Monday, October 22, 2012

Jormungand Perfect Order First Impressions--Her Name is Still Koko

Jormungand Perfect Order First Impressions Screenshot 1

The investigation into the "loco" claim is on-going.

A/N: Part of Organization Anti Social Geniuses' Fall Evaluation

Jormungand Perfect Order First Impressions Screenshot 2 Jormungand Perfect Order First Impressions Screenshot 3

When the first season was airing, I started it late and then put it on hold to marathon later because it wasn't really grabbing me. That's not to say that it wasn't interesting; weapon dealers fighting assassins and dealing with corporate espionage is about as interesting as it gets for the action genre. I just didn't really see why I should care about where this was going. Koko is an incredibly charismatic character that makes up for a lot of this, but I didn't think that the show wanted to be slice-of-life international weapons trade style, which is what it turned into at times. The show was lacking a plot, and without the plot there was no goal, just a collection of really interesting characters who blew things up and took down evil Chinese businessmen.

Jormungand First Impressions Screenshot 4 Jormungand First Impressions Screenshot 5

Thankfully, the start of the second half ties together some of the loose ends, creating a continuous narrative from the first season right under our noses. The group (or Koko, at least) has a goal, and there's already a formidable opponent on their trail. The first season is much more worthwhile in the context of the second season premiere, since we already know the group, their strengths, and a little bit of backstory so that we're already attached to them. With all that established, the second season seems to be freeing itself up for large amounts of action. I just hope that the new plot isn't suddenly dropped or resolved in only two episodes, since I can easily see the possibilities taking up the rest of its running time.

Jormungand First Impressions Screenshot 6 Jormungand First Impressions Screenshot 7

The production values remain consistent, another solid entry by White Fox, who loves playing around with lighting. The character designs still suffer from not being really distinct from one another aside from our major characters; the new assassin is yet another busty brunette, for example. Thankfully, the characters mostly make up for that with their personalities that we got to know in the first season. Bottom line, if you enjoyed the first season, this looks like a promising finale.

Images from Funimation.com.

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