Jormungand | Q's Anime Review & Commentary

Invective & Seductive, With Magnetic Excitement & Dynamic Action 
Jormungand (24 Episodes II Seasons) 8.35 out of ten stars


Jormungand is a fast paced, high octane anime, with lots of gun porn, bullets, blades & babes. Often times, I find myself stacked on all too many slice of life series now a days, so it's refreshing to take another look at Jormungand - An anime that's action driven, violent and always exciting. Back in the day, I only primarily watched anime series that were preferably more action driven and had enough urgency to demand that I watched episode after episode, since I feel back then, I had far less tolerance for a story just to "dawdle" around - Being that I pretty much prohibited myself from watching Moe Moe type anime. Though this has changed entirely, as more and more Slice of life/Moe anime keep getting released and pilling up in my room, Jormungand is an anime that'll give you that extra kick you need or perhaps are used to, such as more progressive titles such as Ghost in the shell S.A.C, Fate Stay Night UBW, or perhaps Samurai Champloo - All beloved titles here at RedQStudios and Jormungand is no exception...


Plot & Narrative Aspects

Jormungand is Jonah's tale of his journey with Koko's brigade of mercenaries, all from various international backgrounds. Slowly unravelling the ambiguous/mysterious personality of Koko Heckmatyar, what she, an arms dealer is plotting in complete secrecy. It's a simple premise, though because of that it's also packed with stimulating and excellently choreographed high action scenes. Each of the given mercenaries serving under Koko have their own collective back story, and throughout the anime, arc by arc, in time such details are revealed about each character. Each of their military tales are perhaps short, compact and quickly conclusive - Though for grown adults who are battle hardened mercenaries, this is more or less of what I expected. It'd be odd to expect individual character stories to be as "Mushy" if you will, as something as Clannad perhaps. Being that there are quite a few more characters in Jormungand as well, I feel that along with Jormungands given genre, it's not as if the the screen time given for each character wasn't appropriate, at least for the most part that is.


Jormungand is from Jonah's perspective, being that he's a child soldier and with his gruesome past, he detests weaponry and all involved parties concerning war, which includes arms dealers like Koko and perhaps himself, as a child soldier. I like Jormungand because it's quite similar to titles like Ghost in The Shell S.A.C, Psychopass, Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon. The reason being is that all of the given titles including Jormungand have a "Squad" mentality of sorts. I thinks it's great due to the amount of character diversity and that's something I really appreciate, being that I prefer to have a variety of different characters to learn about and explore. Koko surrounds herself as an arms dealer with mercenaries spanning Spetznaz, Seals, to Mafia (why not right?). Among those Jonah, a child soldier from the Alpine unit is forced into being Koko's bodyguard. Ironically, Jonah explains his hatred for weapons and the people involved on an episode to episode basis, which soon enough leads him into feeling conflicted about himself and his newly found team.

Conflict is an obvious part of what Jormungand is about. We get to see violent showdowns and rivalries, be it in gun/knife fights, politics or even the realm of hacking. I feel through the exciting high octane action and conflict driven nature of Jormungand's story is when 'character' begins blossoming. Throughout each small character arc, and how the given person concerns the ongoing plot, or perhaps just the general on the job arms deals that take place, Koko slowly but surely is stacking the necessary chips and pieces, to begin plotting something disturbing in the shadows as Jonah takes notice. Throughout each given arc, Koko and squad are often times in conflict with various government entities across the globe, as Koko continually amasses power and interfere's with their particular interests. It always makes for interesting material when depicting how calculating and shady the various given organizations or world governments can be, depicting the more of a grim premise of the underworld and the arms trade that Jormungand is all about. Jormungand also makes for more comical and lighthearted moments, and due to the anime's more episodic nature, it's not a story that's overly dense with an over arching narrative or continuous plot developments. Which is why Jormungand is somewhat more lightweight and refreshing, as opposed to an anime such as Steins;Gate or Re Zero, which are heavily linear, formalistic beginning/middle/end type stories with very progressive and dense plot progression.

Despite having something of an over arcing plot, Jormungand is still perhaps somewhat episodic. Through these episodic tales we learn of the irony of being a soldier, what the nature of war really means, and how Jonah seems to be increasingly conflicted as a child mercenary who kills for a living, having to except the idea of necessary evil - Though you'll see that Koko's solution in the end, perhaps takes this a little too far. In the end Jormungand somewhat becomes about binary oppositions between Koko or Jonah's self disgust being involved even by proxy in violence and killing, but how weapons are so ironically necessary for them to fight for a better alternative, as we learn what Jormungand really is.

The story concluded in an open ended manner, and personally I felt that after watching Jormungand a couple times, I do think that indeed, as much as I respect it and like the fact that as a viewer were a bit more distant from Koko's squad being that there battle hardened mercenaries, I still however think that both Koko as well as Jonah's story could have been perhaps a little more personal, because I do indeed think that something is missing from the story. I sense that Keitaro Takashi was going the right direction, However with the ambiguously open ended conclusion, the potential the story could have lived up to, will probably never come to fruition. Jormunagand has a great amount of potentially lucrative directions it could go, as theirs quite a bit of unexplored territory has yet to be tread upon, though that's sadly out of my hands, and Jormungand is what it is.

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Article Contents

1. Plot & Narrative Aspects
2. Character Analysis
3. Production Aspects [Cinematography | Animation | Art Direction]
4. Voice Actor Choreography | Sound Effects & Original Soundtrack
5. Addendum