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[JoshuaFH]

My favorite part is that Inferno Cop is a prominent character. Just pulled directly from his own series with only the slightest alteration, and plopped nonchalantly right into this series.

Over Justice is Inferno Cop's boss. They talked on the phone in some episode or other.

It was officially confirmed via twitter that the two series are in the same universe.

Lalaco's life fiber outfit may or may not indicate being the same universe as KlK, someone who speaks Japanese could ask.

I was actually completely unaware of Inferno Cop's connection to Over Justice, that detail completely flew over my head. It's nuts though to think that Trigger is just straight up connecting all their universes in one tie-in show. Especially since

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Overjustice seems to have Spiral powers, even if he gets shut down immediately.

In Trigger's Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de, they're at the pool once and Mako from KLK clearly swims past in the background. I just thought that was a random detail, but maybe the universes are actually connected. I don't recommend Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de however. It's a generic school club x harem anime that Trigger obviously churned out so they could keep paying the gas and electric bill.

I actually watched a little bit of InoBattle, I was still on the KLK high and was really confused watching it, like "Was this REALLY made by Trigger? This is very boring in comparison to KLK" and I wound up never finishing it.

Watching Kiznaiver Tenga reminds me of a very young, pink-haired Space Dandy.

[Cruxador]

I actually watched a little bit of InoBattle, I was still on the KLK high and was really confused watching it, like "Was this REALLY made by Trigger? This is very boring in comparison to KLK" and I wound up never finishing it.

Yeah, Trigger has a wider range in what they make than many studios, it seems to be more about who directs it for them.

[uber pye]

i just started watching Kiznaiver.

Spoiler: this ought to be quite the fun trip (click to show/hide)

[Neonivek]

I am sitting through Joker Game and watching the main character SOMEHOW completely confused that spies like to play spy games.

UUUUGH!!! I am not sure if this guy is meant to be a moron or the audience surrogate because he is soo stupid!

MIND you... if I had to guess, he was hired for the sole purpose that he cannot possibly be a spy.

[Furtuka]

No his attitude was an actual problem with the Japanese military during WWII. Officers were known to completely ignore the (underfunded) intelligence departments at times on the basis of not liking them and believing them to be cowardly.

[Neonivek]

Alas though, it kind of immediately became less interesting as it ended up episodic.

[Orange Wizard]

Joker Game struck me as something that the writer didn't really think through. I imagine he thought of/stole the premise of WWII spies IN SPAAAAACEEE Japan, but didn't really know how to make a compelling story of it. In the end he just threw random crap together and called it a day.

[Reelya]

The Joker Game novels were actually collections of short stories to start with: the guy doesn't write ongoing series, he does single novels and short stories only, in the detective, mystery and thriller genres. So while there might be common characters in Joker Game, each story is a standalone "case".

So yeah, of course it won't feel like there's any overarching plotline, because the writer didn't set out to do that. Probably, what anime viewers are seeing as a lackluster "story" is the anime producer's attempt to turn a pile of loosely-connected short stories into a continuous "saga": someone who wasn't the author has basically come along and faked continuity where there was none.

This works a bit better for light novels / complete novels, because one LN will generally map to 4-6 anime episodes, so you only get a "reset" every ~4 episodes. A Certain Magical Index and Strike The Blood are two similar anime in this regard. You have the "daily life" start of each arc, the bad guys turn up, ups and downs, then the big takedown in episode 4 of the arc. Then, at the start of the next episode it's back to the "quiet daily life" part. But with novels that are made up of 3-6 disconnected stories, such as Joker Game, then there's not a lot you can do but 1 episode per story.

[Neonivek]

It is more that the start of the anime kind of gave the premise of the show which was a rather large spy game, a "joker game" as you will. It is certainly intriguing.

Yet the spying is more a linking detail then an actual focus for the anime.

So it isn't a series of short stories about a series of "Joker Games". Nor are they really compelling spy fiction stories.

Most of them your supposed to try to fill in the spy info on your own.

[Reelya]

I would still say that's the anime's fault. If there are important details you're not told, they're probably internal monologue or narrated in the short stories.

[Neonivek]

I would still say that's the anime's fault. If there are important details you're not told, they're probably internal monologue or narrated in the short stories.

I mean it is like a mystery. Your supposed to guess how a spy is involved each episode and by the exact end of it they reveal things.

[Orange Wizard]

I'd be down for episodic spy adventure mysteries, that actually sounds cool. Now I'm disappointed the adaptation was butchered.

[Parsely]

Spice and Wolf I just finished binging this morning and it didn't have nearly as much medieval economics as I would have preferred. This show is ecchi in disguise, sold to me as hard historical fantasy, but turned out to be driven mostly by an intelligently written (the characters I felt were mostly excellent except for some personal gripes) love story

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

with a predictably unsatisfying conclusion.

Also, Holo strongly reminded me throughout why I really really hate complicated, demanding, fussy people.

[Reelya]

It has an unsatisfactory conclusion as a result of the show only covering a small number of the novels. e.g. from what I can ascertain, the first season is books 1 and 2, and the second season is books 3 and 5 (they seem to have skipped over book 4). There are 17 volumes in total, with two books matching a season. To satisfactorily adapt the rest would require the pacing is kept the same. 4 books are done, 3 books are side-stories/flashbacks, 1 book they already skipped. Leaving 9 books. So ... to finish the actual story would require about 4 more seasons, or let's say two more seasons if they excised a few entire storylines. Unfortunately, this isn't likely to happen any time soon, but it's not impossible.

[Trapezohedron]

Oh, and the books already have a fast-forward sequel. Big spoilers for those who might seem interested in the books.