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Animation & Art
The show was really good-looking. It was nothing out of the ordinary, sometimes action scenes were just a sequence of still frame instead of actual action, but overall the show looked really good. Not fantastic, not terrible. When it is so much in the middle, it is hard to say much about it. 8 on 10 it is.
Rating 8/10
Characters
There are many characters in Jormungand, since Koko has quite the big team of bodyguard around her. Unfortunately, while there are so many character with so many interesting background, only a few of them had the chance to have a little spotlight. Velmet and Jonah are about the only character that had their background and past explored. Everyone else in the team had a really quick overlook of theirs, but we still don’t have a clue about any of the details. Of course, the show will have a second season and it is more than likely that more characters will have their past and intentions revealed, but in the end, for what matters in this season, the show did not make good use of all its amazing characters.
Yes Velmet, Koko and Jonah are all really interesting and unique characters, but since they were the only one to get a little spotlight, I was quite disappointed. In the end the characters turned out only average in the show since they were not focused and detailed enough in the show.
Rating 7/10
Original Sound Track & Opening/Closing theme:
The Opening of Jormungand reminds me so much of the one in Black Lagoon, they have the same general vibe to them. I particularly love that style and I will be listening to both intro and outro of this show for ages to come. But the intro and outro were not the only thing that really stuck in my mind. Might it be during recaps or during an action scene, When the music started playing you know it meant business. At those moments I could have cared less if the show was good or not, I was too busy enjoying the soundtrack.
This show musics was gold, pure metal gold. Perfect Score it is.
Rating: 10/10
Story
Jormungand first season was an accumulation of multiple short stories usually lasting from 2 to 3 episodes. First of all, I absolutely hate that format. If I wanted a slice of life I’d be watching Acchi Kocchi (which was really good actually) not a show with guns and action. There is continuity between each mini-arc, but since nothing major ever happens at the end of any of them, the continuity falls short and it gets repetitive really quickly.
Every arc there is a new group trying to assassinate Koko, every time they are easily defeated and everything goes back to normal. That same pattern happened more than 3 times in only 12 episodes. Repetition is not a good thing in anime, even worse when the thing that is repeated sucked to begin with.
The story was really uninteresting, the character stories were fun, but the actual main plot? Terrible.
Rating 5/10
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Overall Entertainment Value
You know what I like about show with guns? Blood, drama and to see the terror of death. In a show where every character are always on the edge between life and death for 12 episodes straight and where they are targeted by assassins day and night, one would expect for at least 1 character to die! But no, even Velmet who went solo to kill the leader of an organisation, she was shot I don’t know how many time and still survived. I want people to die, not to be super heroes (There was Zetman this season for Super Heroes). After it rains so many bullet, I want to see more than ass being shot, I want to see Koko losing some team members sometimes, especially when she get in such messy situations.
The gunfight were made pointless by the simple fact that we already knew no one would die, action doesn’t mean anything if there are no consequence. There is no suspense or twist when everyone is invincible. I’m sad to say that I was rarely entertained with this show, It was even less interesting than a cheesy romance, but not bad enough to make me laugh.
Rating: 5/10
Conclusion
The characters made me think and made me interested in the show. The music made me continue to watch it. But in the end, the show sucks. There is little to no story, the action is boring and meaningless and the character are not explored enough to compensate for the lack of story and drama. There is nothing good that will come out of this show except for the soundtrack.
Don’t bother watching this show, It is not bad enough to be enjoyable and not good enough to be watchable. Just go watch grass grow instead, you’ll have the same feeling of awesomeness after.
Final Rating: 6/10
ZeroG signing off