Jormungand 8

I loved this short segment. It doesn’t really accomplish any plot but gives good insight into Lutz and perhaps Jonah. Such segments separate it from things that were basically action porn like Black Lagoon.

This episode’s arc resolved in this episode, I presume, so I’ll use a bit more time to talk about the show in general after I talk about this episode.

This episode was not about action, and it was more about economic and political maneuvers in the arms dealing world. I like that the show has time for this beside all the action.

ara ara~

The character introduced here isn’t interesting. The whole idea of someone who led a relatively innocent life and suddenly (or not suddenly) became a large-scale criminal is sort of old. This particularly mirrors Balalaika, who is a much better-executed character than this one.

HNNNNNNNG

Nonetheless, the episode was executed very well. The tension between the two arms dealers was shown effectively, even if there was no actual combat between each of their forces. As this was about Koko, her entire plan was shown perfectly.

The resolution was pretty good too. Sure, it would have been cool if there had been BLOOD and stuff, but I think that felt out of place here. It takes a more skillful sniper to disable the enemy WITHOUT killing them, and this is what Lutz is. Keep in mind that this episode is also somewhat about Lutz. He also happens to not be morally bankrupt.

All of this says a lot about Jormungand. I think that Black Lagoon was a complete mirroring of American action movies that happened to have been produced in Japan, while Jormungand is a Japanese take on the genre. That is, there’s still a ton of violence, but there’s still time for good episodes without much action and cute characters doing cute things. What do I mean by this? The Jormungand crew is basically a family and as such is subject to related comedic antics. I don’t know, maybe this is a portrayal of how a lot of weird psychopathic people somehow act as close kin to each other.

It will be very interesting to see all of the characters’ backstories because of this fact. How did they all transition from being ruthless killers to being in a tight-knit family? I actually feel that Valmet’s backstory will still be followed up on because the transition between desperate leader to “bffsies forevers <3" with Koko has not been shown yet. Maybe it was shown better in the manga.

Jormungand is getting pretty solid now, even after the weird start.