Jormungand

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.

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.

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.

Many anime filled with guns are also filled with absurdities. You either accept that or you don't, and that is key to your enjoyment of this series. Even if you like the characters and the story, even if you suspend disbelief through the clunky dialogue and excessive exposition, you still have to get past the inaccuracies.

I remember one anime (Crystal something-or-other, I think) in which a man was shooting at some people hiding behind a table with what is clearly supposed to be a .44 Mag and being unable to hurt them through the table. (Maybe that flimsy-looking wooden table ... has a titanium plate on the bottom...) Shortly after that, one of the people behind the table shoots down a huge chandelier with one shot from a tiny pocket gun that might be a .380 at best. I still chuckle when I remember that scene.

Jormungand is no exception to this rule. I only watched a little of it before I was distracted by more interested things, but I remember there being quite a bit of that stuff. I found a couple things while skimming what I had seen before. In episode one, someone loads a magazine from the wrong end. In episode three, there is a machine gun that has bullets pointed toward the user. For some reason, I doubt there are many of them that work that way.

Ultimately you need to decide for yourself if the show bothers you. If what I have said makes you cringe, you are probably right to stay away. If nothing I have said about Jormungand turns you off, you may very well find that you enjoy it.

Have you ever had this feeling to just watch something with a whole lot of action in it? Well, if you haven’t, stay the heck away from Jormungand. You may as well leave this review now if you hate action shows. Okay, now that all of the action-haters have left the room, let’s talk about Jormungand. A lot of people like to compare today’s show with Black Lagoon, another anime that focuses on high-flying logic-defying action. I’m going to be upfront about this; I think Jormungand is the superior show. I personally couldn’t get into Black Lagoon, no matter how hard I tried to get ... invested into it. Jormungand, on the other hand, had me invested within the first few minutes. So, it’s obvious that I really enjoyed the show subjectively; but how does it hold up objectively? Sit back, relax, and read on as I review Jormungand and its second season Jormungand: Perfect Order.

Jormungand’s setup is rather simple; a child soldier named Jonah is brought into the arms trade as a bodyguard of Koko Hekmatyar, a female arms dealer. From there on, action ensues; explosions, gunfights, fiery deaths, crazy chicks with guns; you name it, Jormungand’s pretty much got it.

The characters of Jormungand are what I believe to be the both the best and worst part of the show. Each character introduced into the show is fairly interesting and likable for the amount of screen time that they’re allowed, but some characters are more favored than others. For example, a character named Valmet had a character arch that is basically the climax of the first season, while a character named Lehm barely gets any backstory but was equally as important to the plot. Then there’s also the fact that character motivations are sometimes completely shot, with the most obvious target being Jonah himself. Jonah lost his parents earlier in his life due to his village being attacked, and because of this he claims to hate weapons and those who use them. However, this makes him the biggest hypocrite in existence because he constantly uses weapons during his time as a child solider and in defending Koko. His character was just a huge walking contradiction, and I was waiting for the show to address this and give us a full explanation of Jonah’s backstory. That never happens. We learn why he got involved with Koko, but we never learn anything else beyond that. The show attempts to justify this by saying that Jonah uses weapons because he can’t live without them, but that statement is both incredibly weak and doesn’t explain why Jonah became a child soldier in the first place. I also couldn’t help but think that this was the creator’s attempt to make Jonah seem more human than he actually was, as this character trait plays close to no part in the entire story. I suppose I would be able to overlook this if it only happened once, but Jonah’s character isn’t the only one who suffers from this lack of backstory. This flaw also affects a lot of the more minor antagonists and side characters. I won’t go into detail about them because then I would be spoiling a lot, but let’s just say that this flaw is very noticeable and the show seems to be unaware of that fact. The show just seems to expect you to connect the dots yourself, which in a lot of cases would be fine; except in this case, the show doesn’t give you enough dots to connect, and therefore you don’t have the entire picture. As for character personalities, they were fleshed out enough so that they felt like real people, but they weren’t very complex or even original in a lot of cases, with the exception of Koko herself. Koko is a fantastic character, and she was just so much fun to watch. Her personality is that of a fun-loving person, but at the same time is cold, calculating, and all-knowing. She always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else, and has enough charisma that her bodyguards would die to her sake. The side characters were just kind of there to create excuses for more action scenes, which in this show’s favor is a rather good thing, but I still would’ve liked to see a little more development on that front.

Jormungand’s story is one of those stories that starts off episodic and then concludes under an overarching story. The first season and around half of the second season is split into archs, each ranging from around one to three episodes (as displayed in the episode titles) and focusing on either a member of Koko’s team, some opponent that the group encounters, or both. In my opinion, this is where the show shined the brightest, but that’s only because of my own tastes, as I like more character-centric shows. When the show’s overarching story kicked in, I was more than a little disappointed. Granted, the story wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as the individual character stories that were featured previously. Then there’s the ending. Wow, that ending was just…it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated it to be, but it was incredibly open-ended and felt like a cop-out on the creator’s part. I also want to address the overall tone of the show, which is rather lighthearted. Some might view this particular tone as a horrible aspect, because the show makes it seem like child soldiers and the arms trade are perfectly fine and don’t involve any moral dilemmas. Now, I don’t want to get political, but having read A Long Way Gone…it was harder for me to overlook than it probably will be for most. If you’re sensitive towards that kind of stuff, then Jormungand is not the anime for you.

Produced by White Fox, Jormungand looks pretty darn good, but it’s not White Fox’s best. In comparison to both Katanagatari and Steins;Gate, Jormungand looks a lot more jagged and is outlined with darker colors, as a contrast to the constant white that is the show’s main color. On top of that, the characters don’t always look all that three-dimensional and more like drawings. During the action scenes, however, the show looks really good and barely cuts any corners. The character designs were also pretty top-notch, with each character looking fairly realistic but at the same time retaining that anime feel we all know and love, which is preferred in my book. The OST is good at getting you excited for action and accompanies each scene well, featuring a lot of techno, auto-tune, and rap lyrics that are in ENGLISH (heck yeah). Both openings for the show are great, and the second ending theme is a nice listen too, but the best out of all is Jormungand’s first opening. This song is what kept me awake when studying for finals, and has cemented itself as one of my favorite anime openings ever. Finally, English or Japanese? No contest, English. I tend to like English dubs a lot more when the main setting isn’t Japan because it feels more natural, and Jormungand is no exception. The best performance goes to Anastasia Munoz as Koko, for providing a convincing performance that make Koko sound confident, fun, and manipulative when needed. As for the Japanese dub (I did listen to some of it), honestly I couldn’t stand it. It may have better acting, but the English just sounds a lot more natural to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Jormungand despite its many issues and was able to accept the anime for what it is. If you’re not a fan of action, then this anime won’t change your mind in the slightest. If you like action, this may not be the best choice, but it’s still a fun anime. I give Jormungand a 3.25 out of 5, and a recommendation to watch it if you want a decent action show to pass the time with. Like always, however, it’s up to you to decide your own opinions.

This is... an oddity.

Technicalily it is supposed to be a serious anime about weapon dealers, war, and so on, but for some strange reason most of the time it resmebles a fairly average school trip slice of life comedy. That coudl also be the reason why at one point I dropped it almost for 8 months and only after that manageed to finish it.

Story 5/10:
It is supposed to be serious and it does touch serious subjects and there are people dying, but.... either due to directing or becuase of some reason, it looks like bunch of mercenaris fooling aroudn and having a good time, cracking ... jokes and so on. Even in serious segments it doesn't feel like there's any danger and so on.

Noir, which I watchedm any years ago, was much better of handlign stuff like this.

Art: 5/10:
Well, characters have surprisingly low amount of details on their faces, and main female lead has a triangular face type with low amount of detail. However, rather than being a cookie-cutter style that is frequently used in some school-related comedies (where you can confuse males from different series, where everybody is proportioned as a teen and so on), this time aroudn this seems to be an artistic choice, albeit an unusual one. It is neither realism, nor comical "chibi-fication". Backgrounds are fairly good, and a lot of effort was put into portraying various military tech.
There's some CG and at moments it is noticeable.

Sound: 4/10
One of the least impressive intro/outro themes I heard ("Her name is Koko, she is loco, hey yeah!"), and it doesn't set the right tone for what looks like it was supposed to be a serious anime. Female lead often soudns like she doesn't take herself too seriously, and it is unclear whether this is intentional or not.

Character: 4/10:
Characters fail to portray themselves as believable people, and their interactiosn and relationships look aritificail. Well, at least female lead is slightly amusing while prancing around and making faces.

Enjoyment: 5/10:
It is a meh. At one point I got bored with it and dropped it for a very long time.

Overall: 5/10:
If you have a lot of time on your hands, you could check it out, but this anime is an odd one. Not a masterpiece, probably fails to present difficult subjects properly. But there's something unusual about it, so perhaps in the end it is worth watchign.

I wasn't sure what I expected when I entered the world of Jormungand - if the plot synopsis gave me any idea, it was that there would be a lot of guns. It certainly didn't let me down there. Is there more to this anime than explosions and eye candy? Mmmmmnnnoooot really.

Story: 4/10
Jormungand doesn't follow a specific plotline - it's almost as if it's a slice of life, arms dealer style. I'm not sure it really worked. I mean, sure, I really enjoyed watching it - it's fun, not something you really have to put much thought into, but that, to me, doesn't necessarily ... mean that it was successful. The fact that the style of the anime was episodic meant that there was no intense finale, which is the sort of thing one expects from this kind of series. The finale ended up being anti-climactic [i]regardless[/i] of the fact that there wasn't enough buildup.

Art: 7/10
The art and character design were fluid and not uninteresting - the weapons (which, admittedly, are practically the focus of the series) were well animated and drawn, the characters were unique enough, and the scenery was pretty standard.

Sound: 8/10
Probably the best part of Jormungand for me - the voice acting, both the English and Japanese versions, was great and portrayed the right vibe. If you're an English speaker, I recommend the dub - being able to hear the characters swear makes the whole experience a little more interesting. The soundtrack was pretty awesome as well - it definitely fitted in with the overall atmosphere of the series. The opening is probably one of my all time favorites soundwise.

Character: 4/10
There was little to no character development - any development there was felt a little forced. Some of the character interactions/relationships seemed forced as well - for example, those between Koko and Jonah, the main characters. Jonah is a deadpan child soldier who hates the fact that he works with weapons, but it's almost as if we wouldn't know this if it wasn't constantly explained to the audience by his internal dialogue. Koko is the better character in my opinionn, although she could have been better portrayed. If she is supposed to be the hardcore crazy bitch the others make her out to be, we never really see that side of her, apart from in the way she 'smiles in the face of danger'. If she is meant to be intimidating or even frightening, I'm afraid I didn't get that feeling from her at all. However, she was definitely the most fun to watch of all Jormungand's characters, closely followed by Valmet. If it weren't for the fact that the characters were so entertaining to watch, even just in battle, the score would be lower.

Enjoyment: 8/10
I prioritized this series because I enjoyed it, finishing it in 4 days, despite the copious amount of crap I still have to finish. That says something to me. I was enthusiastic to watch it.

Overall: 5/10
I rate anime highly for clearly achieving what they intend to - and I'm afraid Jormungand really didn't meet that mark. What one would expect is grit, terror, nailbiting action - but to me, it was just a bit fun. If I had gone into it with any expectations, I'm pretty sure I would have been disappointed.

Honestly, Jormungand isn't all that.

Its a low budget Black Lagoon.

Its got a similar style and setting, but the cast of Jormungand isn't that well written or directed. Only a handful of main characters get any kind of characterization and even then barely any development.

The majority of the cast are females who are clearly otaku-bait, you've got crazy chick with knives, crazy loli with shotgun, crazy child with silly hat, ara-ara gun mommy, and blonde CIA traitor. Which, I will admit I enjoyed. The characters aren't well written, but their decently fun which keeps the show's engagement factor high.

The action scenes are good, completely unrealistic of ... course but that's perfectly okay because the point is to be exciting and fun.

Music is decent too actually and it sets the tone well, Koko's theme is going to be taking up long term space in my brain that's for sure. And the intro isn't too bad if you can look past some goofy pronunciations.

My main issue is the character's have a really annoying habit of having someone dead to rights, and then just not killing them. They spray down nameless drug dealers and thugs by the dozens, empty fully automatic weapons into buildings with no regard for collateral damage or civilian causalities. But somehow these named characters are too much? It's too evil to finish them off? Even as their swearing revenge to your face!?
AND IT KEEPS HAPPENING TOO!
A MAJOR THREAT COMES ALONG, AND THE PROTAGONISTS JUST PASS IT OFF!

It completely undermines any sense of danger, either the protagonists are so skilled that the enemy in front of them doesn't pose any threat at all. Or their just brain damaged.

Honestly, I suppose if you watched Black Lagoon (and the Roberta's Blood Trail OVA) and still want more then Jormungand might be a decent second helping. It'll also probably sate you if you enjoy gunslinger anime. It's not perfect, and doesn't hold up to any serious analysis. But it is at least fun to watch.

Set in a time after "Black Lagoon", a female weapon seller roams the earth along with her bodyguards. The two animes share similarities, in which different groups of people are always encountered whether they are CIA, gangs, possibly paramilitary groups. However, I cannot say they are same.

What made "Black Lagoon" very good was lacking in this anime. First the bad-ass female characters became sex appeal, in which the macho male associates in the group are always admiring their body shape or trying to find a romantic moment. Another if the lack of danger of this anime. The crew fought off various lethal elements yet they ... just passed unscathed due their overwhelming skill in combat. This is where I would just be a bit irritated because despite anime logic, its hard for protagonist to win by outgunning the other guys. As a result, there is clearly a lack of deaths of the "protagonist" side except for one who wasn't exactly loyal to the group. I felt very little excitement, or anxiousness since they never use cleaver tactics and cleanly defeat everyone else.

My given rating is on the assumption that the anime is watched for the first time without having experiencing "Black Lagoon". However other than its decent opening, there is not much you can get from it.

I don't know how to feel about this anime. Although it was mostly enjoyable to watch, anime itself directly attacked and misrepresented with political propaganda about my home country and its people, and that was painful to watch so afterwards it killed of the enjoyable story and vibe it had in the beginning and I found it hard to finish it. Although it didn't name the country by its name, they made it very clear what country they were talking about by naming of a person and showing locations that actually exist.
This anime, without the part where it is hurting my home country and ... people, is overall good and enjoyable to watch and it kept me interested to watch through the end. Art could have been better but it's not bad, animation could have been much better but oh well, it is decent enough to watch. The story has an interesting viewpoint and characters are a good fit for this type of story. I was surprised how i only now came across this anime because it exceeded my expectations i had after reading plot summary.

"I'm on a journey with an arms dealer" -Jonathan Mar-

Surely you're no stranger to a crime-themed movie, guns with a lot of gore action scenes. And, Jormungand is such an anime


—STORY—

The story is set in a world where criminals, arms trafficking organizations, etc. are raging everywhere. We follow a young female merchant, she is the boss of a famous and wealthy arms trading organization. Following her are veterans with combat experience who are always ready to do a good job when needed. And the story begins with a new member joining the organization.

That's basically the story. To be honest, the ... plot of Jormungand is quite simple and somewhat predictable. The events in the film are also quite disjointed one-way. It spends a lot of time showing viewers how an arms dealer works, but lacks time to develop its interesting cast of characters. That's a pity. Besides, the film has many action scenes that surely those who like action genres, especially guns will be attracted from the beginning. But they tend to repeat later. The spirit of solidarity is also something that is highly valued in Jormungand, the subordinates always support each other, even giving their lives to protect and help their mistress accomplish her goals. In the midst of that tension are the words, warm gestures and humorous situations of the characters (sometimes a bit cringe) that make the viewer less boring. The movie also has fan service, although not a lot, but mostly from the character - the girl with the biggest breasts in the movie (probably) and sometimes some other characters.

—CHARACTER—

Another thing worth mentioning in this anime is the characters. We have the main character Koko Hekmatyar - a talented arms dealer. Despite the difficulties out there, she always had a smile on her face even in the situation of thousands of pounds hanging hair. And another main character is Jonathan Mar. He is the complete opposite of Koko. A quiet young soldier, quiet and sometimes a bit impatient on duty.

But that's not the most telling thing here. As I mentioned above, this anime has an interesting cast of characters but lacks development. The characters are colorful but have not really made much of an impression. It would be better if we knew more about their past. Sometimes flashbacks pop up in the movie about why certain characters join the group, but it's not enough. The villains are also not well invested, they are like pre-programmed challenges for Koko to do. I haven't seen any motivation or anything outstanding in them, maybe because the length of the film is a bit short?

Speaking of supporting characters, there's one character I'm impressed with. It's Velmer - the one with the biggest breasts in the movie. Of course, I'm not impressed with this character just because she has big breasts. This is the only character we can clearly see why she is so loyal to the organization. There is a past, clear motives. She seems fierce and unapproachable at first but becomes more friendly later on

—ART & SOUND—

Made by studio White Fox - the studio that has made some hit anime like Stein;gate or Re:zero. There is nothing to say when it is quite beautiful (character creation, weapons, backgrounds, costumes ...), even more beautiful than many anime now. But about Koko's mold, I don't think it's very beautiful.

The sound in the movie is also well done. OP with a vibrant melody is very suitable for action anime like this. ED is more quiet (many anime tend to be like that).

—ENJOYMENT—

In short, this is an action anime with many fiery battles. The plot is simple, if you need an anime to entertain, this is probably also a good choice. The picture and sound are carefully polished, but not excellent. Its biggest problem is the character part (at least for me) I don't hate the anime but I don't rate it too highly either. Anyway, it brought an interesting experience for me. For those who like this genre and especially Black Lagoon, I recommend watching it

We've all seen Fullmetal Alchemist, hell, your grandma secretly watches it. The characters in FMA were some of the most well developed characters I've ever seen, but what was up with Scar? Driven by vengeance, his past draped in shadows. Sure, we get to learn a lot about him as the show progressed, but there was always something missing I felt.

Well, if you felt this way as well, ponder no longer because Jormungand sheds a little light on his past. What was scar's actual name? Well, it was Jonathan Mar as it turns out (Jonah for short) and he had a series of adventures with ... a young arms dealer named Koko Hekmatyr and her gang of pals.

Now, I've heard a lot of tales about Jormungand, so I grabbed a couple volumes of the manga, as you do. It was actually really difficult to follow in manga format guys, I'm gonna advise that you just don't start there and just jump right into the anime because it's actually a fluid story. Oh sorry, I mean several stories, since it's one of those episodical tales.

I've seen that this website likes to anally divide their reviews into specific sections for each aspect of the show, so I'll do that =]

Story:
Oh boy, what a tale! I mean, I haven't actually finished it yet, I'm about 9 episodes in but that's more than enough to form an informed opinion on something don't you think? Oh you do! Great, so do I! Anyway where was I? Right, story. Ok, so nearly every episode (sometime's they're two parters) is basically its own thing so if you have a very brief attention span, there's a bonus. The gist of this is it's emulating Cowboy Bebob through Black Lagoon, which isn't a bad thing really because I'll be damned if it didn't do it in it's own little way. I wont spoil the ending (I can't, I haven't seen it XDDDD). People say this is super realistic and I guess they're right because silicon breasts are pretty realistic too.

Art:
It looks pretty good, the animation itself isn't anything mind blowing. It's a little cheesy and the backgrounds aren't particularly interesting but hey it gets the job done. Character design's a little hit or miss, Scar looks almost exactly like he does in FMA (albeit without the scar or tats yet lol) however there are like three characters that look exactly the same (ugo and wiley and that south african dude that chills with Minami are pretty much interchangable) also there are several female characters that are just variations of each other but I'm just grasping at straws tbh.

Sound:
Lmao I keep seeing all these comments about the soundtrack like "Omg it's so varied, I love it, one of the best anime soundtracks ever haha lol" like wtf is wrong with you? Did you randomly decide while you were watching this that "Oh, you know what? I might actually listen to the music in the background and see what it's like, haven't done that before tbh smae" and then you went "Omg so varied, best anime soundtrack ever!" it's the only one you've heard though! Basically what I'm trying to say is the soundtrack is horrid, varied sure, but variety doesn't equal quality lol y'all need to listen to more soundtracks. Though in saying that I'll be damned if the opening theme doesn't go hard I mean damn, that's my jam m/ pretty good imo tbh.

Character:
Scar's pretty interesting here, easy to see how he developed into the radical ishvalist we know him as today. I actually in all honesty thought that the characters in this show (the main ones anyway, the side characters or one off characters actually sucked a fair bit of willy) were actually it's selling point, Valmet was great lovely to see some lgbt pride in anime amirite? Also I love how it tries to be all like "the main characters are super likable and relatable, they are not savage killing machines but real people with real sadboy emotions. These other guys though, oh no, they're disgusting pigs!" like stfu who are you trying to kid? But anyway I'm missing out the best part, you could watch this entire thing just for Koko Hekmatyr imo tbh.

Koko Hekmatyr:
You know what idgaf this chick needs her own paragraph I mean god damn I'd wife that shit hard. I'd approach her one day you know, she's doing her thing, I'm doing my thing you know how it do and I'mma be like "Hey how you doing, I just thought you were really cute can we go grab a drink? *tips trilby*" and she'll be all like "Sure, just gotta go make some illegal money and what not brb" you know, all the usual stuff. You know, we'll date for a few years and then when I feel the time is right I'm gonna be like "Koko, tbh will you marry me?" and she'll say "smae tbh" then we'll be married. Wont be having kids straight away you know, she's got to sell weapons and stuff full time, it's not an easy job she doesn't have time to be looking after kids. Neither do I, I've gotta be watching Jormungand, super important stuff. Anyway you can't deny this chick's a total qt be honest, you'd wife that too but too bad cause she's mine and we're happy together.

Overall:
Overall I thought that this was relatively enjoyable, nothing to tell your dad about or anything. It's immensely corny and you may as well just watch Black Lagoon which is far better but hey, it's your life.

It's better than it's manga at least.

I honestly don't have too much to say about Jormungand. It's a de facto dumb fun show to me. It's certainly not realistic, so firearm snobs; don't get your hopes up.

The story, while fun, leaves a lot to be desired. What we're shown is the journey, and definitely not the destination. Jormungand does do the whole "fictional #1 mega arms dealer in the world" thing good, though.

The sound and music is just...
oof
The instrumentals in the music are alright for building up tension, but the vocals are repetitive, uncreative, and cringey. They're worse than rhymes children could come up with. The sound itself of things like ... gunfire are highly unrealistic and you should go in expecting standard video game/movie quality, and not anything substantial.

The characters are... characters. They aren't great, but I've certainly seen worse. There's some muscular dommy mommies so I guess that's cool.

Overall, I give this a "dumb fun" out of ten. Watch it with suspension of disbelief, and it'll be as enjoyable as something within the realm of John Wick.

Thousands of bullets flying and somehow no one gets hit—either everyone's using rubber rounds, or the shooters are just hilariously bad. That kind of over-the-top action could be fun, but here it ends up feeling hollow and repetitive. The pacing is another issue; the story takes quite a while to find any momentum, and by the time it starts to show signs of going somewhere, I had already lost interest.

The art style isn’t flawless—some scenes look rough—but it stands out in a good way compared to the usual overly-polished, cutesy look many modern anime lean into.

Overall, it feels like this anime has potential, but it’s ... just not clicking with me. Maybe I’ll give it another try sometime in the future, but not anytime soon.

Welp, 2021 and I decided to check out this anime called Jormungand. I saw an amv of the action and people hype up the chicks in the show so I decided to watch it all. Boy, what a letdown.

Story: 4/10
Man, Fuck the story. JK. Honestly, story was just meh. Like, every 2 episodes was like its own story which was cool. But, the pacing felt fast. Not that so much was happening but that, transitions didn't really leave time to leave an impression on the viewer. Sometimes, some scene would happen and it would quickly hop to some other scene without waiting a good ... few seconds to let that scene build the suspense. The story is just introducing characters and the struggles arm dealers have to endure. I just wasn't interested in the story that much because the bad guys were barely relevant or did anything worthwhile. The last episode built up hype for the next season so I was hopeful if the next season could deliver
Art: 7/10
Where this fails in story, makes up for in action and guns. The character designs look alright but they do make the women look real nice if you are a fan of buff anime girls. I know nothing about guns or vehicles. But the action scenes did look cool.
Sound: 5/10
The VAs do a fairly good job, especially that of KoKo's. The OST was cool but nothing special. I didn't really like the OP and the ED. I will say I did like the little song in the previews that would sing "Oh no!. She is Koko. She is Loco. Oh No!"
Characters: 4/10
The only notable characters were Jonah and Koko as they were given a lot of screen time. Ep 5 was when Jonah background started to develop more but it kind of didn't go anywhere else. They brought in a lot of side characters who were very one-dimensional. I liked the interactions between Jonah and Koko and Valmet but much of the characters felt bland. If someone put a gun to their heads and shot them, I wouldn't have any feelings towards them. I was given a huge cast of people. But, the ones who I thought would be developed a whole lot, didn't receive much development. Enemies were just there, nothing of substance to them. Side characters came in and were just there to be a part of Koko's schemes.
Enjoyment: 6/10
While story and character wasn't what I hoped, I did get some stuff out of this. The action was cool. And it had fan service which is a plus to me. I did not drop the show and there were points I wanted to keep watching.
Overall: 5/10
Season 2 has hopes, especially if there are major enemies to come. I hope the action is better than before and maybe characters start to stand out. I would give this show to someone who loved the atmosphere of black lagoon or who enjoys guns and women. Else, this show doesn't really need to be shown to anyone else.