Jormungand Review

“Though I devour the five lands and drink the three oceans dry, I am powerless against the sky for I have neither wings, legs, nor hands. I am the World Snake. My name is Jormungand.”

Time for this action-packed gun-blazing awesome anime that will change the way you perceive modern warfare and the world- Jormungand. Even though there’s only a handful of shows I was able to watch in this genre: Baccano!!, Canaan, and Ghost in the Shell, I’m beginning to like them more. And yes, the said shows practically scream realistic war situations, cold-blooded killings, worldwide political conspiracies, power-drunk dictators, undercover stealth missions and crazy-ass characters out of this world. I also heard Black Lagoon and Golgo 13 is good, but let’s leave that at a later time. For now, Jormungand goes to the top of my guns anime list.

Plot: Everything starts with Jonah (Jonathan Mar), a child soldier of West Asian origin, moreno with silver-white hair. He practically hates weapons: those who invent, manufacture, sell, and use them, to the ends of hell. Why so? Basically, his family was killed with such tools. After being orphaned, he was made to join a military base along with other orphans.

After a twisted turn of events, he finds himself traveling the world as a hired gun under Koko Hekmatyar, a young and attractive arms dealer who works under the HCLI, an international shipping corporation that secretly deals in the arms trade. Officially she leads the HCLI’s European and African Logistics Division, and has eight other hired guns, mostly ex-war veterans, working under her.

Jonah, trying his best to pose as a cold and emotionless bastard who doesn’t like to talk, ironically develops a soft spot for Koko- although his hate for weapons and arms dealers in general doesn’t change one bit. Throughout the first season, he’ll get to know more about his eight teammates, their unique pasts, and why they sport so much fierce loyalty to this deranged woman who only sells the things he hates the most.

Of course he didn’t buy that world peace crap, but he decided to tag along anyway. What follows now would be their gun blazing arms transactions around the world- selling shiploads of infantry weaponry, armed vehicles and infrastructure to governments, private corporations, mafia, militia and terrorists alike. That includes all opposing parties of the buyers to want her head on a silver platter. Why she chose such a career, and why she literally laughs in the face of danger, is still a mystery to Jonah and Koko’s team. There was this one time when her smiling lips went all the way up to her ears when a gun stared at her right in the eye.

What piqued my interest in Jormungand is that they’ve literally taken out the good and evil concept in the show, and just focused on kill or be killed. There’s no context of prevailing justice depicting that they must protect their country and people, etc. like in Ghost in the Shell. They simply just cater to who wants to avail their products and services. Business as usual. There was even this one time when they killed a whole mafia group when they tried to pay Koko not with money, but with drugs. I guess this could be more like how it really is in the real world- that everything is grey and complicated, and that you could die the second you hesitate to shoot. It all relies on how you roll.

In Norse mythology, Jormungand refers to the World Snake that circles the Earth- and this is the codename given to the secret mission of Koko’s team at the start of the pilot episode. Sadly, nothing about it would be revealed in the first season, so I guess we need to be patient.

I hope you get to watching Jormungand soon on your free time- you won’t be disappointed!

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