the inn we go. The boy, who’s still standing with an uncomfortable and shy look on his face, raises his head. Close up of Kazato’s eyes, then…

The scene switches and we’re shown a window of the Wind Agency training center (風機関訓練所 Kaze kikan kunrensho).

We should recognize it immediately as it’s definitely not your ordinary window. It’s the middle of the day and what start now is clearly meant to be a flashback.

The boy we saw entering in the inn, which from now on I’ll call Morishima, is backing away with a scared expression, asking where he is.

Hum… did they carry him there after drugging him? And why carrying him there? I mean… Shirahata’s villa is in Izu, the Wind Agency training center should be in Tokyo… in short at around 100 Km of distance. Going from one destination to another in present day with a local train takes around one hour and a half. Not the fastest way to question him.

Unless Morishima actually studied at Tokyo university? No idea.

Gamō is standing in front of Morishima and, although he’s just standing, he looks threatening somehow.

Really, it looks as if he’s sort of Kazato’s right hand man in this episode not mentioning that, although it’ll turn out that the other Wind Agency members actually had names, the anime decided to erase them in the end.

We hear Kazato’s voice saying ‘Morishima Kunio’. At this Morishima turns his head toward Kazato, as if startled, while Gamō only turns his eyes, which makes him look rather cold and impassible.

We see… what at first seems to be a photo album as it has 6 photos of Morishima, though it’s actually Morishima’s file.

Anyway Kazato goes on saying Morishima is a student living in Shirahata’s villa since last year, serving as his houseboy and that had birth in Tokyo in 1918 (meaning despite how young Morishima looks he’s actually 22).

Then Kazato goes on revealing the ‘big secret’. Morishima was actually formerly named Ikeda Kunio. Morishima’s eyes widen even more in terror. Look at Morishima’s posture all curled on himself even if he’s standing. He really looks like a pathetic and scared boy.

Kazato goes on saying that after the Morishima family adopted him they paid off an army doctor so as to sent Morishima back home after his physical exam. In short Morishima draft-dodged the obligatory military conscription with falsified medical record, a crime that would get him three years.

A side note here. In the novel the ‘truth’ about Morishima was that he was half Korean. If this had turned out Morishima would have faced discrimination. The anime preferred to switch this with Morishima draft-dodging the obligatory military conscription. Note that back then it was already pretty hard to do so much as to postpone it for study reasons in peace time. By now we know we aren’t in peace time anymore (Japan was at war with China), deferment was cancelled for all students except those in mainly technical or scientific studies as they could end up on contributing to the war with their knowledge (note that Morishima was meant to be a literature student) so this was a big deal.

Kazato goes on claiming that if Morishima is drafted and sent to the frontlines he’ll likely only live a few months. Well, Morishima actually looks frail and weak so I can understand why Kazato would think so, but as for me, knowing about who Morishima truly is… well, I would worry more about the surviving rate of his opponents…

Anyway Morishima tosses himself on his knees and begs Kazato to overlook this as it was all his parents’ doing.

Now I’ve the feeling that shifting the blame on them would cause them as well to go into jail… in short Morishima is doing his best to present himself as a coward who’s easily manipulated. Really, Jitsui, it’s a gold star performance. You and Fukumoto are really the best actors!

Gamō looks at him in a manner that seems to imply he’s disgusted.

Kazato instead, thinking they’ve scared him to death and broken him, claims they suspects Shirahata is a spy. Morishima raises his head in surprise and Kazato is grinning as he tells him if he can picture what he’s going to ask him. In short Kazato wants to make an exchange. He’ll give Morishima a chance to prove his loyalty to Japan. Here it’s not said what he wants Morishima to do but it’ll become clear soon. He wants Morishima to spy on Shirahata. Remember the operative Kazato bragged he had at Shirahata’s villa? Well, he was talking about Morishima.

On a personal note I think the whole idea of giving him a chance to prove his loyalty to Japan worked better with a half Korean Morishima than just with a Morishima who skipped Military Conscription… even if, to be honest, whose were times in which this would be taken as a betrayal to Japan so I get where Joker Game is going.

The flashback ends and we’re back to the inn where, apart from Gamō, the Wind Agency members seem not to be paying any attention to what’s going on between Kazato and Morishima.

Hum… probably it would have been a good idea to develop them more. I get they aren’t really relevant as the story is mostly about Kazato and they used Gamō as the representative for all the Wind Agency members just to flesh Wind Agency out a bit… but still… it’s 6 characters they created and that fundamentally are there to be background. It’s a pity.

Well, Kazato asks Morishima if there are news at the villa… and Morishima replies that Shirahata usually leaves the dog (Churchill, remember?) out the night but that this evening he had him put in the shed (remember, that’s what Shirahata and the maid were talking about…)

This, of course, it’s a hint Shirahata is expecting a visit and doesn’t want the dog to cause troubles… which also meant if the Wind Agency boys were to pay Shirahata a visit the dog wouldn’t cause troubles to them…

Morishima reports also that Shirahata said there was no need to make breakfast for him the day after… so, since Shirahata’s conversation with the maid took place AFTER Morishima left, I guess Shirahata mentioned it early as well.

Close up of Kazato’s eyes who were first looking downcast and then raised themselves.

Now… I generally praise Joker Game use for shots but this time I think they made poor use of what is called the Italian shot (due to Sergio Leone using it A LOT in his western movies) or extreme close-up.

Kazato’s eyes aren’t expressive at all and we saw in the previous hot which expression his mouth is viewing so it’s not like they wanted to hid it… because it’s not going to be a big secret. In the next sentence Morishima is going to tell Kazato what he mostly wanted to know and, from Kazato’s voice, we’ll clearly figure he’s satisfied. If he started smiling there was no need to hide it. Maybe the idea is just to put emphasis to how thoughtful and focused he’s being but… well, there were better ways.

But well, maybe it’s just me. Back with the story.

Kazato asks him ‘about the thing they’ve discussed’ (which is likely ‘Grand Strategy’) and Morishima replies ‘the desk in the study’ (remember? We saw Shirahata watching something that was hidden in the desk in his study).

Kazato sounds delighted as he says ‘I see’, he’s basically dripping satisfaction even if we can’t see his face. When we can see it, after he picked up his bottle of sake, we can see he’s looking at Morishima in a not threatening, not angry manner. He might almost seem smiling and he will smile soon.

Anyway he praises Morishima claiming he has done an excellent work so Morishima dares to ask him for ‘that other matter’ the other matter being him draft-dodging and if Kazato is going to let him off the hook. Now we can see that Kazato is openly smiling…

…as he picks up a sake cup, fills it and replies ‘of course’ claiming Morishima has more than met their expectations and that he thanks him.

Morishima breathes in relief, smiling and accepting Kazato’s cup of sake and then drinking from it.

Well, this in itself was a nice move from Kazato as, considering the setting, not only Morishima wouldn’t have dared to refuse drinking, but the offering came out as natural (a way to reward him with good sake for his good work) and a normal person would feel inclined to accept as a way to unwind the stress they piled up.

Another Italian shot for Kazato’s eyes as he watches Morishima drink that really doesn’t tell me much apart maybe that he was observing him carefully… which might hint at how he has hidden, dark interests in Morishima drinking that drink.

Not that it’ll do him any good as he won’t realize Morishima is actually not drinking his drink. Anyway Morishima hands back the now empty cup and Kazato, always smiling, gives the order that someone of the others should go call a car to take Morishima home. Note that although he said someone he’s looking at Gamō.

Gamō stands up saying he’ll do it (why am I not surprised?) while Morishima waves his hands and says there’s no need and he can go back by himself. Kazato is smiling as he says there’s no need for that. I guess the smile is meant to be gentle but it doesn’t quite work with me but maybe it’s because I know what he has in mind… though look at his eyebrows… they’re actually frowning which isn’t something that happens when you’re smiling gently. Kazato, you should work harder on your fake smile.

Then Kazato, still smiling, claims something that in hindsight is REALLY creepy. He says he won’t see Morishima much after this (yeah, as he plans to kill him) and they (the guys at Shirahata’s house, I guess) might be getting worried about you back home (not that Kazato’s care but it’s a good cover up excuse).

Morishima and Gamō are now standing at the door, Morishima bowing to Kazato gratefully a small smile to his lips (even if it’s clear he’s not exactly happy). Morishima is the first to walk away, Gamō follows but pauses a moment to nod at Kazato, a hint he figured out he has to dispose of Morishima.

It’s rather meaningful that at this point ‘Kinan’ [危難 Danger] starts playing as Gamō is plotting to kill Morishima but also ironic as Kazato is going to fall in Yūki’s trap and therefore he’s also the one in danger.

Hum… close up of Kazato’s frowning face, before Gamō too leaves and the door is closed behind him.

Again, that close up didn’t really tell me much. Personally I think that this scene at the inn is possibly one of Joker Game less clever scenes in terms of shoots but maybe it’s just me.

Now we see some drops falling on the table before the sake cup is placed on it face down. Kazato pulls up his sleeve to reveal there’s a thin tube running up his arm (and from this is easy to figure out he used it to secretly pour something in Morishima’s cup). He removes it, showing us better how the contraption was…

…and demands a new sake cup, so yes, even to who hasn’t figure it out just by seeing the tube, now it should be obvious that Kazato put poison in that cup.

Kazato serves himself some sake from a new cup and then repeats Wind Agency motto ‘Kill without hesitation. Die with honour’ just to make very, very obvious he wants Morishima dead.

At this point we see Morishima walking after Gamō but his head is lolling and, at a certain point, he can’t stand any longer.

(Also please notice how the place in which this took place is also a real place in Arai inn)

Gamō gently asks him if he’s all right and Morishima replies he’s just a bit tipsy as he usually don’t drink.

A maid comes and rather worriedly asks if there’s something wrong.

Now… not only all the maids had figured out Gamō and Co were soldiers but they also knew Morishima usually didn’t drink hence the scene was EXTREMELY suspicious to them. Gamō tries to wave it out by claiming Morishima drank a little too much… which only helps making the situation more suspicious. Really guys, that’s why you should do your homework and listen to people. In addition to the fact you should have already known Morishima doesn’t drink, Morishima JUST TOLD YOU he doesn’t do it.

Gamō then helps Morishima to stands and leads him outside under the maid’s worried glance.

Back to Kazato we go. He’s speaking to his little Army of unnamed Wind Agency men who were sadly so poorly characterized in this episode.

He tells them that their training excursion ends today, that they all did well (what? What did they do?) and that only one final task remains and then they will be done. He remarks he expects their training to pay off. They nods wordlessly.

Now yes, we know what Kazato is meaning but well, it can completely sound as something innocent as they’re playing the role of someone who works for a company in Tokyo and is training there. Well, they tried looking inconspicuous… they just failed big time.

Kazato then watches his watch and… it’s 10:07 PM.

Remember? When we saw the clock at Shirahata’s villa it was showing 10:13 PM… meaning that the scene we saw previously actually happened AFTER this one we just saw.

Gold star to you if you noticed it.

Kazato goes on and says the exchange is meant to happen at 3:00 AM (which I’ve no idea how he has discovered as Morishima didn’t tell him so but well, let’s let this slide). At this point all the Wind Agency boys check their watches simultaneously…

…and then one of them says they’ll be on their way then. Kazato recommend them to take care not to bother ‘Huxley-san’.

In case you don’t remember (at my first watching I didn’t and so I know I’m in for a scolding by Yūki) Huxley is Shirahata.

As the boys leave we see Kazato is still seated and he’s thinking he hopes to see Yūki in person if he can (a clear demonstration we should be careful what we wish for) then the camera moves to make a close up of the right side of Kazato’s vest and, as it does so, Kazato thinks ‘and when you do…’ and rests his hand on that point of the vest.

It helps to remember that no, he’s not resting his hand on his heart, though likely for him is equally important. Under there he’s probably keeping his own Tenposen, the proof he was a War Academy student, something of which he’s likely proud about.

We see a black car running on the street. Said black car is carrying Graham.

We see waves crashing against a cliffed coast. The camera moves higher on the cliff and we see a light appearing, a sign a car is moving closer.

It’s Gamō’s car. Seated next to him Morishima is sleeping, his face flushed (how Morishima managed to fake such a huge flush is something only D Agency boys know).

Morishima is rather cute as he sleeps but Gamō looks at him coldly.

We already saw him killing Chou so we should know what’s going on in his mind. Another wave crashes on the coast and…

… and we switch scene and here things get confusing because the scenes are too dark to follow so at a first watch you might have gone lost.

‘Tōryaku’ [韜略 River] is playing in the background.

A car is driving in what looks like a wood. It reaches Shirahata’s gate. Is it Graham? Nope, we’ll later discover it’s Yūki. A door is opened, someone peeks outside then goes back in. It’s a D Agency boys but we’ll know this only through the Twitters on the official Joker Game Twitter or by watching the Joker Game manga. The gate is opened and the car gets inside.

Next we see Kazato with two Wind Agency boys.

They’re still OUTSIDE the gates of the villa and peck inside by a window in the gate. They see the car is parked inside the gate and in front of Shirahata’s house (well, see is a big word as due to the scene being dark and the view being partially covered we can hardly see the car, it’s more like we guess its presence).

Kazato turns to his men and claims that their customer is there (remember? Curtomer= Graham). Kazato looks at his watch as he asks for a status report. All he’s told is that they’re in position. The watch now says it’s 2:37 AM.

Quite a long time had gone from when they met Morishima (remember? It was only 10:07 PM) and that they had gone there when they thought the exchange would take place (Remember? Kazato told us they assumed the exchange would take place at 3:00 AM).

Kazato is still thinking at Yūki and how he thinks Yūki couldn’t nail down the location and how much of a fool Yūki was. Hell, there need to be one sided Yūki/Kazato fanfics… Yūki is all Kazato can think about and in the end he even got screwed by him… even if only in a metaphorical sense… but I guess neither of them is pretty enough to attract authors. Anyway good job, Akutsu. I’m not sure if Kazato ever met up with Yūki before (Yūki is famous for being on the hate list of all the Army higher up who met him) but you surely managed to fire up Kazato well. He can’t think at no one else but him, now.

Kazato then notices something and tells the other to go with him then starts running. He tries opening the door of the gate and he’s surprised when he realizes it’s open. He gets in, look around and then starts running. The others follow. Kazato keeps on looking around but now we can see he’s starting to get anxious. We can now see that the dog isn’t in the dog house tied to his chain any longer.

Maybe that’s what he saw that made him nervous since Morishima’s report said the opposite.

He’s sweating as he opens the door of the house. His men are behind him. He tells them they’ll wait there until 3:00 AM. The others are surprised.

Kazato orders them to detain anyone who shows up and to kill them if they resist… because killing someone is the best method to interrogate him so as to see if he knows something. Kazato, really… -_-;

Now… I’ve the feeling actually he said to his men to wait him till 3:00 AM, and not that they’ll wait there as he gets inside the house while they remain outside. It would explain the others’ surprise as this would mean they would have to part ways.

Shirahata’s house is empty. Kazato is the only one inside it, and he is checking the rooms to find no one. He’s starting to get worried on what’s going on and why no one is there. In the end Kazato reaches the door to Shirahata’s study. We can recognize it from the draws on it.

Well, sort of, as if the scene is rather dark so it’s more like we guess it’s there but anyway if you’re curious…

…yes, it’s there.

When he gets in though, we hear Yūki’s voice telling him ‘he’s late’. Kazato’s face reveals all his surprise…

…as he sees a man seated on a chair giving him his back. The man turns and this time the Italian shoot on Yūki’s eyes works really well to deliver us what he’s thinking and the atmosphere of the scene.

Kazato figures out he’s facing his nemesis and spats out Yūki’s name with rage.

It’ll be interesting to know if Kazato knew Yūki personally or you just figured out that person in front of him HAD to be Yūki. Oh, well, we’ll never know.

Yūki turns on the light so as to smack in Kazato’s face that he’s been deliberately waiting him in the dark so as to surprise him and that he didn’t actually need to stay in the dark. Really, when Yūki feels the need to smack down an adversary he needs to totally destroy him.

‘Yūki’ [結城 Yūki] begins playing.

Kazato rages. He demands to know how Yūki did it (= manage to anticipate him) but he doesn’t even manage to end the sentence. Yūki finishes it for him.

A side note here. Kazato uses ‘kisama’ and ‘kisama’, back then, wasn’t as rude as it is now. It was just a rough way to say ‘you’ VERY popular among the Army (I wonder if they’re to blame for how ‘kisama’, who started as a polite way to say ‘you’ ended up on becoming an insult) and officers used it to talk with underlings. However using ‘you’ was still rude and I guess this is even more true considering Kazato and Yūki’s relation or lack thereof and the fact they’re both Lieutenant Colonels. So although Kazato isn’t exactly using rude language he’s actually still being rude. Do with this info what you prefer.

Back to Yūki he tells Kazato he drove in through the front gate. Remember the car we saw that was meant to look as if it was Graham’s car? Yes, it was Yūki’s car, we learn it here.

Kazato is even angrier and claims that Yūki tipped off Graham and Shirahata. Then he worries about ‘Grand Strategy’’s whereabouts.

And here things get hilarious.

Yūki repeats ‘Grand Strategy?’ with a rather mocking tone. Then claims nothing like that was there to begin with and that’s not because ‘Grand Strategy’ wasn’t there but because, after reading it, he could see it didn’t live up to its name but was just absolute nonsense. So you see, the thing whose Military men were so very worried would fall in English hands and at which they gave such an important name like ‘Grand Strategy’, something each watcher who was unaware of Japanese history wondered about with awe, well… it was actually nonsense. All this fuss for some nonsense documents. I can’t get why they didn’t want them to fall into English hands… they wouldn’t surely improve English poor opinion of Japanese people…

Of course defining ‘Grand Strategy’ nonsense is a crime in Kazato’s eyes as he seethes even more as it’s the Imperial Army greatest secret! Something that contains high command’s most fundamental strategies!

Now Kazato, I really wish I could tell you that, although ‘Grand Strategy’ was a nonsense, this happened either because:

a) it was decoy. They didn’t have a greatest secret but they would look cooler if they had one.

b) it’s a matter of reputation. With time they figured out it was nonsense but admitting it would make them look bad so they kept it secret so that no one would realize it’s nonsense.

Tragically that’s not the case as back then there were people in the Army who believed ‘Grand Strategy’ was the coolest thing ever. Yūki wasn’t among them though.

Anyway, as Kazato speaks we see the drawer that Shirahata watched previously and that now is empty, a sign that yes ‘Grand Strategy’ was there and now… it isn’t there anymore.

Yūki tells Kazato that ‘Grand Strategy’, high command’s most fundamental strategies is nothing more than general theories and principle related to strategy… hum… from the way he speak I’ve the feeling he would have found more useful if the higher up had saved a copy of Sun-Tzu's ‘The Art of War’ or Karl Von Clausewitz's ‘On War’ than ‘Grand Strategy’ but well, maybe it’s just me.

Anyway Yūki claims it does no good to treat it as some kind of secret, legendary treatise on the military arts. Well… psychologically speaking I think it looks cool to think you’ve such thing on your side. Practically speaking instead… not much. But you can’t have everything.

Yūki claims this shows the limits of Army War College graduates. Now… I get Yūki found them dumb but here it sounds as if he’s almost taking this personally. Was it an Army War College graduate the one who betrayed him? Or was he discriminated because he didn’t attend to it? No idea but surely Akutsu pinned the two right people one against others. Kazato who is an Army College graduate and worship the whole idea of Army College graduates… Yūki who likely isn’t and despises Army College graduate.

Kazato has to point out that Yūki too is an Army Lieutenant Colonel… and at this I wonder. No, don’t take me wrong, I know Yūki is a Lieutenant Colonel, I wonder if Kazato is saying this because he doesn’t think a Lieutenant Colonel should say as such or because he thinks that since Yūki is a Lieutenant Colonel, he should also have been an Army War College graduate? It can be as back then it was really hard to rise that much in ranking if you hadn’t been one of its students, so is possible to assume that Kazato, as Price did, assumed Yūki went to the Army College.

Kazato moves closer to Yūki, as if to physically harms him and, in a second, Yūki is pointing his cane at Kazato’s head. Kazato is surprised as he clearly didn’t see it coming. Yūki didn’t harm him but the message is clear. If he hadn’t wanted he could have struck him down with ease.

The clock starts ringing as it’s 3:00 AM.

Kazato who has remained frozen, Yūki’s cane pointed on him, manages to swallow his anger as he thinks at how to turn tables.

He moves back, away from Yūki’s cane and tells Yūki if he knows what’s the difference between their agencies. If you’re expecting something impressive don’t. The difference is just their motto.

It’s sort of fun because Kazato says that his Wind Agency ‘believes in killing when necessary’. He’s sugar coating things because, for them, it’s always necessary unless proven otherwise… but despite D Agency’s motto D Agency isn’t in truth above killing. It’s just that they think that doing it is unnecessary unless proven otherwise. But well, the anime skipped this part so I guess they wanted to make D Agency look even better.

‘Sakudō’ [策動 Planning] starts playing.

Kazato admits then that D Agency beat them in speed but ‘Grand Strategy’ is definitely there so they’ll get it even if they had to kill Shirahata so this will be Kazato’s win. Now… I guess that Kazato thinks to blackmail Yūki by threatening Shirahata because it’s clear that if ‘Grand Strategy’ is there and was in the desk whose drawer is now opened, Yūki should have it.

I’m not sure how he thinks to threaten Shirahata as he saw before that no one is there but well… let’s let him dream for the next… 5 seconds? In fact just after he finished speaking, someone comes behind him. Kazato realizes it and he’s surprised.

Now… a tiny jump back. Actually it seems in the novel Kazato wanted to threaten Yūki. Basically he believed Yūki took ‘Grand Strategy’ and therefore he wanted to capture him and force him to give it back to him. Well, honestly this proves he’s quite a jerk as they’re basically in the same Army but he wants to attack Yūki because he can’t stand losing, but it makes more sense than him trying to blackmail Yūki by using the currently missing Shirahata.

Another flashback starts only we aren’t warned beforehand it’s one. Hum… this episode is a bit jumpy due to flashback and flashforward…

Anyway we’re back to the cliffed coast and to Morishima and Gamō. Gamō is pulling out Morishima from the car, clearly planning to toss him off the cliff and into the sea.

‘Hichō’ [飛鳥 Flying bird] begins playing.

We see that Morishima is actually not unconscious and manages to send Gamō on the ground then, as Gamō stands, he wrap himself around him from behind him…

…making him fall again…

…and tighten his hold around Gamō’s neck. Gamō struggles a bit but he can’t stand and he can’t free himself.

Sidenote here. They fully took advantage of Morishima’s glasses to make him look even more awesome. As they completely whitened the lenses, hiding his eyes, he really seemed an expressionless robot set to kill.

Morishima… well, I think by now we can call him Jitsui, is slowly suffocating Gamō as he claims that they had such a great bait (he’s talking about himself and… well, modesty is evidently not his thing) and all they caught were shrimps like Gamō and Co.

Gamō understands that he is from D Agency. Jitsui confirms by telling him his past was a fake half-hidden story used to draw people that were interested into using someone as a spy inside Shirahata’s house. It’s a bit what Yūki did with Satomura… and it’s so very clever because Price’s episode will be transmitted after this one and yet no one will stop considering the story Satomura is telling to Price is a mere bait.

Since they made Morishima into a person that would be easy to blackmail… it would make obvious whoever were to try to search for an accomplice would try to go for Morishima. Gamō points out that Jitsui played the role of Morishima, and therefore of Shirahata’s houseboy, for over a year before fainting. Jitsui smiles…

…and everything turns dark as Gamō loses consciousness and the flashback ends.

The whole thing is a hint that D Agency didn’t have Jitsui to go undercover as Shirahata’s houseboy because they were competing with Wind Agency, they had anticipated that it would be useful to have someone working there and sent Jitsui there. That’s also why Jitsui complains. D Agency did it in hope to catch some important spy agency at work, not to find themselves involved in a squabble with a not so good Japanese spy Agency.

We’re back to Shirahata’s house and to Kazato staring at Morishima… well, at Jitsui, asking him how’s possible he’s still standing. Jitsui replies he had the same tool as Kazato. While Kazato used it to pour poison in his drink, Jitsui used it to basically suck away the drink before swallowing it so that he didn’t end up drugged or poisoned (no idea if it was meant to be just a sleeping drug or if it was meant to kill him slowly… it doesn’t really make a difference as Gamō was planning to toss him off a cliff… anyway in the novel is a sleeping drug so I guess the anime also went with it).

Jitsui then informs us that Kaminaga and Hatano have detained everyone hidden around the villa’s ground. It’s a pity we don’t see the scene animated but the manga shows us that ‘anyone’ actually meant the two who came with Kazato. No idea what the rest of Wind Agency is doing. Maybe they’re still partying at the inn… only no, we saw them leaving so… no idea.

Then Jitsui reports that Shirahata also informed Graham of the army’s movements so, remember when we saw Graham in a car? Now we get a better picture of the whole thing and we see that Graham’s wife is also on the car, resting her hand on Graham’s hand.

Graham for once doesn’t seem a pompous jerk as he turn to watch his wife who’s smiling at him (remember how hard it was to see her smiling in the previous episode?)…

…while we’re told that, since he feared to be arrested, he escaped with his wife to catch a boat to Shangai. Again Graham’s expression seems nice and makes him likable as the whole previous episode never made him look.

Now… I get he might have looked like that because he was seen from Gamō’s point of view but still, in the anime he was using his wife, involving her in a risky business. Personally I think that, since they decided to change Graham’s characterization in the previous episode, they should have stick with him being unlikable and his wife being highly uncomfortable with him than her suddenly being supportive despite probably having just learnt that her husband involved himself in spying Japan despite complaining how rude it was from Japan to spy them and even used her for something that could get her too being arrested.

Kazato is surprised at the news.

Yūki, standing up, spells out for him what we could have figured out already, that D Agency was keeping under surveillance Shirahata way sooner than this whole business started as Shirahata is one of the very few channels to England that have remained and that if he was kept under tight surveillance he could still be plenty useful.

Yūki talks in present form in the subs… but since the house is empty, a sign that Shirahata has escaped, I wonder if he actually should talk in past form. No, maybe not, as he tells Kazato do not lay a finger on Shirahata over such a silly thing… so what does this mean? That Shirahata will go back home and pretend nothing has happened? Or that Yūki knows where it has escaped and will keep on overlooking him despite Shirahata now being in hiding?

As Yūki says so, he moves to walk away but pauses and, as he wears a satisfied smirk, informs Kazato that, if he were to try and arrest Shirahata, he would have no evidence.

Kazato thinks they’ve no evidence merely because Yūki disposed of it… which seems to hint at how Kazato thinks Yūki destroyed ‘Grand Strategy’ or something like that.

And here I wonder how will Yūki report things to Akutsu. Akutsu told Kazato D Agency was informed about the whole ‘Grand Strategy’ thing and it’s likely they too were tasked with retrieving it. Yūki wants to play it as if Shirahata never had it, which, not only means to lie to Akutsu, but also to claim Akutsu’s source claiming Shirahata got it, lied or, at best, that he was wrong. This after Wind Agency got him evidence Shirahata had it and Graham escaped because he was obviously involved and so on.

If it was just Mutō, Yūki could report as he would see fit as he can blackmail Mutō… but, unless we’re missing something, Akutsu is another matter.

It seems that in the novel matters were easier, as it was Kazato who accused Shirahata of having stolen ‘Grand Strategy’ so all Yūki would need to do was saying that Kazato was wrong… but here Akutsu knew about it beforehand.

So how is Yūki going to explain himself? As there’s so little said about Akutsu we can even assume that the whole thing was a ploy to get rid of whoever complained against D Agency at which Akutsu agreed to take part. Since Wind Agency, the spy agency the Army wanted, fails so spectacularly, no one would be able to raise his voice against D Agency anymore. Mind you, I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s interesting to speculate.

In truth I guess Yūki was forced to admit Shirahata had ‘Grand Strategy’ but they took it from him and now could they please let Shirahata be and pretend he never had it as he’s more useful like that?... Only since Shirahata escaped I’m not really sure how much useful he is now.

Anyway Kazato literally blows up and tries to shoot at Yūki. Jitsui is faster and shoots at his gun causing it to fly away from Kazato’s hand. Kazato falls on his knee.

Yūki rants on how killing is the worst decision a spy can make as all it does is to spur outside investigations, therefore a foolish act and the proof Kazato isn’t qualified to be a spy.

Kazato is holding his hand, as if it got hurt but no blood is on it so… I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the pain from having the bullet rip the gun from his hand.

Anyway angrily Kazato claims Yūki’s reasons don’t matter as he accuses Yūki of leaking their plan to Shirahata and that he hopes that Yūki is ready to be court-martialled because, remember Ep 2 in which Mutō leaked details to a geisha? Well, if you hadn’t got it back then, now you know how serious of a crime this is.

Yūki, sarcastically tells him that unfortunately (for Kazato) they aren’t the one who warned Shirahata.

Then he asks Kazato if he remembers the waitress that served him at the inn, the same that lead Morishima to Kazato. Kazato asks Yūki how he knows about her and then realizes Yūki was staying in that same inn as well.

Since Yūki likes to rub their failures to Army guys’ noses he pretends to be surprised Kazato didn’t notice and informs him they even met at the inn. Kazato connects the dots and from his surprised face he is at risk of having a heart attack but no, he’s stronger than that.

Next we’ve a flashback in which the maid joins Yūki (in his old man disguise) back in the room…

(Again admire how this is close to the real place)

… and Yūki informing her that the customer (Morishima) who just left, was unsteady on his feet. The maid explains who that customer was, a student earning his keep working as a houseboy for Shirahata who’s apparently not used to alcohol.

Yūki, the snide bastard, points out she had a doting look on her face as she spoke about the boy. This is likely meant to hint to us she’s the maid Shirahata was talking about, the one Morishima usually visit.

The maid blushes further and Yūki goes on claiming that, if the boy gets back to the villa while he’s so drunk he can’t stand on his feet, he’ll be scolded. This pushes the maid to go phone Shirahata’s villa to tell them that it’s not Morishima’s fault he got drunk as they goaded him into drinking a lot.

Yūki, the jerk, praises her idea… because in this way she’s so going to screw Kazato’s plan…

We skip to the scene in which Shirahata was looking at the inside of his desk. We hear Yūki claiming that Shirahata figured out the situation from the waitress’ call and escaped. So really, we’ve confirmation he escaped, how could Kazato hope to torture him to make him speak?

Note how Yūki says ‘that’s all’ as if it weren’t a big deal. He orchestrated the whole thing here, by leading the maid to call Shirahata’s villa but he’s making it sound as if he did nothing really and it was all Kazato’s fault he screwed up.

Anyway the gist of it is that if Kazato tries to have Yūki court-martialled, it will only cause Kazato further humiliation as it’ll turn out it’s Kazato who ended up on messing up.

And since Yūki thinks he hasn’t destroyed Kazato enough, he informs him he has to tell him a last things.

‘Kikan’ [機関 Agency] starts playing and, for once, it does it without the scene being a intro.

All the women in the inn knew Kazato and Co were soldiers because… their disguise plan suck since it was unlikely that, since due to the war they keep on calling to battle young men, Kazato and his group, who’re fit and young enough, were left at home… unless they were soldiers serving on the mainland. In short Kazato chooses for himself and his men and extremely suspicious disguise. And, in case you’ve missed it, as Yūki speaks we see the flashback of the maid giving an odd look to Kazato.

Yūki claims that if they decided to play the role of students they would still draw suspicions (as said before almost all the students were forced into conscription… though not all of them… and probably the maids had though Morishima had been exempt because he’s so frail looking) but a group of young and fit business men? They were way too suspicious for anyone to miss it.

And now, since Yūki thinks he hasn’t crushed Kazato’s pride enough, he even goes and tell him if he knows the meaning of the War College emblem War College students are so proud of.

Now… we slid in a translation problem here.

The War College emblem is called Tenposen, so in truth Yūki is asking him if Kazato knows the meaning of the Tenposen… but as western viewers would have no idea what a Tenposen is, they translated it with ‘War College emblem’.

Why is this troublesome?

The Tenposen was called as such due to its shape resembling the Tenposen, a currency of Edo era which was worth eight rin. However the subs make it look as if the War College emblem WAS a currency of Edo era, when, instead, it only shared with it a similar shape and the name.

Now… let’s go on with Yūki’s rant. Yūki is still talking about the coin when he claims that despite being so large it’s not even worth one sen and therefore it’s worthless. In short what Yūki is saying is that, due to this, the word Tenposen, when used in the real world, takes the meaning of worthless.

And now Yūki slams in the irony of the situation. In the Army, since the word Tenposen is connected to the War College emblem as it shares the same name with the worthless coin, the Tenposen (=War College emblem) is extremely valuable because it represents how someone managed to go to the War College… which was the pinnacle of the Army educational system.

So fundamentally for the Army the Tenposen (=War College emblem) is precious while for the rest of the world the Tenposen (=currency of Edo) is worthless.

…I guess you can say the Army has a very poor naming sense but even this helps to drive in how Yūki thinks low of the War College and its students.

So, to finish Yūki goes on saying that’s why a LOWLY inn waitress could see through Kazato’s disguise and compares Kazato and Co to emperors without clothes running around playing spies. I guess the emperors without clothes is a reference to ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’, a short tale written by Hans Christian Andersen (as in Japan that tale was also titled ‘The king is naked’ [裸の王さま Hadaka no ōsama], which is exactly the same wording Yūki used), so Yūki is telling them they’re just snob hypocrite with no real brain to speak of as they’re easily tricked.

A side note here. I think/hope that Yūki’s speech is driven by beliefs of that time because it’s downright rude to call a waitress lowly but well, I guess that, back then, they didn’t really held them in high consideration.

Anyway Yūki then leaves and Jitsui follows him.

Kazato bows his head in defeat…

…then he sounds like he’s crying (but then we’ll see there are no tears in his eyes which maybe it’s a pity), then he reaches out under the right side of his vest (remember? The point he was shown patting more than once) rips away the Tenposen he was proudly wearing and tosses it on the ground.

The scene of the Tenposen lying discharged on the ground is symbolically meaningful.

The next shot though shows Kazato still crouched down… and the gun behind him. The scene moves from first having Kazato very clear in the picture and the gun blurred, to have Kazato blurred and the gun clearly visible. Can you see where this is leading?

Yūki is on the car on which he came at Shirahata’s villa. I bet it’s Gamō’s. Jitsui drives him away. Miwa Shiro will point out the fun part of the scene, which is that Hatano and Kaminaga will have to go back by foot. From Izu to Tokyo is a long trip…

As the car is getting far a shoot echoes then everything turns dark.

Note that there was no shoot in the novel and, hearing a shoot at this point after the previous scene, clearly imply Kazato shoot himself. And this opens up a HUGE can of worms.

Now… you can think that Kazato was stupid at shooting himself and mind you, in the western world of present day he would be… I’m not so sure the same would apply to Japan of that time as, after such incident his career would likely be ruined but well, that’s not the relevant part.

Remember Wind Agency’s motto? ‘Kill without hesitation. Die with honour.’ What Kazato did was an attempt at dying with honour, the same way Sakuma was willing to commit suicide to pay up for his failure in finding the ciphers. In this perspective Kazato’s suicide partially redeems him as he, at least, was willing to follow his beliefs till the end, he didn’t try to escape to them, he accepted he had to die and killed himself. He didn’t try to escape to it.

Kazato is rather ‘unlikable’ (no, I don’t mean you can’t like him, I mean he’s depicted in a certain way to make him unlikable to most as a person… as a character he’s a very interesting one) yet he lives according to his beliefs even when those demands him to kill himself. He’s not an hypocrite, like the people in "The Emperor's New Clothes" were. He wrote his own motto and he terminated himself due to it. What’s fair is fair, Kazato, in his own peculiar way, is still a man with a certain honour.

This attempt at ‘redeeming’ Kazato however turns extremely problematic for Yūki. Why is that?

So far Yūki was always a step ahead of everyone. He would always anticipate other people’s moves. If we are to believe this remained true through all the episode, it means that Yūki knew Kazato would end up to commit suicide, or, even worse, that his nagging had the purpose to goad him into doing it. In short Yūki has indirectly killed Kazato and left at Shirahata’s villa a corpse that will produce the unwanted questions Yūki always claimed he wanted to avoid.

In short, while Kazato follower his motto, Yūki just stepped on his own.

The other option is, of course, that Yūki couldn’t figure that Kazato would commit suicide after he totally and utterly trashed him and ripped his pride into tiny, tiny bits.

While this makes Kazato’s death an ‘unfortunate accident’ in Yūki’s plans, it greatly lowers Yūki’s level of coolness. For once someone did something Yūki couldn’t anticipate, something that ‘damages’ Yūki as it creates a situation that Yūki wanted to avoid, having corpses around.

Yūki won his war but Kazato has the last laugh, as bitter as it was, making him the only man who manages to sign a point against Yūki tracing a way darker comparison with what happened between Sakuma and Miyoshi, when Miyoshi goaded Sakuma into Harakiri not thinking Sakuma would have the guts to do it and the situation ended up with Sakuma not only showing him he would do it, but even managing to figure things out before doing it.

In this episode’s case we would have to assume that Yūki, despite all his taunting, didn’t think Kazato would have the guts to kill himself but Kazato did and, by doing it, he managed to cause troubles for Yūki as well as to cause Yūki to indirectly break his ‘don’t kill’ motto… which is interesting but also pretty dark.

Said all this… I’ve the feeling anime authors didn’t realize the full brunt of the consequences that shoot would have for Yūki and that, to them, I am merely over thinking things.

And with this the episode ends.

Ending theme.

Hum… this episode had potential and kept well up the mystery but…. It wasn’t as good as the others in terms of shoots, some things weren’t clear and the changes from the original plot didn’t really help it.

What I’m sorry about the most is how they made Wind Agency members just random side characters. Generally I defend Joker Game characterizations. They DO characterize the spies, it’s just not so in full view and stereotypical as in other series. However the Wind Agency boys have basically no role but stand there and eat… where in the previous episode they just stood there and listened to Kazato. The most they do is having one keeping under surveillance Graham and two other following Kazato… but it’s so passive it’s hard to say they’re really there. I think that, if they weren’t interesting in characterizing them, they could have made less of them but give them the chance to stand out more.

At this point isn’t Wind Agency against D Agency, it’s Kazato versus D Agency. Even Gamō is noteworthy only because he had a role previously, otherwise all he did was stand there and try to kill Jitsui.

In hindsight, if they realized/decided right from the beginning Wind Agency members would have no role, I understand why they decided to make Gamō one of them so to have at least one of them known to us.

Mind you, there are also a lot of cool parts in this episode, for example how they tricked us into believing things were going a certain way when actually it was the opposite. Maybe this episode is the one which contains the highest amount of deception and this makes it rather interesting.

I’ve ranted already though of how, ending it with a shot ended up ‘damaging’ Yūki’s reputation as he’s either cruel enough to drive Kazato to suicide or not as good as it looked at predicting other people’s actions as he couldn’t guess Kazato would commit suicide… which is a pity because the idea in itself was interesting in regards to Kazato’s characters… but end up involving Yūki as well and not in a good way.

And this was Joker Game Ep 9. Thank you to everyone who was brave and patient enough to sit through my long, long ramblings for the whole episode. I hope other people will feel like sharing what they had observed while watching it!

#Joker Game #Jitsui #Gamo Jiro #Kazato Akimasa #Yuuki #Kaminaga #Hatano #Shirahata Kiichiro #Ernest Graham #Jane Graham #Oharu #Nonomura #Kobokata #Kurodaira #Bacho #Washibana #Furuta #JG Double Joker #Joker Game Anime #Joker Game ReWatching

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