Jormungand Perfect Order – 05
His name is Tojo Akihiko. He’s been waiting for this.
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So instead of doing anything productive like studying, I spent the majority of the week starting and finishing the 4th season of Gintama. Everybody needs to watch that series if they haven’t already. Seriously. As for Jormungand, I guess the last episode was just a lead in to this next arc, which seems to be titled “Castle of Lies”. |
…It feels like that phantom company came to light a little too easily. It would have been a nice set up to have the siblings go up against a completely unknown enemy, and I felt some of my intrigue fade when Tojo started going into the extreme detail of his former employer’s company. Not to say that there isn’t a chance of surprise elements in here, but I can’t help but feel like this set up is rather similar to the last arc in having a member of Koko’s team go against their former employer. Maybe the author did this on purpose to set up a parallel between the last arc and this one. I know that there are a ton of differences between the arcs (more than enough to set the senarios apart), but I can’t shake the sense that this is similar. In this though, this might be a great chance to see Koko’s team versus someone who’s just as knowledgeable about her as she is about the SR. This might become interesting as a battle to watch characters out strategize one another.
As for the man of the arc, Tojo… I can’t say that we’ve learned much about his character that hasn’t already been hinted at. Yes, he’s a bit clumsy and his explanations are long and boring. The only thing that was really new was when Hinoki pointed out that Tojo accidentally drops unintentional info when he feels rushed. Now, maybe this is like how Tojo assumed that Hinoki would still be the same after all of these years and he dropped it on purpose to lure the SR out, or maybe it was a genuine mistake. In either case, I wonder if we’re going to get anything else on his character before the arc ends. Koko seems concerned about him. Though this might still be the aftereffects of R’s death.
It was odd seeing Koko act as the voice of reason in her conversation with Kasper this episode. Normally she’s the one running off and wreaking havoc and I’m sure she’d say something similar to what Kasper said if someone told her to be cautious in any one of her other jobs. You can definitely see the resemblance between the sibling’s behaviours. Though in that though, I can’t see Koko having any major problems this time, even if the SR knows about her. I’d say that a huge part of her failure the last arc was due to being unprepared (mixed in with the stress of R possibly leaving). Here, Koko knows to be on her guard and having her warn Kasper of being cautious is a good indication that she’ll be cautious herself. …Plus her entire team is capable. If she pulls this off well, it will be an indication of how adaptable the team is, since they’re now missing a person.
I don’t think this episode was Koko thinking Kasper wasn’t capable of handling the job, but more that she thought he was taking the SR too lightly. I assume that the two know each other well enough to be able to tell these kinds of things. I also found it interesting that the two of them basically have a rule where they help one another when needed. I wonder if this is because of the fact that they hold the same occupation, or if it’s more of a sibling thing (though it’s likely a mix of both). I can see where they’d need an unspoken rule like that since it seems like every third character introduced has some sort of plan to use Koko as a stepping ladder (not that she lets them). I assume that Kasper would be in the same position, so both of them would need someone who they could trust and fall back on. …Not to mention that they work for the same company. Success from one part of the company would most likely result in good things for the rest of it.
Man, that new female character didn’t last very long. I was expecting her to be a bigger part of this whole thing to be honest. Though in her role, she managed to swap Jormungand back to it’s usual formula of a Hekmatyar being attacked due to their profession and gunning their way out of the situation. Both of them seem so used to it now, that Kasper looked like he could have easily been strolling through a park. It was nice seeing other members of the business handle the same type of situations that Koko goes through. To all of Koko’s members, Kasper only seems to need Chequita (though he does seem to have a lot more generic gunmen). I suppose she would be his version of Koko’s Jonah. In any case, I think we can confirm that both siblings are insane by this point (or on their way at least).
Why are all of the female characters on this show so awesome?
Chequita seems like she’s known Kasper for a long time. I wonder if that extends to Koko and Lehm as well. Despite Lehm being one of the more notable team members on Koko’s side, we know practically nothing about him besides the facts that he’s divorced and he’s been with Koko for a long time. I’m just waiting for his arc now, since this one seems to be mainly Tojo’s. …Speaking of, let’s hope that Tojo doesn’t die dramatically for the team at the end of this. His situation has similarities to R’s where he’s fighting his (former) superior. …Though this arc is missing an insane Hex-like character, so their chances of survival have (hopefully) increased.
Ah, Jormungand is fun to watch. Even more so when they explain things. I can’t say that Tojo’s long history lesson was necessary, but the background details really help fill out the opposition’s characters. …Or in this case, I guess it only helped fill out the purpose of the SR and how it became a phantom company. This episode also brought back Jormungand’s typical action scenes, so overall, I’d say that this was a good marriage of action and explanation. I would have enjoyed a little more exposition on Tojo to be honest, but we have the rest of the arc for that. It’s probably a better idea to set up the background for the fight before going into individual characters. …R seems pretty forgotten by the team at this point, but with their occupation, I imagine that they need to move on with their lives.
I wonder where the ‘Castle of Lies’ part comes into this arc.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Oh, man. Spammy invaded and ate my comment. I’ll nail that thief to the wall.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
….I see absolutely nothing in our spam box’s abyss. I think your comment might be lost for good OTL
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I didn’t know that could happen. Well, I made the comment back completely from my memory along with some edited parts but the spam monster ate it again. Damn you, Spammy.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Er, I think it was probably a case of someone from Meta clearing out Spammy all at once and missing saving your comment. There was hardly anything in there when I checked.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The behavior I always get when a comment is held by Spammy is that the page will refresh, and you’ll get the url with the comment number at the end, but it goes to the top of the page, not the comment. If it does anything else (like not give you the comment number), it’s lost.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I did save it from spammy so you guys are in good hands as usual. :3
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Thanks for the rescue, Kyo. Spammy is a tricky beast.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
And here I thought it liked Highway the best.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Hey, don’t worry. It still likes me. I just haven’t had much to comment on with the last few posts (Horror – no, K – no, Jormungand – no)
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The Hekmatyar family is full of badasses. Did Kasper give a damn while he and his team were under attack? Hell, no! He keeps his cool and dusts it off as if it was nothing. He becomes more and more interesting of a character and we still don’t know anything about him.
Chiquita is awesome and ruthless. I’ve grown to like and that creepy smile as killed the assassin girl made me shudder with fear as she nonchalantly shoots the chick while telling Kasper, “We’ve got assassins!” LOL. And Lehm was married to her. Dude, do you have any idea what you let slip through your fingers? I’m surprised they got a divorce instead of killing each other. Then again, he’d have to be a piece of work to have handled her.
Valmet got the opportunity of her lifetime taking advantage of a very drunk Koko.
You’re not the only one suffering loss of intrigue from Tojo’s mindless drawl of an explanation. I was tempted to skip that part and Koko said to make it easy enough that even Jonah could understand. If his life depended on it, he’d already be dead.
Koko being the reason is probably because she knows how much of a loose cannon Kasper is and she’s trying to minimize the incoming damage. But like sister, like brother, they’re insane and too into their own interests to listen to reason. I’ve recently become more aware of her VA Shizuka Ito’s roles. She has a good few and apparently this isn’t her first voicing a shotacon. If you’ve seen Dance in the Vampire Bund, you’ll know she played that megane student body president turned vampire girl with a hidden shotacon complex for her next door neighbor Nanami Shinonome.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Haha! We certainly don’t know much about him, but the same could be said about Koko really. Both of them literally laugh in the face of danger and hell if we know why. …That’s what make the both of them awesome though.
LOL that got me too! Both Kasper and her feel absolutely at ease with their occupations xD I’d REALLY like to know the story behind their divorce! Or even how they met up/married. Hell, give me their life stories, I’m sure it would be absolutely awesome.
Yeah, I was trying to be nice about it, but man that explanation was super long and super boring. You’d think that learning about a company erasing it’s own existence would be super interesting, but Tojo’s explanation… wasn’t.
I watched the Vampire Bund back when I didn’t really care about voice acting, so I wouldn’t have noticed back then. Hell, I didn’t even take note of who Ito until I watched Amagami SS and XXXHolic beside each other, noted that Himawari and Haruka’s voices were similar, and then looked it up. Fun fact: she also voices the only anime character to share something similar to my real life name.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I’m sad that the lady with the :3 face died so quickly as well, but not too sad since we never saw too much of her. However, there are plenty of awesome females to make up for her death. Plenty!
Koko’s behaviour was a bit odd…Kasper seemed to act a lot more like Koko than Koko herself! It was almost like he replaced her and took the spotlight this week. I guess after losing R she’s still a bit shaken.
This was a bit of a boring episode (omg that long explanation killed me as much as it did Jonah) but the action towards the end managed to wake me up a bit. Kasper is pretty damn cool…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Maybe they were trying to make a point. Hex was knocked out of the cast pretty easily, but look at all of the other unique looking female characters we can kill without blinking! It’s probably because she was had the special :3 face that I was surprised she died so easily. Normally it’s the plain people who die that quickly.
Oh, that might be it too. Koko already lost one guy on her side, I don’t think Kasper dying would help her in any sort of way. He’s probably closer to her than R was as well, so it would most likely be even worse.
I think that explanation killed us all. Though hopefully with that out of the way, we never have to go through with that again. Ever.