Jormungand has complex characters and plot, but they are all pieced together. This is the most serious flaw of Jormungand. The people beside Koko all are pretty unique, but honestly their uniqueness tells nothing about themselves and most importantly, how it works in the big picture. In other words, their unique personalities don't drive one bit of the story. That's where a potentially character driven story becomes no longer so. What's more unfortunate is Jormungand was not designed to be plot driven but character driven. Of course, this can be saved by Koko. If Koko's character is strong enough to drive the plot and other characters, Jormungand can be saved.
I thought Koko's characterization is pretty strong since the very beginning, but I changed my mind after the second season. Even Koko is pieced together and lacks integrity as a character. She did not change throughout the series. In fact, I think she is probably the only one who stayed the same. I don't really mind it. Jonah is there so to put a leash on herself, but even in that respect, Koko did not change.Some of her comrades died too, but she did not change. I don't mind it. She has her beliefs and resolves, so she doesn't need to change.
But, it's not the fact she didn't change that failed to make Jormungand come together. It''s the fact that jonan did not change, and from this fact, you'll come to understand the biggest flaw. I can see how Jonah is struggling inside with his wavering beliefs, but Jormungand didn't convey in the end the change in Johah. Yes, he ended up accepting sacrificing a few to protect the mass, but how did that change take place inside of him? It seems to me that he simply ended up relying on Koko too much, accepting her way of doing things more than how others like her brother does the trade. If this is the case, what's the whole point of Jonah's character? Having a kid beside a powerful queen gives a nice picture, but the fact Jonah simply grew a habit but not growing or developing as a character made Jonah's existence pretty meaningless. This is even more obvious when you look at the other team members. We get a glimpse into their past, but what's even the meaning of showing the past when it makes no difference to the progression of present events? Are we to feel more attached to those characters? Honestly I did not feel any because they did not contribute anything to the story except helping Koko win all the gun fights.
You might say that it's more about the political mind of people rather than their emotional side. I agree if it's about the antagonists of the story. They are there to demonstrate the political sides of things. But the protagonists aren't intended that way.
The part that made me realize that even Koko doesn't have the depth to support this whole complicated story is the ending. This is also related to the theme of Jormungand. Koko hates the weapon trading world and weapons in general. Her belief is not very different from Jonah's. She knows just hating things won't change anything, so she took on the role she dislikes the most to change things from the inside. She doesn't even mind making sacrifices if necessary. This is all her motives and intentions, but what about her psychology? The fact that she thinks that giving people the original beauty of the world would bring out their shame and make them stop only showed me that Koko does not have a psychological depth. Why? Because this naive thinking contradicts her character in general. To put it bluntly, I didn't expect Koko to think that way considering her actions and words from the past. It disappointed me. If she were just a shallow thinking person in the beginning, this thought wouldn't bother me. But Koko isn't depicted as a shallow thinking person. You might say it's just her ideology, and ideologies are suppose to be naive. But Koko is not an ideological person. She is a very practical person who is more about actions than about words, and that's why she has the ability to carry out her grand plan.
OVerall, this made me realize that the concepts behind the characters, even in Koko's case, were not well planned out. I feel like the staff put together a whole variety of personalities and ideologies just to make the characters and story complex and engaging. For me, however, it failed to work because I don't believe you can ever reach the whole from connecting the pieces. It's a philosophical belief of mine based on the idea that you can never reach enough connections because there are limitless number of them. In other workds, Jormungand's characters and stories are designed from bottom up rather than top down, and this made the series fall flat at the end.
The reason I won't rate Jormungand any lower is because Jormungand is potentially a good story with a good theme. After finding the flaw in its set-up, I started to think it actually isn't too bad considering it could be much worse.
