Jormungand is a Japanese manga that received an animated adaptation in 2012. It is centered on an arms dealer named Koko Hekmatyar, who sells a wide range of weapons to a wide range of clients while using an international corporation to cover up her very illegal operations. Both the manga series and anime series are complete, meaning that interested individuals are not at-risk of having to wait for the series to finish up. Here are 10 things that you may or may not have known about Jormungand:
1. The Name Refers to a Mythical Monster
Jormungand is the name of a monster from Norse mythology. In short, Jormungand was a huge serpent capable of encircling the human world, who was one of the three children of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. Come Ragnarok, Jormungand is prophesied to fall in combat against Thor, who will stumble nine steps before succumbing to the serpent’s venom.
2. By Keitarou Takahashi
The manga artist is Keitarou Takahashi. Jormungand isn’t the sole series that he has published, but so far, it is the best-known of those. Currently, Takahashi is making a series called The Poor, The Holy Ark, and the Rich, which started up in 2017 in the same magazine as Jormungand.
3. Seinen
Jormungand is aimed at a seinen audience. Technically, this means young adult men, but in practice, this can mean people ranging from their 20s to their 50s. Generally speaking, a good way of determining whether a manga is seinen or not is looking at the demographic of the magazine in which it is published.
4. The Main Character Is Koko Hekmatyar
The main character of Jormungand is a woman named Koko Hekmatyar. In short, she is an arms dealer working for what amounts to a mega corporation, which is run by her father Floyd Hekmaytar. Koko has her positive characteristics, but it is no exaggeration to say that she has something of a messianic complex.
5. Sometimes Called a Byronic Heroine
There are those who have called Koko a Byronic heroine, which refers to the English poet Lord Byron. For those who are unfamiliar, Byronic heroes tend to be smart, sophisticated individuals who are nonetheless socially isolated, not least because they are very much at odds with the status quo that exists around them.
6. Seeks World Peace
Koko seeks world peace. Considering her choice of profession, it should come as no surprise to learn that her method for ensuring world peace is rather dubious. In fact, there are those who would call it outright stupid.
7. Jormungand Refers to the Jormungand System
The title refers to the Jormungand system, which consists of a supercomputer plus an entire system of satellites that have been set up by Koko’s mega corporation. Koko intends to make use of the Jormungand system to take control of the world’s computers so that she can impose peace from above.
8. Koko Plans to Start By Disable Air Travel
Koko intends to start by disabling both civilian and military aircraft. Even accepting the core conceit that the Jormungand system is capable of something so nonsensical, the lack of aircraft has never stopped humans from making war on one another, as shown by the conflicts that occurred before the invention of aircraft.
9. Koko’s Plan Starts with Killing 700,000 People
Furthermore, Koko intends to use the Jormungand system without giving warning, meaning that she intends to disrupt the operations of numerous aircraft while they are in flight. The series outright states that this will kill 700,000 people, which says a lot about Koko’s character.
10. Jormungand’s Ending Flopped
Jormungand’s ending seems to have been an attempt to question the prices that people are willing to pay for desirable outcomes, which is an interesting question that will remain very relevant for the foreseeable future. However, it flopped because there was no way that Koko’s plan could’ve resulted in either world peace or even a reduction in the number of conflicts, meaning that its setup is wholly nonsensical. For that matter, it should be noted that the usage of the Jormungand system would’ve had catastrophic effects on a number of critical industries, without which modern societies can’t exist as they are. Even assuming that most governments manage to survive such a catastrophic series of disruptions, the sheer extent of the change would mean horrific consequences far beyond the initial 700,000 casualties. For example, imagine what would happen to small towns in remote locations that are reliant on planes to supply them, which would be the least of these potential problems.
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