Jormungand - 3
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Education and Music are very important to children and on that note, I'm going to go ahead and say that's what this entire episode was about; educating children
This episode decided to focus more on Jonah and the new enemy, a duo of assassins known as Orchestra. The latter are introduced right from the beginning of the episode and unlike the previous 2 enemies, they are shown to be much more formidable and ruthless thus ensuring a 2 episode arc for them and making it so that right now Koko's enemies have each been from three different professions: arms dealing, army and assassin. The focus of the episode, for me at least was that of parent-child relationships and education.
The assasins Chinatsu and her Master, are shown to have a relationship resembling that of a parent and child (in a twisted way of course) with a little bit of romantic confusion entangled into the mix but I got to say I wasn't terribly pleased with the Master sounding like a stereotypical shounen antagonist. I found the take on their relationship a nice perspective that White Fox decided to explore since I didn't really get the same feeling when reading the relevant chapters of the manga in which I only saw the relationship to be a one-sided love. The parent and child relationship is the feeling I got from watching their interactions but it was re-enforced greatly with the way Chinatsu talks and the way she acts, like when she manages to blow up a car and it ends up standing or when she constantly thinks of Jonah as "cute" and ignores the fact that he's working for Koko. The vibe I got from this relationship might have also been strengthened by focus on Jonah's education and that throughout the entire episode he was treated as a child instead of a bodyguard even at the end of the episode when he and Koko are running away and a couple of strangers assume that it's a toy gun that he's carrying.
The fight scenes this episode didn't fail to remain aesthetically pleasing or excite but I still haven't seen exciting fight scenes like the ones in the first episode. I'm interested to see the fight scenes in the next episode since this is the first arc episode and I'm fairly confident that the fight in the next episode will be more intense. The fight did serve as an educational opportunity for Jonah and was delivered by Lehm, who appeared to be the fashionably late star of the episode and ended up taking control of the entire situation as well as teaching Jonah how the smart way to be a bodyguard is; probably the only lesson that Jonah retains in this entire episode (even after being taught some arithmetic by Toujo). Jonah's teaching experience also made me consider the scene in which Orchestra are conversing in Italian and the Master teaches Chinatsu about proper assassin behaviour, giving the episode another sad yet believable layer that for characters like Jonah and Chinatsu only weapons and fighting education is necessary.
Koko was put in the corner for this episode, which I found to be yet another good point of the adaptation of the chapters of the manga since she can't be the only reason to watch Jormungand. Although she didn't have many lines, she contributed to the comedy scenes and enhancing the bonds between herself and Jonah and Valmet, only proving how much of strong main character she is. Another good episode from Jormungand but I'm worried that so far it has felt almost too episodic, something that should go way as the story progresses.