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Title: Ready or Not

Music: Bridgit Mendler - Ready or Not

Anime: Joker Game

Why is it good?: A video with an amazing editing and a fun atmosphere. You would never guess which kind of series "Joker Game" is from this kind of video but everything just works so well here that even if it feels like a parallel world it's just perfect.

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Title: Home

Music: Lee So Ra - 집 (Home)

Anime: Joker Game

Why is it good?: This video is amazing. Not only the scenes well match the lyrics and the music but it just manages to hit you with so many feelings! It's just that great, it's worth to watch even if you don't know the anime at all.

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Hi! Recently I has memories of JG from 8 years ago, and I was reviewing all the material from the series again. I remembered something that I haven't found again, and I thought you could help me. On YouTube I got to see "extra" songs from the anime in addition to the opening and ending, I don't know what CD it was from because shortly after they removed it from YT, but I remember it said something like "Magic". Since it was in japanese, I don't know if it was the name of the song, or if it was played by the "Magic of Life" band. Do you know anything about that or I'm confused? Thanks for reading and I'm sorry for my bad english, it's not my first language;;;;

Let's see...

the first thing with Magic that comes to my mind is the ending "Double" sung by "Magic of life"

In the cd single for "Double" there was another song sung by "Magic of Life", "Impression" (インプレッション).

It wasn't used in the anime but since it was in the single for the ending song you might have gotten the feeling it was in the anime.

I couldn't find a strumental track with magic in it.

If it can help I can list the tracks in the main cd

JOKER GAME SOUNDTRACK

Yakudō [躍動 Dynamic]

Senpuku [潜伏 Latent]

Kikan [機関 Agency]

Aitō [哀悼 Apologies]

Kōsoku [拘束 Restraint]

Tansaku [探索 Search]

Eikyō [影響 Impact]

Dasshutsu [脱出 Escape]

Shōbi [焦眉 Emergency]

An'yaku [暗躍 Secret maneuvers]

Yōkō [陽光 Sunshine]

Seion [静穏 Quiet]

Keiryaku [計略 Strategy]

Tsuigeki [追撃 Pursue]

Kansō [歓送 Farewell]

Tekishū [敵襲 Invasion]

Yūki [結城 Yūki]

Tōryaku [韜略 River]

Hichō [飛鳥 Flying bird]

Yogiri [夜霧 Night fog]

Suiri [推理 Reasoning]

Sōgū [遭遇 Encounter]

Gyakusei [虐政 Oppression]

Sakura haru [桜春 Spring of cherry blossoms]

The tracks on the extra cds instead are as follow...

Joker Game Original Soundtrack CD Out of Track vol 1

Sakudō [策動 Planning]

Kikyō [帰郷 Homecoming]

Doppo [独歩 Trip]

Senzai [潜在 Potential]

Kanshi [監視 Monitoring]

Joker Game Original Soundtrack CD Out of Track vol 2

Ka-kyoku [佳局 Good Arrangment]

Shijima [静寂 Silence]

Kaigi [懐疑 Skepticism]

Sensaku [詮索 Inquiry]

Kinan [危難 Danger]

Hifū [悲風 Sorrowful wind]

I don't know if this list of songs can help you remember which song you're searching as none of them has the word "magic" in it.

Still I hope I was of some use.

Joker Game fans should help each other ^_-

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Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, really, thank you. You're the best JG source. Please stay healthy, physically, mentally. I love you

You're welcome! I'm happy I was of some help!

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Aah, I see. I actually wanted to discuss these headcanons with you, who are familiar with the Joker Game, like, do you think the D Agency continued to exist after WWII? Will the agency continue to accept new students? Will Kaminaga teach them, along with othersㅡexcept Amari? Or will the agency close and they return to being ordinary people, working as ordinary people, such as university lecturers or business owners? When do you think the agency will quit operating? Etc, etc. This is just for my fanfic, so I understand if you object. I deeply apologize for the trouble. 😖🙏🏻

It's no trouble at all! Fanfic authors should help each other!

Now... I think since D Agency was based on the real life Nakano school, it likely followed it's fate, especially since D Agency was part of the Japanese Army, Japanese Army which ended up on being disbanded in 1947.

Likely D Agency too ended up on being first having its spies used by the allies then being officially dismantled, at least as an Army spy agency.

Now... Nakano School had over 2500 graduates before it was closed... and in the novel D Agency too has more graduates than our 8 spies, which were merely the first batch it produced (and in the novel it produced 12 of them as a first batch).

It makes sense as Japan likely had more than 8 countries in which he needed to deploy spies so it would be pretty weird for D Agency to stop at 8.

We might headcanon D Agency produced more spies but as war started taking a turn for the worst they were pressured into doing a rushed job so the first 8 are the ones that were above every other batch... which means Yuuki might have wanted to save those spies from being discovered by the allies so they could keep on working for Japan in the shadows.

Hence he goes in hiding and, in a way, his spies go in hiding too, the new agency being no more part of the army and even more secretive than the old one... with Kaminaga as the new boss and, possibly, Sakuma as their official front (kind of like something similar to his role as liaison, a connection between the spies and the government).

And, of course, they'll have to train more people because otherwise they'll end up very understaffed... Amari can still be a spy but since he's in a wheelchair he can't be an action man and Jitsui left with Yuuki so, while he's probably working with him, he's not under Kaminaga either. With Miyoshi being dead, even if one assume Sakuma decided to become a spy now, it's still a very small number of spies, they wouldn't accomplish much.

Or, of course, we can assume our beloved spies stopped being spies... or maybe some of them did and some did not. It can be fun to picture what they would do were they decide to quit being spies!

I'm quite fond of this video which speculates Sakuma had a normal life after the war but the spies are still around even if the building where D Agency was had been destroyed.

I guess it can be up to what you prefer and to how you see the characters. You can make your story as close to real life as you want or part from it drastically. You can even have the spies become spies for another country... or they all die... and maybe reincarnate like in this video.

There's also people who speculated miyoshi survived... and a doujinshi series which claim Miyoshi became a ghost and Sakuma become a spy and took over Miyoshi's spy name (the spies don't use their true names but fictional names so Miyoshi's name isn't really Miyoshi).

I don't know if what I said gave you some useful ideas but I hope so and that you'll write a wonderful fic! Good luck with it!

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Hello, I spotted this picture on your profile. I'm curious how long the D Agency has been open? Who is responsible for teaching there? Did Yuuki and Jitsui die because they shared Miyoshi's position? Thank you!

I think...

my timeline for "Joker Game" might help you.

Anyway D Agency was founded in 1937, autumn. Around that same time Sakuma was ordered to become the liaison but, before going there he had to wait for his hair to grow longer so he went there in 1938 April and witnessed the exams of the various spies until only eight of them remained.

Well, according to the novels from which the anime is based:

"The training in the D-Agency was full of diversity.

For example, the students had been instructed on using explosives and wireless signals, the operation of automobiles and planes, as well as learning various languages and dialects. They had received lectures from professors of renowned universities on organizational theories, religious studies and international political theories. Lessons on medical science, pharmacy, psychology, physics, chemistry and biology were also given.  

Abstruse discussions about ideologists and strategists such as Sun Tzu, Kant, Hegel, Clausewitz, Hobbes, and more that Sakuma hadn’t even heard of, often happened between students. On the other hand, professional thieves and safe-crackers had been brought out of prison to instruct the trainees on the techniques and methods. Aside from being taught on how to pick a lock using a single wire, the students also received lessons on how to secretly switch items by sleight of hand as a magician would, dance and billiards techniques. Kabuki actresses had been hired to teach the students the art of disguise, while professional gigolos demonstrated how to seduce women.

All students had been required to swim in cold water while clothed, then travel to a location far away without sleep, and use complex ciphers, memorized only a day beforehand, fluently and naturally as the languages they usually speak.

The D-Agency had even trained them to be able to disassemble shortwave radios in complete darkness, and put them back together so that they were once again functional, relying solely on their fingertips. The students had also been ordered to seamlessly open envelopes with a bamboo stick, and instantly memorize words which had been written backwards and reflected in a mirror. Letters containing orders, no matter how complicated they are, were to be destroyed on the spot after they had been read; the students had also been trained to recover destroyed letters." [Joker Game Bool 1: "Joker Game" translation courtesy of @imayooshi]

Also Yuuki himself taught to the students as well.

The image you saw is an art from Shiro Miwa, "joker Game" character designer. It reflects his own headcanon about the future of the characters from "Joker Game".

Shiro Miwa said he assumed that, after the war Yuuki forced Kaminaga to take over the organization and disappeared with Jitsui and that Kaminaga kept on receiving instruction from an unknown address. He also said he picked up 1960 because it was a time of major changes in world affairs including the Vietnam war and Kennedy assassination.

Amari apparently ended up on a wheelchair and is being taken care of by Emma.

According to Shiro Miwa the one I speculated is Miyoshi (at the time I didn't have the book with the illustration and so I couldn't read what he wrote as that image was shared by @i-dedicate-this-kill-to-the-fans here) is someone else who got recruited by Yuuki while he was in hiding.

However this is just Shiro Miwa's headcanon. Due to lack of material many fans tend to accept it as canon but it's not really canon and if the series were to be continued in the future things could go differently (especially since Odagiri and, likely, Sakuma were both likely set up to die in war).

I hope this helps! Thanks for your ask!

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Hi, do you have any information on Yuuki profile i.e. intelligence and deduction and manipulation skills?

Hum...

You mean things like these?

No, they were never released so I don't have anything of the sort but Yuuki is clrearly written to max out all the factors as he's some sort of unbeatable super spy that crushes whatever adversary so feel free to give him a top score for everything.

Thank you for your ask!

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Europe, Ebay and VAT

So this is a message for fellow Europeans. You might have noticed that now, when ebay charges you, they also collect the VAT from countries outside Europe.

So far so good, I hated to be charged for them when I were to receive my package, I much prefer to pay them in advance instead than at the postman.

If you add to this that we don't pay custom duties unless we export something whose price is above 150 € it means I can comfortably let someone wait for my package without having to leave money behind because EVERYTHING IS ALREADY PAID.

Problem is... not all the sellers know that:

For shipments arriving at EU Customs where eBay has already collected VAT, we want to ensure that buyers do not get charged with additional VAT by customs.

To avoid additional VAT at the border, sellers must provide eBay’s IOSS # number on the electronic customs declaration. Putting the IOSS # on the label is not enough.

To help our developers with this new challenge we are doing the following actions to help share our eBay IOSS # when we have collected EU VAT on an import.

eBay’s EU IOSS Number is IM2760000742

Those in Italic are information from ebay, not something I wrote on my own.

The result? They don't provide the IOSS when sending the package and you're charged with taxes again.

So beware.

When you buy something from outside Europe you should notice ebay adds to the price the VAT. You can find it in the invoice of the order. You can't be charged of taxes again, at most you can be charged of custom duties if the object you bought was over 150 €.

Because really, arguing with a seller that insists that, despite having been provided documentation you just had to do it, you can't pay taxes twices and that he didn't have to do anything is rather annoying, never mentioning the extra you'll have to pay.

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Do you think there is a slight connection with odagiri and fukumoto with yuuki?

I'm so sorry for the late reply! I completely missed this ask!

As for your question...

it's hard to say.

Although here the three of them are depicted together...

This normally doesn't happen.

We know that Yuuki 'saved' Odagiri when the latter was arrested for 'insubordination' and was likely going to lose his rank and be discharged from the army with dishonor.

Yuuki: Are you the one they called "untrainable?" Any plans for after you quit the army? Odagiri: Good question. Maybe I'll move to Manchuria and become a roving bandit… Yuuki: If you feel up to it, come take my exam.

The novels make clear Yuuki made an exception when he took Odagiri in his agency.

The people D Agency chose were “civilians”. When D Agency had just began, this policy of Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki caused an uproar within the army, but Tobisaki was an exception. Starting at Military Preparatory School, then experiencing Imperial Japanese Army Academy, and finally being appointed as army second lieutenant, he could be considered as a “purebred” army officer. (XX translation by @unnagi)

In the anime it's implied he also sent him to Manchuria because Nogami Yuriko will move there.

In the novel things are different as Nogami Yuriko is the culprit and Odagiri is assigned in noth China.

“Your new place of assignment is Northern China. Apparently you’ll be a First Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki said so half-heartedly. Needlessly to say, Tobisaki already knew the meaning behind his words. D Agency handled confidential matters of the army, including illegal affairs. Naturally, the military couldn’t let someone who “knew too much of the inside story” live on. Tobisaki’s new place of assignment was probably the battlefront that was raining in bullets at this very moment.

— First give him a promotion, then a place to bury him.

This was the cruel “considerate plan” of the army. Tobisaki accepted the transfer order in accordance with the rules, placing it under his arm and turning around, when he was just planning to step out of the room… Someone from the back was calling him by his real name. He turned to look back, only to see Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had stood up from the seat, his right hand in front of his forehead, he was doing a military salute in front of Tobisaki for the first time.

“You cannot die.” (XX translation by @unnagi)

So Yuuki's only kindness is telling him he can't die as a way to encourage him to survive.

As for Fukumoto... we see no interactions between Yuuki and Fukumoto.

The first stage used Fukumoto as kind of Yuuki's secretary if I'm not wrong as he was often the one reporting situations to Yuuki.

I don't know about the second as it was never translated which is too bad.

It's still not much but, I guess, this means fans can interpret things the way they prefer.

Sorry if it's not terribly helpful and thank you for your ask!

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Hi, are there any fukumoto and odagiri interaction? I mean what do this both men view eachother as.

Sorry for the late reply! I completely missed those asks!

Canonically...

...in the anime no, they don't really interact.

They are together in 3 episodes, the two titled "Joker Game" that open the series and the last one "XX (Double Cross)".

In "Joker Game" they don't exchange a word.

They weren't even seated close when they were taking classes.

We merely see them positioned close in some scenes, though there's no interaction between them.

(Note though that before this scene took place Fukumoto was shown talking with Amari, not with Odagiri)

In "XX (Double Cross)" we don't really get an interaction but when Odagiri insists that, according to him, it's unlikely Karl Schneider committed suicide but can't explain what had happened, Fukumoto (along with Amari) volunteers a possible explanation that would support Odagiri's idea Schneider didn't commit suicide:

Amari: This Schneider… He was fluent in English, wasn't he? Tazaki: Is that from him testing the pen? Amari: Maybe. But it also looks like two crosses side by side. Odagiri: In English, "Double Cross" means "to betray." Someone betrayed Schneider… Or he betrayed them. Note that in the episode this is true, Schneider was killed by a spy, while in the novel this is not the case.

Anyway, Odagiri doesn't view Fukumoto as an ally in this episode. In the Odagiri vision Fukumoto looks no better than the other spies.

And when the boys leave the place to do the tasks Yuuki assigned them they all leave smiling in a way that Odagiri clearly doesn't perceive as friendly.

So we can even suppose that Fukumoto had good intentions... but Odagiri missed them.

This is how Odagiri sees the other D Agency boys in canon.

Odagiri: Being completely unencumbered… It requires not believing in anything else in the world… Abandoning trivial things like love and hate, betraying what's in your heart that supports you, and casting it aside. No matter how I tried, I couldn't rid myself of Chizu-nee's memory. No… If I'd abandoned her, I'd no longer be sure of my reason for living. In the end, I'll never be able to become a monster like them.

For "monster" the original Japanese text uses 'Bakemono' (化け物). 'Bakemono' is generally translated as a "monster", but it usually defines monsters who once were humans (or animals or other things) and then turned into ghosts, goblings, strange creatures, apparitions which can be monstrous in nature, the word actually losely meaning "(someone/something) transformed into (that) thing", differently from, let's say, 'kaibutsu' (怪物) which are naturally born monsters.

In short Odagiri isn't saying the spies were born as monsters like that and he wasn't, just that they were capable to turn into something like that and he wasn't.

We've no info on what Fukumoto thinks.

So why people pairs them together?

Skipping personal preference due to extra material mostly which was clearly made to support this.

From "Director Nomura introduction corner" you can see their profiles reference each other:

In the end cards they're shown together and, since who drew them had notes on them that said with whom they got along, you can speculate they get along well.

Fukumoto's profile also says:

Kamoku de kanjō o amari hyō ni dasazu, mukuchina Odagiri to wa kigaaurashī.

寡黙で感情をあまり表に出さず、無口な小田切とは気が合うらしい。

"He is quiet and doesn't show much emotion, and seems to get along well with the taciturn Odagiri."

We also have this card in which they're together...

Illustrations in which they're close...

They also have some minor interactions in the drama cd... though the drama cd are placed in parallel universes and are mostly humorous in nature so I'm not really going to report them, even though they confirm they get along well enough.

Sorry if it's not much but I hope it will be useful!

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That’s fair enough. I can respect that.

Thank you for your understanding.

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Please can you do Random info on the Military Uniforms (陸軍軍服 Rikugun Gunpuku) seen in BSD that the hunting dogs wear?

With BSD, do you mean "Bungō Stray Dogs"?

If that's the case, no, sorry, first of all because this is a "Joker Game" sideblog, second because although I enjoy "Bungō Stray Dogs" at the moment I don't love it to the point to put in it all the work I put to make the post about the uniforms for "Joker Game", which, trust me, was quite a lot.

So I'm sorry but I've to refuse and leave the task to fans of "Bungō Stray Dogs" who're more passionate of the series than me.

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The novel deserves undoubtedly to be read! I so hope it’ll get translated in a language I can understand because the little I managed to read of itis so great and I want MORE!

Heyoo!!!!

I just wanted to leave this here, honestly i jist discovered joker game like not too long ago very recently (big mistake, i should've found this gem earlier) and i've stumbled across your blog while searching for the content, i must say, your dedication is crazy admirable (understatement), like dude i've been scrolling and reading every single post on your blog and i respect so much even tho i don't know you and you don't know me but GOOD GOD!!!!!!!!! great analysis skills btw, and all the important infos and explanation like THANK YOU ANGEL lots of stuff flew over my little dumb small brain (that i have no idea why i thought i'll be smart enough for a spy anime) if it weren't for your posts i would've just stayed an idiot but anywho all i wanted to say was you're great buddy, have a nice day <33

Welcome in the beautiful worrld of "Joker Game" and thank you for enjoying my little blog!

I'm really happy to know there's still someone out there who enjoy what I wrote so longago. JG is and will remain one of my fave series and I can only hope one day there will be a sequel (okay, likely no but one can dream).

Again thank ou so much for enjoying my posts and for letting me know! You made my day!

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hi! i just finished joker game recently. im glad i stumbled into ur blog, it's been really helpful to me (esp the timeline)! glad to know there are fans of jg even though i got into the anime late 💖 ((sorry this isn't a question, i just rly wanted to thank u))

Thank you so much for enjoying my blog! I'm really happy to know it was helpful!

I wrote it so long ago but I'm really happy to know it can still be of use to fans!

Welcome in the JG world!

[jgfiles]

Heyoo!!!!

I just wanted to leave this here, honestly i jist discovered joker game like not too long ago very recently (big mistake, i should've found this gem earlier) and i've stumbled across your blog while searching for the content, i must say, your dedication is crazy admirable (understatement), like dude i've been scrolling and reading every single post on your blog and i respect so much even tho i don't know you and you don't know me but GOOD GOD!!!!!!!!! great analysis skills btw, and all the important infos and explanation like THANK YOU ANGEL lots of stuff flew over my little dumb small brain (that i have no idea why i thought i'll be smart enough for a spy anime) if it weren't for your posts i would've just stayed an idiot but anywho all i wanted to say was you're great buddy, have a nice day <33

Welcome in the beautiful worrld of "Joker Game" and thank you for enjoying my little blog!

I'm really happy to know there's still someone out there who enjoy what I wrote so longago. JG is and will remain one of my fave series and I can only hope one day there will be a sequel (okay, likely no but one can dream).

Again thank ou so much for enjoying my posts and for letting me know! You made my day!

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Hi! I am kind of 6 years late, but your review on episode 11 of Joker Game is brilliantly awesome, thank you so much! I realized I am a huge fan of Bauer and Wolff interaction after I had re-watched the episode for the 4th time and did not mind watching it again (and again) and I was searching for more info (pics, fanfics, anything) about those two and that’s how I found your blog. So, not really a question, just a thank you ^__^

To discover that there are new fans of Joker Game is always a guilty pleasure of mine!

I love this series, as short as it was and I'm always happy when someone else decides to give it love.

Joker Game did a really good work with Bauer and Wolff, didn't it? I love how they managed to depict minor characters in each episode. Although they just appear in one episode they're well fleshed out and interesting.

They really did a great work and I so wish they were to do a second series of this anime...

Hearing you enjoyed my blog makes me happy so thank you for telling me!

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Hi there! After finishing the anime, I was quite curious about the relation of Yuuki and Arisaki Akira. Is Yuuki the real Akira and used another person as a disguise when he left for D Agency, or did he just take a random person to messed Prince around? Was the childhood of Akira really his or the other guy’s? Thanks!

Welcome in the “Joker Game” world then!

In regard to the relation between Yuuki and Arisaki Akira...

Satomura said the real Arisaki Akira is the man we saw at the end, who has been sleeping for 20 years due to having been caught in a German gas bombardment in the Battle of Passchendaele (31 July – 10 November 1917).

According to Satomura, Yuuki told him he had been close friend with Akira so he volunteered to pay for Akira’s medical expenses as long as Satomura weren’t to ask his name and would repeat to whoever were to ask in the future informations about Akira the story we heard through the episode.

Satomura called it Akira’s new past and said he repeated it to himself so much in order to memorize the minute details he can’t distinguish what happened to Akira and what didn’t.

What this tell us?

That some parts of the story we heard really belonged to Arisaki Akira (likely Akira being adopted and him being inscribed to the military school and then being kicked out of it is real for example), while some others were made up.

Can it be that Yuuki was Arisaki Akira and the sleeping man was an unrelated person?

Since Satomura managed to trick Price so well it can be but, honestly, I think it’s unlikely.

Likely that sleeping person is the real Arisaki Akira, who probably was sent back to Japan when WW1 ended (11 November 1918).

Yuuki planned to take his identity when he managed to get back to Japan (we know he escaped from Wolff short before the Kiel mutiny which takes place on 3 November 1918, so he too likely went back home when the war ended and proof is he is still in a poor shape when he and Satomura meet).

Due to Yuuki deciding to steal Arisaki Akira identity, he likely decided to have himself being called ‘Yuuki’, which is nothing else but a fake name same as the ones of the other spies (Miyoshi, Kaminaga, Odagiri and so on are all fake names) so that if one were to investigate on him, they might suspect he was Arisaki Akira and fall into Yuuki’s trap as Price did.

Long story short, while something in the story we were told should belong to Akira, it’s impossible to know what did.

Akira and Yuuki might have been friends, maybe they even were both spies, Yuuki replacing Akira when the latter got wounded... or maybe not.

Maybe Akira really belonged to the MI6 and worked under Captain Mansfield Cumming. Cumming died on 14 June 1923 so it’s not like Price or anyone else can ask him info but, likely, the photo is real.

It’s likely Akira and Yuuki are of around the same age and there was a vague resemblance between them, enough a foreigner might exchange one for another so that if the trick had been explosed much, much earlier (for example when Cumming was still alive since the whole plot was set up so long ago) it would have been still possible to exchange Yuuki for AKira and vice versa.

However it’s all speculations.

Truth is we don’t know what of the story was true, what belonged to Akira, what belonged to Yuuki and what was entirely made up.

The key of the episode is that Price believes he discovered the truth about Yuuki and instead not only he discovered nothing but Yuuki managed to steal from him information about his informants and accomplices... so we’re meant to be left to wonder.

My personal headcanon is that Yuuki and Akira knew each other and were friends like Yuuki said but this is just me. That too could have been a lie.

So sorry, but it’s impossible to say what’s true and what’s not about the story we heard in that episode.

The most we can say is that it seems safe enough to speculate that the sleeping man is the real Arisaki Akira but, I guess, that’s all and even of this we can’t be 100% sure since Satomura might be lying again.

From what I’ve heard not even the novel clear the mystery up so only Yanagi Koji knows what’s true and what’s not and I fear he’ll never reveal it... -_- especially since it’s a while from the last time he wrote D Agency tales... ;_;

So again, sorry if I couldn’t be of some help but really, it’s a mystery. Thank you fro your ask!