#Joker Game Stage Project Intro

[softsubproject]

Joker Game Stage Softsub Project

This is the tumblr for the Joker Game Stage Softsub Project.

If you feel like helping with translation we’ll love you forever!

Now... since we’ve to start somewhere, here there’s my idea of where.

Basically let’s cut the movie into tinier bits and see what can be translated from them.

I’ll make a post here and under the ‘read more’ there will be a bit of the dialogues in the Joker Game Live Action Stage... or better the time in which each sentence is said and who’s saying it. Next to the name of the person who’s speaking I’ll add a number. The number merely means that the sentence is the first, the second or the third or so on that particular speaker said so, who can translate only a line can identify it by giving the name of the speaker as well as the number next to him.

I hope this will make things easier though, of course, if someone has a better plan is welcomed to share it!

Also if the dialogues matches the one in the anime I’ll also placed them under the read more.

Mind you, I don’t think it’s all right for us to use the ‘official’ sub as we don’t have permission to do it.

I’ll just place it there as reference so even less confident translators can have an idea of what’s going on and help retranslate them when possible (I get it would be hard if not impossible to translate differently certain things)

If translators feel more comfortable with me just leaving blank spaces, well for me it's fine (less work to do is always apprecciated! :P ).

Now... the stage contains also lines in German so if someone isn't knowledgeable in Japanese but knows German it can still help with translations.

When a part is done we can move to a new section of the stage.

So… is there someone who feels like attempting to translate something? It doesn’t have to be it all, but if we piece together the various bits we can get a full translation.

Also, if you feel like translating something, please, reblog this with your translation or send it in form of answer or of ask. When there are translations I’ll add them at the right spots.

And if you can’t do any translating… just REBLOG. Who knows maybe it’ll catch the eyes of who can translate something.

[jgfiles]

Tazaki/Seto Reiji’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

Tazaki/Seto Reiji’s character profile: Part 1 (Joker Game Universe)

(Very tentative version as no translation for ‘Asia Express’ novel version had been released)

Spy Surname: Tazaki - 田崎（たざき） 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- Spy) 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), Seto Reiji (瀬戸 礼二), Military Police First Lieutenant (憲兵中尉- Kenpei-Chūi) (Anime only) Appearances: Novel: Vol. 4 Chapter 4 “Asia Express” (アジア・エクスプレス - Asia Express) D no Maō manga: Anime: Ep. 1-2 “Joker Game” (ジョーカー・ゲーム - Joker Game) , EP 6 “Asia Express” (アジア・エクスプレス Asia Express), EP 10 “Pursuit” (追跡 - Tsuiseki), 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), 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: Sakurai Takahiro - 櫻井 孝宏（さくらい たかひろ） Stage project actor: Okutani Chihiro - 奥谷 知弘（おくたに ちひろ）

Brief introduction

In the novel we’ve no spy named Tazaki and 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 Tazaki is also Seto Reiji, the spy who appears in the novel chapter ‘Asia Express’ giving him his backstory. ‘Asia Express’ isn’t transposed in the D no Maō manga therefore Seto Reiji doesn’t show up in it.

Note that in the novel we’ve no idea if Seto Reiji had the same role as Tazaki in the other tales in which anime Tazaki showed up that aren’t ‘Asia Express’ but, to make my life simple, I’ll write this intro assuming they are the same person.

The novel implied he’s from a wealthy family and says that he was sent to Oxford school to study. There though he was overlooked by other students due to him being Asian and therefore he proved themselves by beating them at fencing using his left hand in place of his right one.

He’s then scouted by Yūki, pass the selection and enters in his spy school.

Once in D Agency, in both the novel and the manga, he thinks he can easily beat the other students at fencing, same as he did in England, but Yūki tattles out his weak points to the students, causing him to be soundly defeated and teaching him that the overconfidence tied to doing his speciality, causes people to fail more easily.

Later he graduates from D Agency and he’s assigned to collecting info in Machukuo.

While he’s on the Asia Express under the identity of Seto Reiji, Anton Morozoff, the ones from whom he should have collected the info, dies and the info he was carrying disappear. However he will manage to figure out who’s the assassin, retrieve the info and persuade Elena, the assassin’s accomplice, to start working for Japan.

In the anime we’ll see he later will return to Japan and will pose as Military Police first lieutenant when Aaron Price will be arrested by the Military Police.

Personality

Tazaki is calm, gentle with everyone, has an intellectual look that makes him look reliable and older than he is.

There’s to say though that the manga implied his gentle smile might be a trick to deceive others into easily trusting him.

In a manga scene only Tazaki talks with a female pigeon.

Physical appearance

In the Anime Shirō Miwa decided to give Tazaki eyes that are dark and long-slitted, so it would be hard to tell where his gaze is, though, in order to not make him look pigheaded, he also gave him a gentle refreshing element.

Ultimately Tazaki is a handsome man with short dark hair and blue/purplish eyes.

When in D Agency wear a suit a green three piece suit. In his mission on the Asia Express he switches to a blue three piece suit. 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 green three piece suit, in a slightly clearer slightly brighter colour 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 manga, during the boys’ fencing training, Yūki tattles out his weak points so as to teach him not to be overconfident (he was fighting them with his left hand) and that someone can always betray their own weakness to their adversaries.

In all the versions Yūki is the one who assigns him to collect info in Manchukuo.

In the anime we don’t really see the two of them interact, not even as they stand together on the roof of D Agency. The most we have is Tazaki thinking that no matter how hard Yūki fights, they can’t accomplish much against the hardheads of the Army higher ups.

In the anime Yūki will also assign Tazaki the role of playing Military Police First Lieutenant and free Aaron Price when the man will be arrested by the Military Police.

Sakuma

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.

Miyoshi

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.

Kaminaga

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.

Hatano

Tazaki and Hatano’s interaction is extremely small.

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 Hatano.

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

In the anime, fundamentally, although they appear in scenes together (when the boys go out to drink, when they play the Joker Game, when Tazaki talks about “The demon king” song before Miyoshi will join them to tell them they’ll inspect Gordon’s house, when they inspect Gordon’s house, when they both will pose as Military Police during Aaron Price’s interrogation) they’re never heard exchanging a word.

Interesting enough though, 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 and Tazaki and Hatano were drawn together often enough, which might imply they get along well.

Amari

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 Amari.

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

In the anime, fundamentally, although they appear in scenes together (when the boys go out to drink, when they play the Joker Game, when Tazaki talks about “The demon king” song before Miyoshi will join them to tell them they’ll inspect Gordon’s house, when they inspect Gordon’s house) they’re never heard exchanging a word.

In a manga cover it looks like Amari and Tazaki are sitting on a table together. On the table there are drinks (tea for Amari, something else in a glass for Tazaki), there are what are likely notebooks in front of them (Amari is even holding a pen) and they’re both wearing glasses. It’s possible they’re in some sort of office in disguise but it’s hard to say.

In a manga only scene, Tazaki is on the roof of D Agency with Yūki, and sees a pigeon coming back from a mission. When Yūki leaves, Amari joins Tazaki and they talk of the return rate for pigeons. Amari reads the message the pigeon carried and then shows it to Tazaki, claiming he did well before saying they’ll need to start gather evidence in secret.

In a card Amari worries that Tazaki is stressed because he’s conjuring up pidgeons and recommend him to talk if something is stressing him.

Jitsui

Tazaki and Jitsui’s interaction is extremely small.

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 Amari.

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

In the anime, fundamentally, although they appear in scenes together (when the boys go out to drink, when they play the Joker Game, when Tazaki talks about “The demon king” song before Miyoshi will join them to tell them they’ll inspect Gordon’s house, when they inspect Gordon’s house) they’re never heard exchanging a word.

It’s worth to note though that in class they were seated at the same desk.

Interesting enough though, 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 occasionally draw Tazaki and Jitsui together, which might imply they get along.

Fukumoto

There’s no character named Tazaki or Fukumoto in the novel. Although there’s a character named Seto Reiji and one who used the names Shiozuka Hajime and Kusanagi Yukihito there’s no known interaction between the two.

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

In the anime, fundamentally, although they appear in scenes together (when the boys go out to drink, when they play the Joker Game, when Tazaki talks about “The demon king” song before Miyoshi will join them to tell them they’ll inspect Gordon’s house, when they inspect Gordon’s house) they’re never heard exchanging a word.

In the preview for Ep 6 Fukumoto points out how Tazaki always handles cards very deftly. Tazaki ‘magically’ pulls out the ace of heart from behind Fukumoto’s ear and tells him it’s not cards he’s manipulating but his heart.

Odagiri

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.

John Gordon

John Gordon is merely the target of D Agency’s investigation. The two don’t really interact, Tazaki was merely just one of the D Agency men who inspected his house (a spy named Tazaki doesn’t exist in the novel and in D no Maō).

Anton Morozoff

Anton Morozoff was supposed to hand Tazaki/Seto Reiji information on the Russian movements in exchange for a huge amount of money, though before the two could make the exchange Anton Morozoff was killed.

Elena

Although Elena was an accomplice of the SMERSH Assassin Tazaki let her go free on the promise she’ll start to work for Japan from now on. Actually she tried to trick him into believing she helped the SMERSH assassin because blackmailed but Tazaki didn’t let himself be fooled.

The three kids on the Asia Express

The kids are fascinated by Tazaki’s magic tricks and Tazaki acts rather kindly to them, showing them magic tricks and then listening to them so that he could trick them into doing something for him under the guise he’s giving them a mission for their expedition and promising them the answer to a riddle once they complete their mission. In the end he’ll show them he has a carrier pigeon and that this is the answer to the riddle he gave them (how could he send a letter and make it arrive sooner than the Asia Express?).

SMERSH Assassin

The guy killed Anton Morozoff (in the novel he also killed two other informants that worked for Tazaki/Seto Reiji) and, when Tazaki/Seto Reiji discovered his identity, he tried to kill him but failed and was put to sleep by Tazaki himself that took from him the info he stole from Morozoff.

Abilities

Tazaki is very deftly in handling cards knowing various magic tricks with cards and coins.

Tazaki is good at fencing and can fence with his left hand.

Trivia

From the new interview with the directors of JG Tazaki seems to carry only the best pigeons.

In the novel is said that Seto Reiji (and therefore Tazaki) studied at the Oxford school in England and, during that times, the Japanese students who attended to Oxofrd school were only high ranked nobility or government related boys. This confirms Sakuma’s feelings in the Joker Game tale when he says that the D Agency students seemed to be ‘young men who grew up in more than pleasant environments, and who never had it rough, sons of professors, generals, and government officials, or students who had studied overseas’.

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 Tazaki walking in the Asakusa district with Fukumoto, Hatano and Tazaki, at Ueno-Hirokuji with Fukumoto and Odagiri and in front of Shibuya station with Odagiri, Hatano and Jitsui. The last card he drew is a ‘group picture’ of some sort as all the spies, Yūki included, are in them. Tazaki is drawn more frequently with Odagiri (4 times), second come Fukumoto and Hatano (3 times), third Jitsui (2 times). It’s worth to note he’s drawn with Kaminaga, Amari and Miyoshi only in the last end card (the one with the group picture). While this is no proof, we can speculate Tazaki was meant to better get along with Odagiri and had the worst compatibility with Kaminaga, Amari and Miyoshi.

In EP 1 Tazaki is shown smoking a cigarette.

In the official art, when they had to represent Tazaki in the chibi version, they often joked on how he had a pigeon under a jacket by often drawing him with lot of pigeons. Once, before releasing one of those official arts, they released a preview of chibi Tazaki that was just a giant pigeon.

In a card it’s said that when Tazaki is stressed he conjures up pigeons.