500http://i.ur.com/MWvzWXG.jpg I spy you. Youre under arrest for espionage. An actual real line of dialogue from this show about spies. Introduction This show is an adaptation of a series of novels by Koji Yanagihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KojiYanagi. Its a show about a spy agency in the 1930s. Theres no main plot although theres occasionally a couple of episodes that are actually linked together. More or less its episodic an episode about a spy on a train here an episode about a spy on a boat there. Choosing to go for a more episodic feel is fine depending on how you do it. If it was just a bunch of interesting or entertaining spy missions it would have been fine. But thats not really what it is. It really just feels like... Okay lets do a show about spies. There will be spies and they will be doing spy things. Invisible ink? Thats a spy thing. Antiamnesia training? Thats a spy thing. Truth serum? Yeah man throw it in. We gotta scrape the entirety of the bottom of the barrel. Actually you know what? Lets be a little different lets raise the stakes. TRUTH SERUM WASNT ENOUGH THERES ALSO AN ANTITRUTH SERUM AS A COUNTER. BOOYEAH THOSE AMERICAN SPIES JUST GOT OUT SPIED. Wait no. This is all wrong. We need interesting characters and interesting writing not more generic spy thi 440http://i.ur.com/EWo5Ft4.png Also this is a real human being. A Lack of Interesting Characters 440http://i.ur.com/9Qym2II.jpg Not pictured: two other spies and the old spy who is of course the spymaster as he is the best spy because he is old. Throughout most of the anime these guys are only rarely ever shown together. Also we get their names like once in the first episode and like right after its made clear that their names are spy names and therefore fake. Basically none of their names matter because theres no possible way youre going to actually remember or be able to tell any of these spies apart. Theres... theres nothing there. Theyre all just spies and thats basically it. There were only two characters that I actually even still remember. First was the guy from the first two episodes who I initially believed was going to be the main character he would become a spy and that would be the show that in fact wasnt an actual spy but instead a military guy who had a tendency of saying how much he wanted to kill himself because that was more honorable than being a spy. But after the second episode it goes mostly completely episodic and the guy I believed was going to be a main character shows up I think... once or twice after that. 440http://i.ur.com/JXXPBnu.jpg Japanese man almost goaded into commiting seppeku by American spy anime 2016 spy pranks. Second of course is the old spymaster character Yuuki. Hes only memorable because he shows up in most of the episodes because hes... well the spymaster. Also theres a whole episode dedicated to showing what youre supposed to believe is Yuukis past only for them to immediately go Well no that was this other guy. Maybe some details of all of that also fits Yuukis actual past though. Wow thanks. At least you tried to have ONE character. I couldnt honestly look at that picture up there and say. Well the guy whos in the brown suit was the spy who was the one who was in the train episode. The guy in the black suit was the one in the boat episode and so forth. I honestly have no idea which one was which. All you had to do was do a show about spies. The only point where this show even manages to be anywhere near okay was towards the end when it was about Yuukis past and the rivalry between D Agency Yuukis spy agency and the spy agency that actually kills people. Oh yeah by the way D Agency never kills people. Pacifist spies sure are interesting and neat. Dont get me wrong they didnt have to be like assassins... but have you ever heard of a little term called loose ends? Yet everyone is utterly incapable of identifying or besting a single one of these pacifist spies. There is an episode where one of the spies goes to infiltrate a rebel group of literally like three people and one of those people is a German mole. The nonsensery of that aside the episode literally starts with a firing squad about to open fire on an old woman tied to the tree SOLELY because she was being annoying. The spy character for that episode saves the old woman has his head bonked which gives him amnesia but he still remembers how to be a spy because of specialized spy training in case of amnesia then has his head bonked again and that cures him of amnesia. You cant make this up. 440http://i.ur.com/U91KaQY.jpg 440http://i.ur.com/kA32bEa.png Stack up enough head injuries and Im sure itll work out in the end. Or youll die. There was another episode where a house is bombed and the guy who ordered it in the first place has someone investigate it. His own crime that he himself committed. You better not kill me fellow. You know the thing where I make a bluff about some letter that I cant prove actually exists? If you kill me thatll get sent to the authorities with due haste Also I hope this chap with this gun to my back doesnt end up shooting you instead for you are the bad guy of this situation Oh ho He did exactly what I predicted Called it you foolish buffoon Also theres a dead child in the mix with the explosion because dead children = tragedy. Also the dead child dressed like a girl and was a waitress/sex worker ??? and the guy who killed the bad guy did so because he loved him/her. Thats... what even was that episode about again??? 440http://i.ur.com/gIjpp9M.png Theres nothing much to say about the boat episode the guy would have survived if he had just ignored the crossword puzzle or the train episode spy dude kept a pigeon in his shirt for an entire seven hour train ride. The episode with the truth serum as well as the antitruth serum was probably the closest to doing spies. Spy guy is captured by American spies and being interrogated and has to escape from this building all spylike. Oh yeah this shows about spies Conclusion Did you know that this show was about spies? Completely uninteresting spies lacking any sort of personality or depth doing spy things but spies nonetheless Invisible ink Truth serum These are spy things Most episodes are either generic or boring others are downright baffling the amnesia episode the a building got bombed episode but the episodes that are more about Yuuki the old one are almost pretty okay in comparison. But to be honest did there really need to be 810 different spy characters anyways? There could have just been a couple and maybe they could have actually given them personalities but instead every episode has to be a new yet completely interchangeable with the others spy. To be fair though this is an adaptation of a novel series and blah blah blah. A score of 3 out of 10. Not the worst thing Ive watched but wouldnt recommend actually watching it. Its more towards the boring end of the spectrum. Although I had a laugh in keeping track of all of the spy clichs as I watched it. BONUS: I give the Joker Game specialshttp://anilist.co/anime/21790/JOKERGAMEKuronekoYorunoBouken about a cat that foils a bunch of guys attempt to bring down the D Agency a 4 out of 10. Because even though it was very brief it had all of the different spy guys actually together and interacting with each other. It actually almost fooled me into thinking Oh yeah these guys are actual characters. Also Im fine with the thought that without this stray cat this spy agency would have literally been taken down being my final thought on this series. 500http://i.ur.com/SLRIYRQ.jpg