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jgfiles · 7 years ago

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Re-watching Joker Game: Ep 11 Coffin

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

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

Also many, many apologies if this comes so late. I love this episode but it also makes me cry and, in addition to this, this month was a busy one.

Mind you, what follows are my ramblings over Ep 11, comprehensive of my impression on how the frames were structured and so on with some occasional reference to the other Joker Game media.

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

And now, let’s start.

So yes, like in the previous episode I starts with the preview for this episode that was in Ep 10.

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

Miyoshi is seated to a table, watching with a pleased expression an art book about the Pre-Raphaelites. If you’ve no idea who they are let me tell you they were a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti whose intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo.

Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite". They viewed the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. By 1853 though, the original group had virtually dissolved, but the term "Pre-Raphaelite" stuck to Rossetti and others.

In the 20th century artistic ideals changed and art moved away from representing reality. Since the Pre-Raphaelites were fixed on portraying things with near-photographic precision, though with a distinctive attention to detailed surface-patterns, their work was devalued by many painters and critics.

Now… since Miyoshi in the drama cd will make himself known for his attention to details, it’s sort of fitting he would like their work.

Kaminaga, who’s behind him, notices he’s watching Millais’ painting, Ophelia, which, at first, was not highly regarded when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, but has since come to be admired for its beauty and its accurate depiction of a natural landscape.

Anyway, watching it Miyoshi wonders if the girl is alive or dead.

Now… Ophelia is a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, and the painting is supposed to represent her SINGING before she drowns in a river in Denmark. So sorry, Miyoshi, she was alive in the painting.

You’re saying that sentence purposely to confuse us viewers and let us think you could be alive in the next episode, even when novel readers KNOW you died because ‘Joker Game’ already changed the plot of the novels enough times even novel readers can hope you are alive even though the novel said you were meant to die.

In a way though this is a beautiful analogy because like Miyoshi wondered about Ophelia being dead although I bet Miyoshi knows she was meant to be still alive, novel readers (okay and normal viewers as well) could wonder about Miyoshi being alive in the next episode even though it was logical and obvious he was dead.

And now let’s dig into the episode.

‘Kōsoku’ [拘束 Restraint] is playing and this is rather fitting in fact we start with… a hand, tied to something.

The next second it’s clear the owner of said hand had been hit. The camera moves to give us a full view of what’s going on. Yes, there’s a man with one hand tied to a pole, a soldier standing and another soldier hitting the tied man.

Just to make your life simple if you aren’t into military uniforms I’ll tell you that the soldiers are wearing WW1 German military uniforms. You might have guessed it by the helmet worn by a soldier and by the fact that the other is blond which are the traits with whom the German Army is stereotyped more often than not.

The tied man is hit again in the face. The one hitting him is not doing it with his bare hand but with something like a cosh. Let me spoil this for you by telling you the one who’s doing the hitting is Hermann Wolff, the main character of this episode.

It’s cold because, when Wolff speaks we can see a cloud of vapour coming out his mouth. He demands to know with whom the tied man is working.

He then proceed to inform him his homeland has sold him and therefore he doesn’t need to remain loyal to it.

By the way, if the tied man look familiar to you, it’s food good reasons. That one is young Yūki who, at the request to tell everything he knows, merely grins and remains silent.

Wolff doesn’t take it well and resumes beating him again, calling him monster.

The scene switches and likely makes a flash forward. We’re still in the same place but Yūki is absent. On his place there are stains of blood, a clear sign they hit him enough to make him bleed.

A soldier asks Wolff if ‘he’ (Yūki) is really a spy. Wolff is sure of this and replies ‘without a doubt’.

Yūki is carried inside again as ‘Kaigi’ [懐疑 Skepticism] begins playing.

His clothes are dirty of dust and blood. He can’t walk on his own, a soldier has to support him. The plan is to tie him down again to the same spot and resume beating him.

Now… a break here.

This is episode 11. As of now we’ve seen three types of interrogatories, the three of them all involving torture. Let’s go through them.

First there was the ‘Robinson’ episode in which Kaminaga was questioned by Marks. Many might not remember Kaminaga being tortured because they might not have recognized it as such but the blinding light pointed at him to create extreme sensory discomfort, the rough way in which he was handled, the implication he was yelled at as well as that he was sleep deprived (remember the dark rings under his eyes?) and malnourished (his cheeks are slightly sunken) are all forms of torture… as well as using truth serum (which is nothing else but a type of drug) on him against his will, only as they aren’t explained or mentioned (leaving us to only see the consequences of it) we might not recognize them for what they are and so not notice the English are torturing him.

Next there’s the ‘Pursuit’ episode in which Price was questioned by the Military Police. With Price Joker Game was slightly more obvious. Tossing against him buckets of water (which we can guess is what had been done to him as he’s soaked and so is the table and the floor all around him) is also a mean to create extreme sensory discomfort. Price is also roughly handled and yelled at, stripped of part of his clothes (he’s missing his shoes as well as his shirt and undershirt) Price also carries the signs of lack of sleep. Slamming on the ground a bokken is a clear mean of intimidation as well as threatening his wife. In this episode is likely more obvious the Military police isn’t being nice with Price… but again some parts are vague or left unexplained and we see nothing apparently ‘over the top’.

And then we reach ‘Coffin’. Here nothing is subtle. Yūki is kept tied in an extremely uncomfortable position, in a cold place while he’s poorly dressed, beaten over and over while he’s unresponsive, signs of bruises on his cheek. Later we’ll see that there is now blood where Yūki was, a clear sign they hit him till he started bleeding, and the next time Yūki will be dragged there to be tortured he apparently can’t stand on his own. In short the interrogation method of the Germans immediately appear brutal, abusive, a clear torture even to who doesn’t know anything about tortures.

The differences don’t end here. Marks would have wanted to turn Kaminaga, which he has proof is a Japanese spy, in a double spy, if given the chance (if Kaminaga hadn’t escaped proving he wasn’t going to be loyal to them), Yūki let the English spy Price who had been caught red handed, go free (it’s important to point out through that Price was let free clearly due to Yūki’s instructions as the Military Police of that time wouldn’t have done it… but, although it’s implied that Price should have been killed, we’re instead shown that they were kind enough to release it, a subtle move to say that Japan wasn’t so bad). In this episode instead we’ll see Wolff interrogate Otto Frank. He won’t be brutal with him but the man is cooperative and ABSOLUTELY INNOCENT in regard to causing the incident or being a spy. How Wolff hands this innocent man? He pins on him the blame for a crime Wolff knows he didn’t commit and this solely for his government convenience, then hands him to the Gestapo… and we know this implies Otto Frank didn’t end well.

In short of the three countries Germany is represented as the morally worst one.

Again, in ‘Robinson’ Marks showed he was smarter than Izawa/Kaminaga but couldn’t compete against Yūki… hence the English spymaster is smart but not as much as Yūki. Between Price and Yūki there’s no competition, Yūki basically manipulated him as he pleased. What can we say about Wolff? He definitely places as the worst between the three as not only he loses against Yūki big time TWICE, but he sort of loses against Maki/Miyoshi as well. Even though he suspected Maki/Miyoshi, all he’ll manage to collect against him is those matches Otto Frank stole after Maki/Miyoshi died and only by pure coincidence. Not only he won’t manage to retrieve the list Maki/Miyoshi was hiding on his persona but he’ll understand way too late that Maki/Miyoshi was carrying it on himself. So, if Marks at least could beat Kaminaga/Izawa, Wolff can’t instead even compete against Maki/Miyoshi.

In a way it’s interesting to note how, although at that time Japan and Germany weren’t enemy, it’s Germany which is always depicted as the worst among the various states that show up in the story (Russia gets the second place). Of course this is partly to blame to the novels… and in them things could be more nuanced as the anime changed things and didn’t transpose all the tales (though there’s to note that in the novel Karl Schneider is a worse person than in the anime) but implicitly and explicitly Joker Game portrays Germany as bad.

It is also worth to add that it seems Yūki’s beating wasn’t depicted in the original story so the anime decided to show us this brutal scene of torture.

And now let’s go back to Yūki and to how they’re tying him to beat him again. As Yūki is being tied we can see from behind the two soldiers who escorted him and realize that, from the belt of the one that had been supporting Yūki, a hand grenade is missing as he has only 3 while his companion has four and there’s clearly an empty spot between his grenades.

Wolff realizes it as well, then, as the soldier moves away from Yūki, he realizes the man is holding the missing grenade with his tied hand.

Yūki raises his face, despite the fact he’s bleeding, he’s now smirking.

Wolff walk back in fear and tries to cover his face as Yūki, in an extremely quick manner, hides behind the wood column against which he was kept tied as the hand grenade explodes.

The scene switches to show us the outside of that wooden building as well as the fact that it’s night and that a lot of snow is falling. We hear the sound of the explosion and the German soldiers outside try to go check inside only to end up being slammed on the ground.

We switch again to the inside of the building, where Wolff and Yūki were. We can see the German soldiers that previously were watching Yūki being tortured are now all on the ground, their clothes dirty, likely hurt or dead. Wolff manages to raise himself from the floor and his first words are asking where Yūki had ended and next we see is that there’s no one were Yūki was kept tied.

Then we see that Wolff’s hair are a mess and that he has some nasty, bleeding cuts over his right eye, which he’s forced to keep shut.

The scene ends here but now let’s talk of something worth to note.

I’m sure Yūki would be good enough he could actually take possession of a grenade from a soldier without this one noticing… the problems arise later. The soldier from which Yūki stole the grenade is the one that ties his hand to the pole in front of which Yūki was beaten…. And we see that Yūki is holding the grenade with that hand.

How is it possible that the soldier, while tying Yūki��s hand, dind’t notice it was holding a grenade?

That grenade is not a tiny thing. It’s very likely a Stielhandgranate, likely an M 16, a German hand grenade of unique design which was the standard issue of the German Empire during World War I, and became the infamous issue of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II. This grenade is not tiny, actually it’s famous also for being big enough to make possible for enemies to identify the thrown grenade, recover it before detonation and throw the weapon back in the direction of the enemy.

One would think the soldier has to be Yūki’s accomplice but as he was probably pretty close when the grenade exploded… it seems hard to believe.

And it’s not just him, the soldier who accompanied him also didn’t notice.

Now… in regard to the explosion. These grenades had the explosive filler connected to a detonator, and a pull cord which ran from the detonator down the length of the hollow handle, emerging from the base. To use it, a soldier would simply pull the string downwards, dragging a rough steel rod through the igniter within the fuse. The rod's abrasive contact would cause sparks and a flame to light from within, setting the fuse burning. This fuse took approximately four and a half seconds to reach the detonator before exploding.

Now… maybe you missed it because the scene is rather fast but when the camera moves on the grenade we can see that Yūki is also, with the same hand that’s holding the grenade, pulling the string… and I really don’t know how he pulled this one with a single hand.

I’m also impressed by how that wooden pole at which Yūki was tied handled the grenade exploding so close to it in such a beautiful manner. I mean… the explosion seems to be big if we consider the sound of it, but the wood only got damaged a bit and the wooden house they’re in didn’t take fire or come crumbling down. Hatano’s dust explosion in Ep 3 produced a lot more damage… but maybe those grenades weren’t meant to be really powerful. Still I would have expected the wood to take fire but maybe it’s just me.

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

Then this ends and we get…

…the opening. Which is the same as usual. Miyoshi… do I really have to tell you when Miyoshi shows up in the opening? Because he’s the one who shows up more often.

We start with seeing his face just after Yūki’s and on his face is superimposed the image of Yūki walking away… which I guess might be a reference to how their stories cross in this episode.

Miyoshi also seems to be the guy who’s shooting, though I can’t be sure of this as his face is in the dark.

Then, when the spy start to show up he’s the first and he’s shown removing his hat and then turning to look at us… and it’s noteworthy to say that Yūki will do something similar at the end of the theme, which seems to strengthen the tie between the two.

We see Miyoshi again fighting with some guy and then tossing him on the ground.

Anyway the opening ends and we resume with Joker Game.

‘Senpuku’ [潜伏 Latent] is playing.

It’s day and snow is still falling from the sky and this could lead us to think what we’re going to see it’s a continuation of what happened at the beginning of the episode but then the camera moves downward we see we’re on the place of a train crash, dogs and soldiers apparently helping the survivors.

The scene switches and we see many men (each of them with a character design different from the others) standing, their hands tied and each with a different number on their jacket. Someone, clearly a soldier, is watching them but we can’t see his face.

There’s a knocking and someone announcing he’s getting in.

At this point we’re allowed to see who was watching the prisoners, a German Colonel of around 50, which the newcomer calls Wolff.

Note how, although we could guess its presence, the eyepatch at first isn’t shown clearly, as if Joker Game wanted to hide it so as to stop us from immediately recognizing that the colonel is the same person we saw at the beginning. Even when Wolff turns, part of the eyepatch his hidden by the visor of his hat and, since he only partly turn his right side is poorly visible, helping to hide it.

Wolff asks the newcomer, the First Lieutenant (Johan) Bauer, who looks a lot like him when he was younger but whose voice is completely different from his younger self, to give him his report.

In the original novel Bauer is actually not a First Lieutenant but just his secretary and he’s called by his first name only. I’ve always wondered if they turned him in a Lieutenant to create a parallel with Sakuma, as if to give us an idea of how things could have been has Sakuma kept on working for D Agency or something like that. It doesn’t help that this is the ‘Miyoshi’ episode and Miyoshi had been relevant in the ‘Sakuma’ episode… though of course it could be just me.

Anyway Bauer informs Wolff the train crashed due to a faulty power line and therefore it’s not the work of terrorism. In short the men they arrested are nothing more than onlookers.

Wolff orders him to inspect the prisoner number three. Thoroughly.

Bauer tries to point out there’s no way that it was a terrorist attempt but Wolff doesn’t care and tells him to pay particular attention to the matches that guy was carrying… and here I pause.

Can it be that Wolff has inspected the belonging of the ones lined up? Or he’s just guessing person number three is carrying matches? Because he’s not showing them at the moment. Oh well, I’ll assume he saw those guys belonging. Probably they confiscated them when they were arrested so maybe Wolff checked them before coming to see those guys.

The scene switches and the first thing we see are matches and a wallet.

We hear Bauer’s voice as he’s likely speaking with person number three… whose true name is Otto Franz, that they found quinine in the matches that he was keeping in his wallet.

So… okay, Wolff had to check the belongings of the ones he took captive because otherwise he couldn’t know that that guy had matches in his wallet. Anyway Bauer explain him how with quinine he could write a message that will be visible only applying the right chemicals.

By the way, now we can see they’re in an interrogation room. Otto Frank is seated to a table and Wolf is also seated in front of him. Bauer is standing next to Wolff, sort of acting as if he were his spokesperson or something like that.

Otto Frank turns to Bauer and claims he knows nothing about it and that those matches… he then turns toward Wolff and trails off… before admitting he just picked them up. I guess the idea is he didn’t want to admit he stole them.

Bauer asks where so he replies that he got them ‘near the site of the crash’… yeah, he got them really, really near it. Let’s say ON the site of the crash.

Wolff jumps into the discussion pointing out how odd it is he picked them up despite not smoking and I wonder… is it really? Matches are used to light fire, you might have to light fire EVEN if you don’t smoke and during that time period matches were a rather common mean to light one. So if he found some discharged on the ground… would it be so odd he would pick them up?

Going on. Wolff explains he knows Otto Frank doesn’t smoke because he doesn’t have a pipe of cigarettes with himself and there’s no tobacco resin under his fingernails. Now I find the whole thing still a bit to circumstantial because again, matches aren’t used only by smokers and he might have forgotten or lost his pipe somewhere… but again let’s let slide.

What’s relevant here is that finally we get a good look at Wolff’s face and we can see how he’s wearing an eye patch and that the right side of his face is scarred.

Mind you, you could have realized this earlier although we only saw glimpses of it, but now is really clearly visible. He’s questioning this man… and this should remind us of his past self who questioned another man… although in a much harsher way.

Wolff points out the wallet is too nice to be Otto Frank’s… and this confirms my headcanon that Miyoshi pays quite a lot of attention to his look and accessories so as to look the best and he didn’t drop the habit not even when he took Maki’s identity. Sorry, I let myself be carried over, back to the episode.

Wolff asks Otto Frank from whom he stole the wallet and the guy claims he swear it wasn’t from one of their own. I guess with this he’s meaning he didn’t steal it from a German person, which matches with how he immediately claims he stole it from an Asian… which is a vague hint at racism running rampant because Otto Frank seems to think it’s totally okay if he didn’t steal it from a German person. Wolff is clearly interested at this. Otto Frank goes on claiming that anyway the Asian was dead… which to him seems a nice excuse because of course the Asian man couldn’t have a family who’d like for the wallet to be returned… but still, him being dead is a better excuse to steal something from him than him being Asian… as of now at least. Back then people thought differently.

Wolff asks Otto Frank which was his name… and at first it seems a really weird question because, unless he suspected Otto Frank to know the victim, Otto Frank shouldn’t know this. But then Wolff clarifies that the Asian man should have had a card in his wallet… and Otto Frank admits he threw it away… which makes sense, really. Otto Frank is good enough to remember the man’s name started with ‘M’ and was something like ‘Maku’.

A sidenote here to admire the special care in Otto Frank’s body language through the episode. ‘Joker Game’ has already experimented this sort of things with ‘Robinson’ and they’re good at it.

Wolff suggests ‘Maki’ at which Otto Frank jumps up and immediately agrees. At this Wolff smirks in a creepy manner.

Now… keep this scene in mind as we’ll discuss it in a minute.

‘ Senzai’ [潜在 Potential] starts playing.

Next we’ve Bauer who reads on some papers (which we’ll discover are the list of the deceased) ‘Katsuhiko Maki. Japanese.’ And then shows the list to Wolff pointing to Maki’s name and claiming it should be him that Otto Wolff is talking about. The note says ‘Maki, Katsuhiko’ and then ‘Tod durch Blutverlus’ which is obviously in German and which the Japanese subs translated with a simple superimposed ‘dead’ though in German it was ‘dead due to blood loss’. No idea why shortening it in the Japanese subs, or expanding it in the German version.

Anyway this is the time to go backward a little. Remember? It was Wolff who suggested Maki’s name to Otto Frank. We could suspect he said that name because he read the deceased list but that’s likely not the case as Bauer feels the need to show it to him again. Bauer is confirming Otto Frank’s words by giving Wolff an information he didn’t have.

This is our hint that Wolff knew Maki existed and suspected him of being a Japanese spy but so far he had nothing against him. When Otto Frank starts talking him of an Asian man carrying spying equipment and whose name sounds something like ‘Maku’ he thought of Maki and mentioned him. It would be an interesting backstory… but the anime doesn’t really touch this again. Pity.

I wonder if maybe Wolff heard about Maki due to him getting involved in the facts regarding the novel only chapter ‘Valkyrie’ but, as this chapter isn’t translates, it’s hard to say. Some claims Maki is the D Agency spy that got in contact with the Japanese navy spy Yukimura Kōichi. Well, one plays the role of interior trimmer, the other is an art dealer… I guess it makes sense the two could get easily in contact.

Another noteworthy thing is Bauer’s list of the deceased. Bauer apparently reads ‘Maki, Katsuhiko. Japanese.’ On the list however there’s no mention of Maki’s nationality. There’s just his name and how he died due to blood loss. Nothing more. And he’s the only one with an Asian name on that list. And this is a mistake as Bauer supposedly didn’t know Maki prior to the accident since he couldn’t recognize him first sight when he saw him at the hospital but had to ask around. Sure, he might have guessed he’s Japanese due to how he had a Japanese name… but at the time I think people would have found harder to recognize between the various types of Asian names and pin nationalities for them. But let’s go on.

At this point Wolff stands up and tells Bauer they’ve to leave. As he moves to do so a soldier asks him in a lower voice what should they do with Otto Frank. Wolff grins cruelly and claims that since the blood of ‘their countrymen’ had been spilled and their ‘great and glorious’ nation couldn’t be held responsible for it they’ll use Otto Frank as a scapegoat and therefore he should be handed to the Gestapo.

Then, as Wolff leaves the room we hear the poor guy screaming but not Wolff or Bauer, who’s walking away with Wolff, seem to care and here I pause again.

With this act Wolff becomes immediately noteworthy for being cruel, way more than Marks, as he’s pinning the blame of a crime on an innocent man to cover up how their nation screwed up. Close to Muto in short, who wanted to pin the blame of the failed search to Gordon’s house on D Agency and Sakuma (remember how the D Agency boys and Sakuma would have likely been sent to the frontlines and they failed which meant a polite way to try to sentence you to dead back then), even if apparently more competent than him. There’s another thing though that’s worth mentioning.

Remember the name of the poor guy over which was pinned the blame? If it sounds familiar, it’s because it should because you should have heard about another Otto Frank, or more precisely of an Otto Heinrich Frank, who was Anna Frank’s father.

They’re clearly NOT THE SAME PERSON (look and personal history differ A LOT), and I couldn’t find any source claiming the Otto Frank of Joker Game was Jew but sure is the casual homonymy is interesting.

It’s also worth to mention how Bauer not only doesn’t discuss Wolff’s actions (we have seen and we’ll see in other instances that he’s not afraid to voice his thoughts to his superior officer even when they clash with Wolff’s and that’s a trait he has in common with Sakuma) but doesn’t look even displeased by them or sorry for the guy who’s being accused of an act of terrorism even if he’s completely innocent.

Bauer is an apparently likable character so we might not notice it but, although he’s not smirking cruelly at any turn, he’s not adverse to what Wolff is doing and admires the guy, if only because he’s good at catching spies. In short Bauer isn’t a good boy, at least from a modern perspective (back then it was probably completely fine to let an innocent man be accused to cover up a country’s reputation) and his complains that Wolff should stop obsessing with Maki merely stem from his idea that’s a waste of time and resources, not from a sense of moral unfairness toward a deceased man they can’t really prove to be guilty of spying.

Anyway, back to Wolff and Bauer, Wolff orders Bauer to search Maki’s house secretly, to cordon off the surrounding area and arrest anyone who seems suspicious.

Bauer points out he’ll need a lot of men in order to do so but Wolff says it’s fine.

In the next scene we see them outside the building they were in, which is supposed to be a police station.

Wolff then instruct Bauer to also investigate on Maki’s work history and to confirm that he’s truly dead with his own eyes. He then walks away. If we pay close attention Wolff has a car waiting for him with a soldier in uniform who likely works as his driver. It’s interesting how we aren’t clearly shown this but the camera focus on Bauer watching him leave and following him with his gaze. He seems perplexed but maybe it’s just me.

In the next scene is clearly night. It’s still snowing and we’re shown a huge building.

Then we see Bauer, apparently getting inside it carrying a suitcase.

It’s implied he’s going to climb the stairs.

Next we’re shown the inside of an apartment, and how there’s a soldier guarding the door.

We hear a knocking sound and then the soldier opens the door and Bauer gets inside asking if they found anything. The soldier (or more likely the policeman as his hat matches with the ones of the policemen we saw before when Wolff was interrogating Otto Frank) says they found nothing suggesting Maki was a spy. All this implies Bauer hasn’t just returned home, but he has gone to Maki’s apartment, were Wolff’s underlings are searching for proofs Maki is a spy.

The policeman points out that continuing to search would be a waste of time. Bauer defends Wolff, claiming he caught over a hundred spies in his career. I guess the idea is that joker game wants to establish that although Wolff isn’t a spymaster like Marks, he’s also very capable so we should consider him a formidable foe. Anyway the policeman isn’t really persuaded, lowering his head and starting to say ‘but this time…’. Bauer gets angry and orders him in a loud tone to keep looking then walks inside the house. Keep this in mind, it’ll get relevant later. The policeman salutes, a hint he has no other options but obey.

Next we see are policemen searching the apartment. Now… the apartment is terribly dark as apparently no one has turned up the lights. Okay for the secrecy but really, how can those people see something?

Here. Enjoy the scene after I cleared it up.

Wolff is there as well. There’s to wonder if, while Bauer went to collect the info Wolff has requested from him, Wolff had come straight to Maki’s house. Anyway Bauer approaches him and, apologizing for the delay, hands Wolff a big, brown envelope. Wolff opens it and pulls out photos of the deceased body of… Miyoshi.

Yes, we all forget because by now we know about it but this was the first instance in which we were shown that Maki was Miyoshi and therefore that, since Maki is dead, Miyoshi IS dead.

Anyway, Miyoshi is lying on his back on what looks like a hospital bed, his eyes are open but apparently unseeing and there’s a lot of blood all over the right side of his shirt and jacket.

Even if his unseeing gaze resembles the one of Ophelia in the preview, Ophelia at least had her arms partly raised, to point out at how she was still alive. Miyoshi’s arms are lying on his sides.

Bauer starts to tell Wolff what he found out about Maki. Maki Katsuhiko, 28, single, no roommates. He was an art dealer. He registered about a year ago. He’s from an affluent Japanese family and came to Europe to study art. After school, his interest in the field grew, and he started his own art business. The cause of death was shock and blood loss after being pierced by a steel beam broken off the train.

As Bauer speaks other photo of Maki’s deceased body are being shown. Among them there’s one of Maki’s hand, with a red circle around his index, middle and ring finger.

It’s not explained what it represents but I guess it means they found tobacco resin under his fingernails, differently from what had happened with Otto Frank. The funny part though is likely that it’s not like Maki smoked to have an excuse for carrying around matches. In D Agency everyone smokes like crazy to the point ashtrays were always filled and the place was foggy with smoke. Unless they had been taught to smoke at D Agency because it could turn useful to them in the future?

Then, as we’re shown a frontal photo of Maki which focuses on his face Bauer comments Maki probably looks so calm because he died instantly.

In Joker Game The Animation Manga they added an extra scene to explain how Miyoshi actually gave some thoughts to which expression he should wear as he died so, if we take it as canon, it’s not like he’s so serene because he has accomplished his mission or something like that, but that expression too is a deception. Miyoshi, not only kept up a perfect façade of an ordinary art dealer through all his life but, even as he died, was still capable to spin a deception for whoever were to check on his body. An admirable spy.

Wolff asks Bauer if he’s sure this person is Maki at which Bauer answers he showed the picture to his neighbours and had them confirm that he’s definitely Maki… and here I wonder. Wolff knew Maki’s name and suspected him to be a spy. Did he knew him by name only? Is that why he can’t recognize him by seeing him? Was he planning to investigate on him because his name showed up when Maki went and died on his own? Or he’s asking because he thinks the deceased person could be a look alike? If that’s the case Bauer’s method to make sure this guy is Maki isn’t really an insurance. They would need checking his fingerprints to make sure he’s Maki… and I don’t get why they hadn’t done it. After all they’re in Maki’s house… how hard it would be to take his fingerprints from whatever object there and compare them with the decease’s fingerprints?

The neighbours aren’t even an insurance he’s the true Maki Katsuhiko and not someone who had took his place… which is exactly what Miyoshi is.

Anyway Bauer seems to want to continue but trails off. Wolff prods him and Bauer admits he was surprised to see that Maki was a beautiful man (are you crushing on a deceased man, Bauer?) and how someone said that Maki ‘looked more alive in death’. Uh, oh, Miyoshi, that’s worrisome in a way, as it means your final disguise doesn’t quite match with the persona you have used till now and it’s meaningful how Wolff seems to react to such words. He caught the implication in them.

Bauer goes on claiming that friends and relatives of the accident victims have been visiting the hospital but no one came to see Maki… and here I don’t know if to be impressed at Yūki’s cleverness or roll my eyes at Bauer’s naivety… because Yūki actually went to visit Maki already. Actually he just saw him moment before Bauer arrived. But he claimed he was checking the guy NEXT to Maki. In short, even though they knew there was the risk someone would come for Maki they had Maki unguarded and placed in a room with someone else (photos were taken prior to Yūki’s visit meaning when they were taken Maki was already suspected of being a spy) and only after they moved him to a single room and they didn’t check the people who came to see the person that was in the same room as Maki… but well, in this episode the mistakes Yūki’s enemies do are all pretty naïve…

In a way it’s interesting. Wolff in the beginning seemed cooler than Marks but in truth he handles his own investigation poorly, while Marks only lost because he had no idea he had a sleeping spy among his men.

At this point, albeit politely points out how they have examined all of Maki’s belongings and found nothing so couldn’t Wolff consider that maybe Maki was just an art dealer and nothing more? Which is a very polite way to fundamentally tell Wolff ‘I think you’re totally wrong in suspecting of this man’. It’s sort of fun because again it reminds me of Sakuma and of how he disagreed with Yūki (and of how Yūki tried to explain him his point of view)… through Sakuma was a lot more direct and a lot less polite.

Wolff doesn’t get angry at Bauer’s suggestion he just states that Maki Katsuhiko was a Japanese spy and there’s no room for doubt about it. Tautology? LOL, no actually Wolff thinks he has proof. Sort of.

‘Kanshi’ [監視 Monitoring] starts playing.

Bauer tries to protest again and Wolff, with a nod, makes him acknowledge that there’s some aspirin on the floor. Bauer also tells Wolff they found some of it in Maki’s belongings.

Wolff claims that Maki probably left it on the floor on purpose as a trap to check if someone had been in his apartment while he was away. Bauer looks down but he doesn’t seem persuaded. Wolff shows him there’s some dust on the writing desk and claims this is a trap of the same nature.

Now yes, we know that Miyoshi/Maki WAS a spy so yes, those are traps but, by the way the anime present them, they can also be the signs that Maki wasn’t prone to dusting the place and that he inadvertently dropped an aspirin ONCE before dying and didn’t realize.

But well, at this point Bauer tries to point out how he has heard that, behind the scenes, Germany has formed a three-way alliance with Italy and Japan which is… well, not so behind the scenes as the tripartite pact was signed on 27 September 1940 (Coffin takes place on 13 December 1940, when the pact was signed by quite a bit) and it wasn’t kept as a secret, quite the contrary, it was an impressive sight with the entire city of Berlin festively decorated, soldiers in full uniforms and flags on every corner. The delegates travelled by car through the crowd while the guards of honour stood at attention. German newsreels and radio stations spoke for days of the big event and the Japanese embassy in Berlin (and I guess also the Italian one) exposed the three flags of the states involved…

… so really, Bauer, it’s not ‘behind the scenes’ more like ‘in front of the scenes’ as the pact was directed primarily at the United States, which, of course needed to know about it so they sort of broadcasted it all over the world to let the USA know. In short, almost the whole world knew, no secrecy involved here. You are in a three-way alliance with Italy and Japan, Bauer, it’s not a gossip, it’s something everyone is aware of.

Anyway Bauer wonders why, a Japanese spy would sneak into their country since Japan is supposedly a friendly nation? Same reason why Germany will have spies in Italy and Japan (or why each nation, regardless of its allegiances has spies in other countries be them friends or foes), because there’s zero trust among the countries.

Now… I get that Bauer here works as a stand in for the reader, making the questions the reader could make but really… this was quite an easy one but, what’s worse is that since Bauer works with Wolff in the Abwehr, the German military intelligence organization which existed from 1920 to 1945, he should know this already.

Wolff’s answer though, although correct, isn’t the best one. He claims they shouldn’t consider Japan as a friend because 22 years ago they were at war with Japan. Now… it’s true that they shouldn’t consider Japan as a friendly country who wouldn’t send spies and it’s true they were at war 22 years ago but… all this is not the point?

Japan doesn’t send spies to Germany just because they were enemies 22 years ago. He sends spies to Germany because allegiances among states are formed due to common interests. If those interests shift, then the allegiances of that nation could end up on shifting as well and this regardless of the country having been your enemy in the past or not. Japan has to make sure those interests won’t shift and that Germany won’t do anything that disadvantageous to Japan. Never mentioning it could be Japan’s interests that would shift and, if this were to happen, it would be of use to them to know Germany’s secrets.

Also, even though Joker Game novel and anime don’t bother to focus on this (but the stage did) I’m sure Japan has spies in Italy as well, despite the two of them never being enemies before (in WW1 they were on the same side) and we know that, although Japan was at war with Germany in WW1, in WW2 the two will remain allies till the end.

So really, no, it’s not that Bauer shouldn’t trust Japan because they were at war 22 years ago, it’s that Bauer shouldn’t believe that Japan wouldn’t send spies because Japan a friendly nation, because ‘friendship’ is not involved in the equation at all.

The real problem here aren’t Japan and Germany, it’s Wolff’s grudge against Yūki.

In fact Wolff happily claims that ‘the hunt isn’t over yet and that he’ll get that man this time’ which is our hint that Wolff never got over the fact that Yūki escaped him. It really doesn’t matter to him if Japan is feeling honest friendship for Germany, he wants to catch Yūki, he’s obsessed by it, in a way that’s similar yet different from Kazato (interesting enough maybe of all of Yūki’s rivals only Marks has a ‘healthy’ ‘relationship’ with Yūki, everyone else is obsessed with him… though I don’t think there are Marks/Yūki fics out there…). Yūki is the ghost that haunts his dreams and scarred him, a ghost he can’t let go and in a way is meaningful how the manga will visually represent it (when it turns out that Yūki escaped him AGAIN the manga will show a ghost hand touching Wolff’s injured eye).

Back to Wolff and Bauer, Bauer is confused by the term ‘hunt’ and Wolff clarifies by adding that ‘he’ll get him this time…’ so yes, this is all about Wolff’s obsession for Yūki. He doesn’t really care about Maki or his accomplices, he wants Yūki. He has no proofs Yūki is there, it could be that Yūki sent someone else in his place, but Wolff is sure he’ll get him instead. Yeah, he too is an obsessed man.

The scene switches (a bit abruptly if I can say so) and we’re shown a young German officer, the same officer that, at the beginning, was torturing Yūki. In short a young Wolff. He’s staring intently to a paper and his superior officer informs him that’s a Japanese coded message they intercepted from a radio transmission.

Wolff comments this mean the movements of their subs in the Mediterranean had been leaked to Japan. His superior officer (the Major General Gunter Kites) confirms and tells him the codename of the spymaster in charge of the informants is ‘Magician’ (魔術師 Majutsu-shi).

‘Kaigi’ [懐疑 Skepticism] starts playing.

Wolff claims they should assume the leak is coming from the highest ranks in the government and that he believes it’s imperative they’ll learn their identities.

His boss tells him it’s unnecessary as they’ve already captures the Magician.

The scene switches to show us a bounded and seated Yūki, looking miserable like a sad puppy.

Note that he’s not wearing any jacket and his shirt’s sleeves are pulled up… while Wolff, who’s seated in front of him is wearing a coat. A fire is also lighted in the place. It’s hard to figure if the place is cold or not.

Anyway Wolff claims he’s impressed because Yūki had been stealing Germany’s classified information for over 6 months. Puppy Yūki looks at him with his most innocent, harmless and sorry gaze asking him what he’s talking about as he’s not a spy and all this is a mistake… and I’ve to say he’s much better than Kaminaga at this. Really, someone give an Oscar for this performance to the man.

Wolff informs him they got info about him being the Magician by the Japanese Imperial Army’s General Staff Headquarters themselves… because evidently they already hated Yūki.

It’s worth to note that in the novel ‘Night of the ball’ (Vol 4 chap 2) it’s said that, prior to take part to WW1, Yūki involved himself with Gojō Akiko, who’s the daughter of a Marquis and from a family with thousand year history and quite a lot of influence but, what’s even more relevant is the fiancé (and future bride) of Kagami Masaomi who will turn out to know Yūki as he has a photo of him in his study and who’s strongly against spies and later, against D Agency. So maybe he was sold by the at the time Colonel Kagami (later he’ll become a Lieutenant General thanks to the support of Akiko’s family).

It’s of course hard to say as ‘Night of the ball’ is still not translated but it sure allows us to make interesting speculations. On another side Kagami was suspected of being a sodomite so maybe he kept a photo of Yūki because he had personal interests in him and sold him because he was jealous the man showed interest in his wife instead? LOL, we can’t know. It could even be that Akiko’s investigations on Yūki lead to Yūki’s info being dropped to the Germans. So many possibilities as long as the story isn’t translated and we aren’t given an exact timeline for it… What’s interesting though is that Akiko was told Yūki was dead, not that he ended up comatose, so she wasn’t fed the Arisaki Akira story. There’s to wonder how many identities Yūki has…

But well, although more detailed info on ‘Night of the ball’ would be appreciated let’s go back to ‘Coffin’. Wolff basically tells Yūki his country sold him off and even handed them his real name. The jerk doesn’t share it with us as, although we see his lips mouthing it, the audio silences his voice at this point but at this Yūki drops the sad puppy act and raises his head to look at him.

Evidently he didn’t take well the fact he’d been sold out if he didn’t try to deny it. And he wasn’t even under the effect of the truth serum.

The scene switches again and we go back to the explosion caused by the hand grenade Yūki tossed when he escaped.

Again we see Wolff wondering ‘where he (Yūki) is?’ and seeing he escaped. He then hears a shoot and runs out. Note how bright Joker Game is in this. Now it only shows us an unconscious German soldier without his coat…

…and asks us to figure out that it was Yūki who stole the coat, basically insuring himself camouflage and a source of warmth as he escaped into the snowy storm. In fact, as Wolff runs out, we can see the back of a man wearing a coat escaping and disappearing in the storm.

The flashback ends here, with Wolff explaining that was the last time they heard of him.

Bauer claims it would be impossible for a man so heavily injured to hide in a foreign country for a long time. Wolff informs him that just after Yūki escaped the sailors at Kiel revolted (3 November 1818) and that triggered the revolution that swept across the country and ended with Germany’s surrender. Germany will surrender on 11 November 1918 so really, at most Yūki had to hide for 8 days in a Germany that was going through a revolution. In short this wouldn’t be as impossible as Bauer makes it to be.

Of course the idea that Yūki could pull this out could make fans hope that Miyoshi/Maki could do the same, forgetting how Bauer checked on him being dead already but well, I can’t blame people for harbouring the same hope I had… :P

Bauer then asks him if he thinks all that was predetermined and claims he can’t picture a man capable of doing such a thing. The interesting thing is that… we don’t really have an answer for this. Yūki is depicted as amazing, way more than any normal human so yes, it’s possible. But of course it might be it was all a coincidence. Wolff can’t prove either way and we might blame him seeing young Yūki as capable of such feat as a mere consequence of his own obsession over Yūki. It’s hard to say.

Maybe the novel gave us more info but without them we can’t really tell if Yūki could predict the exact moment in which the Kiel mutiny would take place and its consequences and therefore time his escape in accordance with that. Maybe it was merely a matter of good luck.

Anyway, to Bauer’s question Wolff replies that a few years ago the Imperial Army established a new intelligence agency, D Agency.

‘Kaigi’ [懐疑 Skepticism] resumes playing.

Please, allow me a moment to praise the Imperial Army for how secret they kept the existence of their new intelligence agency (1937). Fundamentally everyone and their moms had heard about D Agency and its founder Lieutenant Colonel Yūki and Wolff is no exception. Wolff complains they couldn’t find more info about it but he’s sure Yūki is the man that escaped him because… tautology, I guess. Oh, really, Miyoshi would love to have a chance to chat with this man because really, what would have stopped Japan from having another spy like Yūki founding a spy school?

Really, it’s not that Wolff’s ideas are wrong, we actually know that Maki is a spy and that Yūki is the Magician… it’s just that the only support he has for them is his obsession and maybe some tiny circumstantial evidence. It’s no wonder Bauer ends up on insisting he’s wrong.

Anyway Wolff goes on an states that the Magician returned home even after his country disavowed him… and oh, wait, Bauer never heard of D Agency. Maybe they kept the secret better than I thought… even though this makes Wolff’s ramblings on Yūki even shakier because now he can’t even support D Agency exists.

Still Bauer’s statement makes me wonder if this is relevant or not. I mean, if Bauer wasn’t supposed to have such knowledge because he’s not important enough the fact he never heard about it is irrelevant… but if he was supposed to have it… what were they waiting to hand it to him?

Now… we know that’s not the case but it would make for an interesting AU if Bauer was actually the German’s sleeper and Miyoshi in truth was never so badly hurt but it was all an act Bauer put up to trick Wolff into believing Maki died and Yūki was never involved in this mess. Too bad that’s not it, really.

Anyway, after claiming he never heard of D Agency Bauer calls Wolff, as if to want him to stop saying such nonsense. Wolff though goes on in his own little theory and claims that Maki was probably a spymaster manipulating his accomplices… which I guess he figured out because he actually almost has no proof against Maki? So, if he has no proofs it can only be because Maki is good enough to be a spymaster and not because he is actually not a spy? Again, Wolff is right in his assumption but he’s basing it over… almost nothing. He goes on and claim Maki lived in Germany under the guise of an art dealer contacting his informants, gathering information, analyzing it and reporting back home. Thanks for the summary of his spy life over which you’ve no proof whatsoever Wolff. Bauer is really totally (not) buying any of this.

Anyway Wolff goes and claim Maki’s accomplices will panic if news of his dead come out and his spy network in Germany will break down which would be a good thing for Germany I think so let’s have this happening? But no, since the only person who can prevent that is the one giving Maki’s orders which in Wolff’s mind is Yūki, his obsession, he has to do something different.

Wolff let us know how a spymaster never reveals the names of his sources, not even to allies so Maki has to have a list of accomplices hidden somewhere so… let’s search for it? No, no, who cares about the list, the point is THAT MAN (add flashback of Yūki as he grins as he’s about to toss the hand grenade) is going to come for it!

Please, note the obsession Wolff has for capturing Yūki. He doesn’t care for Maki’s spy network, not really. What he wants is Yūki. Well, Yūki, even if you win the ‘most unpopular’ prize in the Army each year and no one can compete against you for it, there’s still people who can’t do anything else but think at you. Kazato shoot himself due to you… I wonder if Wolff afterward had to retire due to nervous breakup.

Anyway it’s beautiful how the visual shows us a grinning mask which clearly represents Yūki as Wolff says so.

Not only grinning Yūki is the last thing Wolff remembers of Yūki but Yūki has already won this one battle and Wolff doesn’t even know and he’s probably somewhere grinning at Wolff’s expenses.

The scene switches and Wolff is trying to contain his impatience of meeting Yūki again by smoking at his desk. The room isn’t filled with smoke but we’ll later see his ashtray is filled with cigarette butts. Either they don’t clean it often or he has been smoking quite a bit. I could count 12 butts but there are probably more. Anyway it’s likely the following day and poor Bauer is reporting again to him.

Bauer tells him that, as he ordered, they concealed the news of Maki’s death (and Yūki thanks you for this so he had all the time to contact Maki’s spy network while it wasn’t panicking) placed a notice in the newspaper about an unidentified body and had him placed in the Berlin Hospital.

Meanwhile Wolff is checking the newspaper whose date is Saturday, December 1X the X being for a number not visible but that can be only 4 as the only Saturday that started with 1 in December was the 14th.

‘Senpuku’ [潜伏 Latent] starts playing.

Bauer tells him that they’re keeping Maki’s house under surveillance and are continuing to search it. The room in which Maki is being kept is also under surveillance and the Ministry of Aviation had been alerted so as to report to them if anyone calls the hospital to inquire about Maki. In short a lot of people has been involved in this chase.

‘Senpuku’ [潜伏 Latent] stops playing.

Wolff stubs his cigarette (damn, he smoked it in 40 seconds…) and asks if they found something in Maki’s house. Bauer answers that nothing was found and they even investigated ALL his usual hangouts and nothing turned up. Wolff finds it strange and claims they’re overlooking something.

‘Senpuku’ [潜伏 Latent] starts playing louder.

Bauer tries again to persuade him that what they’re overlooking is the possibility that Maki was never a spy in the first place. He claims Wolff is losing composure and that there’s no evidence whatsoever that this ‘Yūki’ that Wolff keeps bringing up is the man who slipped away from him 22 years ago. As if this wasn’t bad enough, apart for the matches the thief claims he stole to Maki (but apparently they only have his word about it because they didn’t bother again to check for fingerprints) there’s no evidence that Maki was a spy either. Last but not least, Bauer (the new authority among spy experts apparently) don’t believe anyone who was actively spying could have covered his tracks to this degree. In short Bauer tells him he thinks Wolff is chasing a phantom (and hey, what about going to talk with doctor Jung? Maybe it could help you… okay so Bauer didn’t say it because maybe he didn’t know Jung but if he had he probably would have thought that scheduling a meeting with him might have helped Wolff…)

I love the exchange of glances between those two. Wolff looks about to blow up…

…and Bauer is as if he’s braking for the impact but not going to change his opinion in the slightest and in this reminds me of Sakuma.

And, interesting enough, it’s Wolff who surrenders.

Really I love to know the relationship between those two more in deep because even though Wolff is a Colonel and Bauer a First Lieutenant it’s clear that Bauer isn’t afraid to clash against him and, differently to Muto, Wolff at least is decent enough not to blow up against him when Bauer is being sensate. Credit when it’s due, Wolff is a monster toward his enemies but it seems he’s not one with his allies.

Wolff acknowledges with a bitter smile that Bauer doesn’t believe him but… HE KNOWS. Because HE HAS SEEN THE MONSTER WITH HIS OWN EYES… and as he says so we’re shown Miyoshi’s photo lying on the table and if Miyoshi in the photo could speak he would say ‘Tautology again?’ because having seen the Magician 22 years ago sure it’s proof that everything revolves around him. Wolff goes on claiming Maki has the same scent as the man from 22 years ago and yes, it’s an analogy but it’s again not supported by proof.

Bauer calmly point out that Maki’s death is just a coincidence and I wonder if he’s pitying Wolff and his obsession at this point because previously he seemed to admire him but now he’s really not buying it. Bauer then goes on saying that faced with such an unpredictable death a spy couldn’t possibly look so calm… and hum… didn’t we go through this already and your theory was he died immediately and that’s why he looks calm? Because really, it’s not like people would look calm normally if they were to wake up with a steel beam in their chest, even if they’re not spies…

Hum… I’ve the feelings the subs messed up?

Anyway his words come as a revelation to Wolff…

…and he asks on which train Maki was on… because he didn’t even check that in his obsession about Yūki. Bauer is confused so Wolff clarifies he wants to know if Maki was on the train headed to Krun or the one headed to Berlin. Bauer, who has checked it (really Wolff read your underlings’ reports) answers he was on the train for Berlin. At this Wolff looks about to blow up then stands hurriedly and the scene…

…switches to a street in Berlin. Snow is still falling and Wolff is on a car driven by Bauer. Bauer asks what’s going on. We don’t know if what follow is Wolff explaining things to Bauer or just mulling them to himself but anyway here’s Wolff’s reasoning superimposes to images of Maki.

‘Tansaku’ [探索 Search] starts playing.

Wolff reasons that Maki was sure is list wouldn’t fall into enemy hands. As he thinks so we see that Miyoshi/Maki is handing an envelope to Yūki with all the info he has collected… while the two are someplace drinking tea… just in case you were wondering why the Joker Game cups had Miyoshi and Yūki as testimonials. It seems that those two are the ones in D Agency who are into tea as I can’t remember anyone else drinking it.

Next scene shows Miyoshi/Maki on the train, travelling toward Berlin as the snow is falling abundantly. Wolff reasons that this means that on that day Maki was on his way back after reporting everything he learned.

The next shoot shows the incident, the trains being a mess one smashed against the other…

… to switch on Maki.

We see him from a window, the camera being behind him. He’s waking up. He’s panting and I’ll say at first his face is showing the pain he was feeling as he looks down at himself and see a steel beam going through his chest.

From the look of it, it should have broken some ribs and gone through his right lug. He’s bleeding quite a bit but, if that hadn’t killed him, it would probably have drowned in his own blood, due to the blood filling his lug… so maybe he died a better death.

Maki raises his hand and see it’s dirty with blood. He smiles…

… and then uses his dirty hand to touch the right side of his collar, smearing it with blood, a signal for Yūki that if blood ended there where it shouldn’t have he should search there.

Oh, interesting enough Maki either had a bruise on his right cheek or something dirtied it.

Wolff at this point think that ‘then the person who Maki gave all his information to…’ He trail off and the scene switches again to show us Wolff and Bauer coming out of an elevator.

Wolff asks to the men who’re disguising as patients and that actually are guarding Maki if anyone has come to visit him. They reply ‘no one’ then as Wolff leaves they exchange a long suffering glance with Bauer. Really, everyone here is thinking Wolff lost his mind.

If Miyoshi hadn’t died for real and therefore I weren’t still busy crying over this, I would think this episode is hilarious in how it drives Wolff to be exchanged for a disturbed guy and might end up with Wolff being accused of being insane and obsessed and therefore ending hospitalized (or terminated as Germany at that time wasn’t so nice with who had psychiatric illness). I love Bauer’s expression as he stares at Maki. He’s like ‘oh my, here we are again, can’t you see there’s nothing out of place?’.

Bauer however is surprised when Wolff actually reacts as if something is indeed out of place. He tries to reassure him that nothing seems out of the ordinary to which Wolff asks him where the hell is he looking and then he hands him Maki’s photos. Bauer is confuse.

‘Kinan’ [危難 Danger] starts playing.

To give us a chance to figure out things the camera shows Maki to us as well. He’s lying on the bed, his eyes close and his collar unstitched.

Bauer pulls out a photo and we see that in it Miyoshi had his eyes opened and his collar stitched… just in case we hadn’t realized about the difference and, like Bauer, weren’t looking attentively. Actually it’s beautiful how the photo is taken exactly at the same angle in which the camera is showing us Miyoshi’s body so the two can be almost superimposed.

At this point Bauer realizes something off. The camera gives us a close up of Miyoshi’s closed eyes and of his unstitched collar just to make sure we got that’s what was off.

Outside Wolff is demanding to his men that they wouldn’t lie to him. They sound rather worried as they swear it’s true that no one except them has been in there… SINCE THEY MOVED HIM THERE.

Wolff, who really should learn to read the reports, apparently had no idea Maki’s body was moved. He turns to Bauer who tells him that, the day before, when he came to retrieve Maki’s photos, he had him moved to this room so it would be easier to watch him… meaning that before that moment Maki’s body had been somewhere else and unguarded. Wolff asks where Maki was before and Bauer gives him the number of the room (202 instead than the 305 he’s now).

Wolff watched the hospital map and it shows that room 202 has two beds in it.

He sees a nurse and asks her if Maki’s was the only body in room 202. She replies that no, he shared that room with an elderly man who also died in the accident.

Wolff asks her if someone came to claim the body of the old man and she answers negatively as apparently the man had no relatives… but then she remembers that before Bauer came to the hospital and had Maki moved a man came to identify the body (of the elder guy, I guess?)

The nurse tells us how that man’s face was mostly covered by his hat so she couldn’t see him well but she thinks he could have been a foreigner. No idea why as Yūki is tall, we know that speaks German perfectly and even knows the dialects and had his hands covered by gloves. But well, I guess maybe he missed some details.

Anyway the camera shows us the inside of room 202 while Maki and the body of the elder were there. The door opens and we see the shadow of a man walking with a cane.

Guess who is he? The camera shows us Maki’s profile then. We know that the door is closed because the light on Miyoshi’s face disappear and room is now completely dark (how can Yūki see in this darkness? What’s wrong about turning on the light? Isn’t it odder if he stays in the darkness?) and we see that someone with a familiar cane and a white glove on his right hand appear at Miyoshi’s side.

‘Yūki’ [結城 Yūki] begins playing because, guess what? The guy next to Miyoshi IS Yūki.

Oh, and okay, Yūki is not wearing a glove on his left hand so maybe that’s what tipped the nurse off. That person, Yūki if you still hadn’t guessed stops to stare at Maki. THEN HIS RIGHT HAND MOVES AND…

The scene switches and Bauer and one of the men who’ll guard Maki’s door arrives. Bauer asks where Maki is being kept (meaning the hospital staff knew he was Maki), clarifying just in case he’s the Oriental who died in the train crash, which tells us that evidently there were no other Orientals who died in it.

The nurse glares at them starting to ask them who they are when she sees Yūki and asks him if he has recognized the person he had come to see. Yūki, who’s two steps from Bauer, keeping his face covered by his hat, apologizes and says he had the wrong person.

There’s a delicious irony in Bauer actually meeting the ghost Wolff was desperately chasing and not even recognizing him so that he’ll deny his existence to Wolff later on and, at the same time, he’ll let him with the delusion he could chase him when Yūki had already retrieved the info he was searching for.

It reminds me of when Price chased Yūki and it was Price’s wife who actually got to meet him.

The woman reports he was using a cane and walking with a limp… Yūki’s fake distinctive trait so that if Bauer or Wolff wanna go on a chase they’ll search the wrong person.

There’s something else that’s noteworthy. As Yūki walks away we see that after apologizing to the nurse with a grave face telling her he had the wrong person, his lips turn up in a smile although his eyes remain covered.

Of course we can assume Yūki is actually grinning because he has accomplished his mission and tricked Wolff escaping from his men all over again but, and here there’s the interesting part. Before Yūki disappears from our eyes he raises his head so we can see he’s not smiling anymore. Actually to me he looks sad. The fact we can see his eyes is usually a trope to imply we’re seeing his true feelings. Meaning at the moment, although Yūki managed to trick Wolff and Bauer and accomplish his mission he felt all but smug. He was actually sad Miyoshi died and he lost one of his spies.

The scene switches back to Wolff to show us he’s deep in shock.

Just to deliver him the finish blow the nurse inform him ‘the man’ was wearing a white glove on one hand.

Note she doesn’t say which one. Wolff would probably know the hand Yūki injured was likely the left and Yūki instead usually wears a glove on the right to trick people into believing his injured hand is the right one. So, with this glove info, Wolff not only is sure that the man was Yūki but also that the man was the man of 22 years ago, who injured his own hand in the escape.

It’s too much for Wolff. His brain literally goes in Blue Screen of Death mode as he first waves then back walk unsteadily until he fall seated on the couch behind him.

The scene ends here. It would have been interesting if Wolff had never recovered but the man is a tougher cookie than this.

‘Aitō’ [哀悼 Apologies] starts playing.

In the new scene, which ironically shows a lovely blue sky so as to match Wolff’s brain blue screen of death, it has stopped snowing and we’re at a cemetery. There are open graves and praying people and a priest so yes, it’s a burial ceremony.

Wolff is on a car with Bauer and they both are watching with a binocular the ceremony as Wolff evidently can’t stop keeping Maki under surveillance even if by now he knows it’s pointless.

Obsessions are hard to get rid off though and I bet Wolff hopes Yūki would show up at Maki’s burial ceremony.

Wolff’s voice comments that when that man (Yūki) learned that Maki’s train had crashed he should have hopped in a car and rushed to Berlin. Maki had the list of his accomplices, the most important thing for a spy on himself in microfilm format sewed in his collar, which is why Maki dirtied it with blood so as to point at it, and the collar ended up on being unstitched when Yūki retrieved the list. Then after Yūki retrieved the list he used it to warn all the people on it (also THANKS TO THE TIME WOLFF GAVE HIM REFUSING TO REPORT MAKI’S DEATH), erasing any traces of evidence.

Wolff reminds us that TO BE A SPY IS TO LIVE ALONE IN A FOREIGN LAND, SENDING INFORMATION BACK TO YOUR HOMELAND WITHOUT EVER LETTING ANYONE KNOW WHO YOU REALLY ARE. Remember? Yūki also told us something along this line in Ep 1. It’s the core of Joker Game spies, the black solitude Yūki warned them about and why they couldn’t really have a group story and an overarching plot like in ‘Senkō no Night Raid’(or the Joker game Movie or Stage…)

Wolff seems sad through I doubt he’s sad for the spies or for Maki’s death, he’s more likely desperate because he missed his chance at meeting Yūki.

He goes on and says that for a spy death is the end of everything (remember? Yūki warned his spies against suicide in Ep 1). As he says so though, we’re shown again Miyoshi and Yūki staring at him.

Remember how Yūki’s right hand started to move? Now we’re shown what’s the first thing he did after staring at Miyoshi for a moment. He didn’t worry about unstitching the collar and retrieving the microfilm, Yūki, after staring at Miyoshi as if he was paying him respect, gently closed his eyes.

Even if all this meant he would waste precious time and be discovered… even if Yūki probably would claim he doesn’t believe in life after death or wasting time in paying respect to deceased… he still paid Miyoshi his respects and closed his eyes. Maybe even the overly rational Yūki believes in something after all.

Next we are shown is Maki’s body on which we can see the light coming from the open door, light that slowly disappear as the door is closed again, a sign that Yūki has left him. The camera moves higher to show us Miyoshi’s face, his eyes now close and his collar unstitched.

Wolff comments that even if this man called Maki will be buried without anyone knowing his true identity (which might be a hint that till the end Wolff didn’t reveal that Maki died, not even when he knew Yūki had already retrieved what he came for), Wolff admits Maki had fulfilled his duty as a spy.

As he says so the image switches from showing Miyoshi at the hospital, collar unlatched and right check with a brown shadow be it due to dirt or a bruise, to Miyoshi in his coffin, collar latched, cheek clean, rose and rose petals around him.

The coffin closes on him causing everything to turn black as Wolff says that the information Maki left behind will live on.

And with this the episode ends.

Ending theme.

I’m in the camp of those who hoped against hope that Miyoshi was still alive and, although I know it was stupid, I regret nothing. I wanted him to survive because I loved his character even if it was clear he was dead (unless we call in unreliable narrators and visual matching them… okay, I’m still in denial, I know).

Anyway this episode is good.

It’s good in remarking how awesome Miyoshi was as a spy even though he’s actually dead through all the episode. Miyoshi is perfect till the end and, even though his role is so small, it’s still impressive.

It’s good in letting us the illusion Wolff could actually have some chance against Yūki when, by the time Bauer bought him the photo, he already lost his chance to capture Yūki and, when he ordered not to let people know Maki was dead, he also lost his chance to destroy Maki’s spy network giving Yūki the time he needed to warn everyone and save the spy network.

It’s good in presenting us with Wolff’s obsession of how he too, like Kazato, is completely wrapped up in Yūki, actually no, he’s worse than Kazato because he loses objectivity and his own obsession ends up on damaging things further.

It’s good in presenting us how Wolff, despite being a cruel man, differently from Muto is not a bastard with his underlings, giving him some humanity.

It’s good in presenting us Bauer, who’s also not a nice person and who’s loyal to Wolff but can also stand up and tell him straight in his face, albeit politely, when he thinks he’s doing wrong.

It’s good in presenting us Yūki, how he figured out the situation immediately and how he handled it smoothly… but also how he’s not a robot. He CARED for Miyoshi. He paid him his respects, he closed his eyes and even if it turned out he accomplished his mission he was saddened by the loss of Miyoshi.

This chapter had set up Yūki too as an amazing spy who managed to escape Wolff and I guess the idea was that Miyoshi was meant to be ‘his heir’ the other perfect spy, sent in Germany to continue Yūki’s work which he started 22 years ago and then… Miyoshi died in a stupid train crash. After reporting to Yūki. Maybe Yūki even wondered if things would have gone differently, had he asked Miyoshi to report another day. I’m not in the camp of those who think Miyoshi is Yūki’s son even if it’s an interesting theory, but I think Yūki should have felt as if he lost a son.

In short, as far as I’m involved, this chapter is a beautiful character study. Despite the little time all the people in here are beautifully characterized even if only in tiny details. And the sadness, the loneliness, the pain of being a spy still reaches the viewer even though the two spies showed in it were extremely cool.

Really, it doesn’t have a great mystery, and Wolff really made some huge mistakes here as he’s so blinded by his obsession he can’t see what’s under his eyes (the reports, read the reports Wolff!) but the characters are represented so well in all their sides and in how human they are that I love it.

And now forgive me if I go crying over Miyoshi’s death in a corner.

And this was Joker Game Ep 11. Thank you to everyone who was brave and patient enough to sit through my long, long ramblings for the whole episode. I hope other people will feel like sharing what they had observed while watching it!

#Joker Game #Miyoshi #Maki Katsuhiko #Yuuki #Hermann Wolff #Johann Bauer #Otto Frank #Gunter Kites #JG Coffin #Joker Game Anime #Joker Game ReWatching

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