Jormungand

First off, for a "gun" anime, its knowledge of firearms and firearms users is incredibly poor. Sure, it names off things, but for the most part, *real gun users use nicknames in combat*. It makes for incredibly clunky dialogue, where they shout out "He's got a Negev LMG" or "Mi 24 Hind D" said out in full. They'd say, "Hind, take cover!" or "Target, machine gunner, 9 o'clock". There's no addressing the amount of bullets one can carry (in episode four the bad guy guns down an entire opera house with what looks like one nutsack, and that does not hold enough to gun down ... as many people as shown with one shot-one kill, let alone firing like a moron), there's no tactics, people take stupid shots (god knows how many times they shoot at held guns, a stupid shot to take under almost any circumstance), and nothing in it gives the idea that the people who made the show or manga have any knowledge of guns beyond their statistics.

If you think that's semantics, it's because good gunplay (if it was there) would be the only saving grace, seeing as the writing is atrocious. The females are otaku-bait, everyone's a philosopher (and a bad one at that), talking is always a free action in supposedly high-pitched gunfights, the three storylines shown thus far are worse than Black Lagoon at its most ridiculous, and it just has nothing going for it.

Trust me, I wanted to like this show. I wanted a good gun show to come out. But this is far from it. Hell, High School of the Dead was better about its guns. And when you lose to HSotD at anything other than pantyshot counts and size of boobs, you know you aren't doing well.

“Your new recruit is a child soldier? And he's got iron, shit.”

There is much to talk about guns, wars, arm dealers, and child soldiers these days. For those who are into the fast action type, the type of series involving a kickass music, or a type of series involving a main protagonist being loco, or blood being splattered all over the screen, then this series is definitely something to keep an eye on.

According to Norse Mythology, Jörmungandr (or more often known as Jormungand) is known as the Midgard Serpent or the World Serpent. And like a serpent, the main character is cunning as expected of ... an arms dealer. For without intelligence and leadership, the crew would not be what they've become of today.

Jormungand is based off the manga of the same name starring Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, a weapons corporation. She is badass, she is independent, she is cunning, she is fun, and she is of course loco. With her is the child soldier, sidekick, bodyguard, and brother all the same time named Jonah (Jonathan Mar). He is of the West Asian origin and after being orphaned swears to get vengeance. Yet the same time, with his acquittance of Koko and the crew, his sentiment seems to have cooled down and even has a warmer side to him that some of us may see as cute or peculiar.

[ - Story - ]
To be honest, this is the type of show that can make any fan of action genre glued to the screen with its blood packed spilling, rapid violence, and gun dominance at first glance. The first episodes kicks off already with some full throttle road war and those bullets fly across all over the screen. It wastes little time in conveying the hazardous occupation and brutality of being an arms dealer. At the same time, it also finds ways to make the series relaxing through some heartwarming moments and comedic scenes.

The story is set in the modern eras so if you're looking for mecha action, futuristic weaponry, or of the historical theme, then you're looking at the wrong place. Fear not though as the story is easy to understand and not one of those mindfucks that leaves the viewers going “HUH?” Speaking of stories, Jormungand has a smooth pace focusing on the crew's teamwork and abilities to accomplish tasks. Each arc focuses on professionalism and it's up to Koko and her crew to work together in the end to deliver the result. Although somewhat one-sided and predictable, the story is still smooth and to the adult-oriented audience, can be appealing.

[ - Characters - ]
One of the aspect that engineers this series is the colorful cast of characters. Koko Hekmatyar assumes the role of the female protagonist who is amusing, entertaining, and dramatic to watch. Despite the real dangers of her occupation, she makes fun out of most it and can literally be seen as a troll at occasions. Her character brightens up the gloom and doom of the crew and gives her job a new light that some future arm dealers may find appealing or maybe strange. On the other hand, there is Jonah, the child recruit soldier. Like the opposite side of a coin, he has a more stoic mind and says things that can sometimes be interpreted blunt, sarcastic, or too brutally honest. Yet he is an interesting character if we look at him more carefully for his ability to balance out the seriousness and fun mood of the story and her crew.

Speaking of the crew, there are some of other prominent characters to look at. One of them is the one eyed ripped girl, Valmet. Her priceless expressions throughout the episodes towards Koko are those of a puppy like crush and silly to watch. Yet behind that eye lies a dark past, one which changed her life forever and made her the person that she is today. There are some others worth to mention namely Lehm that resumes the second in command of the crew, Kasper Hekmatyar (Koko's elder brother), and Chinatsu from one of the earlier episodes. While all of them have contrasting personalities, it is easy to see that they share the theme of having a dark past whether playing the role of the good or bad player.

It is because of these themes and histories, the crew and the characters of this series are quite unique in its aspects.

[ - Animation/Art - ]
Like Steins; Gate, Jormungand is handled by White Fox. They are a relatively new anime studio who are more into the traditional background. At first glance, that's nothing worth to talk about. Yet, if we look carefully, we can clearly see that the studio creates the realism of the the story and into its characters. The weapons, the military backgrounds, the settings, the outfits, the visuals. It retains its ability to create the atmosphere. Koko's mischievous expressions on her loco face shows it all through the lashes and those slippery grins like a serpentine. That can also be said to the same for her bodyguard, sidekick, and friend, Jonah.

The series also tries to bring out humor through some of the more comic scenes with the black ringed eyes in the form of priceless expressions. While not too appealing, it brings out the comedy side of the series and shows that while the job of being an arm dealer is dangerous, it can also be fun and to make most of it.

[ - Sound - ]
I'll say this once and once only. The music and soundtrack of this series is pure epic. The music director behind the scene (Taku Iwasaki) puts the e into epic for its beats and techno trance like music that will make you wish you're part of the series. (unless you fear of getting shot that is)

The OP song, “Borderland” sung by Mami Kawada is also quite catchy. Known for her work from the popular Shana franchise and the Toaru Majutsu no Index series, she brings her latest work to life through this song. All in all for nothing else of a reason to watch this show, the soundtrack of the series is one of them

[ - Enjoyment - ]
Like I said before, this series is packed with nonstop action in rapid sequences. There's not much romance to expect out of this show but who cares when we have Koko and her alpha crew? There's also some little fan-service here and there with the ripped Valmet, the mass volumes of blood spilled on an episode basis, and of course, those kickass music that can get you start watching the show in a heartbeat. The action does occasionally get repetitive and the gore seems to be almost forced on. But if we look carefully, the series also has the more emotionally side to it (especially involving Valmet) in some of the later battles. To combine action and emotion, that is enjoyment.

Despite all the praise, this series does have flaws. After all, without flaws, this show would be in MAL's top 100 by now. Yet, it's not. That's because it does have flaws.

One of the major problems I'd say would be the forced action that is a bit driven too much and lack of more character development. For example, I'd love to see some more history background besides Valmet, Koko, and Jonah. Maybe that guy with the sniper that has the eye of a hawk, or maybe Schokolade, the blonde informant that has a peculiar and joyful personality. Additionally, the character designs of the show are a bit blend and seems somewhat dirty. After watching Koko and her crew grin on a daily basis, in the OP, on missions, etc, it gets repetitive. But even with these flaws, this series is enjoyable, at least in the action and seinen department. But even if you don't meet the age demographic, this show can be watched for some guilty pleasure involving Koko's alpha crew and their exchanges. It's fun, it's bloody, it's entertainment, and it's in your face. All in all, this series is great to watch in the middle of the week especially after a busy week of school or work even with all the violence.

Just remember though in real life that violence is not the answer to everything, well except in Jormungand.

“People who kill too much turn into dragons one day. Beasts that rule the land atop piles of money and fly the skies on wings of authority. They become more and more violent until they can no longer understand the language of men. We cannot allow dragons to remain in this world, even though we are the ones from which they are spawned.”

Koko Hekmatyar is an unique person, one of those people who keep equlibrium in the world, setting the delicate balance between right or wrong. As a guns merchant she encounters many chaotic situations where the line between right or wrong is easily crossed, ... however that doesn't stop her, as she stands collected in the face of perils. As every person working in this line of business, she gathers a team of people who are her subordinates. As you might have guessed, they are not ordinary people, but experienced soldiers who returned alive from the pits of hell. They choose to follow the bright light that Koko emits, being attracted by her charm and wisdom, talents which make her a natural leader.

As her new subordinate, she recruits Jonah, a boy who fought as a child soldier in the Middle East. Jonah meets her team and is taken by surprise by all the new information he finds out about the world outside the war zone, since he only knew who to shoot a gun and fight. Koko gives Jonah a chance to be free and discover the world in his travels. However, Koko doesn't babysitt him, making him a new addition to her team, and giving him the role of protecting her in her gun transactions with people of the underworld.

The story follows the journey of Koko and her team to various countries and continents where Koko sells different guns and war machinery. As expected, the transactions don't always go so well, thus making Koko's team enagage in badass combat to protect her when the situation gets out of hand. It does remind of Black Lagoon, but this show stands on its own, the story being engaging and interesting enough to set itself apart. However, it does have flaws, the story not being coherent at times in the transition between episodes as well as having some characters's backgrounds unexplained.
Story: 7

The art is appealing, especially the designs of Jonah and Koko. The animation is constantly good, and the fighting scenes are engaging and highly-elaborated. I find the guns designs pretty imaginative as well as the various combat styles.
Art: 8

The music in this anime is really stunning, from the up-beat rap music to the classic music played in the background and the music in various languages that suits the multi-cutural backgrounds of the characters. One of my favorites songs from this anime is in portuguese, its beauty touching the strings of your heart.
Sound: 9

At first Jonah clearly states that even if he's talented with shooting guns and killing people with them, he hates guns and those who sell them. However, he soon discovers that Koko is not your usual cold-hearted, insensitive gun merchant, but follows her own code of morals, even if it at times ambiguous. For example, she doesn't accept payment in drugs, and it's been shown that she admires determination and bravery even in her enemies. The way she chose her followers is the best example. For instance, her bodyguard and driver, Ugo, was a member of the mafia when Koko ordered for them to be killed when they wanted to pay her in drugs, leaving Ugo the only survivor. When asked why did she leave Ugo alive, she replyed that she liked the fact that Ugo looked away in disapproval when the mafia showed the drugs.

Koko is a force of nature, one of those rare people who can become anything they wished to be. Instead, Koko chose to be part of the dangerous underworld. She was born at sea, thus not having a place where she belongs, but because of that she feels unbounded, being able to feel freedom at another level. In norse mythology, Jormungand is called the "World Serpent" because he grew so large that he could surround the world and grasp its own tail. That may be a metaphor for Koko, who has the ability to feel free everywhere she goes in the world, thus by following her, she gives other people who strive for freedom, the chance of feeling eliberated.

We also meet her other subordinates which are people who survived wars and conflicts. There is Lehm, the always calm and collected veteran soldier and mercenary who is very compelling as a character. There is also Valmet, a skilled war combatant from Finland who still pursues revenge for her murdered comrades. As Koko once stated : "She's her teacher, her friend and more than that".Another member of Koko's team consists of Lutz, who serves at times the role of a comic relief, being shot in the ass several times, however showing superior skill as a sniper.

The character of Jonah is very interesting to watch as he develops, at the beginning showing a strong loathe of guns and the criminal world, after joining Koko's team he finds that things aren't as black and white as he initially had thought, people like Mao, for example, who have a family and are good-natured individuals, but still have to kill because of their job.

However, there are problems with the characters as well. The portrayal of the characters as being the “good guys” is highly unrealistic, because of the profession they have. Seeing a sympathetic law-breaker is acceptable in anime format, though. There are also interesting supporting characters but they aren't developed, which is quite a pity. I would also have liked to see more of Jonah's experiences as a child soldier and how they affected him. That would have been very interesting for me to watch, but unfortunately, it was totally discarded.
Characters: 7

I enjoyed this anime, I recommend it to those who watched Black Lagoon as well as those who like action scenes and imaginative combat styles.
Enjoyment: 8

Overall: 8

This was probably one of the best shows that I have ever watched. This anime rocks to the very core!

The story was great. It shows the reality of what an arms dealer does. I have known some in real life. And they are indeed such kinds of persons who are in this anime. They hire people to defend them, they fuel wars, they compete with other dealers, they kill their enemies, they partner with those they can't handle and most of all they are good in economics (supply and demand lol). It was also somehow realistic in the sense that quantum computing could be dangerous. ... In fact, such kinds of technologies are existing right now but are currently suppressed or controlled by the governments. To wrap up, the story is outstanding as it never fails to show how reality looks in this kind of game(arms-dealing).

The art is also good.. Not too showy unlike other military genres which have too much explosions and crap that hurts the eye.. The fight scenes are naturally shown and are quite enjoyable.. it's pretty much like how real gunfights look.

The characters are also very cool. Each member has different personalities that were nicely portrayed in the show. Not to mention that the show was also able to show most of the stories of each member (their pasts and their struggles). The anime never failed to describe each of them.

Overall, I give this one a 10. This is one of the best animes that I have ever watched and this is the very first time that I have given myself a chance to create a positive review here in MAL for this anime really deserved it.. :)

Of all the crap anime I’ve seen over the past year or so, Jormungand is the one that never seems to leave my mind in regards to how bad it was, despite it ending more than six months ago. Every time I think of it, I go back to my MAL, decided I ranked it too high, and lower my score by one point whilst ignoring the fact that everyone else seems to think the anime was cool. For the love of me, I still don’t get what people see in this show. Saying you like Jormungand is like saying you think the original One ... anime is the best thing to ever come out of Key. Newsflash people, “nobody likes the One anime”. Being one of three or four people who feels that way doesn’t help I’ll admit, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as opposed to most people in regards to anime opinions, nor have I had as hard a time finding something to praise, as I have with this crap.

How badly do I think of Jormungand you may ask? Well both seasons are currently ranked a “1″ on my MAL right now and unfortunately there’s no way it can go any lower despite my best efforts to make it so, and I don’t think there are any scores low enough for the show anyways. Or to put it in more concise terms, I would rather marathon everything by KyoAni and Shaft (good or bad) then have to sit through this shit show ever again!

I am seriously confused in regards to what to recommend about this show in any way. Normally I don’t mind recommending stuff like Eureka Seven or Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 despite the fact that I don’t like them just because others may see differently. Hell, I’ll even recommend Robotics;Notes or Psychic School Wars if people want it so badly. But Jormungand is just plain useless without a single thing to recommend. What good thing am I supposed to say about this show?

Well I guess there’s the music. It’s composed by Taku Iwasaki, who composed the soundtrack for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Gurren Lagann as well as the currently airing Gatchaman Crowds, although I can’t remember the BGM for that one. Can’t remember what it was like for this anime either, but I remember it being okay aside from that “her name is Koko” crap. Needless to say, it’s not his best work. And I guess if you want me to be really nice, it’s cool to see Jormungand tackle a topic that isn’t done by most anime. But just because something isn’t in high school doesn’t mean it’s good, and it definitely doesn’t help when Jormungand feels like it was created by hacks who’ve never seen an action movie or read an action story in their life.

First off, the arms dealing is vastly under researched and not realistic in the least. Episode 2 literally had Koko and her group going to an army camp and dealing the weapons out like they were street vendors or something. One of the big advantages that Jormungand has in tackling the arms dealing topic is that because it’s not done very often, the average person wouldn’t know that what Jormungand is showing you is a load of crap. I’ve actually seen some people try and excuse this by telling me “it’s a fictional story”, but I don’t buy that. Now and Then, Here and There is a fictional story, but the guy who wrote it made sure that he accurately captured the torment and suffering that child soldiers go through in war, even if it got way too exploitative and manipulative for me to enjoy in the end. I also wouldn’t call Black Lagoon realistic, as it skews more to the action movie agenda, but the weapons were all carefully researched (I’m not sure about this, but from what I’ve read, there are several gun facts stated in the show that are inaccurate) and any arms dealing that takes place in that show is done in semi-realistic professional manner rather than whatever goofy antics Koko cooks up that we’re supposed to find endearing.

And that leads me to my next problem with Jormungand. So the arms dealing isn’t realistic. An anime can still be fun despite that right? Well, maybe if the show didn’t try to push it so hard and yet treat it like a total joke I could. The combination of anime cliches (sleepwalking, bad cooking, oh look at me I’m so wacky) with the grittiness of the gun market is absolutely abysmal. First off, the premise of the show is that a kid who hates arms dealers somehow ends up working for one, and a teenage girl at that. And he never really questions his choices or anything like that. That is a goddamn stupid premise you’ve got right there, but it might have been tolerable if the show didn’t treat it like an absolute joke or if there was some solid writing and good characters, of which there are none. All of the characters are completely forgettable one-note jokes who are only important when the plot calls for, and then lose importance right afterwards with no real development whatsoever. It’s basically the equivalent of what would happen if Angel Beats actually gave focus to TK or Shiina or any of those other joke characters: completely pointless and a waste of episodes whilst not progressing the story. Did you know that when that Red character got his own arc and died, I didn’t know who the fuck he was? Hell, I know fans who didn’t know who he was at first. That’s a sign of good writing.

Seriously, I can’t remember a single antagonist in this series besides that one rival to Valmet. And I only remember her (and Valmet herself) because Valmet wore an eyepatch and was the only other female in the group, which is not a good sign. As for Jonah and Koko, all I have to say is laaaaammmmmeeee. I’ve written before that Jonah never actually underwent any real growth along with why I felt that way, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that Koko didn’t either. Nothing changed between the two and they weren’t even all that interesting to begin with due to Jonah’s repressed emotions and Koko’s bad combination of grittiness and anime comedy. Whatever praise you could shower on them is mostly memetic aka the same source of praise given to L-Elf. As I also stated in that post, the writing is absolute pointless garbage with an ending so bad I actually wished for the Gundam 00 guys to save me. It was literally one of the worst open-ended things I have ever seen, period. The ending to Kare Kano was better than that.

Also since I want to pick on a low-hanging fruit that even the fans acknowledge, what the fuck is up with the action scenes in this show? The first episode alone had a car chase scenario where the vehicles looked like they were going at 35 MPH and it just got worse from there. Hell the animation for the entire show is unacceptable when compared to Flowers of Evil or even anime around 2001. The bodies are awkwardly drawn and the CG is laughable in every aspect of the word. There are literally fight scenes where the characters run up to each other and fire guns from ten feet away, and yet they don’t hit each other. Explosions that occur are phoned in and have less of a threat than the green screen stuff in Mortal Kombat Annihilation. The plot armor is so inconsistently bad that it breaks all tension from the fights and what should be cool scenes end up boring me more than anything Bee Train could muster. Give me a reason to care about these action scenes Jormungand. Introduce some tension. Make them cool to look at. Don’t introduce more plotholes than the new Spider-man movie (episodes 3 and 4 were just painful).

Jormungand was never a fun anime to watch, not even ironically. It’s one of the biggest wastes of time I’ve ever seen and I have no qualms with saying that Sword Art Online, Guilty Crown, Clannad, and Psycho-Pass are much better watches. Or if you want a good action anime, watch Darker than Black or Black Lagoon. Even the original Hellsing was far better put together than whatever crap Jormungand could come up with. Hell watch almost any anime aside from this turd, because there’s nothing to recommend. The premise sucks. The action sucks. The characters suck. The pacing sucks. The writing sucks. The comedy sucks. The animation definitely sucks. If was to do a Tribute from a Hater on this thing, I’d only be able to praise the fact that its topic is unique. But that’s like praising a businessman in the transportation industry for suggesting we should invent teleporters, yet not having a single clue how to implement them.

NOTE: Before i start my review, i'd like to say that the excellent Shane Smith from VICE has done a reportage from a major arms dealing convention. So if you want to see some Jormungand-style gunrunning in real time, then you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJct-kBqIKA

My understanding of arms dealers came after watching the excellent film "Lord of War". Nicolas Cage plays a Ukrainian-American arms dealer who sells guns like AK-47s, M-16s and a M-60 Machine gun to warlords and rebel groups. The movie is great as it portrays a balanced view of the arms dealer, and how inane our world is.

Arms dealing is rampant ... in this current age. With the Drug War across Latin America along with Middle Eastern revolutions and a Taliban insurgency in West Asia, the need for arms dealers is higher than ever, and these wars gave rise to people like Viktor Bout who sells AK-47s to dictators like Charles Taylor and Muammar Gaddafi. It is evil, manipulative and horrifying and his recent arrest became a morality tale about the nature of war and how people like Viktor Bout are making the world a worse place to live.

Jormungand came a few months after Lord of War, but it's also excellent. And the anime adaptation aired the same month Viktor Bout received 25 years of prison in the United States. So it's pretty co-incidental that both the manga and anime came at a time when stories of arms dealers reached the news.

The story is about a group of arms dealers led by a Genki girl named Koko Hekmatyar (Shizuka Itou). Her ragtag crew is like the A-Team of arms dealers, and their ways of running the business is as carefree as the Googleplex, but with more explosions.

The series begins with Koko bringing a new member of the team: A former child soldier named Jonathan. He's about 10, hates guns but joins an arms dealing group to find the dealers who killed his parents. Koko, along with Jonah and her crew of badasses go around the world selling guns and partying. It's k-On! meets Lord of War and Micmacs, and that's the best summary of the story.

Animation wise, the animation's nice. Pretty sunny, but since it's by White Fox then the lens flare is expected. The character designs are done by by the key animator from Steins;Gate and it shows.

The direction is pretty good, especially when it's directed by the director of Katanagatari and School Days. Yeah, about that: Keitaru Motonaga should stick to directing for White Fox since all his other works are pretty bad. His career reminds me of Martin Campbell's career: a hit or two in a resume of crap.

The music's nice. The OP sounds like something from a Prodigy/Pendulum concert, and the ED is done by the excellent Nagi Yanagi. The entire score is done by Taku Iwasaki who remains great at what he does. His attention to surrounding and action makes him great, which is why he's the best action anime composer ever, since he does stuff like Gurren Lagann, Yakitate Japan and Ben-to.

The one flaw about this story is character development. So far, Koko, Jonathan and Koko's colleague Valmer (voiced by Sayaka Ohara) has given us a glimpse of what they are and recently we get to see Jonathan's backstory and Koko's brother. And that's about it. There is a backstory about the most recent villain group in the series, but that was not as exciting as it should be. I wanna see more of that Lehm guy (voiced by Unsho Ishizuka) and more of William Nelson (voiced by Kenji Nomura). The series could have been better if each episode revolves around two characters hanging out with each other, like Community. But we get to see more of others later in the series which helps improve character relationship. We also get to see interactions with people outside the arms bubble, like the "Medicines Sans Frontieres" guys later in the episode.

Overall, Jormungand is a decent anime about arms dealer. It's not as great as Lord of War, but it's good for lots of action and a great staff which makes the series much more enjoyable.

I am not sure what to say about this show. It is extremely action packed and the character looks interesting at first glance, but there is so many of them and they are all still so cryptic that it is hard to tell if they are not just generic characters in the end. I am not sure where this show will be going exactly, obviously action will take a major part of the show, but I have a feeling (mostly because this is a white fox production) that the character will turn out to be very likable and interesting in the end.

I’m more interested in ... learning what is the deal with Jonah. That poor boy is very interesting, he doesn’t like to talk, yet he asks many question, he doesn’t like guns, yet he carries one around. The only time he laughed was when he was able to hold a plush in his hand for a minute. Otherwise he always kept the same Kristen Stewart facial expression for the whole episode. In term of characters, Jormungand already hooked me in. Also, I don’t know if it is just me, but Jonah reminds me of Johan from Monster, mainly because they have the same letters in their name and both kids are messed up beyond any kind of redemption.

Another part of the show that I absolutely loved were the soundtrack. The Opening and Ending are just awesome ! They made me think of Black Lagoon somehow in their style, most likely because both shows are of similar genre after all. Even after listening only once to those songs, I already want to listen to them on loop. I guess I’m kind of a sucker for this kind of “music”.

Finally, I’m not sure what to say about the action, the only thing I can clearly say is that some of the stuff they did in the show are simply physically impossible. No one can stand on top of a car that is driving at I don’t know how many kilometers per hour, not unless you have nails under your boots, but even in that case it would have been impossible in that particular scene, since the van was bullet proof and the nails would have never taken grip in the first place. Also, while I’m no explosive specialist, I am fairly confident that the shock wave from a grenade explosion is sufficient (at such close range) to active the detonator of an RPG, but maybe some gun maniac could prove me wrong on that one.

I’m willing to give this show a try, I have a feeling that the action might never buy me, but the characters already did and from past experience, white fox make great shows. I will look forward to blogging and watching this show, at least for the next couple episodes.

Possibility of Watching: Likely

What in your mind if we're talking about a series that have gunfire packed with some stunning action? Maybe you would think a hollywood movies that usually have stunning action and amazing gunfire scenes like The Raid Redemption (2012) or maybe James Bond series , how about in anime? Dont worry we have like that too, its called Jormungand.

STORY

The story in jormungand is about Jonah, a boy who fought in middle east as the child soldier is being recruited as Koko's companions. Koko itself is an arms dealer who travels all around the world for selling the guns. As the arms dealer, Koko must have ... many obstacles like resistance from a group in the country or even a rival in dealing with arms. As her subordinate, Jonah and the companions must make sure Koko's safety in every transactions. By reading the premise of the story maybe you can imagine. There will be many spectacular action and stunning visual gunfire which means you will being served by a full-pack of action. Well, its true.

What make me love about this series was this anime wasnt always about gunfire or battle scenes. There was a time when this anime shows good jokes and some lighthearted story. Having a great action battle doesnt mean they forgot about the story, the story in this anime was well-made and not too hard to understand. Jormungand is really great at composing the story when times to jokes and when the times for serious.

Of course, in Jormungand there was some moments when you have question in your mind like "what happen?" or "how could it happen? what the reason"
but eventually, it would happen if you werent focussed. But aside from it, Jormungand is pretty enjoyable action anime that will make you sitting down quietly on your chair.


ART

The art in this anime was awesome, especially in the weapon details. They were specifically put extra details in the weapon that being used in this anime, like when there was a scenes with a weapon usually they make it really like a realistic weapon. Not just the weapon details, The background in this anime was really synch with the situation or the atmosphere, even the background seems so simple but it isnt decreasing the "epic" effect when there was a gunfire scenes. The simple background that White Fox usually does is being covered by how the gunfire scenes works. So people usually being sidetracked and focusess on the battle scenes.



SOUND

You wouldnt get spaced out if you're watching Jormungand, since when watching this anime you will feel like in the middle of battles. Gunfire and exploding sound will echoing your room and makes like you're in the middle of battleground. Not just the sound effect, the BGM which made by Yasunori Ebina (known for To Aru majutsu franchise) is helpfully increasing the feel from "war" situation.

The OP of Jormungand, which is "Borderland" by Mami Kawada is pretty catchy. With some electro tunes and fast beat, this OP easily grasp my heart. This OP itself is quite match with Jormungand themes, which have a full-suspense action and fast battles. I cant help to not to rewind after hearing the OP, its really good and easy listening.

CHARACTER

This is maybe what make Jormungand shines the most. In this anime, you will find many interesting characters. Its not tsundere or dandere that you would find in any anime but its more into realistic terms. Like Jonah, our main character who is mostly quiet (because of the trauma) but at the same time pretty skillful in battle, Koko which is the "boss" in this anime, she is very charismatic and sometimes behave like a child but when comes to serious, she is can be very scary, and also there was Valmet, who is Ex-Major serving for UN forces in Africa, looks scary on the outside but can be pretty darling when it comes to Koko and there is still more, from a freaky one into a badass one. This anime full of interesting character that you wouldnt get bored from it.

CONCLUSION

Above all the appreciate that i gave in this anime, Jormungand is really deserve to have all the apreciation, Jormungand is really a great action one that rarely seen in another series. You have great story packed with amazing battle scenes, wonderful soundtrack that can hyping up the atmosphere, great backgrounds and loveable characters. What else did you need again? anyway, this anime is for those who loves action. FYI, i am not action fans but i started to getting addicted with action after watching jormungand. So, basically this anime is RECOMMENDED!

Overview:

The following is my review and analysis of Jormungand 1 and 2. The following contains SPOILERS!!!


Black Lagoon abandoned the cliche of heroic nice guy protagonists and gave viewers a team of highly morally dubious protagonists who get in epic gun fights and pull jobs for the Mafia. What if you took it one step further and made an anime where you the viewer are flat out asked to root for the bad guy? This is that anime! The main character is a completely ruthless arms dealer that is like a combination of Nick Cage's character in Lord of War with The Major from ... Hellsing. She is a perpetually grinning, maniacal sociopath who wishes to ultimately rule the world and will destroy anyone and everyone between her and her goal. However, I HIGHLY suspect that Jormungand doesn't actually want the viewer to root for her. Actually I am almost certain that Jormugand is a satire in which the main character Koko Hekmatyar represents the United States and its foreign policy from a Japanese perspective. If you don't believe me, read the next paragraph. The show gives a LOT of evidence to support this!

Firstly, Hekmatyar was born in international waters and doesn't belong to any nation, but her father is an American and CEO of one of America's largest companies. This giant American company violates every international law and is secretly the world's largest arms dealer. This is a reference to the fact that the United States is the world's largest weapons exporter. Secondly, the name Hekmatyar for our main character was taken from real life terrorist Galbuddin Hekmatyar, who was heavily backed by the United States to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan...despite the fact that he was a brutal war criminal who was far worse than the Soviets . He later betrayed the US and became a leading member of Al-Qaeda, which he still is to this day. Thirdly, the sidekick of our MC Koko Hekmatyar is an Arab child soldier named Jonah Al-Mar. Neither Mar or Al-Mar are actual Arab names. Al-Mar is the name of a knife company that makes the combat knives for the United States Army. 4th, the bodyguard and leader of Hekmatyar's elite special forces is a Finnish mercenary. The US special forces were founded by a Finnish mercenary named Lauri Allan Törni (Larry Thorn)...who was an ex-SS war criminal. The US let him out of jail early in order to teach American soldiers how to fight as ruthless and badass as the Waffen SS. 5th, in the first episode, Hekmatyar kills a bunch of Russians in order to become the sole arms dealer to what she calls a "cluster of backwater countries in Eastern Europe". This is a reference to how after defeating Russia in the Cold War, the US expanded NATO to control all of Eastern Europe and is now in fact the sole weapons dealer to all the countries of Eastern Europe except Belarus and Ukraine(yet). 6th, Hekmatyar's plan to take over the world involves a series of weapons satellites that will shoot down all planes in the world that are not under her control. This will give her absolute air power advantage and global domination. This is a reference to SDI, a US military project in the 1980s to build weapons satellites that would shoot down any incoming missiles and allow the US to nuke any opponent without having to worry about counter-attack. This would have given the US total control of the world, although the project was actually propaganda to scare the Soviets and was never technologically feasible, at least not in the 1980s. Lastly, Hekmatyar tells Al-Mar that her plan will shoot down all passenger planes currently flying, but 600,000 to 700,000 people is a small price to pay for the end of war under her total global domination. The number of casualties she estimated is in fact the exact same number of Japanese civilians killed by the US air force in WW2, which Japan feels America very coldly excused by saying it was necessary to end the war (and in Japan's view rule the world). These are just a few of the many examples. If you were paying attention and know something about history and politics, this is hard not to notice. Of course...it could just all be coincidence and this is just a shitty anime.

This series has LOTS of gun and weapons porn with all the tanks, helicopters, and gun models presented quite accurately. I wish I could say the same about the character models. Why the hell do the Arabs have white hair and red eyes? I know the Ishvalen's were supposed to represent Arabs, but this is our planet and not some alternate dimension! Just make them look like Arabs! Also, Hekmatyar is supposed to be an ethnic Pashtun (largest ethnic group in Afghanistan), but doesn't look remotely Pashtun! If you can make your M16s and your Hi-24 helicopters look accurate, why not your Arabs and Pashtuns? WTF?!

The series gives us a highly unconventional protagonist, LOTS of action, lots of accurate weapon models for military geeks, and unless it was the world's largest coincidence, a lot of brutal satire. Obviously I can't know the writer's intentions, so the satire element is speculative and whether or not the author's intention takes away from potential value as a satire is an entirely different lengthy discussion. This at first looks like a pretty mediocre anime, but if you look at it the right way, it makes for a pretty interesting show overall.

"Though i Devour Five Lands and Drink the Three Ocean Dry i am powerless Against the Sky,for i have neither Wings,nor Legs nor Hands.i am the World Snake and My Name is Jormungand"
Jormungandr is originally a son of Loki the Norse God and the enemy of Thor(his uncle).a great snake that is known as the World Serpent.although Jormungand anime is not directly connected to the mythology it uses the name to represent Koko's personality.she looks innocent and cute at first but with a look at her eyes you can see she is a Dragon without wings that devours the world.(she even has complexity with the ... sky like the original Jormungandr.as one of her men always says "nothing good comes from Koko and the sky")

Story and Characters

Jormugand starts with a young boy named Jonah that hates weapons but has nothing else to depend on and have to use them.an arms dealer named Koko hires him and they travel the world with Koko's team.in their travels and missions Jonah Learns about each of the team member's past and skills and we also learn why he is sticking around.(he also has to learn school stuff from the gang too but he ditches his classes most of the times).

every arc features an story about one of the Jonah's Squad mates,their background and their abilities in battlefield.even those that might seems less capable at the first glance can take your attention when they finished showing off in their own arc for example Mao seems like an empty character at first but when you find out that he is a family man and can rain six thousand steel arrows on his enemies with ease you see there is more to him.there are also characters that can get your attention and love from the beginning like Lehm or Valmer (my favorites from the squad)

throughout the story the squad get involved in some awesome fights featuring Guns,Blades and Blood(what more do you want?) but that's not all we get from Jormungand.behind every fight most of the time there is a mind game going on between Koko and her rivals.while the talk of blood and tricky games gives a serious theme to the series it always managed to have its own style of comedy as well which is mostly shown at the start of every arc(R going perv on Valmer or Lutz playing Paintball with Jonah).another good thing about Jormungand is that no one is invincible in it and in every mission you get the feeling that someone may die specially with the way they adopted the manga.(like Ugo's scene that they made a cliffhanger out of it).even the mighty Lehm can get Knock out anytime like real humans.although you will see some unreal things in this anime as well like dodging hundreds of bullets...

Animation

you can feel the animation getting better through out the series.it always tries to be in synch with the ongoing theme for example you can feel a dark shade most of the times on battle scenes and a light one on comedy scenes.the character design is good as well although it doesn't completely stays true to the manga.

Sound

"her name is Koko she is Loco i said Hell Yes!"
with good action scenes there is always a need for a good music as well to gives you enough adrenaline rush and Jormungand is successful at that.the BGM and OSTs in this series are one my favorites.also its worth mentioning that the series has a good Opening theme done by Mami Kawada named Borderlands as well.
also they did a good job at voice casting and it has .Valmer and Lehm are perfectly fit from the beginning and we heard their voice on similar characters before so that helps as well.you might think that Koko's Voice is little of at first but the more you get to know her the more you see that it suits her well.they even brought Isobe, Tsutomu as Bookman which is nostalgic since he voiced Dutch in Black Lagoon(a similar anime.also both of their mangas are being published in the same magazine)

Enjoyment and Overall

Jormungand might not seems like something complex at first but the more you get to know it the more you feel its not just a simple gunfight anime and that the creator actually put a lot of thought and feeling behind the story and characters and the staff did a good job at bringing it to life.

It is commonplace to assume that the arms industry will observe a boom in demand during times of war and little during 'peaceful' times but unfortunately that isn't the case giving the sorry state of the world. Terrorism, uprisings and vast amount of budgeting for security has made arms dealing one of the most profitable modern professions today.

Jormungand was originally a manga by by Keitarō Takahashi. It follows the adventures and exploits of the young and cunning shipping heiress Koko Hekmatyar as she travels around the world selling weapons together with her group of bodyguards. The latest addition to her squad is a child soldier ... called Jonah who claims to loathe weapons and warfare but unfortunately has no choice but to use them due to his occupation and state of the world.

The plot in Jormungand is pretty straightforward and simple, selling arms, but how and the situation koko's group gets into to do this is both mediocre and exciting at the same time. Believe it or not, dealing in private arms is a perfectly legal profession in most countries. Most arms dealers that do get arrested aren't arrested because of their profession but because of import and export laws, or U.N. sanctions that are being circumvented and the series does hint at this in the first couple episodes.

Unfortunately its not all fun and games, the series being about selling arms gave alot of attention to 'arms' but the selling part was giving very little attention, i felt it would have been a nice addition and would have given the show a bit more sense of realism. At the start we are told that Jonah resents arms dealers due to his past but Jonah shows absolutely no amount of resentment towards Koko from the offset, a little resentment initially and gradually bonding would have been a nice way for the story to flow and build up their relationship but sadly it didn't. In Koko's defense though her personality is very likable and not something one can resent even if they tried.

White fox have done a nice job with delivering stunning visuals throughout the show, art was good, scenery and locations also. The design and facial details of characters made them stand out with the artists going for darker pencil lines and color tones that really made the dark aspect of the show stand out. The design of the weapons were done in good detail but i wished more attention should have been given as to what type of weapon was being used at the time. There are also certain firefights where for sure our protagonists would be in a pinch but would always seem to come out unscathed as if having divine protection from the animators.

All the voice actors were top notch but might intially take a liitle getting used to, in the end all gave astounding performances to even the supporting characters. The OP, Borderland by Mami Kawada is an upbeat J-pop song that really went well with the tone of the show, pumping up audiences for the episode to come. The ED, Ambivalentidea by Nagi Yanagi although a slow paced song seemed surprisingly a good fit and it felt as though it complemented the upbeat OP and in a ways bringing balance to the overall feel. The BGM were nicely done too and the OST CD is definitely a look out for whenever it comes out. The most important sound aspect for the show is inevitably the weapons and it received composite attention, all sounds were in line with real life.

The place the series takes a bit of a headfall is with character development, Koko, Jonah and one or two of Koko's team members are developed well but the remaining were given very little detail, at times i thought some characters were new additions to her team cause i had never seen them before but only to go back to a previous episode to see that they were present but just lack of screen time was hampering them. We cant really blame them for this since it s just a 12 episode show but the very little introduction brings the show down a bit. The number of Koko's team itself i felt was a bit of a problem, it's just too much and other arm dealers we encounter have a more manageable size of bodyguards .

Its not all bad on the characters sides though, the few people we did see development was done well and kept enjoyable, Koko's cunning is also fun to watch but the humor is something the show wasnt much good at and tries to apply it in situations rather than speech.

Dialogue between characters were handled professionally but there were a few places where audiences would be scratching their heads not knowing what was going on though. The choice of sometimes switching names of countries with simple letters like 'country T' i felt was not a good idea. The show seemed to somewhat over rely on the characters personalities a lot to deliver and not really on the story much.

Overall Jormungand is a good show and definitely one of the better shows of 2012, it is very enjoyable all through and one of the better thriller animes out there and makes enough impact to trade blows with shows like Black Lagoon any day. All in all you'll discover the life of an arms dealer is more than meets the eye and tricks such as being a professional in using different types of weapons wont get you much far and cunning and wit need to be added to the package.

This has got to be one of the most ridiculous animes I've seen in awhile. The gun battles are just terribly sad and the dialog is something you'd expect from a little kids cartoon. Yet this anime has a R17+ rating. What exactly is their target audience? I suppose if you live on an island completely isolated from firearm ownership you might fool them into thinking you cant hit someone running straight at you a stones throw away with an ak-47 but come on! You cant have that same character turn and shoot some snipers off a building like it was nothing and expect me ... to disconnect my brain and ignore that! This... This is just too absurd to watch.

Ok, so the 1st season of this anime has ended and we all look for ward on the next season, and it is suggested that the main baddie involves the so called "Bookman" ..... obviously he's the guy whom we saw who met up with "R."

But let's have a short quiz first:

I.True or false

1. The former Soviet Union was the biggest supplier of weapons during the cold war.
a. true b false

2. The " Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia — Ejército del Pueblo," or better known as ... " FARC" is currently the most active revolutionary insurgency group in South America particularly in Colombia.

a.true b. false

3. The Mexican Drug Cartel is only involved in smuggling and dealing in drugs.

a. true b.false

4. The Chicago Mob (Mafia) is currently the biggest criminal organization in the US.
a.true b. false

Let me remind you that the question being ask here were related to the anime itself, though you can choose to brush this quiz aside it can only prove that you ain't interested to know at all.

Ok enough of the BS, so what now? Just kidding, Since this anime has a Action, Adventure, Military and seinen genre in it, it actually has the following; the flare of James Bond combine with the action of "The Unit" with the addition of black comedy of "Sons of Anarchy." It kinda looks like that the author himself, Keitaro Motonaga may have had his inspiration with regards to these shows. However, he may have also gotten some inspiration that happened in real life and I'm referring to the "Iran-Contra" scandal where during 1986 the Reagan Administration violated their own arms embargo to Iran and Israel serves as the middle man between the US and Iran which cause a ruckus in US Congress. In which this anime may be a metaphor for that kind of incident. In reality an arms smuggler like Koko Hekmatyar would not last 5 mins out there and we are talking about every law enforcement agency including the Interpol would would be knocking in her front door and she'll run out places to hide just like what happen to infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1993. You see the business of being a middleman in arms smuggling is not as glamorous as that of Koko in fact the job itself is as risky as drug smuggling, but unlike drug smuggling, arms smuggling is only cruel to black marketeers but not to arms manufactures and in the countries where they reside. So for the story since the plot varies from episode to episode and there is that element of realism in it I gave it a "Good" number 7.


Art: Decent 4.

Ok, usually I really don't comment much about the art of an anime, but I really like the way them amazon were drawn like Valment, Karen, Curry and Chiquita it seems that the illustrator may have gotten the idea of using Japan's famous female body builder Tomoko Kanda as a model for the said female cast of this anime which I like.

Sound: Poor 3.

I simply hate both the opening and closing themes.

Character: Good 7.

What I like the roles that were fitted into the characters, co'z how they were drawn actually matches them perfectly. Take for example Koko Hekmatyar, one can see that she the good, the bad and the ugly. Good because her posses respect her and she has a way that commands the respect of her would be killers, she's bad co'z if one crosses her it is open season for him and she ugly co'z.............she's smart, cunning and generous, but she simply ugly and I kind hate her for being a lolicon since it is very obvious that she has hots for Jonah. Valmet on the other hand kinda strikes me as both a Milf and a hot Fbb which I find her as awesome, since I kinda have a thing for Milf's and Fbb's. Jonah, for me he looks like grown man in a boy's body, which if I can have it my way I would have love to tie him unto a ICBM and launch him in the sky. You know, I would have wish that Chinatsu better known as "Commando Girl" would have had some uncensored fanservice with regards to her butt to add some spice to her character even thought she only appeared in 2 episodes.

Enjoyment and overall: Good 7 and Very Good 8.

The enjoyable part of this 12 episode 1st season is the gun fight, blood and gore and some good fanservice from the Valment, you can really say that this anime is for seinen who would like a good action and adventure kind of thing, Overall, White Fox studio really did a good action pack anime which deserves a 2nd season. So even if the 2nd season is yet to come I wonder if the "Bookman" will be able to tame the "Jormungand"( which by the way I'm referring to Koko)? I guess we'll find out when the 2nd season arrives.


BTW, how about another set of Jormungand quiz?


5. What is the name of the Surface to Air Missile (SAM) system that was shown in episode 2?

a. Hawk b. Stinger c. Patriot

6. One of Koko's mercenaries is a former " Bersaglieri," question, what is a" Bersaglieri?"


a. An elite unit of the Russian Army B. An elite unit of the Royal Army (UK)

c. An elite unit of the Italian Army


7. A Javelin is a form of ____________.

a. Artillery b. Sniper Rifle c. Shoulder Fired Missile

after 1 episode i feal compelled to write a reveiw on this,first of all ,read the sumary of this show by yourself because im not just restatiing the obvious,second,this story has a specific genere ,so if you dont like anime's with guns,blood,action,kid soldiers,wierd random humour,adults,warefare, this anime is not for you.ok so overall this is a good anime if you like stuff like that ,the thing that is unique and makes this somthig to watch other than somthing else in its genre is how it is pulled together,it fits well with everything you like smashed into one ,and well...Thought breakdown

1)STORY.the overall story is "good" but ... that is just based on one episode,i can see potential either way you look at it,low posibality of screwing this up .The story dosn't have arealy detailed plot besides "sell guns/fight and kill enemy's",no plot yet any way,but if you like action its got plenty of that so who cares?its still a likable show with the action/guns/wiht a wierd "humour"

2)CHARACTOR,im undicided on this ,its hard to judge on one episode but....the charactors all seem to have a great fondness for koko,they seem to all have their reasons/troubled lives,all of them are likable in their ownway.prehaps explained later?The charactores all seem to like their job,all are mysterious in a way but thats what makes you want to watch more

3)Enjoyment:GREAT! "yay" a thrilling story i can't wait for more whats going to happen next!?im confused a bit but i want to know what will happen!?its a griping story ,but not everyone will like this sadly

4)Art/Sound:very good wow the art looks unique ,the way the eylashes match the hair colour that is not used very often,it has a mix of "solid" styles its enjoyable to look at



..yep thats my thoughts(sorry for the spelling errors DX(and bad review,im not good at these:T)any questions feal freee to ask :)

IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT WEAPONS, MILITARY TACTICS, GUNFIGHTS AND BASIC PHYSICS, YOU WILL MOST LIKELY NOT ENJOY THIS SHOW.

The premise of the show seemed interesting, the characters have depth and it has just enough ambiguity to keep drawing you in. There's just one, huge problem. This is a show centred around dealing weapons, war and gunfights and yet the director seems to know absolutely nothing about any of the above. I'll list a few examples:

One scene has two people firing assault rifles at each other, full auto from about 10 metres away. AND NOT ONE BULLET LANDS. In this same scene, a ... riot shield is shown stopping multiple 7.62 rounds. A ballistic shield can do this, but not a riot shield, and my god would you feel the impact.

An assault rifle with a 30 rnd magazine will on average give you 2.2-2.5 seconds of firing at full auto. These guys must have some magic ass magazines because they get at least 15 seconds each.

They fire a javelin (a top down anti-armor weapon) which fires in a straight line for some reason, and also inexplicably ignores arming distance and just blows tf up when the dude fires it into his own vehicle.

Some gals fire pistols at each other point blank, im talking about 4-5 mags each here and somehow they both dodge every single round and duke it out with their bayoneted pistols...

There's plenty more examples, but you get the idea. The terrible action scenes ruined a show with great potential.

“Fun, funny and fast-passed, a well-driven action focused show… A ‘Lord of War’ (movie) meets ‘Black Lagoon’ (anime) kind of thing”

REVIEW FREE OF SPOILERS!

We all have seen war, whether depicted in movies, games, books or through news channels or even in your own life, but not many things talk or show us about the dark and “behind-the-scenes” scenario that takes place during those wars, revolutions or fights of any kind, and by the “behind-the-scenes” I mean those person that finance –whether a group or militia- with weapons. Movies like “Lord of War” (Nicolas Cage) or “The International” (Clive Owen) come to mind, so what makes ... “JORMUNGAND” such an acclaimed show?

Let’s start.


-STORY: 7-
As I’ve already stated on my “introduction” something that its main focus is built around arms dealing isn’t one of the most original things ever, nevertheless it IS a setting that hasn’t been overused like let’s say the topic of WWII. So one of the main things –probably- that has captivated the viewers –in addition to the story- into watching “JORMUNGAND” is the uniqueness of its main emphasis, the arms dealing and not like most action/adventure shows which main focus –usually- is the war itself.

The story department is simple –at least the first season-,it’s filled with well-achieved action moments, there are some “meaningful” and “touching” memories of the main characters and it’s well-driven, but then again the show falls a few times on one of those typical repetitive patterns shown in plenty other anime. Don’t misunderstand me; the story is great, not a masterpiece –without a doubt- but not a boring one. In addition, “JORMUNGAND” is one of those shows in which every single one of the main characters are bad-asses, which means that they will always find a way –effortlessly, if I may add- to save the day –their day, of course- thing that by the end of the show leaves you wanting something “else” or “more”, maybe a little more passion or meaningfulness should be thrown into the story.

One of the characteristic that I find attractive and kept me watching the show is the fact that one of the main characters –Jonah- is against guns and thus bringing an interesting “sub-plot” within the show. Another characteristic that makes this show “likeable” –or pleasant, if you will- is the fact that is engaging, interesting and enticing for it isn’t you every-day-war-kind-of-anime. Another aspect is that the show wasn’t always about just guns, most of the times it is but there are some moments that are more focused on the characters.

To conclude, the first season of “JORMUNGAND” was probably just made to place and prepare the “board” for what’s –probably- coming-


-ART: 8-
“JORMUNGAND” the art shown on the show is remarkable, it isn’t a masterpiece or the jewel of the show but it isn’t something “wanting” either. It’s detailed, in most aspects, especially when talking about guns and action scenes, that’s where the magic of the art team of “JORMUNGAND” shines. Also, the characters designs are appealing and believable.


-SOUND: 7-
The show contains very talented voice actors that transfer their mood/feelings to the viewers, although the script isn’t one of the most “deep” and meaningful things in the world, it looks like it was more action oriented but still, there ARE indeed some reflective moments.

The music by Takau Iwasaki is good, it’s a wide range of music styles from music containing ethnic sounds –focused on the country they’re in-, or fast passed compositions made to fit in the moment. Nevertheless, the soundtrack isn’t a masterpiece or something that is imposing anything interesting, it’s just a soundtrack that tries –and fails, in my opinion- to hype you up. To put it bluntly the soundtrack is shallow, it’s like they tried to have a soundtrack for the sake of just having a soundtrack and not to evoke feelings –other than excitement-.


-CHARACTER: 9-
“JORMUNGAND” is made in a 12 episode-format show, which –as I’ve stated before- is usually counterproductive when talking about the “Character Department” subject, since most shows aren’t able to develop something or they just lack it or the characters just lack to back bone, but it is probably –in my opinion- the best department in “JORMUNGAND”.
There’s not much character development per se in this show, it has some but most focused into “friendship” in a dimmed kind of way, its faint.
What makes the characters so well-achieved is that they’re interesting, they are appealing, they have a past and most importantly everyone has a goal or a believe, making the character department rich and slightly well-grounded.


-ENJOYMENT: 9 & OVERALL: 8-
“JORMUNGAND” is one of those shows that you love primarily because of the characters within it. It’s a fast passed, well-driven enjoyable show.
But as I said before, the season one looks like just like a preparation for what’s to come.

Thanks for reading!

The top show this season (excluding kore wa zombie desuka otd)
this show good point IMO: great OP song, No bullshit about super heros super power crap just plain old Gun Blazin battle and sometime they slip some comedy inside.
If you want to compare of course its gonna be BLACK LAGOON however the amount of bullet shed in this show is much much moar and of course since this show is about arms dealer they got various type of weapon

OK now why not create a series glorifying what people think are the worst kind of human beings there are on earth- The Arms Dealer. Is the anime successful in doing justice to the theme- absolutely not. It doesn't show the expected hear wrenching realities and emotional conflicts or brutalities of the profession but instead the author decides to take a very childish take on the matter which is make the arms dealer an eccentric, charismatic and mysterious person who is able to command respect from her subordinates who are some killers who have come from various walks of life. One of them actually is ... a child soldier who hates arms dealers because of the atrocities done to him but finds himself having fun with the person. I have to say that justice has e not been do the plot at all. But ignoring this part and assuming that nothing that good can be expected from this series you could have fun just watching the action in it and appreciate the plots too. The character of the child soldier is the most mysterious one and the most interesting to watch and thats the only part of the story that made it watchable.

TL;DR Jormungand is a good series.

Jormungand is the story of a crew of arms dealers, led by the charismatic Koko Hekmatyar. The series is mostly episodic, weaving in some character arcs on the way. Usually the formula is this:

1. The crew arrives.
2. Stuff goes awry and they need a way out / need to out-think their opponents / straight up kill dudes.
3. Mission completed and on to the next arc.

Pretty easy formula to make a series from. I’m sure that if you’ve heard about this series earlier, then you’ve heard about the series that undoubtedly stands as a huge influence: Black Lagoon. Black Lagoon is ... about a small group of people who conduct usually illegal business and get in trouble with all sorts of people. Jormungand is basically this, but with a bigger group. Now, obviously Jormungand isn’t a straight rip-off of BL, it just builds from the same ground. While BL arcs usually comes together with cooperation and the combined with of the Lagoon Crew, Jormungand is basically The Koko Show. And that’s perfectly fine. Koko carries the series very well. For a more fleshed out character run-down, look below:

Koko Hekmatyar: Arms dealer, handling business mainly in Europe and Africa. Very charismatic and beautiful. Usually very energetic and behaving sometimes like a child, she has a ruthless interior and on multiple occasions called a monster. Although usually cool with a smile on her lip, Koko has one of the most intimidating glares in anime.

Jonah: Child soldier. His parents were killed in an air-strike and he became a child soldier shortly after. Has a strong hate for weapons, but still works for Koko, often serving as her bodyguard. He definitely shows more understanding than expected from a child.

Lehm: Ex-Delta Force operator. Used to be active in Somalia. Second in command of Koko’s crew. Veteran mercenary who takes charge when armed conflict arises. Used to work for Koko’s father. Very versatile in weapon use, ranging from long-distance sniping to close quarters combat.

Valmet: Ex-Major serving for UN forces in Africa. Her unit got slaughtered by Chen Guoming and she lost an eye in the attack. Since then, she suffers from anxiety whenever she sets foot in Africa. Very proficient with knives and pistols.

Then there are the rest of the cast, that aren’t given much other than support roles most of the time. Technically only Koko and Jonah are the only real main characters, but Valmet and Lehm are given much more time on screen than the other side characters, so they sort of slide into main roles by association. The entire crew is 10 men strong, and the series struggle to give decent air time to all.

The big cast isn’t a bad thing in itself, but it doesn’t help either. It’s quite logical that an arms dealer would have a decently sized squad with her, but most of the characters see very little air time. Most characters get to have their arcs play out (some might have theirs in the second season) sooner or later, but it’s a shame we aren’t given more time to know the entire cast better. Especially since they keep being given airtime and dialogue with Koko that are defined by their characters and their pasts, both of which we don’t know. Valmet's arc is especially strong. The characters mostly revolve in and out when they have an arc or not. When they’re around, they contribute to the colourful group of people.

To my surprise, there is little discussing of morality around, especially considering Jonah is a fucking child soldier. Sure, it’s brought up, but quickly shot down at times. Let’s be frank about this, the characters in the show aren’t good guys. They’re varying degrees of bad, I guess. Or, a better way to put it would be that they are all in the moral grey zone. They’re portrayed romantically as the heroes, so naturally you’re going to root for them when the oddball villains pop up to kill them. I wanted to see some more discussion or feelings about war, than what we got. It is a character-driven drama/action series, which is right up my ally, but I feel they do themselves a disservice to skip some strong discussion points on the way. And it’s topical because, you know, there’s tons of child soldiers in the world.

As for the story, there’s not a whole lot to be had, except for when the supporting characters have their arcs. The story follows the crew as they deliver and/or sell weapons and other necessities to a diverse set of people. They’re usually dealing in Europe and Africa through the season. Then there’s usually a villain for each episode, with some villains lasting another one or two more. The formula mentioned before is how the episodes unfold.

Something that quickly stands out is the very distinct art-style. It’s not super drastically different compared to most other anime. It’s usually very realistic, sometimes with some exaggerated details, usually the eyes. For the most part it’s absolutely gorgeously drawn and animated. Backgrounds are usually done nicely as well, and at times with great and impressive detail.

The voice acting is excellent across the board. The only drawback is that there’s rarely chances for the actors to use a wider range than slow drama and some comedy here and there. The soundtrack is good when used. Pretty sweet electronic battle music. OP (opening theme) and ED (ending theme) are both excellent songs.

As far as the general theme of the show goes, it’s usually a slow-paced drama with some comedy blended in. Then there’s the occasional high-speed action scenes when deals either go tits-up or there’s other people that want to hit Koko’s group.

As for the comedy, it’s a bit too much. I would have prepared being almost completely without it. In the most serious episodes, there’s practically none of it, and they’re so much better off without. The comedic parts being randomly inserted here and there just disturb the pacing and atmosphere of the series. It just feels like something inserted to please the mainstream audiences. The thing is though, that this isn’t really a series made for mainstream audiences. It’s about killers and mercenaries selling weapons to guerillas and warlords. Not something that you want your kids or the family to sit down and watch in the evening. Inserting comedy into the formula is detrimental to the concept and leaves us a worse product to enjoy. I want to stress that I’m not anti-comedy, but doing it as half-heartedly and shallow as it is here it can only work badly.

The antagonists that pop into the episodes are along the lines of the comedic tendencies mentioned. They’re almost always very eccentric or have some crazy fighting style. In some arcs it works, like when the crew goes to Africa and come face-to-face with an old enemy of one of the crew members. They usually don’t take anything away from the enjoyment, but they don’t usually add to it either.

An excellent scene which stands as a display of how good the drama of the series can be is when it's brought up that killing to much people can make you "a dragon," and a character asks Koko if she would ever become one. The scene is unbearably tense for it's short running time, and shows how good the series is when it sticks to straight-up drama instead of faffing about with random comedy.

As for the enjoyment, it’s great. While not being the best I’ve veer seen, this series is highly enjoyable. It’s variance is it’s strength, and while I don’t usually like the comedy, some light-hearted scenes are always good in a series like this, and some scenes succeed in being genuinely funny. From slow-paced planning with some tense meetings with antagonists; to high-speed gun-play and chase-scenes, Jormungand is one hell of a ride, and it’s a pleasure watching it. While not always ending in cliffhangers, the show still gets you excited to watch the next episode after you finish one, and that’s high praise for a series. Jormungand is a delight to watch, and should be seen by people interested in serious drama, and is obviously very recommended for fans of Black Lagoon.

If you like it, check out it’s sequel, Jormungand: Perfect Order.

Oh boy, where do I even begin with Jormungand? I mean, what's not to love about an anime about a group of lovable misfits traveling the world selling illegal weapons to anyone who will buy them? And let's not forget the main character, Jonah, who hates weapons and those who deal them but is somehow convinced to become a bodyguard for an international arms dealer. I mean, that's just good, solid logic right there.
But wait, it gets better! The team is constantly pursued by the CIA and assassins, so they have to constantly protect their dear leader Koko and her "overly idealistic goal of world ... peace" with their lives. Oh, and did I mention that Koko is an international arms dealer? Yeah, that whole world peace thing might be a bit of a stretch.
Overall, Jormungand is a wild and absurd ride that will have you rolling your eyes and laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. It's definitely a must-watch for anyone who enjoys a good dose of sarcasm and irony with their action-packed anime.