I have been putting this one off for way too long, but that’s not because I was looking up to reviewing it. Rather there was so much coming out that I instead wanted to cover, but I guess that I’d just wrap up this sequel that really improved a lot over its original series. The key for that was its plot, for once.
The first Jormungand series really was a build-up series: it’s there to introduce the characters, get the viewers a bit used to the world and concepts of this series. It could have done this better though, because it was too monotone, both in terms of stories and characters. Perfect Order drops the random stories, and instead is much more coherent, not to mention varied in both terms of content and characters.
The improvements first become visible with the characters. The first season was flawed because it had too many characters who were trying too hard to be snarky. The second season then commences to both introduce characters with significantly different personalities, as well as develop the current cast to go beyond their snarky self. Suddenly, a cast that was once bland sparkles with personality, just as I hoped.
The plot takes a while longer to show its trumps, but in the end, it actually does pay off with a number of really good plot twists. Not going to say when they show up, but let’s just say that the characters were preparing for a certain events for a very long while. It really impressed me in any case.
This is not one of those cases in which all of the build-up comes together, though: the plot twists themselves are really good, but the first season’s random stories remain rather… random, and just could have been done better. It’s really the writing that improved so much, but Jormungand as a whole is not a series that is perfectly paced or told, not to mention that even though the setting for this series is very original (taking place over the whole world and not just Japan, America and Europe), it just doesn’t feel real or relatable. There remain a few too many one-dimensional characters in this series, despite the added variety. Nevertheless though: very solid show. Including an awesome soundtrack.
| Storytelling: | 8.5/10 – Big improvement: things feel much more solid and coherent and it finally starts building up to something, with a great payoff. |
| Characters: | 8.5/10 – A varied cast, that really shines in comparison to the bland cast of the first season. |
| Production-Values: | 8.5/10 – Solid animation, but what really stands out here is the soundtrack. Again a big improvement in how it’s used. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Nice choice of locations, but it doesn’t make enough of an impact for a higher rating. |
Suggestions:
– Black Lagoon
– Irresponsible Captain Tylor
– Seikai no Senki
I prefer Black Lagoon.
But i will rate thisone higher, because Black Lagoon takes forever to end.
And the Black Lagoon mangaka is a lazy bastard… i dropped the manga only due to hate.
I dont care if it is good.
Jormungand was awesome tho.
I think even in its episodic arcs/bits jourmungand was better than black lagoon in my opinion, it felt like they were more consistently enjoyable to me while black lagoon was more of a mixed bag for me. Agree with you though on Rei Hiroe, I got fed up waiting on him to release more chapters too.
mean while artist by the name of Tex-Mex still has time to draw doujins
Think I heard before somewhere, maybe crunchyroll a while back, that black lagoon is coming hiatus. He has another series out there I read what was available of but I can’t recall the title, never cared for it all that much nor his doujins.
*Coming back from
Still for this reason I ended up enjoying Jormungand a lot more.
Can’t say I agree with the score or the review.
I do think the second series was better than the first, but the ending was a rather pointless tease and ultimately destroyed most of the good will had been previously built-up by the previous episodes.
There are open-ended resolutions which I can accept, but this was really an ending showing signs of the author wanting to close off the story as quickly as possible, either out of lack of interest or due to editorial necessity. It’s way too sloppy to end everything like that.
Hey Souther, after reading reviews on this blog i find myself agreeing with your comments, would you mind recommending me a list of anime, you enjoyed?
I feel that whoever made Jormungand had a really great story or idea he wanted to run in season 1, but spent too much time building up for it and then just cut it off with a half-assed ending. I mean in the first episode Koko told Jonah she would show him the value of weapons not as just tools of death, and then season 2 she does a complete 180 and kills off random people for the hope that countries wont fight. Her brother at least showed reason that even if people cant fight with drones and aircraft, they will fight with guns, and if they cant fight with that they will go to swords and arrows, etc.