How do we factor in risk when judging a show like Jormungand? How much extra leeway does it get just for taking the road less traveled? Let’s say you’re watching a cooking competition and it’s down to two final contestants. One person makes a really safe dish like, say, braised short ribs, but he or she executes it perfectly. The other competitor shoots for the stars and prepares something far more difficult and impressive, but the errors in the dish are readily apparent. How do we judge these two competitors fairly? Obviously, the willingness to take risks–to put yourself out there–should count for something, but what? If, at the end of the day, the simple but perfect short ribs just taste better, shouldn’t it just outright win? For me, I run into a similar situation in trying to assess Jormungand‘s first episode.
Jormungand focuses on two individuals: Jonah, a child soldier, and Koko, an arms dealer. They are both relatively young for their roles, but it’s pretty cool how Koko, a woman wielding a lot of power, isn’t really sexed up like she’d normally be in lesser shows. We are also briefly introduced to Koko’s team and/or entourage, but at the moment, they are little more than static characters in a dramatic set piece. And what is that set piece? An exotic, dangerous world full of powerful people (judging by the first episode, this is mostly men) in conflict. We’re dealing with weapons of war here, i.e. stuff that can really level an unfortunate city in a third world country. On paper, then, it would seem as though Jormungand has real potential. Its premise will draw some comparisons to Black Lagoon, but in most people’s eyes (not necessarily mine), this is good company for an anime to find itself in. So how come I’m not all that excited for the next episode?
The first episode isn’t a failure by any means. I’d definitely watch it over a lot of other shows this season, but it’s missing something. I hesitate to call it humanity, but I don’t know how else to explain why the episode feels so dry. But then again, how fair am I being to Jormungand. The anime isn’t exactly tackling an easy subject by any means. Most of us have heard of arms dealers and child soldiers, but it’s likely that this knowledge is (relatively) cursory. As a result, Jormungand has to set the stage. Who and what exactly is an arms dealer? How does Koko do the things that she does? Who are her opponents? Who and what is a child soldier? How might dealing arms affect the world at large in Jormungand? And oh yeah, we can’t forget to set aside some of the episode’s running time for a-hundred-bullets-per-second action. This is a checklist of things that the first episode has to address just so that the average layperson can watch and comprehend Jormungand. As expected, there’s little no room for stuff like character motivations, pathos, etc.
I honestly think the first episode is boring. I don’t yet have any reasons to root for any of the characters; I’m not yet invested in their lives. Presumably, Jonah and Koko will develop as the show progresses, and once that happens, I would be compelled to follow their exploits. At the moment, however, Koko’s insistence that she’ll help Jonah accept guns as a necessity of life isn’t really all that compelling for drama. For someone who hates arms dealers, I feel more apathy than ambivalence from Jonah. The fact that Jormungand isn’t some safe romantic comedy should count for something, but at the end of the day, the episode just wasn’t very enjoyable to watch either.
It’s a fine line juggling exposition and character development. Films have an easier time doing what Jormungand aims to accomplish, but they don’t exactly have just twenty-something odd minutes to fit everything in. In a way, I think Jormungand shows the inherent weakness in the half-hour format. A show with a subject this foreign and serious should really have its allotted running time doubled, but I don’t see a lot of hour long anime shows out there. Is it just too much of a strain on the production studio to do an hour long episode weekly?
Maybe it’s just my fault. If you’re patient enough to wait a full week between this episode and presumably compelling character development in the next, the half-hour format shouldn’t bother you in the slightest. This, however, just doesn’t work for me. Of course, I still think Jormungand is worth keeping an eye on just for its premise alone, but the first episode just wasn’t up to the task.
>Is it just too much of a strain on the production studio to do an hour long episode weekly?
Probably. Some shows had that 50-minute window, like Fate/Zero, Kamisama no Memochou and Aquarion Evol, but that was only for the first episode. Katanagatari had consistent 50 minute episodes, but they were being released monthly. Competition from other shows might also have an impact on how much time you’re allowed to have on a channel.
I’m looking forward to how the relationship between Koko and Jonah will be handled, but I get the feeling that their adventures in the arms trade will have higher priority. Because guns. And explosions. People seem to like that stuff no matter how poorly the story will turn out as a result.
About the hour long anime thing, that’s just too bad. I look at the success of Breaking Bad and similar dramas in the ‘States, and think that extra time could really allow anime to step their storytelling up to the next level.
Honestly, I didn’t feel as though the anime sold me on this either. Koko is like a pixie girl but slightly sinister this time. Jonah is the only character with some emotion.
I don’t watch much live action dramas, due to being in a dry spell of cable TV or a good internet connection for some time, but I see what you mean. More time does translate to more ways to exploit some good opportunities.
Perhaps they’ll have an arc where character development takes the foreground, but given how action-heavy Jormungand seems to be I’m not sure when it will happen, if it will happen at all. If I remember correctly, this is going to be a two-season anime. Perhaps they’re just taking their time.
The thing that disturbed me most about this show is that Jonah is supposed to be a fricking child soldier but he’s being treated more like fodder for shotacons (the thing about being Koko’s little brother and his bad cooking, etc.). Also, as a child soldier, you would expect there to be more pathos behind his character, more bottled up resentment and/or rage but, as you said, he came off seeming more apathetic. Perhaps this’ll change in future episodes, but I kind of doubt it.
Plus, it’s obvious that they’re utilizing that old trope about a societal outcast finding a second family among an unlikely group of misfits. That’s fine on its own. It’s overused but it’s still possible to construct good stories based off of it. However, what disturbs me is that they’re rushing the development of this dynamic. It seemed that, with the whole omelette cooking thing and Jonah’s regret about letting Koko get hurt, the writers expect the audience to believe that by the end of this episode Jonah has already started to fit in amongst the arms dealers. I just don’t buy that. As far as I can tell, Koko hasn’t really done much to make Jonah feel at home. She’s just been ordering him around for her own benefit. She hasn’t shown him any real kindness beyond hugging him and telling him he’s an egg (Sidenote: Am I alone in thinking that was a terrible metaphor? After all, the eggs were broken open and eaten. That hardly bodes well for new recruits.)
Of course, there’s a good chance I’m being too critical prematurely. But my experience with most anime has been that things rarely go anywhere but downhill after the first episode. I will grant, however, that the action sequences are pretty cool.
Jormungand hasn’t really told us what happened with Jonah before he joined Koko’s Merry Band of Misfits. All the information we have of him is the (likely misguiding) intel Koko has and his minimal behavior throughout the episode, stuff that does not necessarily constitute complete characterization. We know that he had (or still has) hatred for weapons and the people who deal with them, a bit of childish innocence regarding his reaction to the stuffed animal during the chase scene, and absolutely no qualms about killing grown men with the things he’s supposed to despise. All of this adds up to make Jonah a rather blatant hypocrite, though it would be boring if Jonah already knew that about himself.
Additionally, watching out for your leader’s well-being doesn’t necessarily mean that you accept their ideals, Perhaps he regretted his inability to completely protect Koko out of pride or some other moral code he has for himself; none of this is quite clear just by looking at the first episode. What is clear, however, is that Jonah narrates his disagreement with the arms dealer, but is interested (content/complacent/whatever the hell he’s feeling) enough to learn more about her. Besides, there’s very little you can do as an aimless child soldier other than serve some employer as a human weapon.
Of course, I’d be quite happy if all this stuff I wrote were to be proven in subsequent episodes, which isn’t likely. I suppose I’m satisfied with just the fast-paced action. Ah well, more excuse to focus my attention towards Sakamichi no Apollon and Nazo no Kanojo X.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Everyone’s beautiful in anime, but Jonah looks goddamn cherubic in comparison. On a related note, I read somewhere how people expected yuri in the manga, but it never panned out or something. Such is the world of anime/manga.
I dunno, I didn’t get the impression that he’s fitting in already. I’m sure the anime will spin its wheels and have the character relations stall on some silly problem and they’ll magically work it out somehow by the end.
I didn’t understand you point about the weaknesses of a half hour format until you brough up Breaking Bad. Could you imagine if the first episode of Breaking Bad was one half-hour episode. Not dividing it into to two episodes but compressed into a single episode.
I really haven’t be keeping up with this season but Jormungand’s first episode has enough good quailities to keep me interested. At the very least I can only see the show going uphill from here.
I think that if Breaking Bad was to resemble anime, it would be more like alternating episodes of action and character development, neither being as wholly satisfying as one long episode containing both.
If you don’t have much time to watch anime this season, I really do think there are better shows than Jormungand. The noitiminA block, for instance, is back to being tolerable, but you may disagree.
That’s right, Apollon was on my list of shows to check out.
The thing that bugged me the most (sans the slightly confusing episode) was the horrible art. Everyone looks deformed. But I agree there’s certainly something missing that fails to captivate the same way a similar show like Black Lagoon does.
>They are both relatively young for their roles
Lol that’s kind of the point of children soldiers.