Jormungand - 5

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Cue flashback to a less simpler time.

So this time round we get an episode with a flashback, to which I usually respond with a great sigh and expecting to be bored (bad experience with shonen flashbacks but also the one in the Jormungand manga wasn't to my liking) but yet again White Fox and the director Motonaga have made me appreciate Jormungand even more. Let's put aside that following up an episode as powerful as lasts weeks one with a flashback episode is hard to do, but to actually make it on par with the previous episode is a feat all together.

Before the episode enters the flashback, we get a little introduction to Kasper Hekmatyar accompanied by his bodyguard Chiquita and a man for whom the word "Bastard" instantly pops into ones head. I still find it quite funny to this day (having read the relevant chapters of the manga some time ago) how Jonah and Kasper's meeting after their initial encounter happened in the toilet, speaking as a man I know that a surprisingly wide range of events can occur in a men's toilet but an attempted murder doesn't really make the top of the list when you think about it; although gotta say Jonah was made to look weak and yet again like a child by a combination of having to stand on the urinal to reach it, having his penis checked out by Kasper and after being subdued by a woman (no intended sexism).

The flashback then ensued. Besides a few panels/pages being omitted from the manga, the flashback remained as true to the source as can be but improved upon it. It was very fluid and was a lovely contrast seeing as Jonah was shown to take down an entire army base, moments before we were shown him being made someone's bitch in the toilet. We also get to see that Jonah actually was actually once a much more open person and was afraid of people like arms dealers because of their eyes that "are not those of a normal person."

Kasper's true introduction in Jormungand is done wonderfully here, by him thanking Jonah for taking out the obstacle for his road - literally a road - and by then throwing a beaten up Jonah into a container with only water and making him starve for 3 days. Kasper doesn't say much but what he says carries a lot of weight and is yet said in such a tone that sounds less like justifying your ideals and more like explaining logic, the perfect example being when he told Jonah about why the road is very important but also his view on patriotism - "it's not a word in my dictionary" - was explained almost too logically. As for throwing Jonah into the container, it may have been the case of him testing out his resolve but to me it felt more like a display of dominance for Kasper and just another method for him to gain possession of something (or in this case someone) he valued.

The episode was tied together at the end with a rather emotionally emotionless meeting between Jonah and Koko. Just the style of how it was done was top notch and really made it a good end for an unexpectedly great episode of Jormungand (unexpected to me since I'm not a fan of flashback episodes).