#Joker Game D no Maou

[jgfiles]

Miyoshi/Maki Katsuhiko’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

Miyoshi/Maki Katsuhiko’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

(Tentative version as no translation for ‘Coffin’ or ‘Valkyrie’ novel version had been released)

Spy Surname: Miyoshi - 三好（みよし） Spy Name: Unknown Real name: Unknown Rank: Army Second Lieutenant (陸軍少尉 - Rikugun-Shōi) (According to the novel) Role at D Agency: Spy (スパイ) Direct superior officer: Lieutenant Colonel Yūki (結城中佐 Yūki-Chūsa) Affiliation: D Agency (Ｄ機関 D Kikan) Height: Unknown (168 cm according to the Anime) Age: Unknown Impersonates: Military Police Sergeant Major (憲兵曹長- Kenpei- Sōchō), Maki Katsuhiko (真木 克彦) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム Joker Game) , Vol. 2 Chapter 4 “Coffin” (柩 Hitsugi), Vol 4 Chapter 1 “Valkyrie” (ワルキューレ Valkyrie) D no Maō manga: Vol 1 chap 1-5 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム Joker Game) Anime: Ep 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム Joker Game) , EP 11 “Coffin” (柩 Hitsugi), EP 12 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス XX Double Cross), OAV “Adventure of Black Cat Yoru” (黒猫ヨルの冒険 Kuroneko Yoru no Bōken) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム Joker Game), 6 “City of Temptation” (魔都 Mato), 9 “Robinson” (ロビンソン Robinson), 18 “Pursuit” (追跡 Tsuiseki), 20, 21 “Coffin” (柩 Hitsugi), 22, 23 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス XX Double Cross) Drama cd: “Joker Game” Drama CD Metropolitan Police Department D Section Investigation Files (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 警視庁D課捜査ファイル “Joker Game” Drama CD Keishichō D-ka sōsa files), “Joker Game” Drama CD Go For It! Year 2 Class D Sakuma Sensei (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD それいけ！2年D組佐久間先生 “Joker Game” Drama CD Sore ike! 2-Nen D-gumi Sakuma sensei ), “Joker Game” Drama CD Return! Year 2 Class D Sakuma Sensei (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 帰ってきた！　二年Ｄ組佐久間先生 “Joker Game” Drama CD Kaettekita! 2-Nen D-gumi Sakuma sensei), “Joker Game” Drama CD Parody Box Full of What Ifs (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 〝もしも″だらけのパロディＢＯＸ “Joker Game” Drama CD “Moshimo″ darake no parody box) Voice Actor: Shimono Hiro - 下野 紘（しもの ひろ） Stage project actor: Suzuki Shōgo - 鈴木 勝吾（すずき しょうご）

Brief introduction

In the novel Miyoshi is one of the twelve (twelve, not eight as in the anime) D Agency students belonging to the first batch of trainees, who took part to the search in Gordon’s house. The same goes for the D no Maō manga.

The anime though (and, as a consequence of this, the ‘Joker Game The Animation’ Manga) decided that Miyoshi is also Maki Katsuhiko, the spy who appears in the novel chapter ‘Coffin’ giving him his backstory. ‘Coffin’ isn’t transposed in the D no Maō manga therefore Maki Katsuhiko doesn’t show up in it. As for the novel… nowhere it’s said if the two are the same person. Might be, might be not.

In regard to the novel though it’s worth to mention that Maki made a cameo in “Valkyrie”.

As ‘Coffin’ isn’t translated yet, I’ve no idea if it added relevant info about Maki Katsuhiko’s backstory and therefore I will go with the anime version of it.

In the anime they also had Miyoshi play the role of one of the students of D Agency during the ‘XX Double Cross’ story. There’s to point out though that in both the novel and anime the students involved in that case have different names (and, in D no Maō manga also different looks).

Miyoshi is one of the students scouted by Yūki, who passed the selection and enters in his spy school. His real name isn’t Miyoshi, Miyoshi is just the surname given to him when he became a student in D Agency.

During his training his views clashes with Sakuma and, when he’s put in charge of the Gordon’s case he requests for Sakuma to take part to the mission as well, demanding he’ll play the role of the captain of the fake military police squad Miyoshi and the other students will be impersonating. Sakuma agrees and Miyoshi, in order to get inside Gordon’s house smoothly, promises Gordon Sakuma will commit suicide if they find nothing. Miyoshi had already figured where the cipher was but pretends he and the others can’t find it, believing Sakuma, put in such situation, will not have the guts to commit suicide as he previously declared he would. Sakuma instead, not only prepares himself to do so but, moments before doing it, figures where was the cipher. All this impresses positively Miyoshi.

Later he graduates from D Agency and he’s sent in Germany under the identity of Maki Katsuhiko.

He spends quite a long while in Germany, also interacting/cooperating with the Japanese Navy spy Yukimura Kōichi then, after handing the information he has collected to Yuuki while the man was on Krun, he boards a train for Berlin and dies in a train crash. Firmly believing Maki was a spy, in attempt to capture Yuuki, Hermann Wolff keeps Maki’s body under surveillance but fails as Yuuki manages to retrieve the list Maki had hidden in his collar and warn all the men in Maki’s spy net before leaving. Understanding he was beaten Wolff has Maki be buried, apparently as a nameless person.

In the movie Miyoshi is a spy who claims to have a poor, sick mother whom he loves very much and who argues with another spy named Katō during their training, pulls out a gun and attempts to kill him and for this is expelled by D Agency. He then accepts money from Colonel Takeno Gentarō in exchange from info about D Agency. However by the end it turns out it was all Yūki’s plan. Miyoshi was never expelled but purposely caused an incident so it would look like that. In this way he could be contacted by Colonel Takeno and, by pretending to give him info, he had the excuse to actually record his treacherous words. He later goes retrieve Katō and hands him the details of his new mission. It seems the story about his mother is fake as well as he claims he was born in Paris and raised in Venice and was so rich he hated his parents.

Personality

He’s a cynical narcissist who looks down on everyone, tends to act in a refined manner and do exaggerate poses. He likes to volunteer to take command of the other spies and to test/prank Sakuma. Through he dislikes Sakuma’s worldview he seems to be also amused by it, apparently not believing Sakuma to be capable to go through it. It’s worth to note that Miyoshi’s ‘pranks’ are well over the top though as he let Sakuma believe he would be forced to commit hara-kiri. Miyoshi’s always very confident, can remain calm in the worst situations and analyze them accurately, he’s not shy to tell unpleasant truths but he can admit when he was wrong.

Physical appearance

According to the novel Miyoshi’s complexion was pale, with lips far too red for a man.

Maki Katsuhiko, both in the novel and in the anime is defined by Johan Bauer as a beautiful man.

In the D no Maō manga Miyoshi seems young, he’s not tall or broad built, he has blond hair and dark eyes and he’s pretty handsome.

In the anime Miwa Shiro said when he drew his eyes, he imagined a wild cat beast or bird of prey.

He’s not tall (though his height was around average at that time) with brown hair and brown eyes. When in D Agency Miyoshi wears a reddish brown three piece suit with a belt. In his mission in Germany he switches to grey pants, white shirt and grey blue jacket with his collar untied.

In the Stage Project he still seems to wear a three piece suit.

In the movie he’s a black haired man with dark eyes. He’s not short, likes to dress elegant and always have a pocket watch inside which he holds a photo of himself and his mother or so he says.

Relationships

Mutō

The two never interacted but we know that Mutō finds D Agency a thorn to his side and sent Sakuma there in the hope one of Yūki’s students would make a mistake that would allow him to close the place. Miyoshi though is clearly amused at the idea Mutō will be shocked after hearing Sakuma’s report on the Gordon’s case and the same might apply to the other spies.

Yūki

In the novel it’s unclear if Miyoshi is also Maki Katsuhiko. He might be, he might be not. Miyoshi trained under Yūki . When Sakuma caught the D Agency students discussing the Tennosei system and got angry it was Miyoshi who explained the situation to Yūki. Yūki will then ask Miyoshi’s opinion on Sakuma’s beliefs, which Miyoshi will judge as not destined to last. Yūki then will assign Miyoshi to lead the mission at Gordon’s house. Later Miyoshi will let Yūki know he was impressed by the fact Sakuma was ready to cut his stomach open.

Yūki will also assign to Maki Katsuhiko his mission in Germany and will meet him in Krun to retrieve the information he collected. After Maki Katsuhiko will die Yūki will show up in the hospital in which his corpse was kept, close his still opened eyes and then retrieve the list with the names of the members of Maki’s spy network.

In the anime when Yūki will complain about Yoru’s presence in the agency Miyoshi will volunteer to chase him out.

Sakuma

There’s not a lot of interaction between the two in Novel as in it we can only see they that, at first they just seem to disapprove each other.

In Novel Miyoshi is present when the Tennosei system is being discussed, explains what’s going on to Sakuma and he’s clearly disgusted by his reaction.

D no Maō has instead Miyoshi showing Sakuma around (in D no Maō Sakuma joined D Agency after Miyoshi has basically completed his training), making fun of him by implying that Yūki might be interested in molesting him, warning him he shouldn’t trust anyone in there, trying to get him to play pool (and showing off his ability to him), inviting him to take part to a game of poker to later explain him they had been cheating. Sakuma is clearly annoyed by Miyoshi’s lack of respect for him (he’s higher in ranking than Miyoshi) and behaviour and is particularly upset by Miyoshi’s insistence that people shouldn’t be trust, to the point this sets him against D Agency.

The Anime goes for a different approach, by having Miyoshi being the one who invites Sakuma to go with the rest of them to have fun in the city in the evening, which Sakuma declines (which seems somewhat a recurring invitation) and asking him to play card with them. Later Miyoshi will wave away Sakuma’s belief as mere Tautology.

In all the versions it’s Miyoshi that asks for Sakuma to pretend to be the leader of the group of students that will go to Gordon’s house dressed up as Military Police.

The Joker Game The Animation explains this as Miyoshi wanting to have fun at Sakuma’s expenses.

In all the media it’s always Miyoshi the one who claims Sakuma will cut his belly if they find nothing in Gordon’s house.

Novels and manga version differ from what happens afterward. In Novel Miyoshi’s smile tips Sakuma of on what’s going on, so he figures were the cipher is hidden. In the D no Maō’s manga Miyoshi kicks away Sakuma’s sword when he’s about to kill himself and encourages him to think to another place in which they should search, prompting Sakuma to realize where the cipher was hidden. In the Anime Sakuma’s realizes where the cipher is by remembering Yūki AND Miyoshi’s words.

While it’s common in all the media that Miyoshi was impressed by Sakuma, who was willing to cut his stomach and who has managed to figure things out, in Novel they won’t have any further interaction.

In D no Maō, they’ll meet again after Sakuma had gone to Hanabishi, talk things through and while Sakuma claims he still doesn’t approve of D Agency’s methods he thanks Miyoshi for teaching him to think at things with his own head, while Miyoshi military salutes him back, showing him he respects him.

In the Anime instead Sakuma will meet Miyoshi AFTER he reported to Yūki . While Sakuma believes Miyoshi is there to make fun of him, Miyoshi reveals he actually has changed his opinion about Sakuma and will again invite him to go with them in the town. Although Sakuma refuses again the two seem to have reached a mutual understanding of some sort.

Kaminaga

In the novel the only ‘interactions’ between Miyoshi and Kaminaga imply the two trained together, took part to the Joker Game together, were both questioned by Yūki in regard to Sakuma’s words and both took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

In D no Maō Miyoshi is the one who tells Sakuma that Kaminaga was pecking at his cards and signalling them to the others.

In the anime Miyoshi and Kaminaga trained together and, with the other members, went out in the evening. They took part to the Joker Game together, were both questioned by Yūki in regard to Sakuma’s words and both took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

The manga shows them playing billiard together and, when Kaminaga is under the effect of the truth serum, it’s Miyoshi who has to punch and question him. It also shows Kaminaga watching while Miyoshi and Hatano play shogi together.

In the preview for Ep 11 Miyoshi is looking at an art book when Kaminaga joins him and sees he’s watching a painting of Millais, ‘Ophelia’. Miyoshi asks him if he thinks the Ophelia in the painting is alive or dead.

In one of the cards, since Miyoshi complained about his bangs, Kaminaga suggested him to cut his hair, to which Miyoshi replied Kaminaga can’t possibly understand.

In the Live Action Movie Kaminaga is there when Yūki will pretend to expel Miyoshi from D Agency.

Hatano

Miyoshi’s interaction with Hatano is extremely small.

In the novel they’re merely two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

In the anime Hatano teased Miyoshi when Miyoshi forbid Fukumoto from feeding Yoru, claiming Miyoshi was feeling adversion for his own kind, to which Miyoshi answered glaring at him.

In the manga, when Miyoshi explained he asked Sakuma to play the role of the Military Police captain, Hatano commented on how Miyoshi was having fun and a vulgar taste but that the whole thing would be entertaining.

In another scene we see him and Miyoshi in the D Agency library talking about the nutcracker tale and about mice in folk tales.

In a manga cover we see Miyoshi and Hatano playing Shoji together, both of them smoking.

Amari

Miyoshi’s interaction with Amari is extremely small.

In the novel they’re merely two D Agency students who trained at the same time. It’s unknown if Amari also took part to the mission at Gordon’s house as Miyoshi did.

In D no Maō Amari isn’t mentioned as one of the spies. It might be he’s one, it might be he’s not.

In the anime also there’s little interaction between them two, making them two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the Joker Game and to the mission at Gordon’s house.

There’s vaguely more in the manga, where we’ve a scene in which Miyoshi explains the other spies the mission to Gordon’s house and Amari asks him if Sakuma’s involvement in it was also due to Yūki’s orders and Miyoshi will reply that’s not the case as it was just him asking a favour.

Also, in one of the manga covers, Amari is shown watching Miyoshi and Hatano playing shoji.

Jitsui

Miyoshi and Jitsui’s interactions are extremely small.

In the novel they’re merely two D Agency students who trained at the same time. It’s unknown if Jitsui also took part to the mission at Gordon’s house as Miyoshi did.

In the anime also there’s little interaction between them two, making them two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the Joker Game and to the mission at Gordon’s house.

In a card set Miyoshi and Jitsui talk about blossoming flowers (sakura and ume) and agree to come drinking under the sakura with the others only if Kaminaga and Amari promise they wouldn’t get drunk.

In the Live Action Movie Miyoshi and Jitsui (along with Odagiri and Katō) cooperate to retrieve the Black Note, though Miyoshi had a rather different task from Jitsui and the two meet up only at the end where Miyoshi will hand him his next assignment.

Tazaki

There’s no character named Tazaki in the novel. Although there’s a character named Seto Reiji there’s no known interaction between him and Miyoshi.

Characters named Tazaki or Seto Reiji don’t appear in the D no Maō manga.

In the anime, during the Joker Game Tazaki is slightly behind Miyoshi and Jitsui, so it can be he’s the one signaling their cards to the others.

In the manga Tazaki and Miyoshi talks briefly before Miyoshi will tell the others about the mission to Gordon’s house. In fact, Miyoshi finds Tazaki talking with the others about a song. He recognizes the song and therefore asks Tazaki if the song is “The demon king”. Tazaki confirms it.

Fukumoto

In the novel and D no Maō manga there’s not a spy named Fukumoto. There’s a spy though who will play the role of Shiozuka Hajime and of Kusanagi Yukihito but it’s unknown if that spy ever interacted with Miyoshi or Maki Katsuhiko.

In the anime we see the two vaguely interact only in the OAV. When Fukumoto will feed Yoru, Miyoshi will tell him not to, to which Fukumoto will agree. When Fukumoto will leave D Agency and look around for Yoru Miyoshi will again tell him not to feed Yoru, to which Fukumoto will again agree.

Odagiri

There’s no known interaction between Miyoshi and Odagiri in the novel beyond that they’re both D Agency students and Odagiri likely took also part to the raid at Gordon’s house in which Miyoshi played the role of interpreter.

A character named Odagiri doesn’t appear in the D no Maō manga and the spy taking the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki, as far as we know, doesn’t interact with Miyoshi and, although they are both trained at D Agency, Miyoshi likely completed his training way before Tobisaki Hiroyuki joined D Agency.

In the anime in Ep 1 Odagiri, Miyoshi, Kaminaga Jitsui and Amari play poker (or the Joker Game) until Odagiri surrenders.

Miyoshi was also likely one of the spies who used Odagiri’s signals to beat Sakuma at poker. As it’s Miyoshi the one who invited Sakuma to play poker with them, it’s possible Miyoshi went so far as to stage up the whole thing, giving Odagiri the role of spying Sakuma by making it look like Odagiri was leaving the game because he lost one of too many times.

In the Joker Game The Animation Manga, when Miyoshi informed the others he had Sakuma agree to be the captain of their fake Military Police team when they would inspect Gordon’s house, Odagiri looked none too pleased.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 4, when Miyoshi and Hatano are talking about rats playing the antagonist in western fairy tales, Odagiri surprised them by mentioning Japanese fairy tales involving rats (which apparently aren’t evil). When Miyoshi asks him if he’s implying Japanese rats are different Odagiri says he’s fine with them widening their insight from books but dinner time is up and they should hurry and come because if their meal will get cold Fukumoto will make a fuss.

In Ep 12 Miyoshi demands Odagiri to explain Schneider’s suicide note, since it seems Odagiri is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed.

Miyoshi is later tasked to investigate the latest developments at the German and Soviet embassies and, reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri. In his report he says nothing unusual had happened at the German and Soviet embassies, but someone new might have taken over Schneider’s spy network. Odagiri, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this and, being confused by this and by all the others who had reported to him, gripped Miyoshi’s shoulder, stopping him from leaving and forcefully turning him toward himself and demanded to know why he was reporting this to him.

Miyoshi is first confused by Odagiri’s question then irritated, pushes away the other’s arm and inform him this is his (graduation) case before leaving. Odagiri is very surprised by this.

Successively the two meet at the theatre, after Nogami Yuriko’s performance. Miyoshi comments (looking pleased) that she wasn’t the murderer in the Schneider case to which Odagiri agrees, claiming her tears couldn’t be faked before asking Miyoshi what he discovered about Schneider’s accomplices. Miyoshi will report Odagiri’s theory was right and that by tailing the man removing the flowers from the theatre he discovered the guy stopped to a florist that doubles as a secret post for Soviet spies to exchange intel who communicate among them using a flower called chamomile. Miyoshi also discovered that two Soviet spies contacted Schneider, one was the florist who collected the flowers the other was Yasuhara Miyoko.

Miyoshi then asks Odagiri what tipped him off and Odagiri replies it was simple as he connected the scent in Schneider’s apartment with the one of the flowers delivered to Yasuhara Miyoko, which, to him, hinted to another connection between the two of them. Odagiri then proceeded to explain Schneider likely planned to become a triple spy and pass information to the British so the Soviets set up his assassination as well as the whole plan for the assassination. Though his explanation Miyoshi smiles and asks up how Yasuhara Miyoko got the note written by Schneider and Odagiri explains this as well.

In the Live Action Movie Miyoshi and Odagiri (along with Jitsui and Katō) cooperate to retrieve the Black Note, though Miyoshi had a rather different task from Odagiri and the two meet up only at the end where Miyoshi will hand him his next assignment.

John Gordon

John Gordon is merely the target of D Agency’s investigation. Miyoshi faked being an interpreter, promising him that Sakuma will do Harakiri if they were to inspect his house and find nothing (the same happens in the novel and in D no Maō).

Hermann Wolff

It’s unknown if the two ever interacted or met prior to Miyoshi’s death under the alias of Maki Katsuhiko. Maybe not as Wolff couldn’t recognize him from the photos, although it seems Wolff knew about his name. Miyoshi probably knew about him as well.

Anyway, after Miyoshi died, Wolff persuaded himself he was a spy and will do all he could to catch his accomplices, by checking his house and putting his corpse under surveillance. He however will fail to figure Miyoshi still had on him the list of his accomplices and, when he’ll understand it, it’ll be too late and the list will be already in Yūki’s hands. Wolff will then allow Miyoshi’s burial and will witness to it from afar just to make sure Yūki won’t show up. He will acknowledge that, since Miyoshi managed to pass the info he collected to Yūki, although he died, his information will manage to survive.

Johann Bauer

Johann Bauer investigates about his life, or better about Maki Katsuhiko’s life (Maki being the fake identity Miyoshi took) after Miyoshi died, then, had him moved in a single room at the hospital and put him under surveillance. It seems he was impressed by how, despite being dead, Miyoshi still looked handsome.

Otto Frank

Otto Frank finds Miyoshi’s corpse and steal from him his wallet and his matches, thinking it’s not a big deal since Miyoshi isn’t German. This however will cause Hermann Wolff to get interested in the whole thing, placing the list Miyoshi was carrying at risk to be found by Hermann Wolff.

Takeno Gentarō

Takeno tries to use Miyoshi as a spy after the latter has supposedly been expelled by D Agency. When Miyoshi asks what he and his men want from him and he asks about where the plans are. Miyoshi thought doesn’t reply but points out he has a sick mother. Then, while Miyoshi is still there, Takeno later will order his men to kill Graham and retrieve the note even though his superior officers are against this, accusing his superior officers to be cowards, unaware that Miyoshi is recording his words and he’s still working for Yūki, the incident with the gun and his banishment from D Agency merely a mummery.

Īzuka Kazushi

As per Takeno’s orders Īzuka tries to use Miyoshi as a spy after the latter has supposedly been expelled by D Agency. After Miyoshi claims he was betrayed by Yūki, Īzuka encourages him not to be so formal, claiming they’re on his side. At this Miyoshi asks him what they want from him.

Yajima Yasuo

As per Takeno’s orders Yajima tries to use Miyoshi as a spy after the latter has supposedly been expelled by D Agency. Yajima tells Miyoshi they heard he was banished after the shooting incident and asks him if it’s true. Miyoshi confirms and tells him he was betrayed by Yūki. Then, when Miyoshi implies he would be willing to exchange info with money he assures him he’ll have the money if he tells them what he knows. At this Miyoshi tells them the on-site British Intelligence caught wind of what was going on and plans to take the Black Note from Graham.

Katō Jirō

Miyoshi seems to amuse himself by picking up on Katō Jirō, calling him Gunjin-kun (軍人君 “Young soldier”) and criticizing him harshly although Katō seems to be a better fighter than him. Miyoshi still riles Katō up claiming the soldier Katō helped will be killed at the frontlines and that Katō feels all alone, so that the latter attacks and defeats him, taking his pocket watch and accusing Miyoshi to be too attached to his mother as well as he keeps a photo of her in it. At this Miyoshi attempts to shoot at him and is expelled by D Agency. At this Katō feels sorry for him and returns his watch. It turns out though that the whole thing was staged so Miyoshi never attempted to kill Katō for real, nor he has a poor mother.

Rin/Ono Mariko

The two don’t interact much. When Miyoshi goes to retrieve Katō Jirō, he also picks up Rin, who was with Katō, calling her Ohime-sama (お姫様 “princess”).

Abilities

In EP. 12 it’s implied Miyoshi, in order to follow a Russian spy, drove a car.

the novel says he’s an extremely fast readers. Art for the anime seem to imply he’s well versed with guns and the opening shows him as being good at hand to hand fights.

Trivia

Itazu Yoshimi, the author of the end cards, said that when instructed to draw the end cards he was told to “Draw the spies in their daily lives that aren’t seen in the main animation” and that Director Nomura gave him information on the character’s personality and whom they get along with. In his end cards we see Miyoshi in the Ginza Lion Beer Hall with Amari, Kaminaga and Jitsui, at the Shinjuku Teitoza with Amari and Fukumoto, in Nihonbashi with Jitsui and at Hibiya Park with Gamo though Itazu Yoshimi explained that would have been an incidental meeting. The last card he drew is a ‘group picture’ of some sort as all the spies, Yūki included, are in them. Miyoshi is drawn more frequently with Amari (3 times) and Jitsui (3 times), second comes Kaminaga and Fukumoto (2 times). It’s worth to note that he’s drawn with Odagiri, Tazaki and Hatano only in the last end card (the one with the group picture). Miyoshi is also drawn once alone (well, he’s technically with Gamo but the two aren’t together). While this is no proof, we can speculate Miyoshi, was meant to better get along with Amari and Jitsui (and possibly Kaminaga and Fukumoto) and had the worst compatibility with Odagiri, Tazaki and Hatano and that he wasn’t really a group person.

In EP 1 and 12 Miyoshi is shown smoking a cigarette. In Joker Game the Animation Manga he’s also the one who offers a cigarette to Sakuma.

In an interview to the voice actors it was said there could be quite an age difference between Miyoshi and Sakuma. Sakuma should be around 28. It's however hard to say which age Miyoshi is. When he died in 1940 we were told Maki Katsuhiko was 28 year old but, well, that might have not been Miyoshi’s real age. We know he's not a career soldier hence he was recruited either while he was at university or in his conscription time. Well... the novel says the spies seemed to be all university graduates so I'll assume they picked up people who graduated or were about to graduate... and during that time you'll graduate at 24. Of course it’s possible that they picked Miyoshi up not while he was an university student but while he was forced to go through his conscription time. Conscription time started at 17. Some could postpone their service (although it was very difficult), but only those seriously disabled and certain criminals were exempted by law. The 20-year-olds were examined yearly and classified according to fitness for service. From those fit for active service, the desired number was inducted into the Army and given 2 years' training. All others were put into a reserve designed for furnishing replacements and given a small amount of training. Those classified as fit for limited service were given no training but were put into the 2d National Army, where they, as well as the boys between 17 and 20 years of age, were liable to call in case of emergency. Under the stress of war, many modifications have occurred. The term of enlistment has been prolonged to 3 years and more, depending upon the circumstances. Instead if he got the chance to go to university and was hired before being conscripted... well, that one lasted 3 years so the youngest he could be was 21 if he was picked really at the start of it. Again though in the novel Sakuma talks of the students as university students so, although Sakuma could be wrong, I'll discharge the idea Miyoshi was picked up before attending to it. All this to say... Miyoshi is probably more than 21 in 1938 when he joins D Agency but that’s hard to be more precise.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

You said that Joker Game was one of your favorite anime in one of your posts so I was intrigued and watched it, I only watched season 1 so I wanted to know how I should continue it since there is no season 2. Nevertheless, I really liked it so I wanted to thank you for the recommendation ! I also wanted to ask what are in your opinion the best qualities of this work and if you sometimes relate it to GK characters like Tsurumi, Kikuta or even Ogata ?

Welcome in the Joker Game fandom! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I will never stop recommenting this series, it's awesome!

Sadly there's no season 2 yet, even if there are still some stories who could be animated.

"Joker Game" stories are based on a series of 4 books.

Among the tales that weren't transposed yet we have "Lord of flies", "French Indochina Operation", "Black bird", "Sleeper", "Paradise Lost", "Night dance", "Pandora" and "Valkyrie".

Yes, it would make an 8 episodes second season but nothing should stop them from making 2 episodes out of a tale.

So far though, although Production I.G. occasionally release new gadgets, they hadn't released yet info about a new series.

If it can be of some comfort two stage version were released and they aren't bad. If you search around you might find the first is subtitled. A good reading can also be the manga "D No Maou" an earlier than the anime manga transposition of the first Joker Game book. there's also a manga transposition of the anime. The art isn't great but there are extra scenes.

There's also a live action movie done earlier than the anime and that only vaguely take inspiration from the books but, to me, it's pretty inferior compared to the anime.

I love GK because it's an history based manga with a solid and well structured plot and a well thought characterization, more similar to a book than a manga, with strong themes and an adult look.

As for relating with the characters... my life and their own are very different. I'm not a war veteran living in Meiji Japan and their stories are quite strong and not so much common.

Nowadays not many gets abandoned by their father and, as a child, forced to watch as their mother goes insane, nor tell your brother to join the army to avoid starvation nor cause their wife and daughter's death by doing dangerous spywork.

It's more like I empathize with their sad situations because, when we break them down into simpler ones, they become relatable.

It's not so uncommon to experience neglect, favouritism, watching someone falls ill, or lose their mind due to old age, give a suggestion in perfectly good faith that ends up making more harm than good or do something else that ends up hurting someone we care about.

So you might say that's my way to relate to them, if it makes sense.

Thank you for your ask!

[kawaiinohime]

29

29. anime that deserves another season

Let it be known that I can’t almost never answer with just one!!

Here it goes, another list:

Akatsuki no Yona

Ao Haru Ride

Aoharu x Kikanjuu

Barakamon

Blood Lad

D-Frag!

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

Drifters

Gangsta.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Handa-kun

Hataraku Maou-sama!

Joker Game

Karneval

Kuragehime

Nijiiro Days

Sakamoto Desu ga?

Sekkou Boys

Servamp

Servant x Service

Shirobako

Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge

Tokyo ESP

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

Watashi ga Motete Dousunda

World Trigger

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

Youjo Senki

(Again, I’m sorry for the long list!!!)

Anime asks because why not

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

Happy Birthday Takahiro Sakurai (June 13)

It’s his 45th birthday today! With the number of roles he has, you would never suspect that he had quite the bump in his career. He has over 300 anime roles alone! And he frequently gets more every season! He’s regarded as being in the top ten male seiyuu. He actually doesn’t need glasses despite his default appearance. He was told by his former agency 81 Produce to wear them because of his scary face. Since then, he joined Kenichi Suzumura’s Agency INTENTION. Apparently, he may or may not be married.

You can read his full biography here

Here are my top five roles for him

My full role compilation is below! Song Recommendations and Video Recommendations will be at the very bottom!

Yuu Tosaki - Ajin

Atsumu Matsuyuki (Yukiatsu) - Anohana

Suzaku Kururugi - Code Geass

Haseo - .hack//

Osomatsu Matsuno - Osomatsu-san

Meme Oshino - Bakemonogatari

Griffith - Berserk

Izuru Kira - Bleach

Francis Scott Fitzgerald - Bungou Stray Dogs

Yuu Kanda - D. Gray-man

Leon Kuwata - Danganronpa

Claude Faustus - Black Butler

Helper T Cell - Hataraku Saibou

Takashi Kamiyama - Cromartie High School

Ruki Mukami - Diabolik Lovers

Satoshi Isshiki - Food Wars

Ayame Souma - Fruits Basket (2019)

Marco Adriano - Gangsta

Kazuya Miyuki - Diamond no Ace

Tentomon and various other characters - Digimon Adventure

Youichi Fujitani - Dive!!

Sting Eucliffe - Fairy Tail

Cloud Strife - Final Fantasy

Inugami - Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Noboru Taki - Hibike Euphonium

Tazaki - Joker Game

Misaki Takahashi - Junjou Romantica

Izumo Kusanagi - K

Giyuu Tomioka - Kimetsu no Yaiba

Yuuri Shibuya - Kyou Kara Maou!

Sasori - Naruto: Shippuden

Yuuta Sakurai - Net-juu no Susume

Rui Sagisawa - Mil Admirari no Tenbin

Rabou - Noragami

Kei Agemaki - Otome Youkai Zakuro

Ferid Bathory - Owari no Seraph

Vlad Garfunkel - Phantom in the Twilight

Fakir - Princess Tutu

Shirokuma - Shirokuma Cafe

Yamato Kurosawa - Sukitte Ii na yo.

Charles de Loire - Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

Uta - Tokyo Ghoul

Luka Crosszeria - Uragiri wa Boku no Namae Shitteiru

Shito Tachibana - Zombie-Loan

Shougo Makishima and Shou Hinakawa - Psycho-Pass

Zombieman - One Punch Man

Kyouya Sata - Ookama Shoujo to Kuro Ouji

Jafar - Magi

Rohan Kishibe - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable

Akiteru Tsukishima - Haikyuu!!

Arataka Reigen - Mob Psycho 100

Song and Video Recommendations:

Here are some Song Recommendations:

Be All Right

Shiro to Kuro

When You Wish Upon a Star

Now for the videos!

Additional Videos:

Sakurai talks about recording BSD

Sakurai Takahiro's Pick Up Line

Masaya Onosaka “kisses” Sakurai

Secret Base - 君がくれたもの (kimi ga kureta mono) - LIVE sang by cast @ AnoHana Fes + ending

Osomatsu Compilations: Laugh + Outburst

Role Compilation

Kenichi Suzumura and Takahiro Sakurai talk about their relationship

[AUDIO] Reigen’s laugh

Sakurai Takahiro imitates Kaji Yuki

I highly recommend the Magi Seiyuu events as well, but since he wasn’t the main focus of those, I decided not to link them.

[alishuuwu]

Links

#-D

91 days

all out!!

banana fish

barakamon

boku no hero academia

bungou stray dogs

carole & tuesday

cheer danshi!!

clamp

dakaretai otoko 1-i ni odosarete imasu

dororo

double decker! doug and kirill

doukyonin wa hiza, tokidoki, atama no ue

doukyuusei

di wang gong lue

F-H

free!

fukigen na mononokean

fukigen na mononokean tsuzuki

gakuen babysitters

gakuen basara

gangsta

getbackers

haikyuu!!

hakkenden

honda-san

hora, mimi ga mieteru yo!

I-P

jingai-san no yome

joker game

k-project

karneval

kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru

kekkai sensen

kimetsu no yaiba

kimi no na wa

kimi to boku

kuroshitsuji

kyou kara maou

love stage!!

makai ouji

mayonaka no occult koumuin

mo dao zu shi

mob psycho 100

namu amida butsu!: rendai utena

naruto

natsume yuujinchou

no. 6

one punch man

ookiku furikabutte

ore monogatari

osomatsu-san

ouran high school host club

oushitsu kyoushi haine

owari no seraph

ping pong the animation

poco’s udon world

prince of stride

robihachi

S-Z

saiyuki

sanrio boys

sarazanmai

sekaiichi hatsukoi

servamp

sirius the jaeger

spiritpact

studio ghibli

tanaka-kun wa itsumo kedaruge

the garden of words

tight rope

touken ranbu

tsurune

uraboku

vassalord

wotakoi

yami no matsuei

yuri!!! on ice

yu yu hakusho

[lookslikerainydays]

Updates

Firstly, the Joker Game manga updates:

I’m finally back from my hiatus and have started working on the manga again. Joker Game chapter 12 should be up by the next day and following that a two chapter update for the D No Maou manga to make up for the lack of updates.

~Now, here’s a tiny update with the Joker Game project:

Having my finals (guess who’s finally done with her finals btw and just got her results)  stopped me from working on this game and I’ll be going back to working on it sometime in the next few days. But working on it brought me to tears as I had nearly lost all of my work but then I found an old copy I had saved before switching the programs so nothing was lost and I can’t begin to describe the happiness I got when I realised nothing was lost. Anyway, here’s a tiny screencap: 

(Kaminaga’s sprite was done by the wonderful @jlin-yukarin ♡ )

This is just a preview and I’m still working on the very first scene of the game so this preview, say for example the textbooks and fonts, are going to be different from the final version.

Anyway, would you please reblog this so more people can know about this project and we can have more artists taking part in this? There are still two more spots open for the characters and if I get responses from more than two, I can add additional characters that I’ve kept aside for now but would be a nice addition to the game if we were to get more people involved.

Now, for all the artists that have taken part already:

I’ve just checked tumblr today so I’ll get back to all your messages later. For those who’ve sent me their sprites and I haven’t responded, I checked my email today and saw all of them and they’re all perfect, and I’ll be sending you a message again just to confirm that I did indeed get it. For everyone else, take your time with drawing your sprites, I just ask that you send me an estimation of when you think you’ll be done with them. If I’ve already talked to you about this and if you’ve sent me a message about any sort of delay, then no need to send me a message again and I won’t be sending you a message about this. And finally, thank you for taking part!

Lastly, here’s the tag for the game if you’re interested in keeping up with it. (is anything making sense in this post?? it’s three am now and I need sleep so just ignore any mistakes and anything not making sense.)

[asstology]

Would you be able to make a list of links to all your "signs as (insert anime name) character"? :D

Ohhh myyy. Okay so, I have been looking through all of our anime post’s just to answer this! (⌒▽⌒)☆ (I’m not gonna link stuff like seiyuu characters, squads or specific hair colored characters. Only all over anime characters posts + there’s some on our queue, that haven’t been posted yet - and ofc they aren’t gonna be on this list)

009 re:cyborg

91 Days

Ajin

Akame ga Kill!

Amnesia

Another

Attack on Titan

Baccano!

Black Butler + Black Butler: Book of Circus

Boku no Hero Academia

Btooom!

Bungou Stray Dogs

Corpse Party: Tortured Souls

Deadman Wonderland

Death Note

Death Parade

Doukyuusei

DRAMAtical Murder

Durarara!!

Fairy Tail + Fairy Tail Zero

Free!

Haikyuu!! + Haikyuu!! 2nd season

Hataraku Maou-sama!

Hetalia

Howl’s Moving Castle

Hyouka

Joker Game

K-ON!

K Project

Karneval

Kekkai Sensen

Ketsuekigata-kun!

Kill la Kill

Kiznaiver

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

Kuroko no Basket

Kyoukai no Kanata

Lucky Star

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Mayoiga

Mononoke Hime

Musaigen no Phantom World

My Neighbor Totoro

Nanatsu no Taizai

Nichijou

No. 6

No Game No Life

Noragami

Okami-san and her Seven Companions

One Punch Man

Orange

Orenchi no Furo Jijou

Osomatsu-san

Ouran High School Host Club

Owari no Seraph

Panty or Stocking

Parasyte: The Maxim

Prince of Stride: Alternative

Psycho-Pass

Sakamoto desu ga?

Shisha no Teikoku

Soul Eater

Soul Eater NOT!

Spirited Away

Starmyu

Sword Art Online

Tamako Market

Teekyuu

Tokyo Ghoul

Uta no Prince-sama

Yuri!!! On Ice

Yuru Yuri

Zankyou no Terror

- Lady Aquarius

[mangaredditdotcom]

D No Maou.

Alternative: D no Maou - Joker Game ; D no Maou from Joker Game ; D's Devil King (Indonesia) ; Dの魔王

Description : A spy mystery taking place at the beginning of the Showa era. #MangaReddit.com, #ReadFreeMangaOnline Read Free Manga Online at MangaReddit.com: https://mangareddit.com/p/d-no-maou_1584413029.html

Read more.

[jgfiles]

Kaminaga/Izawa Kazuo’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

Kaminaga/Izawa Kazuo’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

(Tentative version. For the info on the novel version I must thank @kyuukancorbie)

Spy Surname: Kaminaga - 神永（かみなが） Spy Name: Unknown Real name: Unknown Rank: Army Second Lieutenant (陸軍少尉 - Rikugun-Shōi) (According to the novel) Role at D Agency: Spy (スパイ) Direct superior officer: Lieutenant Colonel Yūki (結城中佐 Yūki-Chūsa) Affiliation: D Agency (Ｄ機関 D Kikan) Height: Unknown (173 cm according to the Anime) Age: Unknown Impersonates: Military Police Superior Private (憲兵上等兵- Kenpei-Jōtōhei) (Anime only), Izawa Kazuo (伊沢 和男（いざわ かずお)) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) (as Kaminaga), Vol. 1 Chapter 3 “Robinson” (ロビンソン Robinson) (As Izawa Kazuo) D no Maō manga: Vol 2 chap 1-4 “Robinson” (ロビンソン Robinson) Anime: Ep 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム Joker Game), EP 5 “Robinson” (ロビンソン Robinson), EP 9 “Double Joker” (ダブル・ジョーカー Double Joker) [Mentioned only], EP 12 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス XX Double Cross), OAV “Adventure of Black Cat Yoru” (黒猫ヨルの冒険 Kuroneko Yoru no Bōken) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム Joker Game), 8, 9 “Robinson” (ロビンソン - Robinson), 10 “Asia Express” (アジア・エクスプレス Asia Express) Drama cd: “Joker Game” Drama CD Metropolitan Police Department D Section Investigation Files (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 警視庁D課捜査ファイル “Joker Game” Drama CD Keishichō D-ka sōsa files), “Joker Game” Drama CD Go For It! Year 2 Class D Sakuma Sensei (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD それいけ！2年D組佐久間先生”Joker Game” Drama CD Sore ike! 2-Nen D-gumi Sakuma sensei ) Voice Actor: Kimura Ryōhei - 木村 良平（きむら りょうへい） Stage project actor: Saikawa Koji - 才川 コージ（さいかわ コージ）

Brief introduction

In the novel Kaminaga is mentioned merely as one of the twelve (twelve, not eight as in the anime) D Agency students belonging to the first batch of trainees. He’s the one who claims that if Japan where to lose the war, the people will promptly put their faith in the opposite belief, shocking Sakuma. He also took part to the search in Gordon’s house. We’ve no confirmation if he’s also the spy who plays the role of Izawa Kazuo, who’s the D Agency spy who was sent to England , arrested and interrogated by Howard Marks and that managed to escape him.

In the D no Maō manga Kaminaga is the student who’s pecking on Sakuma’s cards during the Joker Game and signalling to the others. Physically he doesn’t resemble at all the D Agency spy who will play the role of Izawa Kazuo.

In the Anime (and, as a consequence of this, the ‘Joker Game The Animation’ Manga) Kaminaga is one of the eight spies who were selected by D Agency. He plays the Joker Game against Sakuma and, like in the novel he shocks Sakuma talking about the possibility of Japan being defeated and of people switching their faith in the opposite of what they’re currently believing, criticizing Sakuma’s beliefs harshly. He takes part to the search in Gordon’s house.

During the Schneider case he’ll ask Odagiri if he believes someone killed Schneider and forced the note and he’s then tasked with the duty to investigate whoever entered in Schneider’s house.

Later he’s sent to England as Izawa Kazuo, a photographer replacing his uncle, Maeda Yataro, at the Maeda London Photo Studio in Oxford street near the tube station.

Sotomura Hitoshi, a diplomat in London, tattles out to an English female spy that Izawa Kazuo is actually a D Agency spy in disguise so he’s arrested by Howard Mark’s men and interrogated. He manages to trick them in believing he wanted to switch sides and uses this chance to send an S.O.S message. Still, his escape attempt almost failed and if it wasn’t for the Sleeper he wouldn’t have managed to escape Marks.

Later he returns back to Japan and he helps Hatano in detaining Wind Agency men.

In the Live Action Movie, which is only inspired to the novels, Kaminaga is a spy that works as some sort of assistant to Yūki. He tests the new spies and helps Yūki to inform them about their missions. He also informs Yūki of when the Army raises their budget. Interesting enough, part of Izawa Kazuo’s disguise and adventures are instead passed to another character named Katō Jirō.

Personality

Kaminaga is a confident and mischievous playboy, who can look frivolous but always accomplishes what he vows to do. The official profile says he volunteers to take command of the other D Agency members.

Physical appearance

In the novel there aren’t description of Kaminaga or Izawa Kazuo’s appearance except for commenting on how he is a small Japanese man when compared to Europeans.

In the movie he looks clearly older than the D Agency students, he has moustaches and he wears a brown suit.

In D no Maō Kaminaga and Izawa Kazuo are two different people. Kaminaga is black haired, seems to be tall and wears a suit.

Izawa Kazuo wears pants, jacket and a vest that could be of a suit but the colours don’t match so they don’t constitute one. He has a butterfly bow instead than a tie and eyeglasses. His hair is reddish, his eyes brown and he looks younger than Kaminaga.

In the Anime Kaminaga is a handsome man with brown hair and grey brown eyes. Shirō Miwa decided to give Kaminaga slightly droopy eyes with the whites of his eyes showing more, so that one could easily tell where his gaze is and, when talking with other people, he would give out the feelinge his gaze pierces straight at them.

When in D Agency he wears a suit, a brown three piece suit. When in London he wore, over that same suit, a trench coat. He also wore a military uniform when he had to disguise himself as a member of the Military Police.

In the Stage Project he still seems to wear a brown three piece suit, whose jacked has some light stripes.

Relationships

Mutō

The two never interacted but we know that Mutō finds D Agency a thorn to his side and sent Sakuma there in the hope one of Yūki’s students would make a mistake that would allow him to close the place.

Yūki

In the novel it’s unclear if Kaminaga is also Izawa Kazuo. They might be, they might be not. We know that Kaminaga and Yūki interacted when Yūki asked Kaminaga’s opinion in regard to Sakuma’s words and Kaminaga replied if Japan were to lose people would readily change their beliefs. In regard to Izawa Kazuo we know he was trained by Yūki, who taught him, among other things, how to handle being interrogated and judo. Before Izawa’s mission Yūki handed him a copy of “Robinson Crusoe”. During Marks’ interrogation at the mention of Yūki Izawa got furious and called him names (among which cold-blooded animal, flesh seller, hooker, messenger of hell, vampire sucking young people’s life, and homo/sadist). In Izawa’s mind he compares Yūki to the Erlking of Erlkönig. Izawa isn’t sure if he was given that particular mission because Yūki trusted him or because he didn’t. We know though that Yūki contacted the Sleeper so as to make sure he would help Izawa in his escape.

In D no Maō Kaminaga and Izawa Kazuo aren’t the same person. Although Kaminaga is one of Yūki’s students we don’t see the two interact. As for Izawa Kazuo, his interaction with Yūki seems to be more or less the same as it’s in the novel (I can’t be sure though as that part hadn’t been translated yet).

In the anime Kaminaga and Iwao Kazuo are the same person.

In the original script for the anime Yūki was going to ask Kaminaga during his exam of admission to point out were Saipan was on a map and then describe what was under the map.

The manga shows us that Yūki told Kaminaga the way to beat Tazaki when the last one was using a sword.

The anime only hints at how, during his training, Kaminaga was given the truth serum by Yūki while the manga shows us that, when Yūki gave Kaminaga the truth serum, he also had Miyoshi punch Kaminaga before Miyoshi questioned him on who Yūki was. At this Kaminaga replied Yūki was a sadist and a vampire that sucks blood from the youth. The anime also shows how Yūki taught him to split his consciousness.

Same as in the novel Yūki asked Kaminaga’s opinion in regard to Sakuma’s words and Kaminaga replied if Japan were to lose people would readily change their beliefs. During Odagiri’s case Yūki would task him to investigate whoever went into Schneider’s house. Later, after giving him, as a gift, a copy of “Robinson Crusoe” he would send him in England with the fake identity of Izawa Kazuo. While it’s left unsaid if Yūki contacted the Sleeper or not, it’s clear he still counted on him to help Kaminaga should troubles arise.

Later Kaminaga will be tasked by him with getting rid of Wind Agency members presiding Shirahata’s villa.

In the movie Kaminaga seems to be Yūki’s right hand man/assistant. Yūki discusses his decisions with him and helps him to inform Katō Jirō of the details of his mission.

Sakuma

Sakuma’s interaction with Kaminaga is pretty small.

In the Novel and in the original script for the Ep 1 of the Anime he was present when the Tennosei system was being discussed. In the original script for the Anime he was the one supposed to explain Sakuma what was going on, instead than Miyoshi (who’s the one doing it in Novel).

In the Novel, the original script and the Anime it’ll always be Kaminaga the one who’ll claim that if Japan were to lose the war, people would easily put faith in opposite beliefs, greatly upsetting Sakuma (speaking of Japan being defeated was a taboo).

In the Anime Kaminaga is also one of the card players during the Joker game while in D no Maō is role is greatly reduced, as all he’ll do will be merely peeking at Sakuma’s cards during the joker game and signalling at the others.

In the Novel and the anime Kaminaga will be among the ones who’ll go to Gordon’s house, but we won’t really see him interacting with Sakuma, beyond reporting to him that he had found nothing.

In D no Maō Kaminaga is the one who pecks at Sakuma’s cards during the Joker Game and tattles them to the others.

Miyoshi

In the novel the only ‘interactions’ between Miyoshi and Kaminaga imply the two trained together, took part to the Joker Game together, were both questioned by Yūki in regard to Sakuma’s words and both took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

In D no Maō Miyoshi is the one who tells Sakuma that Kaminaga was pecking at his cards and signalling them to the others.

In the anime Miyoshi and Kaminaga trained together and, with the other members, went out in the evening. They took part to the Joker Game together, were both questioned by Yūki in regard to Sakuma’s words and both took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

The manga shows them playing billiard together and, when Kaminaga is under the effect of the truth serum, it’s Miyoshi who has to punch and question him. It also shows Kaminaga watching while Miyoshi and Hatano play shogi together.

In the preview for Ep 11 Miyoshi is looking at an art book when Kaminaga joins him and sees he’s watching a painting of Millais, ‘Ophelia’. Miyoshi asks him if he thinks the Ophelia in the painting is alive or dead.

In one of the cards, since Miyoshi complained about his bangs, Kaminaga suggested him to cut his hair, to which Miyoshi replied Kaminaga can’t possibly understand.

In the Live Action Movie Kaminaga is there when Yūki will pretend to expel Miyoshi from D Agency.

Hatano

Kaminaga’s interaction with Hatano is extremely small.

In the novel they’re merely two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

In D no Maō Hatano isn’t mentioned as one of the spies. It might be he’s one, it might be he’s not.

In the anime also there’s little interaction between them two, making them two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

The manga adds that Hatano was surprised when he saw the effects of the truth serum on Kaminaga and shows Kaminaga watching while Miyoshi and Hatano play shogi together.

Later on in the anime Kaminaga and Hatano will work together to stop the Wind Agency men.

Amari

Kaminaga’s interaction with Amari is extremely small.

In the novel they’re merely two D Agency students who trained at the same time. It’s unknown if Amari also took part to the mission at Gordon’s house as Kaminaga did.

In D no Maō Amari isn’t mentioned as one of the spies. It might be he’s one, it might be he’s not.

In the anime also there’s little interaction between them two, making them two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the Joker Game and to the mission at Gordon’s house.

In a card Amari suggests Kaminaga they could go out drinking while watching the blossoming cherry trees. Kamianga agrees and invites the others as well.

Jitsui

Kaminaga’s interaction with Jitsui is extremely small.

In the novel they’re merely two D Agency students who trained at the same time. It’s unknown if Jitsui also took part to the mission at Gordon’s house as Kaminaga did.

In D no Maō Amari isn’t mentioned as one of the spies. It might be he’s one, it might be he’s not.

In the anime also there’s little interaction between them two, making them two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the Joker Game and to the mission at Gordon’s house.

Kaminaga and Jitsui will also be involved when Yūki will go to Shirahata’s villa but their interaction won’t be shown on the screen.

In the Live Action Movie Kaminaga, along with Yūki gives him the task to cooperate with Katō and Jitsui to retrieve the Black Note.

Tazaki

There’s no character named Tazaki in the novel. Although there’s a character named Seto Reiji there’s no known interaction between him and Kaminaga.

Characters named Tazaki or Seto Reiji don’t appear in the D no Maō manga.

In the preview for Ep 5 Tazaki tells Kaminaga he’s been incredibly sleepy lately to which Kaminaga replies to sleep when he’s sleepy as, when time comes he’ll wake up on his own.

In the Joker Game the Animation manga, in a flashback, we see the students doing some fencing. Tazaki is supposed to compete against Kaminaga and thinks he’ll win him just by using his left hand. Yūki however warns Kaminaga in regard to Tazaki weak points so Tazaki loses. The scene is taken from the novel, though in the novel it wasn’t said that Tazaki’s adversary was Kaminaga (and it might very well have been someone else).

Always in the manga, while Tazaki is explaining Sakuma how one can manipulate people into doing what he wants, Kaminaga comes near them and Tazaki uses him to explain Sakuma how he can persuade Sakuma to choose a certain cup by claiming that the cup Sakuma wanted was the one Kaminaga wanted, forcing him to switch to another.

Fukumoto

Kaminaga’s interaction with Fukumoto is extremely small.

There’s no character named Fukumoto in the novel. Although there’s a character named Kusanagi Yukihito there’s no known interaction between him and Kaminaga.

In D no Maō Fukumoto isn’t mentioned as one of the spies. It might be he’s one, it might be he’s not.

In the anime also there’s little interaction between them two, making them two D Agency students who trained at the same time and took part to the Joker Game and to the mission at Gordon’s house.

Odagiri

There’s no known interaction between Kaminaga and Odagiri in the novel, beyond that they’re both D Agency students.

A character named Odagiri doesn’t appear in the D no Maō manga and the spy taking the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki, as far as we know, doesn’t interact with Kaminaga (nor with Izawa Kazuo who, in the D no Maō manga, is clearly NOT Kaminaga) and, although they are both trained at D Agency, Kaminaga likely completed his training way before he joined D Agency.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 3, I might be mistaken as they’re both giving their back to the viewer, but the two who fought together seem to be Odagiri and Kaminaga, with Odagiri having successfully pushed on the ground Kaminaga.

In Ep 12 since it seems Odagiri is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed, Kaminaga asks him if he believed the note was forged. He’s later tasked to investigate whoever got inside Schneider’s house and reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri, telling him that there was no suspicious activity from the people who went into Schneider’s home. Odagiri, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this.

In the Live Action Movie Kaminaga, along with Yūki gives him the task to cooperate with Katō and Jitsui to retrieve the Black Note.

John Gordon

John Gordon is merely the target of D Agency’s investigation. The two don’t really interact, Odagiri was merely just one of the D Agency men who inspected his house (it’s unclear if he did the same in the novel and in D no Maō).

Interrogator

The interrogator will question Kaminaga/Izawa Kazuo for quite some time (it’s unsaid for how long but the novel implied Izawa Kazuo was questioned for a week). Even if in the beginning he was friendly with him and Kaminaga pretended to attempt to get along, he then switched to a more aggressive behaviour to which Kaminaga could only submit, although he didn’t reveal anything to him but insisted on him not being a spy. Ultimately the interrogator will get nothing from him beyond tiring him.

Sotomura Hitoshi

As far as we know Sotomura Hitoshi never interacts with Kaminaga/Izawa Kazuo but Sotomura Hitoshi is aware of why the other is in London and ends up on tattling out this and his true identity to a female spy, causing Kaminaga/Izawa Kazuo to be arrested.

Sleeper

There’s no real relation between the two that we know of. The Sleeper just helps Kaminaga/Izawa Kazuo to escape.

Howard Marks

Izawa Kazuo is captured by Marks and interrogated by him, with the intent to turn him into a double spy. The two both play a mummery, Marks pretending to be friendly and willing to trust Izawa, Izawa pretending to be willing to betray Japan.

Katō Jirō

In the Live Action Movie Kaminaga in the beginning doesn’t seem to have much faith in Katō Jirō’s abilities however later on, along with Yūki he gives him the task to retrieve the Black Note.

Abilities

Kaminaga knows how to use the camera well, he can withhold info despite being under the effects of the truth serum, knows how to let people tailing him behind and how to handle an interrogation. He also knows self defence and how to use a sword.

Trivia

From the new interview with the directors of JG Kaminaga's bed in the agency is next to Sakuma's (it’s the other one next to the window).

Itazu Yoshimi, the author of the end cards, said that when instructed to draw the end cards he was told to “Draw the spies in their daily lives that aren’t seen in the main animation” and that Director Nomura gave him information on the character’s personality and whom they get along with. In his end cards we see Kaminaga in the Ginza Lion Beer Hall with Amari, Miyoshi and Jitsui, at Tokyo station with Jitsui and then him walking in Ichigaya with Fukumoto, Odagiri and Amari. The last card he drew is a ‘group picture’ of some sort as all the spies, Yūki included, are in them. Kaminaga is drawn more frequently with Jitsui and Amari (3 times), second come Miyoshi, Odagiri and Fukumoto (2 times). It’s worth to note he’s drawn with Hatano and Tazaki only in the last end card (the one with the group picture). While this is no proof, we can speculate Kaminaga was meant to better get along with Jitsui and Amari and had the worst compatibility with Hatano and Tazaki.

While in Joker Game vests are always a colour slightly different from the suit (it’s usually slightly darker), in Kaminaga’s case this is much more obvious as his suit is brown but his vest is yellow. A suit with an unmatched vest is considered a rare and more casual look.

In one of the manga chapter covers Kaminaga is depicted as playing billiard with Miyoshi. The same was likely planned to happen in the anime as well as in the settei they’re shown playing billiard.

Kaminaga is one of the two spies who didn’t change their clothes when on a case (the other being Odagiri).

In one of the cards Kaminaga claims he really like falling petals.

In EP 1 and 12 Kaminaga is shown smoking a cigarette.

It’s implied Kaminaga likes drinking. In a card when Amari proposes they’ll all go out drinking while looking at the blossoming cherry trees Miyoshi and Jitsui agree to come only if Kaminaga (and Amari) promise they won’t get drunk and behave inappropriately.

[jgfiles]

Kaminaga’s character profile: Part 2 (Disguises used in the Joker Game Universe)

Kaminaga’s character profile: Part 2 (Disguises used in the Joker Game Universe)

(Tentative version. For the info on the novel version I must thank @kyuukancorbie)

Disguised as: Military Police Superior Private (憲兵上等兵 - Kenpei-Jōtōhei) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) (?) Anime: Ep. 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game)

It’s confirmed that in the novel Kaminaga took part to the search to Gordon’s house and therefore disguised himself as a Military Police member. It’s unknown if the same happened in the D no Maō manga in which there’s a Kaminaga character and also a character who’ll take the role of Izawa Kazuo and who’s a different person from Kaminaga as it’s impossible to recognize them among the students that played the role of Military Policemen.

In the anime Kamianga’s ‘disguise’ merely required from him to pretend to be a Military Police Superior Private and inspect Gordon’s house at Sakuma’s prompting. Among the spies Kaminaga is the one who inspected the kitchen.

In order to play the role of Military Police Superior Private Kaminaga had to wear a Military Police Type 98 uniform, which is slightly different from an Army uniform (more info here).

Trivia

None.

Disguised as: Izawa Kazuo –伊沢 和男（いざわ かずお） Job: Photographer of the Maeda London Photo Studio (前田倫敦寫眞館写真家 Maeda London shashin-kan shashin-ka) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 3 “Robinson” (アジア・エクスプレス - Robinson) D no Maō manga: Vol 2 chap 1-4 “Robinson” (ロビンソン Robinson) Anime: EP 5 “Robinson” (ロビンソン Robinson) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap 8, 9 “Robinson” (ロビンソン - Robinson)

In D no Maō it seems that his glasses are part of his disguise as, when he was at D Agency, he wasn’t shown wearing them.

In the anime, when Kaminaga disguises as such, he actually remains dressed the same and the only change is that he wears a trench coat when going outside.

In all the versions he pretends to be Maeda’s nephew and a photographer.

Trivia

In the summary for the anime episode Kazuo’s name is written as 和夫 instead than 和男 as in the novel. It seems this is a mistake as in the settei book his name is reported written with the same kanji used in the novel.

Although the Settei book shows that Izawa Kazuo was meant to have an umbrella we never see him having it through the episode.

In the movie, most of Izawa Kazuo’s disguise and experiences are given to Katō who plays the role of a photographer, ends up being taken prisoner by Marks, pretends to be willing to switch sides, send a message for him and escapes from Marks thanks to the Sleeper’s help.

[jgfiles]

Odagiri/Tobisaki Hiroyuki’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

Odagiri/Tobisaki Hiroyuki’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

(Very tentative version as no translation for 'XX Double Cross' novel or D no Maō version had been released)

Spy Surname: Odagiri - 小田切（おだぎり） Spy Name: Unknown Real name: Tobisaki Hiroyuki - 飛崎 弘行（とびさき ひろゆき） (Only according to the Anime) Rank: Army Second Lieutenant (陸軍少尉 - Rikugun-Shōi) [prior to joining D Agency], Army First Lieutenant (陸軍中尉 - Rikugun-Chūi) [After leaving it] Role at D Agency: Spy (スパイ - Spy) Direct superior officer: Lieutenant Colonel Yūki (結城中佐 - Yūki-Chūsa) Affiliation: D Agency (Ｄ機関 - D Kikan) Height: Unknown (172 cm according to the Anime) Age: Unknown Impersonates: Military Police Superior Private (上等兵- Kenpei Jōtōhei), Geisha (芸者- Geisha) (According to D no Maō), Tobisaki Hiroyuki (飛崎 弘行) (According to the Novel and D no Maō) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) [mentioned], Vol. 1 Chapter 5 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross) [as the spy Tobisaki Hiroyuki] D no Maō manga: Vol. 3 chap 4-6 XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross) [as the spy Tobisaki Hiroyuki] Anime: Ep 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game), EP 12 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross), OAV “Adventure of Black Cat Yoru” (黒猫ヨルの冒険 - Kuroneko Yoru no Bōken) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game), 5 “Miscalculation” (誤算 - Gosan), 10 “Asia Express” (アジア・エクスプレス - Asia Express) Drama cd: “Joker Game” Drama CD Metropolitan Police Department D Section Investigation Files (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 警視庁D課捜査ファイル - “Joker Game” Drama CD Keishichō D-ka sōsa files), “Joker Game” Drama CD Go For It! Year 2 Class D Sakuma Sensei (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD それいけ！2年D組佐久間先生 - “Joker Game” Drama CD Sore ike! 2-Nen D-gumi Sakuma sensei ) Live Action Movie: Joker Game Voice Actor: Hosoya Yoshimasa - 細谷 佳正（ほそや よしまさ） Live Action Movie actor: Yamamoto Hiroshi - 山本浩司（やまもと ひろし） Stage project actor: Abe Kaisei - 阿部快征（あべ かいせい）

Brief introduction

In the novel Odagiri is mentioned merely as one of the twelve (twelve, not eight as in the anime) D Agency students belonging to the first batch of trainees, and he probably took part to the search in Gordon’s house (though we’ve no confirmation about this). The D no Maō manga doesn’t mention him at all.

The anime though (and, as a consequence of this, the ‘Joker Game The Animation’ Manga) decided that Odagiri is also the spy who appears in the novel chapter ‘XX Double Cross’ (also transposed in the D no Maō manga) giving him his backstory, through slightly altered.

So, while in the novel Odagiri and Tobisaki Hiroyuki likely weren’t planned to be one and the same (and Tobisaki Hiroyuki is just the identity a D Agency spy takes during his mission) and the D no Maō manga makes clear the spy taking the alias of Tobisaki Hiroyuki couldn’t be involved in ‘Joker Game’ by placing his recruitment chronologically after ‘Joker Game’, in the anime they’re one and the same and Tobisaki Hiroyuki is Odagiri’s true name.

So, according to the Anime, Tobisaki Hiroyuki’s parents died, his grandparents didn’t really want to take care of him and first entrusts him to Nishiyama Chizuru, then inscribes him to the Military school. However when a soldier falls ill and Tobisaki’s superior officer still insisted he should keep on training, Tobisaki (who was a second lieutenant back then) argues with the officer and hits him. This causes him to be put under military trial. That’s when he meets Yūki who invites him to join D Agency.

Tobisaki agrees, passes the selection and takes the name of Odagiri. He takes part to the investigation of Gordon’s house, then, later, he is tasked with the duty to keep Karl Schneider under surveillance in what will become his graduation case. In fact Schneider dies but Odagiri continues to investigate and discovers who murdered him (Yasuhara Miyoko in the anime, Nogami Yuriko in the novel and in the D no Maō manga).

Odagiri realizes his judgement had been compromised because Nogami Yuriko reminded him of Nishiyama Chizuru and understood he couldn’t become a D Agency spy because he couldn’t completely detach himself from others. He therefore asked to quit D Agency and was reassigned by the Army with the grade of First Lieutenant (in Kwantung in Machuria in the anime, in north China in the novel and in the D no Maō manga).

In the Live Action Movie, which is only inspired to the novels, Odagiri is a spy tasked with supporting a spy named Katō in retrieving the Black Note by providing him equipment. He seems to die in an explosion but it turns out he survived and merely faked his death as he will meet up again with Katō. His spy tools though are stolen by a female spy named Rin. Later he will be assigned for a mission in Germany.

Personality

In D no Maō, Tobisaki cared for his Army companions to the point he attacked his superior officer to protect one of them and didn’t seem to get along well with the other spies. He’s also more prone to tears than his anime version.

According to the Anime, Odagiri still cared for his Army companions to the point he attacked his superior officer to protect one of them, though he only pushed away the man while in D no Maō he punched him. Anime Odagiri is silent and hardly smiles. Although he goes out with the others and take parts to their same activities and Fukumoto gets along well with him, Odagiri feels as if there was a wall between him and them.

Odagiri can still be considerate. After seeing that Sakuma didn’t realize he’d been tricked when playing poker he told him the truth and he also seemed to care for Yoru, who obeyed and trusted him and to whom he smiled.

He holds dear the memory of Nishiyama Chizuru, who raised him, to the point that when he sees Nogami Yuriko and realizes she resembles her, he loses his objectivity and his concentration. This helps him to realize he can’t cut tie with this memory.

Odagiri is strict with himself. When he realizes Schneider, his target, died, he labels the mission as an INEXCUSABLE failure, as if there was something he could have done to prevent it.

In the Live Action Movie Odagiri is shown always in a good mood and likes to make fun of the spy going by the name of Katō (whose back story is ironically based on the one of novel Tobisaki Hiroyuki) because he comes from the Army while Odagiri, as everyone else in D Agency, is a civilian.

Physical appearance

We can’t see how Odagiri looks in D no Maō, though we can see how the spy who goes under the alias of Tobisaki Hiroyuki looks like. He’s tall, slender, handsome and has a mole under his left eye.

In the Anime Shirō Miwa decided his character design would be quadrangle-like in attempt to bring out a seriousness that was different from Sakuma and to make him look like he doesn’t know how to swim with the tide. He’s therefore less slender and with broader shoulders compared to D no Maō, he has no mole and his face isn’t oval but more ‘quadrangle like.

In both version he has black hair, though they’re longer in D no Maō and cover his right eye while in the anime both his eyes and his forehead are clearly visible.

During his time as second lieutenant in the Army he wore an uniform, in D no Maō a Type 98 while in the anime it’s a Type 5. Since in the Anime we see him acting in cold weather though, we see that his uniform is covered by an Army coat.

After joining D Agency he starts to wear a suit. In D no Maō it’s a two piece suits, in the Anime it’s a three piece suit.

In D no Maō he also disguises himself as a geisha, wearing their typical kimono and wig while, when keeping Schneider under surveillance, he wore typical Japanese clothes.

After he left D Agency he returned wearing a Military uniform, a Type 98, with the ranking of First Lieutenant.

In the Live Action Movie Odagiri almost always wears glasses, he’s shorter than Katō and smokes.

In the Stage Project he still seems to wear a three piece suit, only much clearer compared to the one he has in the anime.

Relationships

Mutō

The two never interacted but we know that Mutō finds D Agency a thorn to his side and sent Sakuma there in the hope one of Yūki’s students would make a mistake that would allow him to close the place.

Yūki

In the novel and in the D no Maō manga we don’t see Yūki and Odagiri interact, just Yūki and the spy who took the name of Tobisaki.

In the anime Yūki is the one who seek out Odagiri and invited him to try and see if he could pass his exam to be admitted as a D Agency student. He also hands him the Schneider case and, after Schneider’s death, he’ll instruct him to investigate on the woman on the crime scene (in the novel and in D no D no Maō this happens to the spy who takes the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki). In the Anime when Odagiri will resign Yūki will tell him he’s reassigned in Kwantung in Machuria (in north China in the novel and in the D no Maō manga). Odagiri will bow to him and he’ll be told not to bow while wearing a suit.

In the Live Action Movie Yūki, supported by Kaminaga, gives him the task to cooperate with Katō and Jitsui to retrieve the Black Note.

Sakuma

Sakuma’s interaction with Odagiri is extremely small.

In Novel Odagiri is merely listed as one of the D Agency students while Sakuma is being the liaison but we don’t know if they ever interacted. He’s never mentioned in D no Maō.

In the Anime, during the Joker Game, Odagiri is the one who peeks at Sakuma’s cards and give signs to everyone, but he’s also the one who confesses this, revealing to Sakuma how the other had defeated him at poker. When the others laugh at Sakuma Odagiri doesn’t.

Odagiri’s smile, if so can be called, was also the weakest among the spies when it looked like they couldn’t find the cipher and Sakuma would have to commit Harakiri.

In a strip from Miwa Shirō we see that, after deciding to leave D Agency, Odagiri and Sakuma went to drink together and discussed what Yūki told Odagiri when Odagiri was about to leave (who salutes while wearing a business suit?). During this moment Sakuma will confess to Odagiri he was also told the same and that Yūki made him pay fines for insisting on saluting.

Miyoshi

There’s no known interaction between Miyoshi and Odagiri in the novel beyond that they’re both D Agency students and Odagiri likely took also part to the raid at Gordon’s house in which Miyoshi played the role of interpreter.

A character named Odagiri doesn’t appear in the D no Maō manga and the spy taking the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki, as far as we know, doesn’t interact with Miyoshi and, although they are both trained at D Agency, Miyoshi likely completed his training way before Tobisaki Hiroyuki joined D Agency.

In the anime in Ep 1 Odagiri, Miyoshi, Kaminaga Jitsui and Amari play poker (or the Joker Game) until Odagiri surrenders.

Miyoshi was also likely one of the spies who used Odagiri’s signals to beat Sakuma at poker. As it’s Miyoshi the one who invited Sakuma to play poker with them, it’s possible Miyoshi went so far as to stage up the whole thing, giving Odagiri the role of spying Sakuma by making it look like Odagiri was leaving the game because he lost one of too many times.

In the Joker Game The Animation Manga, when Miyoshi informed the others he had Sakuma agree to be the captain of their fake Military Police team when they would inspect Gordon’s house, Odagiri looked none too pleased.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 4, when Miyoshi and Hatano are talking about rats playing the antagonist in western fairy tales, Odagiri surprised them by mentioning Japanese fairy tales involving rats (which apparently aren’t evil). When Miyoshi asks him if he’s implying Japanese rats are different Odagiri says he’s fine with them widening their insight from books but dinner time is up and they should hurry and come because if their meal will get cold Fukumoto will make a fuss.

In Ep 12 Miyoshi demands Odagiri to explain Schneider’s suicide note, since it seems Odagiri is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed.

Miyoshi is later tasked to investigate the latest developments at the German and Soviet embassies and, reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri. In his report he says nothing unusual had happened at the German and Soviet embassies, but someone new might have taken over Schneider’s spy network. Odagiri, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this and, being confused by this and by all the others who had reported to him, gripped Miyoshi’s shoulder, stopping him from leaving and forcefully turning him toward himself and demanded to know why he was reporting this to him.

Miyoshi is first confused by Odagiri’s question then irritated, pushes away the other’s arm and inform him this is his (graduation) case before leaving. Odagiri is very surprised by this.

Successively the two meet at the theatre, after Nogami Yuriko’s performance. Miyoshi comments (looking pleased) that she wasn’t the murderer in the Schneider case to which Odagiri agrees, claiming her tears couldn’t be faked before asking Miyoshi what he discovered about Schneider’s accomplices. Miyoshi will report Odagiri’s theory was right and that by tailing the man removing the flowers from the theatre he discovered the guy stopped to a florist that doubles as a secret post for Soviet spies to exchange intel who communicate among them using a flower called chamomile. Miyoshi also discovered that two Soviet spies contacted Schneider, one was the florist who collected the flowers the other was Yasuhara Miyoko.

Miyoshi then asks Odagiri what tipped him off and Odagiri replies it was simple as he connected the scent in Schneider’s apartment with the one of the flowers delivered to Yasuhara Miyoko, which, to him, hinted to another connection between the two of them. Odagiri then proceeded to explain Schneider likely planned to become a triple spy and pass information to the British so the Soviets set up his assassination as well as the whole plan for the assassination. Though his explanation Miyoshi smiles and asks up how Yasuhara Miyoko got the note written by Schneider and Odagiri explains this as well.

In the Live Action Movie Miyoshi and Odagiri (along with Jitsui and Katō) cooperate to retrieve the Black Note, though Miyoshi had a rather different task from Odagiri and the two meet up only at the end where Miyoshi will hand him his next assignment.

Kaminaga

There’s no known interaction between Kaminaga and Odagiri in the novel, beyond that they’re both D Agency students.

A character named Odagiri doesn’t appear in the D no Maō manga and the spy taking the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki, as far as we know, doesn’t interact with Kaminaga (nor with Izawa Kazuo who, in the D no Maō manga, is clearly NOT Kaminaga) and, although they are both trained at D Agency, Kaminaga likely completed his training way before he joined D Agency.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 3, I might be mistaken as they’re both giving their back to the viewer, but the two who fought together seem to be Odagiri and Kaminaga, with Odagiri having successfully pushed on the ground Kaminaga.

In Ep 12 since it seems Odagiri is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed, Kaminaga asks him if he believed the note was forged. He’s later tasked to investigate whoever got inside Schneider’s house and reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri, telling him that there was no suspicious activity from the people who went into Schneider’s home. Odagiri, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this.

In the Live Action Movie Kaminaga, along with Yūki gives him the task to cooperate with Katō and Jitsui to retrieve the Black Note.

Hatano

There’s no known interaction between Hatano and Odagiri in the novel beyond that they’re both D Agency students.

Characters named Odagiri or Hatano or Shimano Ryosuke don’t appear in the D no Maō manga.

In the preview for Ep 3 Hatano and Odagiri talk together. Hatano asks Odagiri if he can remember that incident, to which Odagiri answers he can’t. At this Hatano says memories aren’t important and he took the right choice. We don’t know which was the incident they’re talking about though.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 4, when Miyoshi and Hatano are talking about rats playing the antagonist in western fairy tales, Odagiri surprised them by mentioning Japanese fairy tales involving rats (which apparently aren’t evil). When Miyoshi asks him if he’s implying Japanese rats are different Odagiri says he’s fine with them widening their insight from books but dinner time is up and they should hurry and come because if their meal will get cold Fukumoto will make a fuss.

In Ep 12 when Odagiri is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed, Hatano points out they should reject the idea considering the information Odagiri himself has given to them (the women screamed just after they entered inside the house and no one else got out from the door). He’s later tasked to double-check Schneider’s suicide note and reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri, informing him that no invisible ink was used and the paper was bought from a local store. Odagiri, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this.

Amari

There’s no known interaction between Amari and Odagiri in the novel beyond that they’re both D Agency students.

Characters named Odagiri or Amari or Utsumi Osamu don’t appear in the D no Maō manga.

In Ep 1 Amari was one of the spies who used Odagiri’s signals to beat Sakuma at poker as Odagiri pulled out a cigarette pack and then acted as if it was empty and asked him a cigarette, to which he replied by handing him a full pack which seemed to hint at how Amari won Odagiri on his side (the manga seemed to imply how he was on Jitsui’s side before).

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 3, Odagiri, seeing Amari and Jitsui together and Amari laughing, asked them what they were talking about, to which Amari replied they were saying it would have been good to have a mission in France where the charming ladies are.

In the preview for Ep 11 Odagiri and Amari talk together and we learn that Amari broke up again with his woman as he sees no point in remaining together with them for a long time.

In Ep 12 Amari was the one who, studying the photos of Shneider’s murder scene, observed that Schneider was fluent in English and that on a corner on his suicide note there were two XX. He’s later tasked to investigate the native English speakers living next to Schneider and, likely, reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri.

Jitsui

There’s no known interaction between Jitsui and Odagiri in the novel beyond that they’re both D Agency students.

Characters named Odagiri or Jitsui or Morishima Kunio don’t appear in the D no Maō manga.

In Ep 1 Jitsui was one of the spies who used Odagiri’s signals to beat Sakuma at poker. In the manga it’s implied Odagiri ‘betrayed him’ and made an allegiance with Amari when he asked Amari for a cigarette.

In Ep 12 Jitsui points out that Schneider’s suicide note was written by Schneider himself, since it seems Odagiri is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed.

In the Live Action Movie Odagiri and Jitsui support the investigations of Katō in order to retrieve the Black Note. They seem to get along well together.

Tazaki

There’s no character named Tazaki in the novel.

Characters named Odagiri or Tazaki or Seto Reiji don’t appear in the D no Maō manga.

In Ep 12 Tazaki is tasked to investigate into the wine import channels and reported the results of his investigation to Odagiri, telling him that no wine importing company was connected to an intelligence agency. Odagiri, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this.

Fukumoto

There’s no character named Fukumoto in the novel.

Characters named Odagiri or Fukumoto don’t appear in the D no Maō manga and it’s never said if the spy going by the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki and the spy going by the name of Shiozuka Hajime ever met, although they were both D Agency students.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 3, when Odagiri, sees Amari and Jitsui together Fukumoto is right behind Odagiri and Odagiri is saying ‘that’s all for today’ a hint that Fukumoto and Odagiri might have been working together till a moment before.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 4, when Odagiri tells Miyoshi and Hatano to hurry coming eating their dinner he reminds them that if their meal will get cold Fukumoto will make a fuss. Also, in one of the covers for the episode, Fukumoto and Odagiri are shown eating together at a restaurant, with Odagiri ordering something else to a maid.

In Ep 12 Fukumoto is the one that tells that two cross in English can be read also as ‘double cross’ or betray, and comments this could mean that Schneider either betray or was betrayed by someone.

In a set of cards we have Fukumoto and Odagiri ‘talking’ together. To be exact Fukumoto talks to Odagiri but Odagiri never replies.

It seems that in the ‘Joker Game talk show’ it was said that when Odagiri accompanies Fukumoto to get groceries… though we don’t see this happening in the OAV.

John Gordon

John Gordon is merely the target of D Agency’s investigation. The two don’t really interact, Odagiri was merely just one of the D Agency men who inspected his house (it’s unclear if he did the same in the novel and in D no Maō).

Karl Schneider

Karl Schneider is merely the target of D Agency’s investigation. Odagiri and Schneider don’t really interact, Odagiri was merely keeping him under surveillance (in the novel and in D no Maō this was done by the spy going by the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki).

Nishiyama Chizuru

In the novel and in the D no Maō manga Nishiyama Chizuru is the girl who raised the spy going by the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki, in the anime she’s the girl who raised Odagiri. Although she’s dead he can’t forget her and her memory still affects him to the point he understand he can’t get rid of him and that, therefore, he’s not fit for being a spy.

Nogami Yuriko

Due to her strong resemblance with Nishiyama Chizuru, in all the medias Tobisaki Hiroyuki/Odagiri loses his impartiality when she’s involved and ends up being distracted. In the Anime they won’t really meet although he watched her perform more than once, in the D no Maō manga she’ll confess him she murdered Schneider.

Yasuhara Miyoko

Odagiri/Tobisaki and Yasuhara Miyoko won’t really interact. In the anime he’ll figure out that she’s the culprit, in the other media, as she’s innocent, he only will understand that Nogami Yuriko decided to murder Karl Schneider because she caught Yasuhara Miyoko and Karl Schneider having sex together.

Gamo Jirō

In the preview for Ep 9 Gamo and Odagiri are playing chess. Gamo asks Odagiri what’s wrong to which Odagiri replies that in chess one has to destroy the adversary’s composure to win. Gamo replies that chess isn’t about winning or losing but about living or dying.

Yoru

When Yoru intrudes in D Agency’s kitchen Odagiri picks him up. The cat at first is not pleased by this development but, as soon as Odagiri tells him to calm down, Yoru does. Odagiri gently puts him outside D Agency, smiles at him and tells him next time he should hide himself better or the ‘demon king’ (Yūki’s nickname) will eat him.

Osanai

In the D no Maō manga Osanai is the one who will do what Miyoshi does in the anime during EP 12, demanding Tobisaki to explain Schneider’s suicide note, since it seems Tobisaki is supporting the idea that Schneider was killed. Osanai will also points out about the double cross on Schneider suicide note and will be tasked with investigating some aspects of the Schneider case and will report his findings to Tobisaki. Tobisaki, who had no idea he would report to him, was surprised by this and, being confused by this and by all the others who had reported to him, grips his arm, stopping him from leaving and demanding to know why he was reporting this to him.

Osanai will push away the other’s arm and inform him this is his (graduation) case before leaving.

Munakata, Higuchi and Akimoto

In the D no Maō manga Munakata, Higuchi and Akimoto get the roles Kaminaga, Jitsui, Hatano, Amari, Tazaki and Fukumoto have in the anime.

Katō Jirō

In the Live Action Movie Katō and Odagiri cooperate to retrieve the Black Note. Odagiri provides him spy tool and, occasionally, makes fun of him for having been an Army soldier or for his interest in Rin.

Rin

In the movie Odagiri has no interest for Rin’s survival and Rin manages to steal Odagiri’s spy tools.

Abilities

In the opening Odagiri is showed handling a communication system. It might be a coincidence as we know all the students were trained to use one but it can also hint he was particularly good with them (and a nod to how in the drama cd he’s using LINE to communicate).

In a preview Odagiri is shown playing chess with Gamo, a hint he evidently knows how to play this game.

When Odagiri picks up Yoru, the cat, and tells him not to be scared, Yoru immediately obey to him and calm down.

In the OAV Odagiri is shown as he’s about to drive a car.

Trivia

During the lessons Odagiri sits on the first row.

We never see Odagiri smoking though he asked for a cigarette to Amari during the Joker Game and received a full pack. As a result the I.G. store used Odagiri as ‘testimonial’ for the "GOLDEN KITE" cocoa cigarettes, chocolate shaped as cigarettes and sold in “Golden Kite” cigarette packs.

During the Joker Game Odagiri looked like he was reading a book. While this was probably a way to disguise the fact he was tattling out Sakuma’s cards to the others, likely Odagiri loves reading (as many others in the cast).

When inspecting Gordon’s house Odagiri was the one who confirmed that the garden was clear.

After the spies declared they couldn’t find the ciphers in Gordon’s house, which would mean Sakuma would have to commit Harakiri, they all smiled. Odagiri though is the one with the smile less pronounced and in the original draw for that scene one can speculate he’s not smiling at all. It ties nicely with how, in the manga, he didn’t seem happy at all with Miyoshi involving Sakuma in the mission.

In the Joker Game The Animation version of Ep 5, it seems that Odagiri was among the ones at whom the truth serum was injected and that he’s dealing with the effects of it by covering his face with his hands.

In EP 12 we hear the other spies using “Kisama” (貴様 “you”) when talking to Odagiri. In contemporary Japanese, “Kisama” is insulting and rude (it’s often translated as “you, bastard”) but it wasn’t always like that. "Kisama" was originally a respectful term for a higher ranking person, and had been used by the warrior classes mainly (you might have noticed how it ends with ‘-sama’ 様, which is usually a very respectful suffix) but, by the middle of the 18th century, the respect which this word expressed had considerably weakened and in the first half of the 19th century it was a formal expression used by officers of the Imperial Japanese Army to address to each other. It also often appeared in military songs and literature and was probably similar to today's お前. Outside of the army, it was considered a very rough but friendly expression. In short, while addressing to someone using ‘you’ in Japanese is always less polite than using that person’s name, the guys aren’t being jerk and calling Odagiri ‘you, bastard’.

Same as Sakuma, when Odagiri bowed and remained bowed to Yūki , he wasn’t just bowing at him in greeting like any ordinary Japanese man. That was the military salute, which prompted Yūki ’s question "Who bows while wearing a business suit?" (probably a better translation would have been "Who salutes while wearing a business suit?") which is probably meant to be a hint that, although Yūki had just called him First Lieutenant Tobisaki Hiroyuki, he still doesn’t consider him just a soldier but one of his men.

In the Joker Game the Animation manga Odagiri is familiar with Japanese folklore tales involving mice.

In a couple of chibi pictures Odagiri is shown being completely plastered which might be a hint to him having low alcohol tolerance.

Itazu Yoshimi, the author of the end cards, said that when instructed to draw the end cards he was told to “Draw the spies in their daily lives that aren’t seen in the main animation” and that Director Nomura gave him information on the character’s personality and whom they get along with. In his end cards we see Odagiri walking in the Asakusa district with Fukumoto, Hatano and Tazaki, at Ueno-Hirokuji with Fukumoto and Tazaki, in front of Shibuya station with Tazaki, Hatano and Jitsui and then him walking in Ichigaya with Fukumoto, Kaminaga and Amari. The last card he drew is a ‘group picture’ of some sort as all the spies, Yūki included, are in them. Although ultimately Odagiri is seen in the end cards with most of the cast, he’s definitely drawn more frequently with Fukumoto and Tazaki (4 times), second comes Hatano (3 times), third Jitsui, Kaminaga and Amari (2 times). It’s worth to note he’s drawn with Miyoshi only in the last end card (the one with the group picture). While this is no proof, we can speculate Odagiri, in addition to the canonically confirmed Fukumoto, was meant to better get along with Tazaki and Hatano and had the worst compatibility with Miyoshi.

In the Live Action Movie there’s a spy going by the name of Odagiri. Ironically the main character, a spy going by the name of Katō Jirō, received as a background story, a story pretty close to the one of Tobisaki Hiroyuki (he’s a soldier who, to protect another soldier from a superior officer, attacked his superior officer. The man died and he was condemned by a military trial to be executed when Yūki appeared and invited him to join D Agency).

[jgfiles]

Odagiri/Tobisaki Hiroyuki’s character profile: Part 2 (Disguises used in the Joker Game Universe)

Odagiri/Tobisaki Hiroyuki’s character profile: Part 2 (Disguises used in the Joker Game Universe)

(Very tentative version as no translation for ‘XX Double Cross’ novel or D no Maō version had been released)

Disguised as: Military Police Superior Private (憲兵上等兵 - Kenpei-Jōtōhei) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) (?) Anime: Ep. 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game)

To be honest it’s unknown if, in the novel, Odagiri took part to the search to Gordon’s house and therefore disguised himself as a Military Police member. Still, I think there are good chances he did.

A spy named Odagiri isn’t mentioned in the D no Maō manga (he could be one of the unnamed spies taking part to the mission but we can’t know). It’s worth to remember though that the spy who’ll take the name of Tobisaki Hiroyuki in the D no Maō manga will join D Agency AFTER this mission.

In the anime Odagiri’s ‘disguise’ merely required from him to pretend to be a Military Police Superior Private and inspect Gordon’s house at Sakuma’s prompting. Among the spies Odagiri is the one who confirm that the garden is clear so it’s logic to assume he inspected it.

In order to play the role of Military Police Superior Private Odagiri had to wear a Military Police Type 98 uniform, which is slightly different from an Army uniform (more info here).

Trivia

When the boys line up Odagiri is always placed on the first line.

Disguised as: Tobisaki Hiroyuki - 飛崎 弘行（とびさき ひろゆき） Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 5 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross) D no Maō: Vol. 3 chap 1 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross)

In the novel and in D no Maō Tobisaki Hiroyuki is the identity a spy takes while on his graduation case to investigate on Schneider.

In D no Maō, while playing this role, he wears a kimono, a scarf and a hat.

In the anime Tobisaki Hiroyuki isn’t a fake identity Odagiri will take but Odagiri’s true name and therefore not a disguise. His true name will be revealed during Ep 12 “XX Double Cross”.

Trivia

Interesting enough in the Anime not only they turned Tobisaki Hiroyuki into Odagiri’s true name but they also didn’t have Odagiri to dress any differently from how he usually is dressed in D Agency during the whole investigation and, in the credit titles at the end of the episode, instead than being credited with his spy name first, identity taken after and between brackets [Odagiri (Tobisaki Hiroyuki] like all the other spies, he’s credited with his true name first and his spy name between brackets [Tobisaki Hiroyuki (Odagiri)].

Disguised as: Entertainer (芸者- Geisha) Appearances: D no Maō: Vol 3 chap 1 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross)

In the D no Maō manga, in order to investigate on Schneider, the spy named Tobisaki Hiroyuki disguised himself as one of the dancers (probably geisha) who danced inside Schneider’s house. It’s in this occasion that, after finishing to dance, he will see Nogami Yuriko and realizes she reminds him or Nishiyama Chizuru.

In order to play the role of the dancer he danced with a sensu (扇子 “fan”) in his hands while wearing a kimono Susohiki (裾引き "trailing dress") or Hikizuri (引きずり "gown train") tied with a Obi (帯 “Sash”) tied in the "taiko musubi" (太鼓結び "drum knot") style, tabi (足袋 “Japanese socks”), zori (草履 “sandals”) and a wig in the Shimada (島田) style with Kanzashi (簪 “Ornamental hairpin”) to hold the style in place.

In the anime Odagiri won’t disguise to get inside Schneider’s house but will content himself with keeping him under surveillance from outside the house.

Trivia

It’s possible that the anime didn’t have Odagiri dress up as a female because the body type given to him isn’t very fitting for playing this role. Or maybe they just wanted to keep things simpler. They had no problems though to have Jitsui dress up as a girl in a drama cd… although Jitsui as a better fitting body type for this.

[jgfiles]

Yasuhara Miyoko’s character profile (Joker Game Universe)

Yasuhara Miyoko’s character profile (Joker Game Universe)

(Tentative version)

Surname: Yasuhara - 安原（やすはら） Name: Miyoko - 美代子（みよこ）(novel), Miyoko ミヨコ (Anime) Full Name: Yasuhara Miyoko - 安原 美代子（やすはら みよこ） (novel, D no Maō), 安原ミヨコ（やすはら みよこ）(Anime) Nationality: Japanese Lives in: Job: Theatre company member (劇団員 - Gekidan-in) (Novel and D no Maō), Russian Spy (ロシア人 スパイ Russiajin Spy) (Anime) Disguised as: Theatre company member (劇団員 - Gekidan-in) (Anime only), Signboard actress (看板女優 - Kanban joyū) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 5 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross) D no Maō: Vol. 3 chap 4-6 XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross) Anime: EP. 12 “XX Double Cross” (XX ダブル・クロス - XX Double Cross) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Voice Actor: Sakamoto Maaya - 坂本真綾（さかもと まあや）

Brief introduction

In the novel and D no Maō she’s an actress who’s friend and, at the same time rival, of Nogami Yuriko as the two work for the same theatre company and aim at the same role. She meets Karl Schneider at a party and sleeps with him but is discovered by Nogami Yuriko who decides to kill Karl Schneider and to use her as an alibi. Hence, the day Nogami Yuriko kills Schneider she invites Yasuhara Miyoko to her home to eat cake. When the two discover Schneider’s dead body, Nogami Yuriko sends Yasuhara Miyoko to call the police so as to remain alone in the house.

In the Anime she is a Russian spy who disguises herself as signboard actress of the same company in which Nogami Yuriko works and whom she befriends. Yasuhara Miyoko loves Karl Schneider (it’s unknown if the two were in a relationship at some point) but ends up introducing him to Nogami Yuriko who became Karl Schneider’s lover.

When Karl Schneider decides to become a triple agent and spy for England as well she gets the task to kill him. She poisons his wine and, when he’s in Nogami Yuriko’s house, phones him and tricks him into writing some sentences on a paper that can be exchanged as a suicide note. Then she has Nogami Yuriko invite her to her home to eat cake. When the two find Schneider dead, Nogami Yuriko ran to call the police while she pretends she can’t move. However, once alone, she places the note she had Schneider writing next to him so as to make it look like his suicide note and then writes two small crosses on it as a message to the English side (the double cross hints at how Schneider planned to betray Russia). Odagiri though will discover what she did and she will end up arrested by the Military Police.

Personality

It’s hard to say how her personality is in the novel and in the D no Maō manga as her role is minimal.

In the anime on the surface she seems friendly and modest despite being a young talented actress, a good friend of Nogami Yuriko who cares for her. As she’s a spy though, this could be a façade. She surely showed she can be cold and ruthless when she killed Karl Schneider and has no hesitations in using Nogami Yuriko when she did so.

Physical appearance

In the D no Maō manga she’s a pretty, young woman with short dark hair.

In the anime she’s a pretty woman with short blond hair and blue eyes. When she’s not acting she wears western clothes.

Relationships

Nogami Yuriko

In the novel and D no Maō they’re friends and colleagues who aim at the same role, which makes them rival. Yasuhara Miyoko though has no hesitation to sleep with Nogami Yuriko’s lover, Karl Schneider, when introduced to him.

In the anime it’s said they’re friends (though this might be an act on Yasuhara Miyoko’s side) and, although they work for the same theatre company, they’re not rival (considered as such). It’s Yasuhara Miyoko who introduces Nogami Yuriko to Karl Schneider but gets jealous when the two start a relation together.

Karl Schneider

In the novel and D no Maō they met at a party and sleep together. Yasuhara Miyoko will also discover him dead.

In the anime they were both Russian spies. Yasuhara Miyoko had feelings for Karl Schneider and grew jealous when he started dating Nogami Yuriko. When it turns out Karl Schneider wants to become a triple spy, Nogami Yuriko kills him.

Odagiri/Tobisaki Hiroyuki

Odagiri/Tobisaki and Yasuhara Miyoko won’t really interact. In the anime he’ll figure out that she’s the culprit, in the other media, as she’s innocent, he only will understand that Nogami Yuriko decided to murder Karl Schneider because she caught Yasuhara Miyoko and Karl Schneider having sex together.

Abilities

She’s a good actress.

Trivia

While in the novel her surname and her name are written in Kanji, in the Anime they preferred to use katakana for her name (her surname remains written in Kanji). It’s unknown why they made this choice, maybe it was meant to be a hint to how she’s connected with Russia? (Not Japanese names are usually written in Katakana… there’s to remind everyone though that Miyoko is a Japanese name).

[jgfiles]

Well, since we’re in the “XX Double Cross” month let me introduce you to 4 new CANON D Agency members.

In the D no Maou version of “XX Double Cross” we don’t see the spies we saw in Joker Game but new ones (I’ve been told the same happens in the novel version).

Both versions aren’t translated yet so it’s a bit hard to have all the details about them but in the D no Maou version there were actually 12 spies (not 8 like in the anime) of which only those 4 (and well, Odagiri) had a relevant role.

If you’re curious, Osanai gets Miyoshi’s role (or more likely Miyoshi got Osanai’s role as the anime was made after D no Maou and not vice versa)... but also Amari’s as he’s the one who asks if Shneider was fluent in English.

The same goes for the others as, while the anime fundamentally split the group in two, a half that pointed out the flaws in Odagiri’s reasoning and a half that instead worried he might have been right due to the double X sign, here those four first criticize then start to worry he might have been up on something.

Oh well, until we’ve translations not much can be said but well, if you need a name for extra D Agency students, here you have some canon suggestions (and Pixiv has even fanarts on them). ^_-

[jgfiles]

Sakuma’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

Sakuma’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

(Tentative version)

Surname: Sakuma - 佐久間（さくま） Name: Unknown Rank: Army First Lieutenant (陸軍中尉 - Rikugun-Chūi) Role in the Army: Colonel Mutō’s attendant (武藤大佐の付き添い - Mutō-Taisa no Tsukisoi) (according to the Anime) Role at D Agency: Liaison (連絡係 - Renraku-gakari) between D Agency and the Army Direct superior officer: Army Colonel Mutō (陸軍大佐武藤 - Rikugun-Taisa Mutō.) Affiliation: General Staff Headquarters (参謀本部 - Sanbō Honbu) Temporally assigned: D Agency (Ｄ機関 - D Kikan) Height: Unknown (176 cm according to the Anime) Age: Unknown (according to the D no Maō manga he’s in his twenties) Graduated at: Army Academy (陸軍士官学校 - Rikugun Shikan Gakkō) Disguised as: Military Police First Lieutenant (憲兵中尉 - Kenpei-Chūi) [“Joker Game”] Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) D no Maō: Vol. 1 chap. 1-5 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) Anime: Ep. 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap. 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game), 5 “Miscalculation” (誤算 - Gosan), 10 “Asia Express” (アジア・エクスプレス - Asia Express) Drama cd: “Joker Game” Drama CD Metropolitan Police Department D Section Investigation Files (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 警視庁D課捜査ファイル “Joker Game” Drama CD Keishichō D-ka sōsa files), “Joker Game” Drama CD Go For It! Year 2 Class D Sakuma Sensei (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD それいけ！2年D組佐久間先生 “Joker Game” Drama CD Sore ike! 2-Nen D-gumi Sakuma sensei ), “Joker Game” Drama CD Return! Year 2 Class D Sakuma Sensei (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 帰ってきた！　二年Ｄ組佐久間先生 “Joker Game” Drama CD Kaettekita! 2-Nen D-gumi Sakuma sensei), “Joker Game” Drama CD Parody Box Full of What Ifs (「ジョーカー・ゲーム」ドラマCD 〝もしも″だらけのパロディＢＯＸ “Joker Game” Drama CD “Moshimo″ darake no parody box) Voice Actor: Seki Tomokazu - 関 智一（せき ともかず） Stage project actor: Ōmi Shōichirō - 大海 将一郎（おおみ しょういちろう）

Brief introduction

Sakuma is assigned in 1938 by Mutō as liaison between the army and D Agency. He oversees the entrance exams of the students and their training. Much later he takes part, along with the D Agency students, to an investigation over an American, John Gordon, suspected to be a spy. Sakuma manages to figure out where the ciphers hidden by Gordon were. After this mission is fate is left unknown.

While Novel, Anime and Joker Game The Animation more or less agree with this (in the Novel he’s assigned there in April 1938 while the Anime seems to imply it was January 1938), in D no Maō there are some big changes as Sakuma did no oversee the admission exams of the students and their training but is sent to D Agency when they already have a first batch of graduates. Also, after the end of the John Gordon case, Sakuma is sent on the battlefield while in the other media is fate was left unknown.

Personality

Sakuma is militaristic, honest and sincere, a typical Japanese guy of early Shōwa Era. He values greatly his comrades, does his duty the best he can and he’s ready to die for his country. He has friends in the Army for whom he would give his life.

He views spying and rejecting murdering an enemy or committing suicide as unfair or coward behaviour and sees the D Agency students as ‘Bakemono’ (化け物 “Shape Shifting Monsters”). He’s however capable to appreciate their abilities and doesn’t seem to hold a grudge against them. He can be observant of other people’s behaviour and, after the John Gordon’s case, realizes he doesn’t want to be used as a pawn. Although he tries to be respectful with his superior officers he can end up speaking his mind out even at the cost of being offensive. Still, he can remain calm and stoic even when his superior officer (Mutō) is yelling against him or when he’s told he might be forced to commit ritual suicide… but he’s prone to lose it if someone behaves in a manner that he judges disrespectful toward the emperor or coward or unfair.

In D no Maō Sakuma comes out as much more naïve and petty and with an even worse opinion of D Agency as he believes it has to be destroyed even if it were to cost him his life.

In all the media, when Sakuma realizes Mutō betrayed him, his opinion of D Agency and Yūki changes a lot, although he never gets to approve them. He can be observant of other people’s behaviour and, after the John Gordon’s case, realizes he doesn’t want to be used as a pawn.

The Anime depicts Sakuma as being a smoker. Joker Game The Animation depicts him as not being one that drinks alcoholics when playing poker.

Physical appearance

In regard to Sakuma’s physical appearance the Novel only tells us Sakuma used to have a military haircut, but, when he was ordered to become the liaison between D Agency and the Army, was required to grow his hair. This is confirmed by D no Maō and was meant to be present also in the Anime, but then the scene was cut and this fact is only implied by having the proprietress of Hanabishi not recognize him at first and by making him sort of bashful in this regard.

D no Maō present Sakuma as a tall and well built man (though less tall than Yūki) with dark hair. His eyes seem to be black.

The Anime also presents Sakuma as a tall and well built man (though less tall than Yūki) with dark hairand blue eyes.

In the army he has the grade of a First Lieutenant and wears a military uniform.

In D no Maō they have him always wear a type 5 uniform while in the Anime they kept into consideration that in 1938 a new uniform was introduced and therefore had him wear in the flashbacks the type 5 uniform and then the type 98 uniform (when he poses as the leader of the Military Police squad that went to investigate on Gordon).

After joining D Agency Sakuma starts to wear a suit. In D no Maō it’s a two piece suits, in the Anime it’s a three piece suit.

He’ll wear a Military Police uniform when disguising himself as a Military Policeman.

In the Stage Project he still seems to wear a three piece suit, only its shade seems clearer compared to the one he has in the anime.

Relationships

Mutō

Mutō is Sakuma’s direct superior officer and he’s the one who assigns him to be the liaison between the Army and the D-Agency. In the Anime isn’t so clear but in Novel we’re told that Mutō took Sakuma to the inns he used to visit, among which Hanabishi, which is why Sakuma could guess he got drunk there as he also knows Mutō’s habits about getting drunk.

The two don’t seem to have a friendly relation, very likely Sakuma was merely someone who worked under Mutō and that Mutō trusted in and was carried to the inns either because Mutō wanted to talk with him privately or to accompany him as his underling. Mutō though is willing to sacrifice Sakuma for his own gain and accuses Sakuma to have switched to D Agency’s side after the Gordon case.

Despite Mutō’s accusation though, Sakuma didn’t denounce the fact that Mutō had tattled out information over a raid, although it was against military law, but merely warned him he knew about it.

In the ‘D no Maō’ manga, after this Mutō sends him on the battlefront, clearly hoping Sakuma will die there.

Yūki

Since Yūki is the superior officer in charge of D Agency, Sakuma tries to act respectful. His feelings for Yūki are likely mixed as Yūki is sort of a legend but, at the same time, he’s a spy, something Sakuma despised, and promotes behaviour among the students that Sakuma can’t approve, which often leads Sakuma to bluntly express his disapprobation (in D no Maō is personal opinion in regard to Yūki is pretty low).

After the Gordon case though, Sakuma changes his opinion in regard to Yūki , understanding that the man is actually dedicated to the country as well as very clever. Despite this he doesn’t feel like he can become one of his students.

Although Yūki at first assumed Sakuma was the spy of the General Staff Headquarters, he doesn’t seem to take offence when Sakuma accuses spies of cowardice (he looks amused at this) and he’s always willing to explain him how things works for a spy instead than just wave him off due to their difference in ranking (in D no Maō though, when Sakuma attacked one of the students, Yūki beat him on the ground).

After the end of the Gordon case Yūki seems to appreciate enough Sakuma to ask him if he wants to join his D Agency.

In Miwa Shirō strips Yūki tends to self invite to Sakuma’s house to watch Sakuma’s tv.

Miyoshi

There’s not a lot of interaction between the two in Novel as in it we can only see they that, at first they just seem to disapprove each other.

In Novel Miyoshi is present when the Tennosei system is being discussed, explains what’s going on to Sakuma and he’s clearly disgusted by his reaction.

D no Maō has instead Miyoshi showing Sakuma around (in D no Maō Sakuma joined D Agency after Miyoshi has basically completed his training), making fun of him by implying that Yūki might be interested in molesting him, warning him he shouldn’t trust anyone in there, trying to get him to play pool (and showing off his ability to him), inviting him to take part to a game of poker to later explain him they had been cheating. Sakuma is clearly annoyed by Miyoshi’s lack of respect for him (he’s higher in ranking than Miyoshi) and behaviour and is particularly upset by Miyoshi’s insistence that people shouldn’t be trust, to the point this sets him against D Agency.

The Anime goes for a different approach, by having Miyoshi being the one who invites Sakuma to go with the rest of them to have fun in the city in the evening, which Sakuma declines (which seems somewhat a recurring invitation) and asking him to play card with them. Later Miyoshi will wave away Sakuma’s belief as mere Tautology.

In all the versions it’s Miyoshi that asks for Sakuma to pretend to be the leader of the group of students that will go to Gordon’s house dressed up as Military Police.

The Joker Game The Animation explains this as Miyoshi wanting to have fun at Sakuma’s expenses.

In all the media it’s always Miyoshi the one who claims Sakuma will cut his belly if they find nothing in Gordon’s house.

Novels and manga version differ from what happens afterward. In Novel Miyoshi’s smile tips Sakuma of on what’s going on, so he figures were the cipher is hidden. In the D no Maō’s manga Miyoshi kicks away Sakuma’s sword when he’s about to kill himself and encourages him to think to another place in which they should search, prompting Sakuma to realize where the cipher was hidden. In the Anime Sakuma’s realizes where the cipher is by remembering Yūki AND Miyoshi’s words.

While it’s common in all the media that Miyoshi was impressed by Sakuma, who was willing to cut his stomach and who has managed to figure things out, in Novel they won’t have any further interaction.

In D no Maō, they’ll meet again after Sakuma had gone to Hanabishi, talk things through and while Sakuma claims he still doesn’t approve of D Agency’s methods he thanks Miyoshi for teaching him to think at things with his own head, while Miyoshi military salutes him back, showing him he respects him.

In the Anime instead Sakuma will meet Miyoshi AFTER he reported to Yūki . While Sakuma believes Miyoshi is there to make fun of him, Miyoshi reveals he actually has changed his opinion about Sakuma and will again invite him to go with them in the town. Although Sakuma refuses again the two seem to have reached a mutual understanding of some sort.

Kaminaga

Sakuma’s interaction with Kaminaga is pretty small.

In the Novel and in the original script for the Ep 1 of the Anime he was present when the Tennosei system was being discussed. In the original script for the Anime he was the one supposed to explain Sakuma what was going on, instead than Miyoshi (who’s the one doing it in Novel).

In the Novel, the original script and the Anime it’ll always be Kaminaga the one who’ll claim that if Japan were to lose the war, people would easily put faith in opposite beliefs, greatly upsetting Sakuma (speaking of Japan being defeated was a taboo).

In the Anime Kaminaga is also one of the card players during the Joker game while in D no Maō is role is greatly reduced, as all he’ll do will be merely peeking at Sakuma’s cards during the joker game and signalling at the others.

In the Novel and the anime Kaminaga will be among the ones who’ll go to Gordon’s house, but we won’t really see him interacting with Sakuma, beyond reporting to him that he had found nothing.

Hatano

Sakuma’s interaction with Hatano is extremely small.

In Novel we’re only told Sakuma knows Hatano is one of the students of D Agency who’s also taking part to the investigation in Gordon’s house.

Hatano is not mentioned in D no Maō.

In the original script for the Anime Hatano is the one who reports that the principal who touched the imperial portrait committed suicide… but that’s his only contribution to the discussion.

Hatano is present during the poker game with the role of giving others signals but, again, didn’t speak or interact with Sakuma beyond this.

In the original script Hatano was supposed to be one of the players, and the one who told Sakuma they were actually playing the Joker Game, not poker, explaining him how the game worked.

In Joker Game The Animation Hatano, discovering that it was Miyoshi’s idea to involve Sakuma in the Gordon’s investigation comments Miyoshi is having fun and that he has a vulgar taste… but adds that the situation Miyoshi created will be entertaining, showing he too has no problems having fun at Sakuma’s expenses. In a flashback we’ll also see that Sakuma was impressed by Hatano’s ability at self defense and praised him… Hatano though doesn’t seem to think too much of his own ability, though he’ll comment that, given an opportunity, he might send Sakuma too to the ground (which he does in one of Miwa Shirō’s strips).

In one of the cards released for the Joker Game Anime, Hatano complained Sakuma isn’t sociable because he always reject their invitations.

Amari

Sakuma’s interaction with Amari is extremely small.

In Novel Amari is merely listed as one of the D Agency students while Sakuma is being the liaison but we don’t know if they ever interacted. He’s never mentioned in D no Maō.

In the original script for the Anime Amari’s comment that ‘The dedication of the Emperor is going too far’ was among the comments that irritated Sakuma. In the original script Amari is present during the poker game, but he’s one giving signals while in the Anime he’s actually one of the players and the one who compares the Joker Game to international politics. In the Joker Game animation manga Amari asks Miyoshi if including Sakuma in the Gordon’s house investigation was Yūki ’s idea and, in a flashback, he’ll be shown as explaining Sakuma that Hatano is a martial art expert.

Jitsui

Sakuma’s interaction with Jitsui is extremely small.

In Novel Jitsui is merely listed as one of the D Agency students while Sakuma is being the liaison but we don’t know if they ever interacted. He’s never mentioned in D no Maō.

In the original script for Ep 1 Jitsui is the one that manages to anger Sakuma the most during the Tennosei system discussion, to the point that, if Sakuma had had it, he would have pulled out his sword.

In the original script and in the Anime Jitsui is also one of those who play the Joker Game against Sakuma. In Joker Game The Animation, after learning that Sakuma will act as leader when they’ll investigate Gordon’s house Jitsui expressed concern for Sakuma, claiming that if he repeats the same mistake he might end up being stripped of everything he has.

According to his official profile he cared for Sakuma… though in one of the cards released for Joker Game, although he excused Sakuma for never coming out with them by saying it was because he’s diligent he also says Sakuma is an “Ishibekinkichi Tetsu Kabuto” (右部金吉鉃兜 “man of incorruptible character with an iron helmet”), so serious that they’re stubborn, have no interests and are boring.

Tazaki

Sakuma’s interaction with Tazaki is extremely small.

Tasaki is not mentioned in Novel or in D no Maō. In the Anime Fukumoto is merely present during the Joker Game, he too signalling the players’ cards and later on he’ll take part to the mission at Gordon’s house.

The only time we’ll see the two of them interacting is in a flashback in Joker Game The Animation in which Tazaki explains to Sakuma how to deceive people into doing what one wants and Sakuma figures that Tazaki’s gentle smile might be also a mean for Tazaki to deceive others.

Fukumoto

Sakuma’s interaction with Fukumoto is extremely small.

Fukumoto is not mentioned in Novel or in D no Maō. In the Anime Fukumoto is merely present during the Joker Game, he too signalling the players’ cards and later on he’ll take part to the mission at Gordon’s house. Despite this we won’t see the two interact.

Odagiri

Sakuma’s interaction with Odagiri is extremely small.

In Novel Odagiri is merely listed as one of the D Agency students while Sakuma is being the liaison but we don’t know if they ever interacted. He’s never mentioned in D no Maō.

In the Anime, during the Joker Game, Odagiri is the one who peeks at Sakuma’s cards and give signs to everyone, but he’s also the one who confesses this, revealing to Sakuma how the other had defeated him at poker. When the others laugh at Sakuma Odagiri doesn’t.

Odagiri’s smile, if so can be called, was also the weakest among the spies when it looked like they couldn’t find the cipher and Sakuma would have to commit Harakiri.

In a strip from Miwa Shirō we see that, after deciding to leave D Agency, Odagiri and Sakuma went to drink together and discussed what Yūki told Odagiri when Odagiri was about to leave (who salutes while wearing a business suit?). During this moment Sakuma will confess to Odagiri he was also told the same and that Yūki made him pay fines for insisting on saluting.

John Gordon

John Gordon is the target of D Agency’s investigation. The man looks forward to see Sakuma commit Harakiri, viewing the whole thing as a show. In D no Maō he’s quite rude with Sakuma, accusing him of cowardice. Sakuma views him as a ‘target’ to his investigation, as a classic foreigner who’s however a Japanese enthusiast and finds his behavior exaggerate and noisy.

Hanabishi’s owner (花菱の女将 “Hanabishi no Okami”)

They seem to know each other due to Sakuma having to accompany Mutō when he went to Hanabishi and to have a friendly relation of some sort. She’s not intimidated by Sakuma, not even when she’s told he’s there for an official investigation and Sakuma seems sort of embarrassed to show her he had let his hair grow.

Abilities

Sakuma has good observation and memorizing skills (though he believes they’re not as good as the one of the D Agency students). He can notice dissonances in behavior and is sharp enough to eventually figure out where the cipher was, Mutō’s plan and how Yūki found out about it, as well as understand why he sent the D Agency students dressed up as military police at Gordon’s house.

Also, though it evidently cost him effort, he managed to overcome the ‘conditioning’ he went through his whole life, to figure the Imperial Portrait could have been used as a hiding place and that his superior officer might have sold him out.

Since he had graduated from the Academy with flying colours, and was considered to be an “elite” he was clearly very good in all the topic studied there.

He can remain calm even under dire situation and has a good poker face.

Sakuma also knows how to speak English well enough to understand Gordon despite the man speaking in a hurried manner.

Since Yūki asked him if he wanted to train with the other students he evidently has the potential to become a spy as well.

In the anime, when playing poker, Sakuma shows he has a good poker face.

Trivia

According to Miwa Shirō Sakuma was drawn with focus on his thick eyebrows, so that he would resemble a Japanese dog.

In the settei book we can see that on the uniform he was meant to wear prior to joining D Agency there’s the number of his division (the 1st). It also gives us the colour of the collar in the old uniform and of the mountain type chest insignia in the new uniform (we never see him with either uniforms, though we get to see him in something close to the first as it’s his cadet uniform and in something close to the second as he’s in the Military Police uniform which differs from the Army one only for minor details). It’s red, which points out to how he belongs to the infantry (the military police had it black).

When Sakuma bowed and remained bowed to Yūki , he wasn’t just bowing at him in greeting like any ordinary Japanese man. That was the military salute, which prompted Yūki ’s question "Who bows while wearing a business suit?" (probably a better translation would have been "Who salutes while wearing a business suit?") as with that action Sakuma was revealing he was a soldier saluting another soldier.

According to Novel Sakuma attended to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy.

In Anime illustrations Sakuma is often represented with his sword. While this might be a reference to Sakuma’s samurai spirit or to how he’s almost tricked into committing Harakiri, he looks clearly comfortable holding it (and wanted to use it against the D Agency students both in Novella and in the original script for Ep 1) so it can be he’s rather good at using it.

Sakuma doesn’t appear in the Joker Game OAV, however is dubbed voices the cat Yoru in his place. Miwa Shirō draw a cute illustration of Sakuma holding Yoru in his hands.

In his strips Miwa Shirō has drawn twice Sakuma being at his house and watching tv seating in Seiza style. It’s however highly unlikely that Sakuma could have a television in 1939 (in Japan television experimental broadcasting started in 1939) and Miwa Shirō also declared his strips aren’t canon.

In a twitter Miwa Shirō has said that since the spies didn’t have a name when at D Agency, just a surname, when wanting to call them with their full name he gave them the name of their dubbers. I guess the same applies to Sakuma, which would make him ‘Sakuma Tomokazu’ in the mind of his chara designer.

In the Anime Sakuma might have been meant to be someone who enjoys reading. In the original script he was reading a book when he was invited to take part to the Joker Game and Miwa Shirō also draw him reading a book in one of his strips.

We aren’t told how old Sakuma is. However Sakuma graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. This would happen when one is around 21 and he would be given the grade of Second Lieutenant. Sakuma, by 1938, is a First Lieutenant, which means he was promoted, which is something that usually took at least three years. He likely hadn't been just promoted as Mutō seemed to know and trust him enough when he assigned him to D Agency in 1938. This should make him over 25 in 1939, likely older. In the Anime, at the beginning of Ep 2, we see the photo of a baby, his father wearing an uniform that was in use from 1911 to 1938. If the baby is Sakuma this means that, at most, he can be 28.

According to the novel playing poker is Sakuma’s only hobby.

In D no Maō Sakuma claims he doesn’t know how to play billiards.

Although Sakuma is a fictional character a Sakuma-shi no ichizoku (佐久間氏の一族 Sakuma’s clan) exists. We can’t know if Sakuma was ideally meant to be part of them as until the Meiji Restoration, Japanese common people (people other than kuge and samurai) had no surnames but, after the Meiji Restoration, the government ordered all commoners to assume surnames in addition to their given names, as part of modernization and Westernization so many people adopted historical names, others simply made names up, chose names through divination, or had a Shinto or Buddhist priest choose a surname for them. This means people unrelated to the Sakuma’s clan might have chosen ‘Sakuma as a surname.

Sakuma shares his name with a popular brand of Japanese candies, the Sakuma Drops (サクマ式ドロップス “Sakuma Shiki Drops”), which exist from 1908. As a result the I.G. store used Sakuma as ‘testimonial’ for the “Sakuma-san drop” (佐久間さんドロップ “Sakuma-san drop”), mint flavoured drops.

While the main character in ‘Joker Game The Movie’, Katō Jirō (嘉藤次郎) is definitely not Sakuma and actually shares more common traits with Odagiri, he shares some common elements with him as well, like how he’s tricked into taking part to the Joker Game and how the others make fun of him, calling him ‘gunjin-kun’ (soldier) a reference to how Katō Jirō was a soldier before joining D Agency.

[jgfiles]

Sakuma’s character profile: Part 2 (Disguises used in the Joker Game Universe)

Sakuma’s character profile: Part 2 (Disguises used in the Joker Game Universe)

Disguised as: Military Police First Lieutenant Sakuma (憲兵中尉佐久間 - Kenpei-Chūi Sakuma) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 1 Chapter 1 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) D no Maō: Vol. 1 chap 1-5 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) Anime: Ep. 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) Joker Game The Animation Manga: Chap. 1, 2, 3 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game)

Sakuma’s ‘disguise’ merely required from him to pretend to be a Military Police First Lieutenant (instead than an Army Lieutenant) leading a Military Police squad during the inspection of Gordon’s house.

He doesn’t have to change his name or behaviour and not even his ranking and, fundamentally, remains himself.

Although he supposedly was the one leading the Military Police squad the one in charge of the operation was Miyoshi while Sakuma’s role was merely to pretend to be a figurehead.

While he’s pretending to be a Military Police First Lieutenant, Miyoshi sets him up for Harakiri. Sakuma though, manages to pull himself out from this situation.

He has to wear a Military Police uniform instead than the one of the Army (they differ in minor details). Although the story takes place in 1939, in D no Maō they have him wearing an uniform that has just fallen out of use, while in the Anime they had him wearing the uniform that started being used in 1939.

Although Sakuma keeps his grade as First Lieutenant, during the mission he’s also referred as ‘captain’ (隊長 “Taichō”) though this doesn’t refer to him having the rank of captain (that would be Taii 大尉 in Japanese) but of him being the commanding officer of the mission.