Jormungand Review

Overall Rating 6.0 out of 10 - Pale imitation of Black Lagoon, that is enjoyable at times.

I can recommend some episodes more than others.

Her name is Koko, she is loco and not in the good way.

Also, the best girl of the show, Chinatsu, is pictured above.

Unlike some other shows that try to match greatness of some one-of-a-kind masterpiece and fall flat, Jormungand does not fail completely. It gets the basics right, in this case that is action. When they shoot or fight, which does happen often enough, it's fun to watch. Plausibility of some sciences are stretched, but for the most part it's as good as a Hollywood action.

On the other hand, its shortcomings compare to Black Lagoon are many.

To begin with its premise. Koko and the crew live a contradiction of a life where they disagree with morality of selling weapons yet sell them anyway. The members of the crew occasionally wallow in guild due to nature of their business. In contrast Black Lagoon eschews ethics as hypocrisy and their characters only ever regret circumstances of their past that made their lives harder than those of others.

Then there is writing. Some say women in Black Lagoon are crazy, but that is inaccurate. In actuality it is some of the antagonists, whose irrational actions push the rest of the core cast to respond to these actions either in self-preservation or to seize lucrative financial opportunity. Their actions only seem strange to someone who leads a very different life and incapable of abstract thinking. In the context of the environment, they are in Lagoon Company acts very rational.

In contrast in Jormungand actually crazy decisions by Koko is basically the only driving force behind the whole plot, she just randomly decides to kill them all and shooting begins. That is lazy writing to say the least. That also does not make Koko or other characters in her crew any more endearing for the viewer. I guess here writers simply cater to leftist progressive idea of women. Some episodes do it more often than others.

When it comes to characters antagonists are often more likable than the main crew or their allies, girls that is, antagonist guys are made fun of in the clumsiest way possible which is regrettable. All the good girls are among the villains, Chinatsu, Karen even Schokolade and that little girl from last ark.

That said battles are nice, occasionally they even have nice tactical ideas to make firefights even more engaging. If there is a reason to watch it, it's because of battles.

Somewhat regrettable is lack of detail on the models of weapons they use or sell. In the first episode I did wonder if the gun Jonah was using is FN FiveSeven or Colt 1911. In contrast Berretta 92 Inox Prairachat Sword Cutlas Special is an actual gun, that is also used by Max Payne and the US Military as M9. Its custom modified of course to add longer barrel (from Beretta 93), chrome polish, inscription in Thai and skull with swords on handle, but it's a real gun.

Overall, I can somewhat recommend it. some episodes are better than others. Antagonists are often interesting even Koko is nice 10% of the time she is on screen.