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Title: Jormungand
Type: TV
Episodes: 12
Airing: Apr 11, 2012
Producers: White Fox

Characters & Voice Actors:
Johnathan : Tamura, Mutsumi
Lehm : Ishizuka, Unsho
Koko, Hekmatyar : Itou, Shizuka
Valmet, Sofia : Ohara, Sayaka

Staff:
Motonaga, Keitarou
Director
Kuroda, Yousuke
Script, Series Composition
Kawada, Mami
Theme Song Performance
Nakamura, Kazuhisa
Character Design

Synopsis:
The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, a weapons corporation.
As one of the company's unofficial weapon sellers, she secretly sells weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law enforcements as most of her work is actually illegal under international law. Traveling with her is her team of bodyguards who are mostly composed of ex-military veterans.
Her latest addition to her crew is Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child soldier who is skilled in combat yet ironically hates arms dealers. Jonah joins Koko as he wishes to find the arms dealer responsible for his family's death.
What follows is Koko and her crew's escapades around the world.
(Source: MAL, ANN, Wikipedia)
PV can be found here:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-...-promo-streamed

My Thoughts:
As I anticipate this story about a female arms dealer & mercenaries, can't help but think of the great series that was and still is...Black Lagoon. Hoping based on what I have read and seen so far, this one proves to be a classic as well.

Sigh, the mandatory "let's use a random cool-sounding Western word for the titile which we have no idea what it means and likely has nothing to do with the story". SIGH.

They could handle this a number of ways, ranging from horrible to good, so I'll reserve judgement. Catchy animation though, will watch at least a few just for eye-candy if it looks as good as the trailer. The only thing I've seen from this studio was Steins;Gate, which looked crisp but had too many static scenes. We'll see I guess.

Also rather than Black Lagoon, the trailer reminds me of Canaan for some reason.

Yes I too thought more of Canaan than Black Lagoon just like Aus-san ^^ But thats not much worse since I liked Canaan.

The Synopsis was sounding goot until "Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child soldier", after that it was totally meh. It totally sounds like an Uchiha Sasuke-character and that thought alone kills of a lot since I hate those characters.

I'll probably skip this one and wait for the whole series to be finished. It sounds like this series can be good but everything seems to be hung up on Jonah. It would be nice if we get to see something like trading fights etc.

This one does remind me of Black Lagoon...action packed, gun runners, arms dealers, mercenaries. Never bothered watching Canaan, so does not resonate with me. Now, first season has yet to start and already the production team has announced a second season so as to animate the manga series all the way through 11 volumes.
Read for yourselves...
Second Season of Jormungand Due in October
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=415401
I can only hope it will be a good watch.

Gah, the anime industry must be in a horrible economic state if more and more companies have to split 24-episode series into 2 seasons half a year apart. WTF happened to delivering a whole consecutive season?

Finally! I have been waiting for this one with jiijii doing the honors. Hoping it will be a good watch...
Update/Edit: Hum...where to start without spoiling anything...gun runners, action packed, one arms dealer outsmarting another, outsmarted arms dealer gets his brains blown. Jonah...artistic with weapons yet, professes a loathing of them. I can understand such since Jonah's parents were killed by them.
Liked the animation style as it seems this one will be violent so the style suits it...nothing pretty about it except the color of Ms. H's eyes...a deep blue with a silver sheen that matches her hair...btw, she sleep walks too.
While not great, (imo) let's hope it proves interesting enough with a good story to spin, instead of shoot-em-up once a week escapades. Mercenaries and arms dealers are fascinating folks...they claim they deal in weapons to promote "world peace" let's see how far this one takes that so-called honorable premise.
That all being said, I will keep watching for now...

This post has been edited by ImTakes on Apr 11 2012, 09:03 PM

The first thing I noticed was this is not a pretty anime (though I might have confused your context there) as you said; though you did say you liked the animation style. I just thought the character designs were drawn poorly. I'm not usually one to complain about something like that but I couldn't help but take notice of Koko's oddly triangular drawn nose and some of the characters ridiculously large bushy eyelashes Now I am interested in a story about mercenaries and arms dealers. Like you I agree that it'll be good if they have at least some small story arcs and not just a weekly shoot-em-up 12 episode stint. Jonah was a little on the dull side at the start of the episode but he seemed to be gradually opening up near the end. Koko was pretty entertaining and fun so I've got no complaints there with her as a lead character. I'll be in for the next few episodes to see how things play out w/the plot and the other members of the group that didn't get much screen time this time around.

Nope...imo, having a beautifully drawn series while killing your adversary in brutal execution style, well, never sat pretty with me. The more ugly the style and the more angular the faces i.e. characters, the better the anime with this particular genre. I am thinking Gungrave (not pretty but awesome) Black Lagoon franchise (the women were not pretty...not in the classical sense) Anyway, you get my drift. The animation style did it for me so like we have already said, let's get the added plus of a good story, too.
As far as Jonah goes? Hum...I suppose one could venture to say that after you see your parents blown to smithereens, your homeland desecrated, your dignity stripped and your persona soaked in blood bath after blood bath...yeah, I would be dull too...to the point of a flat affect...pretty much like Jonah's. I loved his eyes and bushy white eyelashes btw...a pretty boy albeit a deadly one.

I have to say, I quite liked this one. Koko and Jonah are both very interesting, and everyone else seemed somewhere between clichestorm and troperrific. (Although I might err more towards troperrific if not for the knife crazy eyepatch chick with the shinobi bent. Be honest, Japan. No mercenary in their right mind would wear anything but a real, honest to goodness, PIRATE PATCH, and you know it.)

Koko is a classic personality, she loves guns, she loves madness, and most importantly, you can't tell if she believes her own line about world peace or not. Her scene with the rival arms dealer was excellent as it spelled out the scope of her ambition - She doesn't just look at the here and now. There's a grander scheme in her mind, and there may not be room for world peace in it.

Jonah has a surprising range of emotion for that seemingly fixed face of his, well played in body language, seiyuu tone, and subtle expression. I also loved his reaction in that scene with the bunny plushy.

The others are generally indistinguishable from the extras in a 1980's mercenary film. Seriously, I expect to see young Chuck Norris or David Caradine show up at some point.

I had mixed feelings about Jonah's opening monologue about "a plane just like that one." I wasn't sure if he meant aircraft in general, or the F-22 specifically. There's only one "Arms dealer" that deals in the F-22, for at least the next 20~30 years anyway, but there's plenty of "current generation" aircraft on the arms market.

My one real fear for this one is that it will start strong and get ruined due to the general anti-war culture bias the Japanese have. I hope not, it's off to a good start, and I do want to see at least some constant emphasis and steady resolution on the contradiction of Jonah's hatred of arms dealers and guns, but total dependence on them.

Agreed...very well played so far. I enjoyed his smile as he gazed upon that bunny since it did remind me he is not completely dead to the world of wonder.

If they go that way, they will kill it for me...let's keep it dark and deadly and ruthless...a'la Gungrave and Black Lagoon. I don't wanna see nor hear the schpeel about war and humans and all the claptrap that goes with it...this is anime fantasy and make believe...let the blood flow and the gun runners roll...bloody mayhem should be the name of the game for this one.

I like it that they threw us right in the action since that shows us the most of the characters, especially of Koko.
I really like how she goes from normal to badass and back to normal. Or at least what seems to be normal. That makes her really hot, even though the animationstyle doesnt really make her goodlooking, especially when shes grinning like a mad dog.

The action was ok, but of course farfetched but thats just how it always is and has to be or it wouldnt be fun ^^

@Yaya: Youre right with saying the Black Lagoon women were not pretty sicne they were hot (at least Revy, Balalaika and Eda).

Ossi-san...
the only pretty one and hot, was my babe, the boy wonder...Rock! I was in love the whole time and only re-watched the series because of him...But like I already said, the BL women were all ugly, in the classical sense of lacking any real beauty but hot they were, since they all sported big chests, buttocks, and even bigger guns. All very good characters too...it was a great series...Roberta was awesome as well.
Koko-chan will be very interesting to watch as the ruthless gang leader and gun runner... Oh! And sleepwalker!

I didnt really like Roberta, she was bad crazy unike Revy. But the best was still Balalaika with her hot and sexy scars.

But back to this show, just saw that this one two is getting split too -.- I really dont know why they do that in advance. But understanding the japanese is impossible, so just take it as it is, right?

Episode 2 was great, breaking down the psychology of a sudden skirmish that can't become a war in ways only an eccentric can. At the same time, introducing friendly rivals.

I also loved the climax near the end, guns akimbo P90's.

Agree...I remain hopeful it gets even better with the action but best with the suspense and story and Koko-chan's ruthless and cunning machinations...men who think they can handle women like they handle their guns are beyond idiots, like that idiot "soldier-at-play" in Koko's car and the one out on the field who said, "this bi**h was smiling all along." Then the arrogant **** has the audacity to tell her to get lost...
She laughed and ever so sly says, "I know the way."
And why the hell not? She knows what the hell she's talking about while they all play at war and killing...you go girl!

Koko's crazy smile is awesome and strangely an attractive feature, for how it's drawn. I should know better than to queue in on crazy at this point, but hey, crazy is beautiful if done right.

I agree...her best asset thus far...one is left wondering as to the subtlety of that soon-to-be-famous grin...imo, that smile can swing either way depending on the situation. I liked the animation style moreso this time around, it really does suit this one, for sure.

Yes with Kokos pale skin, her colourless eyes, her white hair and her grin she literally looks like the grimreaper, which she is to a lot of people ^^

Gotta love those armsdealers in animes. They are mostly screwed up, highly intelligent and skillful and totally GAR, even the women.

So now we know why Kokos called the princess and how she got that job, its in the family. I hope we get to see her family at some point, it surely will be interesting.

I'm not sure if it's the art style or intentional, but the PV shows someone who looks like a brownhaired mirror of Koko facing off against Koko.

Also, did anyone else notice Mildred is a behavior transplant of the drunk teacher stereotype? XD