Summer 2013 – Week 11 Anime Review

This week: how Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-bu is really an anime analogy of drugs, thoughts on the origins of the walls in Shingeki no Kyojin, the weakness of friendships in Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou and the adorable tanukis of Uchouten Kazoku.

Summer 2013 – Week 10 Anime Review

This week: social commentary on social media in Gatchaman Crowds, questioning the ability of transformation in Uchouten Kazoku, realizing how Tamayura ~more aggressive~ is beginning to feel more like Aria and wondering what else Monogatari Series Second Season could’ve done with an older Hachikuji.

Summer 2013 – Week 6 Anime Review

This week: appreciating the visual aesthetics of Uchouten Kazoku, the use of emotion in Shingeki no Kyojin, pink blood in Danganronpa, and the team failing to act as a team as a strength for Gatchaman Crowds.

Jormungand – 8

The diversity of settings, both physical and societal, has had a profound effect on Jormungand.  Not only has the constant variation in setting provided dissimilar locations in which to stage the world and enhance our understanding of how weapons dealing affects these regions but these different backdrops all have special needs from weapons dealers and have presented Koko and her enterprise with unique challenges and obstacles for her to address or overcome.  As each episode has taken us to a distinct area of the globe, every setting has allowed Jormungand to explore and expose various topics, ideas, and trials that would otherwise be unmanageable with only a single, defined location for which to base the anime off of.

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?