History Literature / JokerGame

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Japanese society's utter devotion to the Emperor along with following the Imperial Japanese Army's doctrines is exactly what the Showa era was like back then.

** In "City of Temptation", the piece of calligraphy hung in Captain Oikawa's office is in fact ''Dengke Hou''[[note]]《登科后》, literally "After Passing the Imperial Examinations"[[/note]], a Chinese poem by Tang dynasty poet Meng Jiao, about how the author felt his spirits renewed after passing the imperial examinations and receiving an official appointment, which in the context of this episode makes it extremely ironical.

* FreezeFrameBonus: Combined with BilingualBonus in "City of Temptation". The piece of calligraphy hung in Captain Oikawa's office is in fact ''Dengke Hou''[[note]]《登科后》, literally "After Passing the Imperial Examinations"[[/note]], a Chinese poem by Tang dynasty poet Meng Jiao, about how the author felt his spirits renewed after passing the imperial examinations and receiving an official appointment, which in the context of this episode makes it extremely ironical.

-->-- Sakuma given an explanation on [[TitleDrop the Joker Game]]

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:The Royal Military Police officer in "Robinson" who works for the RMP and for D-Agency after Yuuki has him activated. It has some real-life precedence with Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, a New Zealander officer who helped the Japanese by conducting espionage missions on their behalf, which was how they won over the British in the Malayan Peninsula.]]

* FreezeFrameBonus: Combined with BilingualBonus in "City of Temptation". The piece of calligraphy hung in Captain Oikawa's office is in fact a Chinese poem ''Dengke Hou''[[note]]《登科后》, literally "After Passing the Imperial Examinations"[[/note]] by Tang poet Meng Jiao, about how the author felt his spirits renewed after passing the imperial examinations and receiving an official appointment, which in the context of this episode makes it extremely ironical.

** Col. Muto drinking a piece of raw egg was the standard practice at the time to build up muscles. It stopped in the 1980s due to reports of people being affected by salmonella.

** "City of Temptation" features a faithful depiction of late 1930s/early 1940s Shanghai, right down to the period advertisements, albeit altered into [[BlandNameProduct bland name products]] (Coca-Cola for example is rendered into "Cola-Cola"; even its Chinese name and distributing company are both altered[[note]]可口可樂 turned into 可樂可樂, and 屈臣氏汽水 (A.S. Watson) turned into 新臣式汽水[[/note]])

** "Double Joker, Part 1" drops the bombshell that [[spoiler: the Imperial Japanese Army has started up their own spy agency known as "Wind Agency" in direct competition with D-Agency, with the glaring difference being that Wind Agency operatives are authorized to kill.]]

** "Miscalcuation" shows accurate [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons Wehrmacht weapons/equipments/gear]], including how they create double agents to weed out the resistance from within.

** "Asia Express" shows the significance of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Express Asia Express]] service throughout Manchuria in the late 30s.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Western characters and some of the D Agency boys speak pretty good English when the situation calls for it.
** A piece of paper with some text is used in "Codename: Cerberus" as an example of a document encoded with an Enigma machine. The text is the final stanza of Lord Byron's ''Epitaph to a Dog'', which fits in with the dog theme of the episode and foreshadows a key plot point later on.

* SpyFiction; Very stale beer since it's grounded and realistic without the high-tech gadgets and glamorous lifestyle, with a heavy dose of dirty martini as it's set during World War II and goes to cities all over the world.

The anime adaptation was done by Creator/ProductionIG with music done by Kenji Kawai and the show directed by Kazuya Nomura and written by Taku Kishimoto with two OVA episodes included in the show's DVD and Blu-Ray in late 2016 under the Spring2016Anime lineup. The show is scheduled for 13 episodes. The manga was serialized on February 5, 2016 by Mag Garden, which debuted in Comic Garden, written by Subaru Nito.

** "Joker Game, Part 2" reveals that Lt. Col. Yuuki's disabled hand was on his left hand, not the right side as previously thought by the public. Sakuma surmises that it was done on purpose in order to avoid Col. Mutou's presence when he spied on him.

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:The Royal Military Police officer in "Robinson" who works for the RMP and for D-Agency after Yuki has him activated. It has some real-life precedence with Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, a New Zealander officer who helped the Japanese by conducting espionage missions on their behalf, which was how they won over the British in the Malayan Peninsula.]]
** [[spoiler:Synthia Grane begins spying for the Germans to get back at Louis [=McCloud=], an SIS spy responsible for the death of her husband.]]

** Private Yoshino visibly reacts at the sight of a dead Chinese civilian after Captain Oikawa's residence is bombed. [[spoiler: That civilian turns out to be a male prostitute who was also Yoshino's lover.]]

** "Asia Express" shows the significance of the Asia Express service throughout Manchuria in the late 30s.

* CityOfSpies: UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} which was known for being [[TruthInTelevision a nest of espionage and betrayal]], is featured in episode 4 where Fukumoto is assigned.

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:The Royal Military Police officer in "Robinson" who works for the RMP and for D-Agency after Yuki has him activated.]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The assassin in Episode 6 is stated to be part of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMERSH SMERSH]]. The only problem is that the episode occurs on July 25, 1939. SMERSH did not exist until 1943.[[note]]Some historical records suggest that SMERSH started to be operational by at least 1942.[[/note]]

* TheStinger: Episode 6 has one [[spoiler: where it seems like the higher ups in the General Staff Headquarters have decided the D Agency isn't useful and they're planning to get rid of it.]]

* TapOnTheHead: Hatano got hit in the head twice in Episode 3. The first one gave him a concussion and temporary amnesia while the second hit miraculously restored his memory. In real life, that second hit could caused further damage to his brain.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Episode 4's viewpoint character is

* TranslationConvention: The American in the first episode speaks English and Japanese because he’s a Japanophile. But whenever a main character goes to a foreign country such as France and England, the people he encountered speak in Japanese ''even among themselves''. While it’s justified for foreign characters like the British Intelligence, the rest such as the French rebels who are commoners and German soldiers who are yelling at them ''in Japanese'' can make viewers scratch their head and stretch the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The assassin in Episode 6 is stated to be part of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMERSH SMERSH]]. The only problem is that the episode occurs on July 25, 1939. SMERSH did not exist until 1943.

* CityOfSpies: UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} which known for being [[TruthInTelevision a nest of espionage and betrayal]], is featured in episode 4 where Fukamoto is assigned.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When John Gordon yells that his residence was previously searched [[spoiler:means that the D Agency knows that the GHQ wants to set the agency up]].

* TitleDrop: Many times. The agency uses a special card game called ''Joker Game'' in order to feed info to their fellow agents and weed out potential traitors/enemy agents/nuisances that they need to get rid of.

->''"There’s a card game going on at the table, but it’s only a charade. The goal is to get people in the room on your side, have them peek at the opponents’ hands, and signal you. However, there’s not telling who’s on whose side. The signs may be fake, or you might read an opponents signs and change your hand. In the right conditions, you can convince the enemy spy to betray his side and join yours."''