Jormungand - 11

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Lesson to be learned, don't piss off Koko Hekmatyar to the point where she is the one to pull a gun on you.

I have to say that when Jormungand does flashback episodes, this being one of them, they do it really well and unlike Jonah's flashback which lasted the entire episode, Valmet's flashback was short and aided in the progression of the episode rather smoothly. Even with the episode starting off with pure focus on Valmet's revenge, it managed to incorporate another group of assassins as an equally important plot point for this episode rather effortlessly which made me try and remember how it was when I read the manga; in the end I'd say there was an equal amount of importance placed on Valmet's revenge story arc and the fight against the assassins.

Koko is the character that stood out yet again but not for doing something completely outrageous and genius-lie but instead for being very in tune with her subordinates. Without knowing so much about Koko, we can never really tell whether she can be categorised as either good or bad, but up until now we have been shown that she is a woman of principle (refusing to receive payment until she helped recover a doctor) and values loyalty and friendship above all else (she told Mao to trust the crew and considers everyone to be family), both points which didn't make actions surprising but instead her ability to let someone who is more than a friend to just walk in and potentially die, all the while knowing her true intentions just shows that she is strong willed. It also showed that she knew Valmet better than anyone else by sending in Jonah, another one of her friends who is after the life of a man he despises.

Of course Koko still had to do something vaguely outrageous to keep the spirit of Jormungand and her mystery going and this time it was shooting a gangster straight in the face........ Not the most original plot device that was used ever considering that Coco is in fact and arms dealer but one that doesn't lack in shock value when you think about how she has never even touched a gun thus far, yet alone decided to head shot some guy who tried to rip her off; the only thought in my head when watching this scene was that Yuri Orlov in Lord of War was half the human being and man that Koko is, since he ended up accepting the drugs as payment and feared for his life unlike the principled and fearless Ms. Helmatyar.

After the shoot-out, the episode ends with a little action from an assault (which took the entire episode to plan) by assassins, leaving Lutz with another ass wound from another kid called Lilliane. Speaking of kids, one thing I didn't actually pick up from the manga was the importance placed on them in Jotmungand and the various lectures given by Koko and her mercy towards them. That said, Lilliane is yet another addition to the kids with arms category established in the series but unlike all of the others, she is genuinely child-like all the time whereas in contrast, Jonah is only shown to be childish a few times and most of those being at the ends of episodes.

The skirmish made for another lesser fight in this episode, and with an expected conclusion next week it kind of acts as secondary plot point of this arc. As Jormungand enters it's last moments in this season, it's too-faithful adaptation has now covered about half the volumes of the manga and it looks like we can expect a showy conclusion of Valmet's fight next episode which will nicely wrap up season one. I'm just excited to see how the season ends