Jormungand - 6

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My thoughts on the last few episodes:

Episode 4 - That was great, but next episode won't be as good.

Episode 5 - Wow, I wasn't expecting a flashback that well done! Great episode, but I doubt that next one will be as good.

And now this episode has taught me to have faith in White Fox and the director since they keep surpassing my expectations.

As you might have gathered by now, the episode had a tough job of following not one, but 2 very excellent episodes and it managed to do so by changing the tone of the series a little by adding a lot more humour for this episode and a little bit of action. The comedy in the episode arose in various parts and was more like serious comedy rather than outright in your face comedy that's meant to make you laugh out loud.

The start of the episode was a nice little demonstration of Koko's brilliant and scary mind, with her as the commander of the troops fending off an attack by the pirates. The fight was quick like all the others have been and the highlight this time was that Jonah hit a moral speed bump when he had to point his gun at a child soldier who is later shown mercy by Koko (sort of) but forced to jump off the boat and swim to shore. That particular scene was done in a very comedic style and did make me smile a little because of Koko's actions but also because all the other characters found it funny that Jonah had a little fist fight with another child soldier.

As the episode went by a wide range of plot points opened up for Jormungand.

We saw the return of Scarecrow, who as a character I find difficult to take seriously and his meeting with a certain Mr. Chang didn't help his cause. Scarecrow's insistence on money and obsession with Koko was a good point of comedy in his scenes and they made him look even more like that character you want to see outwitted and left to dry, but more than that his scene served as an unlikely introduction to Chang and his assistant Low. With their introduction, we get a little bit more insight into the kind of man Kasper Hekmatyar is; to put simply Kasper is world renown but hated by many, contrasted by Koko being liked by quite a few. This might have been a bit of an obvious point to make but it's re-confirmed when Chang meets and invites Koko to dinner, an invitation she accepts with a smiling face whilst secretly plotting something - making it look like Koko does these sorts of things on purpose.

The final part of the episode focused on a battle preparation in order to save another character we're introduced to, Dr. Miami (I can definitely see why she and Koko are friendly with each other). For once we got to see Jonah lead the ambush, showing off that he isn't a kid that needs to be educated all the time and while we're re-visiting the topic of education which does seem to play a big part in Jormungand, it's got to the point when Jonah's education has been downsized but not erased completely. I liked how part of what he was taught from the last episode, with Chiquita lecturing him on knife usage carried on in this episode with Jonah following her advice and getting some training from the group's knife mast Valmet. Before Jonah lead the ambush, it was also nice to see that Valmet recognised his knowledge when she told Lutz that he could learn a thing or two from him.

The fight that started was setting up the fight we can expect in the next episode which will focus on Low vs Valmet, which will undoubtedly lead to more exploration into Valmet's background story (you don't need to read the manga for that) and it ended with a great screenshot of Valmet's face looking like she's about to go serious/serial killer, something we haven't been shown yet.

The episode moved at a pace that I would describe as "just right," ending at exactly the right moment to set up for a fierce fight next episode. Jormungand has been an anime that has continually improved on an episodic basis, so next week I'm expecting another great episode.