Jormungand

"Jormundgand" has a really strong concept - a lot could have been done with the story of an orphaned boy whose parents were killed in the war, which made him dislike weapons, but as a soldier he is forced to use them.

The emphasis here is on "SHOULD", because "Jormundgand" unfortunately doesn't manage to introduce the viewer to this story well.

At the beginning you get a very short scene of the main character looking dreamily into the sky and explaining his situation in an internal monologue, but then you're thrown straight into the series, which unfortunately meant that I had a hard time finding any interest in this anime.

The characters are hardly introduced, so I'm not interested in them at all apart from the main character.

In addition, it's not clear at the beginning whether there is any plan or goal - that just makes the series boring, because how am I supposed to get into the series if I don't know what it's working towards?

In addition, the characters have an almost laughable amount of "plot armor" - characters whose daily business is killing can't even hit someone from 5 meters away with an assault rifle or shoot out a few car tires.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the leader of the whole group feels a very questionable attraction to the main character, who is a whole 10 years younger than her. She's constantly touching the poor boy and while you could argue that the lady is just very "touchy" and there's nothing more to it, at some point she clearly crosses that line and it's just disgusting. Here too, fans of the series try to argue that this is just meant to illustrate certain character traits of hers, but the author knew exactly what he was doing here and how this all looked like.

All of this is a shame because, as I said, the premise is very interesting. I also liked the character design and the intro song of the first season is definitely catchy, but unfortunately this anime is just bad...

If you're looking for something similar to "Jormundgand" I would recommend "Black Lagoon" - the anime is much better!

The first episode there was a strange but balanced mix of casual brutality, dark humor and just a sliver of heart that quickly marked "Jormungand" as something different.

For full disclosure the premise itself was unique enough it sat at the bottom of my queue for months because I had trouble reconciling this fairly serious subject being handled by an anime, but once Jormungand was next I was pleasing to be proven wrong.

The animation style was mirror of the series as a whole, simple and clean and yet at the same time technically perfect when it came to the details that counted.

Not everything was flawless, not every episode had the same depth and some of the stories / sub-plots seemed uncharacteristically outlandish at first (but unfolded interestingly) but as a whole it was a fantastic watch.

Pros:

• Great cast of characters.
• Depth hiding under the action.
• Excellent music and score.
• Above average and consistent animation.
• Surprising beauty at times.

Cons:

• Animation quality dibs a bit in the second season.
• Some predictability.
• The end to the arc needed more than 2 episodes to complete, but I'm biased there.

The entire anime builds up this really cool concept and at the end it all feels rushed together. Like I've been in love with this anime up until the last season. The ending makes no sense the characters developed backwards at the end and no gratification comes from watching the last episode. I quit watching the moment they changed the main characters motives with no proof he would go that route. I genuinely am so disappointed that the coolest gun anime I've seen in a while was written in a way that shows the dark side of the world like Black Lagoon. Black lagoon however has a great story start to finish. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

Literally one of the best animes 10/10 Poor new viewers don't know about it But if you find it know that you're lucky Jormungand and black lagoon have some similarities no wonder they're both awesome!

Jonah is a child soldier which makes him very unique and Koko is both funny and genius And her group are one of kind, love them all Especially Valmet!

Anyways give it a shot, you will definitely love it at first episode.

Ps: I saw some people complaining about it because of the guns they have... Like wtf?!

Calm down it's just anime those guns won't hurt you lol

Another great anime Psycho pass.

There is some interesting themes in this anime, since its main protagonist is an arms dealer and her companions are mercenaries, including a boy soldier...

Koko is the leader of a troupe of mercenaries and she picks up Jonah along the way, a boy no more than 10 years old and has him join her merry gang of killers. Of course, these killers are actually good guys who are just doing a service (selling arms to despots around the world), but they never kill anyone who doesn't deserve it haha...

Its never overly violent or exploitative, despite the subject matter and the characters are likable enough, although while the animation is good, the female characters don't look very female, but that was probably done on purpose...watch it if you liked 'Black Lagoon' (which I did)...