Production Aspects
One of Jormungand's primary strengths lie in it's production quality & unlike Steins;Gate, despite having the same person on colour design Miyuki Sato, looks fabulous in terms of colour composition. Though for the most part, the rest of the staff on Jormungand is very much different this time round, pretty standard the industry, being that if you aren't a studio like Shaft, Kyoto Animation or perhaps Madhouse before 2011. This time around production is helmed by Chief Director Motonaga Keitarou, also responsible for directing Katanagatari a fabulously beautiful and vibrant production with quite a bit of action scenes. Also quite ridiculed by diehard Digimon fans for apparently ruining the respective franchise.
Cinematography
One of Jormungand's primary strengths lie in it's production quality & unlike Steins;Gate, despite having the same person on colour design Miyuki Sato, looks fabulous in terms of colour composition. Though for the most part, the rest of the staff on Jormungand is very much different this time round, pretty standard the industry, being that if you aren't a studio like Shaft, Kyoto Animation or perhaps Madhouse before 2011. This time around production is helmed by Chief Director Motonaga Keitarou, also responsible for directing Katanagatari a fabulously beautiful and vibrant production with quite a bit of action scenes. Also quite ridiculed by diehard Digimon fans for apparently ruining the respective franchise.
Cinematography
Jormungand is fearless when it comes to camera movement, it's always in motion when framing action, always utilizing free flowing tracking shots, and a consistent use vertical and horizontal panning that has become somewhat of a staple of Jormungand's visual production. In this manner, Jormungand always feels open and expansive and in combination with Art director Yoshito Takamine's work, Jormungand has excellent pictorial element and composition, with great scenic backgrounds that I feel gave Miyuki Sato and the rest of the colour and art department more creative opportunities to explore and just go ham. The general lighting in Jormunagnd is pretty diverse and dynamic as well, from more scenic backdrops, the muzzle flash of gun fire, or a neon skyline of city lights.
In addition to the frequently used panning shots, shot selection is quite balanced and varied, and takes often are longer, as cutting is done pretty moderately, due to not really needing to do so as frequently, since panning and camera movement are precedent staples of the general cinematography. This is also the case due to the common use of switching the point of interest or action by simple changing the depth of field and/or focus. Level medium OTS shots (Over the Shoulder) take a bit more precedence than the rest, however, shot selection again is just so balanced as there's almost just as much off centre low angle and high angle shots as well, in addition to that, being an action oriented anime, horizontally angular shots do take precedent despite there also being a fair amount of on center frontal shots, though it never seems stagnant or static, thanks to the use of depth of field transitions, as well as camera movement such as panning and tracking. Also another reason for this is because action scenes are often framed to not mind getting close and personal to the lens of the camera, often times moving in and out of the frame, and using aural cues to give this Jormungand a bit more dimension and spatiality. I personally love the continued use of crane shots, it just makes Jormungand feel more expansive, also being coupled with great backgrounds. Fade transitions are used quite frequently for different lapses in time, instead of just your standard cut, I'm starting to like this trend since, in our lives, often times, time itself can seem a bit hazy as you go on throughout the day, I feel the use of fade transitions eases you into the next moment in time a little bit better, rather than just cutting to the next event, situation or time of day. I find that Jormungand is always capturing your attention with the free flowing shot progression and impressive visuals from the well rendered and composed backgrounds.
Due to the sheer amount of characters and just the general nature of the show, the point of view for each framed shot often shifts from character to character, maintaining a general psychological distance for things such as group shots. However when need be, it's also fairly common for more subjective/biased shots to occur, Motonoga and the team of story boarders behind this make that pretty clear by emphasizing distance transitions for close up and reaction shots during important moments in the dialogue and such. Motonaga doesn't often try to isolate characters from our perspective that often, however where never entirely given full privilege into each character thoughts and perspective. Group shots are commonly frontal medium long shots or high angle crane shots tracking the given group movement. In these situations, instead of changing the angle of the shot, anchoring it with a more frontal establishing shot, also making use of rotational a rotational pattern to suit the character who's framing the action or is the centre of interest, often times, shots focus on the individual or subject framing the action by simple giving the character a dominant position within a more closeup shot and when the action shifts to another character, often times there will be a zoom out cut, to include that individual in the action and so on.
The line of action is broken or switched pretty frequently, usually cued in when another character who's off screen begins a dialogue or conversation, or perhaps when we're up close and personal with Valmet and Karen in a knife fight, though there is still a mild use of the typical shot and reverse shot patterns that we often see in any given movie or television series.
In addition to the frequently used panning shots, shot selection is quite balanced and varied, and takes often are longer, as cutting is done pretty moderately, due to not really needing to do so as frequently, since panning and camera movement are precedent staples of the general cinematography. This is also the case due to the common use of switching the point of interest or action by simple changing the depth of field and/or focus. Level medium OTS shots (Over the Shoulder) take a bit more precedence than the rest, however, shot selection again is just so balanced as there's almost just as much off centre low angle and high angle shots as well, in addition to that, being an action oriented anime, horizontally angular shots do take precedent despite there also being a fair amount of on center frontal shots, though it never seems stagnant or static, thanks to the use of depth of field transitions, as well as camera movement such as panning and tracking. Also another reason for this is because action scenes are often framed to not mind getting close and personal to the lens of the camera, often times moving in and out of the frame, and using aural cues to give this Jormungand a bit more dimension and spatiality. I personally love the continued use of crane shots, it just makes Jormungand feel more expansive, also being coupled with great backgrounds. Fade transitions are used quite frequently for different lapses in time, instead of just your standard cut, I'm starting to like this trend since, in our lives, often times, time itself can seem a bit hazy as you go on throughout the day, I feel the use of fade transitions eases you into the next moment in time a little bit better, rather than just cutting to the next event, situation or time of day. I find that Jormungand is always capturing your attention with the free flowing shot progression and impressive visuals from the well rendered and composed backgrounds.
Due to the sheer amount of characters and just the general nature of the show, the point of view for each framed shot often shifts from character to character, maintaining a general psychological distance for things such as group shots. However when need be, it's also fairly common for more subjective/biased shots to occur, Motonoga and the team of story boarders behind this make that pretty clear by emphasizing distance transitions for close up and reaction shots during important moments in the dialogue and such. Motonaga doesn't often try to isolate characters from our perspective that often, however where never entirely given full privilege into each character thoughts and perspective. Group shots are commonly frontal medium long shots or high angle crane shots tracking the given group movement. In these situations, instead of changing the angle of the shot, anchoring it with a more frontal establishing shot, also making use of rotational a rotational pattern to suit the character who's framing the action or is the centre of interest, often times, shots focus on the individual or subject framing the action by simple giving the character a dominant position within a more closeup shot and when the action shifts to another character, often times there will be a zoom out cut, to include that individual in the action and so on. |
| Motonaga Keitaro |
High action scenes are often low, and up close, and the action frequently moves off screen as well, which emphasizes the aural cues and gives us a sense more the spatiality that's offscreen. Often times, say in a high action car chase, there's plenty of Pov and subjective shots, due to the more back and forth tennis like nature of the gun fights and such. Ambiguous character moments from someone such as Koko Heckmatyar or perhaps a more frightening one from Velmet, is often shown by omitting the eyes of the character, also utilizing the shade to emphasize the sinister or fearful nature of the character at a given moment. Another cool thing of note is the use of split screen as well as the use of panoramic lenses, pretty experimental if you ask me. Overall Jormungand is seemingly like a well paced high octane montage, whilst giving us enough time to enjoy and soak in the more scenic backgrounds and beautiful pictorial elements. Good stuff.Animation & Art Direction
Jormungand visually is ever so slightly on the dry side of things, however it's still brimming with a boatloads of settings from international backgrounds, ranging from the tropics, the sahara, and to more oceanic backdrops. Coupled with the more slightly cooler, but diverse colour pallet, we also are privileged to well rendered lighting, slick principle drawing and design as well. Yoshito Takamine, Miyuki Sato and the rest of the art department made great use of positive space, backgrounds were always textured, given dimension and rendered with intricate pigmentation of flat surfaces.
Colour composition was also given good treatment with well rendered and definitive lighting, that can be saturated, vibrant and visually attractive as well. You're always treated with architecture and furniture that shows age and weathering through pigmentation and texturing on the micro scale, with great spatiality and dimensional sense on the macro. General architecture, and other designs from 3D CG cars to weaponry were pretty excellent. Despite Jormungand perhaps not being the most crazily rendered and photo realistic of anime, in every episode you can find functional, well depicted designs and art work regarding things like tech, architecture or perhaps even vehicles. Not to mention the general weapons designs done by Satoshi Mori and also other prop designs done by Goichi Iwahata were distinctively well researched and rendered in full detail. Probably the most realistic fire arms designs I've seen in an anime to date. 3D CG was pretty solid and nicely integrated into things such as car chases or perhaps plane take offs, still noticeable, but none the less a great example of 3D CG implemented very well.
Special effects regarding things such as muzzle flashes, explosions and other particle effects were fantastic, an excellent use of Sakuga on an episode to episode basis and with great on model consistency even in the most high action animation sequences, with effects that are realistic as well as attractive frame by frame. Action scenes are also well choreographed and well shot. Great frame by frame snappiness and resolution, definitely one of the better anime that's well choreographed and animated when it comes to high action animation. Kazuhisa Nakamura as character designer, who also served as the chief animation director for the second season, did an excellent job on character designs as well. I particularly like his renditions of the original designs done Keitaro Takahashi. I personally love the designs of characters such as Chequita's, Koko's, Lehm's and doctor Minami's. Across the board, even the character extra's were well depicted considering. I luv the more acute facial proportions, outfit designs and how Keitaro Takahashi draws his characters eyes. If I had to complain about anything, It'll portably be the somewhat clunky bangs each character may or may not have. I feel more simple designs can look more attractive and can be perhaps even more cutting edge, slick and just easier to animate overall.
I like the fact that this is an anime that didn't just shoehorn loli's into an action setting, there's plenty of grown up men and women. I like being able to see tougher, as well as older characters also, not just the typical pre pubescent jimmy from a harem manga or anime. Being that there's plenty of characters in Jormungand who aren't Japanese, the designs are always respectful and accurate in depicting a character so that he or she actually looks and sounds like they come from their said country. Americans in Jormungand aren't just depicted as typical blowhards, African Americans don't look comical or insultingly silly and so on. Character designs are always slick, cutting edge and acute, and with the animation to back them up.
Being that this anime is not the most modern of them, being produced in 2012, I still do think that for it's time, it's as unique and married to the original manga as an adaptation can get, despite perhaps not having the most intricate and frame by frame transient movements a studio such as A-1 Picture or perhaps Kyo Ani would be able to render. Despite mildly lacking regarding how clean, snappy and sharp the general animation and other pictorial elements are such as colour composition occasionally coming out a little too dry or perhaps too broad at times, Jormungand will still be regarded highly in terms of it's general animation, cinematography and art direction. A solid production with with quality to boot.
