Joker Game Returns to Stage After Seven-Year Hiatus
*Joker Game* returns to stage with new cast and story set before World War II.
After seven years, the Joker Game anime franchise is returning to the stage. Marvelous announced a new theatrical adaptation of the spy-themed anime series originally produced by Production I.G. The play will run in Tokyo from November 21 to 30, marking the third live production in the series.
Daisuke Nishida, who worked on the first two stage plays, is back as the writer and director. Most of the cast are new to the series, but Masashi Taniguchi, who played Lieutenant Colonel Yūki before, will return. However, the roles haven’t been officially announced yet.
Joker Game Returns to Stage After Seven Years
Story Set Against Pre-War Tensions
*Joker Game* takes place in 1937, just before World War II begins. It tells the story of "D Agency," a secret spy team led by Lieutenant Colonel Yūki from the Japanese Army. Unlike military branches, the D Agency uses spies recruited from civilian life. Yūki teaches them unconventional spycraft, fostering operational patterns of behavior based on tactics that reject violence and emphasize psychologically displaying: Do not kill, do not be taken, do not be killed in action.
The anime adaptation premiered in April 2016. Joker Game was available on both Crunchyroll and Funimation. Crunchyroll streamed it with subtitles, while Funimation offered an English dub. The story started as a novel by Kōji Yanagi in 2008 and won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 2009.
Expanding Legacy Across Media
In addition to the anime and stage plays, the series has seen multiple other adaptations. A live-action film directed by Yū Irie hit theaters in January 2015. The manga version, created by Subaru Nitō, ran from 2016 to 2018 in Comic Garden magazine and was compiled into five volumes.
Also in the Joker Game series are the three novels that come next after Joker Game—Double Joker, Paradise Lost, and Last Waltz—published between 2009 and 2015. Collectively, the series has sold well over a million copies, supporting its reputation as a prominent entry in the larger form of historical espionage fiction.
Written By Manika Kayal, Intern, India Today Gaming.
