Sometimes I wonder if Joker Game is intentionally trying to kill my sense of disbelief as it really does pull out some mind numbingly dumb things from time to time. Today’s “What!” moment comes right at the start of the episode when a young Yuuki escapes imprisonment by blowing up a live grenade in his hand. That’s a rather suicidal way of going about things and I am not even sure just how he managed to get away alive. We do see Yuuki swung around the pillar and apparently used it to block the explosion but I say that’s just impossible. For one that pillar looks clearly wooden and I am not even sure how it’s still standing. Even humoring this assumption, the man someone managed to block out the pain of blowing off his arm and ran out into the snow. Through some miracle he didn’t bleed out or die of hypothermia. But yes that was the protagonist of the weeks first encounter with Yuuki and it took me a while to realise that was a flashback because the protagonist happens to have a subordinate who happens to look exactly like him in the flashback. Plus he somehow gained a prominent tan over the time.
Putting that aside, it’s nice to have an antagonist now who is close to Yuuki’s level as in today’s episode he managed to figure out and plan accordingly to counter him. Naturally Yuuki was one step ahead but it still nice to see someone coming close to giving the D-agency some competition. In some ways I find him more intriguing that our actual protagonists. Another surprise this episode is that this is the first time a D-agent died. Throughout the episode I was waiting for the reveal of the agent not being dead and somehow just playing dead. But the end of the episode seems to confirm that this agent is indeed dead for good. Though I still think there’s a possibility of him somehow showing up later. Now this may sound like the thing that proves these agents are not superhuman gods which I have been asking this series to provide but it’s not quite the case. This proves that D-agents can die but it doesn’t prove that they can make a mistake. I feel like the author was trying to address the criticism of the D-Agents being too inhuman so he had one die. However he still has far too much favoritism for the D-Agents so he has him die in an unpredictable accident. Even in death a D-Agent performs his duty without error and dies with a smile. Yes, this felt like the author was trying to have his cake and eat it too to which I give a dejected sigh.
The episode was mainly about the new antagonist trying to uncover a D-Agency spy from a trainwreck while all his subordinates are busy telling him there are no spies. In another show those subordinates would have a point as it is unrealistic for a spy to cover his tracks this much. Leaves aspirin on the floor, clearly planned. Doesn’t bother to dust the inside of drawers, clearly planned. In any other show you would just brush off the colonel as just being overly paranoid. Most of his supposition is based more on a hunch and feeling that this man is related to Yuuki. It’s good to have someone who can also peek at the script but lastly he isn’t in D-Agency and if you aren’t a D-agent then you don’t win. Yuuki manages to get away with a microfilm detailing all the spies within D-agency, which makes me wonder why he even had such a thing in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if Yuuki got them to commit it to memory. as opposed to having physical evidence. Not sure why he would even give such a thing to an agent in the first place. Either way the end of this episode is the same as all previous, D-agents win and leave the opponent to revel in awe of their majesty. Taking into account Japan’s position during WWII, I wonder if the D-Agents would make better villains than heroes?
~AidanAK47~
