mstiedemann - 2016-01-05 15:53:08

Beautiful Soundtrack and very interesting and entertaining characters characters!

marcelle.willms - 2015-01-26 06:27:59

A fun action series, driven by characters. However, there are a lot of those characters, and only a few really get focused on in the small number of episodes the show has to offer.

It really was an exhilarating ride, though -- simply FUN to watch. Story was a bit mixed in parts, seeming lack-luster or under-baked in parts.

Animation is pretty fluid; dub is great, and so is the OP. (ED is eh.)

Hope to see Season 2 improve the flaws I saw.

kayleigh.reynolds - 2014-05-30 00:54:18

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.

The Setup:

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:

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.

The Story:

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.

The Animation/Sound:

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.

Final Judgment:

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.

rice.alfonzo - 2013-10-06 13:04:26

Normally the weapon dealers are the evil, but here they are the main characters. They aren't just evil, the characters have their own story and personality.

Often Anime Characters are handling weapons, that you can think they are very light, but in this Anime the Wepons have a realistic weight an recoil.

zulauf.gerard - 2013-07-07 21:04:41

Before its airing, Jormungand was already target of comparisons with Black Lagoon, which is totally understandable given the similarity between the settings of both series, which focus in the life of underground groups in the modern world – mercenaries in Black Lagoon’s case, and arms dealers in Jormungand’s case. However, once you work your way past through those first similarities, both works couldn’t be more different. Jormungand never carries an overly serious mood and needs not recur to heavy swearing and excessive gore to make itself entertaining.In fact, Jormungand has everything I look forward in this type of series: interesting characters, good action scenes, great dialogue, intelligent storytelling and a delicious little amount of craziness. The few comedy moments that prevent it from getting too serious are usually really well placed, making for lighthearted relaxing moments without ever ruining the mood of the scenes.The narrative follows a rather episodic formula, being divided in different arcs, with each corresponding to a job of the starring arms dealing group lead by the “loco”, yet cunning and overflowing with leadership qualities, Koko Hekmatyer. This group works under the HCLI, a weapons corporation, and is composed by a rather heterogeneous collection on individuals, ranging from a former mafioso to one who used to be a police officer. Either way, each of its members excels in their task – being effective bodyguards to Koko. The latest addition to this previous eight-man bodyguard team is Jonah, a child solider orphan who claims to hate guns and is set on getting revenge.Although, I’m not a huge fan of that type of storytelling means, each arc is highly entertaining and usually comes with huge amount of character development, usually changing its focus to one of the members of the group, which makes each and every one of them worth watching. That said, the lack of continuity is, indeed, the main weakness of these series, at least in my eyes. But Jormungand is not deprived of an overreaching plot. Despite being surely a character driven series, the events in each arc are not completely independent from each other, and their connection between them isn’t brought upon only by the characters. The interweaving plot points are rather subtle so far, but the final episode heavily hinted towards a greater relation between all events, with a connection being established between the previous assassination attempts the group was victim of and the solidifying of the CIA’s interest in the group, which unexpectedly seems to go way beyond a lone agent who’s hunting for money and has been nothing but a bait for comedic relief. When we add to that Johan’s seek for revenge, about which we still have a lot to see, and the background of the HCLI itself and Koko’s relation with its leader (her father), which has been hinted but not touched too much upon just yet, we have plenty of things to look forward too, and if the second half of Jormungand succeeds in tying up all of these points tide and nicely, it’ll definitely turn out to be a truly great series.The characters, which I’ve already mentioned before, stroke me as interesting from their first appearance, giving me an impression of depth, even before I could foresee any type of development for either of them. Their interactions are truly entertaining, though of course the spotlight here goes to Koko and Johan. The later, despite everything he has gone through and his amazing aptitude with guns, still has this natural childish side about him, though he’s careful not to let it show in front of Koko, only letting his cold and ruthless mood transpire. On the other hand, Koko is always smile, and trying her best to make him smile, while hiding her darker side which one can mostly perceive in moments where Johan isn’t present. That’s exactly what makes her such an interesting and mysterious character. She rarely travels the road of indiscriminate violence, though one has to wonder if that is out of good nature or sheer manipulation, as she is one who is definitely skilled in using others as pawns.The antagonists are usually rather well developed too, which could be perceived as a waste of time, since most of them end up being one-time characters, but ends up being a positive point for the series, showing us all the sides of equation by demonstrating different points of view.Something I cannot forget to mention is the dialogue in this series. From intelligently comedic to social criticizing, it is appealing, engaging and well-written, to the point where the viewer has to wonder whether is that or the action to carry this series. And of course, the action can’t be forgotten either. While the sole reason I picked this up was the fact it was going to be produced by White Fox, the relatively new studio which has been so praised for his high-quality adaptations, namely Steins;Gate and Katagatari, I’ve never expected them to succeed in making exciting and fluid action scenes. They have fortunately proved me wrong, as the action scenes, while somewhat unrealistic as it wasn’t otherwise expected, are not only exciting but still manage some believability.As for the sound, it is my opinion that the background music was definitely the weakest part of the series. It’s a good musical score and it does fit its purpose, not being misused as it never feels out of place. Nonetheless, there were no tracks that stand out as noticeable, let alone others that would make me put a reminder to “download the OST as soon as it’s out”. The OP and ED songs, on the other hand, are some of the best this Spring season had to offer, fitting the series rather well and being excellent songs on their own merits.In the end, I highly recommend this series, for it will make a good watch for pretty much anyone. Its writing is great, and those who want to get something out of what they watch will definitely find enough comparisons with the real world and human nature, as well as great quotes to analyze. But those are usually not left in a noticeable manner, for the show rarely has many slow moments, so those who just want to watch something entertaining for the sake of it will also have their quota filled with the flashy action and good comedy. This is something I’ve enjoyed a lot and I’ll definitely be eagerly awaiting the second season, which is airing this Fall.