Summer 2015 – Week 8 Anime Review

This week: why combining business with school has failed for Classroom Crisis, highlighting a major weakness for Chamo in Rokka no Yuusha, similarities between the Orihara family with the Araragi family for Durarara!!x2 Ten, and major changes (again) in the OP for Gakkou Gurashi.

Summer 2015 – Week 3 Anime Review

This week: deliberating about the setting and what we’ve seen about the city of Ergastulum in Gangsta., curiosities about continuing delusions in Gakkou Gurashi!, noticing and appreciating the music in Rokka no Yuusha, and a statement about disposing drugs down the toilet with Durarara!!x2 Ten.

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – 2

Humanity has declined?  Nah, humanity has already declined; humanity is dead.  Or at least that’s one interpretation of where this anime is going.  The other, and an equally possible alternative, is that humanity is indeed in a steady decline but it can redeem itself and eventually be saved.  The reason why and how both these understandings of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita exist is due to the ability of the audience to view this anime through two completely opposite perspectives and arrive at entirely different outcomes.  In order to understand the enigmatic message of this anime accurately, we must first ask ourselves this question: is Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita pro-industry or anti-industry?

Jormungand – 11

Within Koko’s team of bodyguards, interpersonal communication is a rarity.  Often minimal and infrequent or limited to the mission at hand, we hardly ever see the bodyguards converse with each other even during their times of peace and relaxation.  Rather, they fragment themselves to be alone or thereabouts and remain that way until they’re required to assimilate again for their next objective.  But when Koko is communicating with any of her bodyguards, they stand attentive and respond diligently.  The use of communication in Jormungand certainly reveals an interesting dynamic given the structure of Koko’s team and how they associate with each other.

Jormungand – 10

Despite the constant presence of humor throughout the series, Jormungand is an anime founded in a serious nature.  Without this essential backbone providing structure to the entire series, the whole setting about an arms dealer and her band of bodyguards would feasibly collapse.  And due to this relationship linking the setting, story, and characters together, the main cast can partake in only limited amounts of comedy before it starts to undermine what the anime originally stands for.  But Scarecrow and Schokolade are immune from this restriction and are able to flourish where others cannot.  What is it about this duo that allows them to contrast with the rest of the characters in Jormungand so greatly?

Jormungand – 7

Though the frequent skirmishes, provocative action sequences, and persistent use of modern weaponry are the principal attractions of Jormungand, it is actually the business of selling weapons that drives this anime.  And though there is this constant reminder of how the effects and influence of guns are what shape the world, there’s that required step of currency prior to weapons that permits that philosophy to be true.  Yes, while often indirect or merely overlooked, Jormungand boasts a surprisingly robust industrial and fiscal side that suggest that this is quite the economic anime among its numerous other strengths.  The commercial side to Jormungand is an essential characteristic to the series; it is used to explain how and why Koko encounters and connects to everyone and everything.  Just as it is the guns that influence the world in Jormungand, it is the trade of weapons that controls the story of Jormungand.

Jormungand – 2

If we are to believe that Jormungand presents an accurate illustration of the modern arms dealing industry, then we can conclude that the intricate relationship between wholesalers and clients involves frequent gunfights, blackmailing each other, ruthless treachery, and little to no customer appreciation.  We all know an industry as awesome as that could not exist in the real world but there is some truth in how the industry works in Jormungand.  Of course, to make the story exciting and entertaining, elements of action and adventure were introduced to make the anime more appealing. However, that story cannot be merely idealistic and action-packed nonsense, Jormungand needs to retain some of the real world as a means to tell its story the way it wants to.  So how does Jormungand find its happy medium by being both realistic and entertaining?