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「ムジカ・エクス・マキーナ Phase.2」 (Mujika Ekusu Makina Phase.2)
“Musica Ex Machina Phase.2”
At this point, everyone knows how much I love this series overall. As such, it’s probably no surprise that my expectations were extremely high when I saw that we were about to get the first multi-part arc of the series. I mean, when you can create such greatness with stand-alone episodes, how much better could it if given multiple episodes to flesh out a particular development/plotline? Yet even with those high expectations, the conclusion of the Orchestra arc still blows me away. In fact, this was probably the best episode of the series, and maybe even one of the best episodes of any series this season. Considering the quality of the previous episodes and the other series overall, that’s some high praise, and in my opinion, rightfully so.
Why? Because this episode does everything right. Not only does it continue doing what the series has done well up to this point, but it also complements it with a serious touch that shows us what the series really is about and touches upon potentially controversial topics while it’s at it. In turn, it makes you just take a moment and think about the topics discussed, though there’s enough here to make the episode enjoyable without needing to ponder about it.
Personally though, I couldn’t help but ponder when given so much statistics and quotes such as “Modern day saints carry assault rifles and spread the word of God with their bullets.” For one, it got me thinking about how fortunate I am to be living in an area free from things such as arms dealing, everyday gun violence, and organizations that employ child soldiers. At the same time, it makes me realize the flip side of the equation, how there are still some regions in the world that have such aspects—places where radically different views apply and situations occur daily that we can barely fathom. It also makes me realize that there are gun related incidents in the news all the time, and most of them are due to guns owned by civilians. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to go into pro-gun or gun control philosophies or anything. Rather, they’re merely examples to support my original point that the series makes you think, and also to point out that Jormungand is heavily rooted in reality, an aspect that makes the series even more praise worthy. Personally, I feel that too few anime root themselves in reality to such a degree and even fewer encroach on topics as controversial as the aforementioned, when so much potential greatness can be obtained by incorporating these aspects.
On a side note, I can’t help but feel that the original writer is using Koko’s character to put out some of his own views. Sure, the sheer amount of statistics could purely be additional research to ensure the realism of the series, but combined with the powerful quotes and the fact that he could’ve easily just made some statistics up rather than use ones with some factual basis makes me feel like there’s more to it than that. I could be completely wrong, but I’m putting this out here to see if it’s just me, or if there are other people out there that feel the same way too.
Moving on, you’ll probably remember me saying how Jormungand has been a good example of great directing and writing. To say the least, this episode further emphasizes that fact, as many scenes have an impact (or more of an impact) solely because of prior developments. Without proper planning and specific placement of certain scenes, this is one thing that would not have been possible, and this episode would’ve had much less impact as a result. For instance, the gag about Chinatsu and her underwear. It’s funny whether or not we heard the gag before, but it’s definitely funnier because it was mentioned last episode. This additional humor prevents the episode from becoming too overly serious, while also making her a memorable character for that aspect. In turn, this her death much harder to bear and makes you feel just a bit of anger at Koko’s group, even though you know they’re the ultimate focus of the story. To top it off with another example, the fact that we see Chinatsu’s past in the beginning makes the death of her master, as well as her comment “You can’t mess up my life, then leave me alone” that much more emotional, whereas it would’ve made no real impact otherwise. Combine this with the fact that Lutz refused to shoot at first and it makes her ultimate demise even more heartrending, as it seemed like she would survive to see another day or even join Koko’s group. Furthermore, words could scarcely describe the feelings I had when this development forced one of the more likable characters of the series, Lehm, to take the final shot.
In the end, I could spend the length of multiple posts to writing out everything I wanted to say about this episode. I’ll stop here this time around, as its getting toward a thousand words at this point, but I have to say that this was a spectacular episode, rife with crazy developments and real life emotional reactions. Perhaps I’ll revisit this post one day in some sort of post-series discussion, but for now, let us join together to bid Chinatsu adieu. We’ve only gotten to know you for two episodes, but even so, the short time felt like eternity.
ED2 Sequence
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ED2: 「白くやわらかな花」 (Shiroku Yawarakana Hana) by やなぎなぎ (Yanagi Nagi)
Watch the 2nd ED!: Streaming ▼
Preview
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Best Show of the Season.
Runner Up is Eureka 7 AO.
NO
YES
YES YES YES indeed jorm is one of best of season besides her name is koko she is loco i said oh no.
give s2 later this year.
Yeah it is actually. just checked 5 mins ago
I think both Fate/Zero and Sakamichi no Apollon would dispute that.
I checked those too…
My decision is FINAL!
🙂
What have you been watching?
NO.
I can’t believe the first thing Koko said after Chinatsu runs away is, “Why she is wearing no pants?”
I was like, wow, after all that life/death gun shots and the 1st thing you are more worry about is her pants? Gee Koko…..I’m ….I do not know…..O_o.
I am glad we got some other emotions from her as well, fear, may be? When she walk out from the police station, I think her eyes show fear when endless words of hate were overwhelm her. Image how much hate she has/will receive and endure at such a early age through her line of work, and continue do so…….I still do not know how she does it to keep a confident smile plastered on her face so often…….well, almost all the time.
Needless to say, she is a STRONG lady.
It is really interesting to see her POV on weapons and human who use them, and how she view the world through her work…….I learn a lot from her than from my teachers, ok may be that’s a little exaggerate, but still…..
Lolz “Modern-day Saints carry assault riffles and spread the word of God with their bullets.”
She can offer sniper training she says, damn right her snipers are top class!
Also, her “father” keeps popping out/mentioned, I hope we can get more (more than ~2pg in the manga)of her childhood/background soon. I am really curious on how she become/turn out this way………but judging through the preview we will see Johan’s past…
Her name is Koko, she is loco, I said “Oh no!”~ XD
AMEN!
*does his best Alexander Anderson impression*
I fully expected her to say that after Chinatsu did her aerial cartwheel. I mean…it was exactly what I was thinking too…
Does that make me loco?
loving the first picture in the full lengths section!
I don’t recall caring about the bad guys as much as this episode made me.
If there’s a good way to handle these dark subjects, this series is doing a
good job of it.
Zephyr, did you get the real point of the underwear? On one level, yes I agree
it was humour. But on another level, she committed suicide by wearing them –
she knew she would not hit her target if she wore them. She wanted to die to
be with her love (master). That’s what I read into it; that made her death all
the more powerful. She was overcome with grief of the loss of her companion,
not anger as on the surface it appeared. This is excellent writing that conveys an
emotional idea on multiple levels of understanding.
I wont say this is the best show this season. In its league – definitely; and there are
other excellent in their genre series running now. But it would be difficult for me to imagine
a series in this genre this topping this. I hope it continues as strong as it has!
Ah yes, there was that aspect too. I remember thinking that earlier, but it seems to have eluded me sometime along writing the post. -_- Good catch though. High five* 😀
I thought the point of why she wore underwear that time was that part of her master plan to kill Koko was to have another gun concealed using her pantsu since she probably thought she won’t be able to use her “decoy” gun. And its not that she can’t hit her targets when she wore them its just she had better accuracy.
Violence is violence. It does not matter if someone dies by gun or by knife or rock or bare hands. Murder is murder. I do not blame tools for the sins of their users. Koko is an interesting character. I think she also knows that every law you’ve ever known, even the most minor and trifling, is backed by the threat of eventual violence and death.
Wow another good episode. Lots of red blood.
As for the next episode Show Spoiler ▼
There was a split second where I was glad Lehm only shot the gun from Chinatsu’s hand.
Then, the next second…I really thought she would have been a good character to keep around.
I also wanted Chinatsu to hang around, but Lehm does raise a good point. That, and Koko offered Chinatsu a way out, but
crazyPanty-chan refused 🙁I have a feeling you and Enzo will get along well seeing as how lively and passionate your posts are and both quoted the same sentence in the episode.
Though the lack of relating some content of the posts to particular scenes/screenshots of the episode makes it a bit plain to read. Just my 2cents.
This episode finally caught my full attention for the show. Before I enjoyed the happenings in an episode but was left with an empty feeling. These past two episodes had something to it; a connection to the characters, whether it’s the main, the support or the enemies, and some insight in the reality and lives they’re living in.
The gunfights are still something that bothers me and could use some work but it’s still cool.
Looking forward to the next episode.
Ah yeah, I apologize for that. I usually do have quite the link between the post and the screen shots, but had to split my post and my screen shots this time because I wanted to get the post out within a reasonable time span eh. I have a final tomorrow and otherwise wouldn’t have gotten the post out for like another 24-48 hours, so I figured it was slightly better to get this out now without the link, rather than have it swamped on Thurs/Fri when the majority of other weekly shows are out. O_o
But! Finals are over by next Wed, so things should be back to normal (meaning closer to what you’ve seen in my previous posts in terms of relating the post to screen shots) starting next episode eh. 😀
Also, yeah I’ve talked to Enzo a few times, and we tend to share quite a bit of similarity in terms of the shows we like and our views on anime in general actually. 😀 In fact, most of the shows we wanted to cover this season were exactly the same, haha.
This is indeed the case – we had pretty much the same shopping list, and losing Jormungand gutted me…
As a manga reader this was my favorite ep so far, because I felt (as with the manga) it was really the first time Jormungand gave observant readers (viewers) a look at what the series is really all about.
How about you, Zephyr. Sorry if I missed it, but did you also read the manga?
@Enzo – I’ll swap ya Jormungand one week for Eureka Seven. XD
@Boingman – Nope. I was tempted, but figured I’d see how the anime did things before picking it up at a later time. 😀
Z – interesting, but no. If you want, you can double-blog E7 and I’ll double-blog Jormungand for a week – give the RC fanbase something really confusing to chew on…
LMAO, that’s actually an interesting idea. :O
I’m game if you are.
@Enzo and Zephyr
Two different points of view; that should be interesting- you guys should totally do it. The ironic thing is that as much as it would highlight your similar tastes in anime, I suspect that it would also highlight your differences; more likely than not the way the both of you perceive things are very different; therefore, your impressions for the same thing should be similarly dissimilar- two different perspectives; if that isn’t quality food for thought, I don’t know what is…
OH MY GOSH YES DO THAT. I would love to see two bloggers give their views on the same series. THat’d be something really interesting to mull over.
Guess we’ll have to pass this on to Divine then eh? 😀
@Enzo and Zephyr
If you decide to do it and Divine allows it, you guys should post your impressions for both shows in the same article/blog entry- it’s probably better for stimulating discussion when you have both opinions side by side and readily available to compare…
This will be really easy for Enzo since he already blogs Jormungand on his own site. He can just copy and paste his post into your own. It’s you Zephyr who’ll have to do additional posts.
If you guys want to do this, I don’t really mind. I would just recommend making a clear separator in the post to signify where one person’s impressions end and the other person’s begins.
Z, shoot me an email and we’ll talk about it – maybe next week we can do it as a one-shot. I agree, it should be contained in a single post – no point in two sets of caps, etc.
@Zephyr
Ah no I apologize if I sounded rude. I was kinda used to posts in RC being like that and just noticed this in your post. And I understand that you have your reasons. Again I do apologize.
And I like the idea that two bloggers will give their view for the episode. One an anime only viewer and a manga reader. It would be nice to see how each person will view the same thing.
I’m game for it. If this works, it could open up to some writers doing this in the future. That is, if the writers are up for it and have the time.
In any case, I’m looking forward to the Jormungand post next time. More so that the next episode seems to focus on Jonah.
Oh no no, it wasn’t rude at all. My reply was more of a, yeah, I know what you’re talking about and I felt like I should apologize for not being able to do my norm this week eh. 😀 No biggie.
For this episode ending
Title: 白くやわらかな花, by Nagi Yanagi (same singer as original ED)
Beautiful ending, suits perfectly with Orchestra and Chinatsu.
Ah, thanks a lot! Will update post with it now. ^^
nagi yanagi’s the best
OMG !!! she actually did wear a PANTY !!!!!! SO DISAPPOINT @#%$@
the short time felt like eternity
but that eternity felt all too short. Chinatsu was such a badass character.
Koko gets more Loko each episode
The higher concentration without pantsu was funny
why did chinatsu had to die!
She was too solid a character for her own good.
Suddenly turning from someone with nothing but revenge on their mind who swore to kill everyone to “oh, I’ll join your team we’ll all be friends now!” would have cheapened her.
Jonah’s increasing devotion to Koko is really touching. Showing up at the police station, hiding on the roof as backup. It was my take on the roof that no one knew he was there, as the plan had been for a sniper attack.
Big question: did he hear Koko’s answer? How will that affect Jonah?
I do not think he heard her, because 1) the distance is far b/w him and her 2) there’s wind blow by 3) Koko seems to spoke in a volume that only she and Chinatsu can hear.
After being hooked with this series since the beginning, why do I have a feeling that the end result of this is Koko dying? I have a theory that Jonah really is just a hired thug whose mission is to kill Koko but then Koko, being a crazy, scary bitch, anticipated this and thus the two are playing a game where Jonah reaches his limit and kills Koko or Koko gets Jonah to turn to the “dark side” aka into her team. Don’t you think so?
No one wondering why Orchestra dude has only one bullet wound when he was shot twice? And for that matter, why snipers need to shoot twice to kill?
I’ll stop here for now.
First bullet was probably to immobilize the target. Second is to kill. As well the reason you think he got shot twice (assuming you don’t mean the heart shot and then the headshot) was because the bullet moves faster then the sound thus making it seem like 2 shots when it was just 1.
I understand that immobilizing that target may have been the objective of the first shot, but it doesn’t answer my first question: why does he only have one bullet wound? Take a look at that particular scene and you’ll know what I’m talking about. There’s blood on his head, but not where he was shot in the chest. Just to add, snipers are supposed to eliminate targets with a single shot. It would have been a more professional job if he had shot the dude in the head and taken him out.
And yes, I was referring to the shot to the chest and the shot to the head as 2 shots.
Something else I’d like to ask: Is it possible for a head to so clean and intact after a shot using a sniper rifle system? I would assume that there should have been enough blood and brains littered all over the ground for the animators to censor out after those 2 shots.
first shot, to the chest, was to incapacitate target – to make it unable to fight, second shot, the head shot was to make sure he stays down. even snipers at 900m cant achieve 100% head shot, so therefore the procedure.
A sharpshooter aim for the triangle, it include the head neck and upper torso. A lapua magnum has velocity of 3000ft/s 250 grains. It is more than enough to introduce hyperstatic shock to the target. If you shoot a deer at 600 meters torso with scenar hollowpoint it drop like a sack of potatos. No need to aim for the head, at 900 meter with crosswind and 1-2 sec latency you can miss the head if the target move a inch.
After last episode I finally decided to start reading the manga, and Wow the quality! Storytelling is much more fluid than in anime, and the humour doesn’t sound nearly as inappropriate.
I strongly recommend you all to read the manga. It’s much better.
Boom Headshot O_o
Excellent action scenes, great story, great architecture….but I still can’t get used to their faces. The faces in this show are drawn as if the characters’ facial muscles are paralyzed or something. So stiff and unnatural, and they look more weird [and down right creepy] when the characters grin (which they do all the time – like the opening)
(And seriously, why did that orchestra guy had a mouth full of shark teeth? – it just takes away the sense of reality away)
Also, don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying Jormungand. It’s just the faces….
Really hated the fight scenes. Last episode was especially terrible when the Orchestra guy can hit the 2 cops on the roof so easily while missing the kid out in the open completely. Talk about overpoweredness…… Reminds me of Requiem for the Phantom
I seriously tried to hold back a tear when Chinatsu died. I was hoping she’d stick around since I enjoyed her character so much. Not as a new teammate but some assassin who keeps trying to kill Koko. It seemed like Chinatsu was the first to instill some kind of fear into Koko. Either that or she froze from excitement (she’s apparently a “monster” after all).
That was quite a good finale for the arc. It was very well executed and literally ended with a bang. While the action scenes were nice, what really stood out for me were the characters. As always, Koko is at the center, and she appears to get even more enigmatic yet loveable at the same time. However, this episode, Chinatsu really takes the center spotlight, with me as a viewer actually feeling some sympathy despite her being one of the antagonists. I think it shows that the original source material is indeed well crafted, especially if it can elicit such an emotion out of the audience. Good stuff.
Much better episode, however I still wish this show made “more sense” at times. Do you have any idea how slow a car would be moving in order “block” two people running alongside it? And then these people who are all amazing marksmen are failing to hit their target? I feel like i just watched a seven eleven robbery where the clerk and robber unload entire clips at each other and fail to hit anything.
I need to just accept this shows flaws and move along, they are rather small but it really does detract from the action scenes. I suppose they could have just been running “ninja” fast.
well the Orchestra performance is over.
yea give quick showing how it was made when shark mouth go shooting on a theatre concert with all bullets blast & cross kiss oh snap indeed & also how we got chinatsu.
more shooting then boom heart & head blast bye shark teeth yet chinatsu escape give bit WHAT she was wearing no pantsu.
then here come the scarecrow who give johan this is sparta kick then go blah whatever then punch koko oh boy (yea you just sign your own grave indeed koko & crew so bury the scarecrow).
then after koko is out from police have some “fun talk” with johan then days later chinatsu’s revenge.
but busted then ask why no pantsu cause chinatsu shoot better then ask koko why she sells weapons the answer “it’s all in the quiet wind” then sneak but bang & last thing chinatsu see is a “monster koko”.
now Orchestra is done but now here come cia with scarecrow.
Orchestra fell silent.
RIP Chinatsu, you were cute pantless assassin. You were pretty much Stockholm syndrome victim.
Snipers are one of most tactically effective uses of firearms. Just ask Balalaika.
But M-2 does deserve a mention – nothing wrecks a car like 50 cal. (How did everyone inside go off without a scratch?)
Koko must have some mighty influence in the local police. Most of the police forces in the world would have her locked up for 20 years minimum, corporation status or not.
Why is Scarecrow after Koko? I feel we haven’t seen last of him.
Just in case you did not notice, the local police aid her because her dad did a favor for them. As fro Mr. Scarecrow, he needs more money, it states clearly in the anime.
Yes, you are right, he will appear later and later in the anime, this is not the end of him, even if he is a CIA.
I’m enjoying Jormungand very much. Though, for me, I can’t call it the best show of the season when there is no single other show that can make an apple-to-apple comparison with Jormungard (everyone is good in its own way).
Still, I prefer to read for an author who is so much into his/her show than for one who occasionally slams what he covers. So I’m enjoying reading your coverage, as I get to have a different positive re-view of what I watched (call it new insight).
P.S. I find it strange that some quite popular shows this season are covered 3-5 days late. While I’m into these shows (and some show had much progression this week), I don’t read their coverage provided that I cooled off after few days (remind me, what happened in last episode of XX). It’s easier to criticize, but I’m sure there are always others willing to cover if the author is not interested enough (or just too busy).
Creating a character so interesting is hard. Killing Chinatsu in 2 episodes was EVIL I feel cheated. Yes I want to see more of her. Some call her antagonist I call her a business challenge. For shipping purposes it could have been great to have her join the group. However upon further analisys keeping her on Koko’s tail for a few more eps and maybe even joining forces to get rid of the new evil (read law enforcement CIA) Scarecrow guy. I just can’t agree with this!!!!!!
Trying the watch next episode will be really hard I just want to kick the computer and the author. Bottom line? Striring such strong emotions that even with all the hate I have rigth now, I must concede that this is excellent writing/stoty telling.
.338 Lapua Magnum is enough to cause fatal death not pop your brains you think that is a .50 cal ammo?
Brugger and Thomet APR Lapua magnum shoot a 250 grain bullet at 3000 ft/s up to 1500 meters. 900 meter is cake for this rifle, with propper ballistic calculator and spotting scope. At 900 meter, there are a few second latency, it would be impossible for the bullet to hit immediately unless the bullet move at the speed of light. In reality orchestra would come out of cover start firing, then thud bullet penetrating torso followed by crackle of the bullet being fired. Sound velocity is 1117 ft/s less than half the speed of the bullet.
900 meter is 2952 feet so latency is between 1 to 2 second given rate of deceleration from muzzle velocity.
Hmmm. I wonder who would win? The GITS team or Koko’s team?
GITS, and it wouldn’t be close.
Somewhat unfair fight, cuz on one side you got modern 21st century tech and on the other you got self-conscious androids and cyborgs with 25th century post-cyberpunk tech.
I rarely rate a series before it ends but after this episode, I can safely give full points for this show. It is simply perfect. (just like the OP)
Poor Jonah, If only he’d been good at math he could have retorted ‘ The peaceful people are the OTHER nine civillians you psycho woman!!!’ and he would have won the discussion.
Ohwell
🙂
So Orchestra is done with?
Thought Chinatsu might get stronger then come back later on to put up a better fight with a new Orchestra.
So far the series feels rather aimless, like a slice of life for an arms dealer group.
Not saying its bad though 😛
I look forward to listening to ‘Her name is Koko, she is loco, I said “Oh no!”’ every week 😛
I loved how they showed more of Chinatsu and her master and I was glad that they told us why she was not wearing panties but I also wanted to see how she got that hat because she only said that she got it from her master but I wanted to know why he gave her that hat.
I really liked it how they gave the rest of Koko’s team a little more screen time. I somehow really like Lutz. R and Mao are obviously good bodyguards because they really did everything they could to protect Koko during the fire fight between the cars. I was surprised by Ugo’s decision to drive his car against the pole to protect him and his team. To bad that Tojo didn’t got much screen time this week but the person I am most curious about at the moment is Wiley. Untill now he didn’t do as much as the others while everyone else was in the middle of the battle we was only telling Lutz what to do. Thanks to Lutz I am also curious about what happened to Lehm.
Scarecrow was a little bit weird. He was just going around punching, pushing and kicking people while he is a CIA agent. I actually want to more of him and that girl who is with him in the opening.
The last thing I want to know is what Koko said to Chinatsu. I do believe Jonah overheard them because the wind was blowing his way so maybe he overheard little parts of what she said.
I also have a question.
Does the CCAT return or were they just there for one episode?
I hope that they will return because I really liked Mildred and also her fight with Valmet. Lew was not that intresting but Curry was fun to watch since he and Koko didn’t liked each other that much.
Mau-duse can’t be used from inside cab, pressure would blow out all window pane ear drums and detach retinas.
finger outside of trigger guard is nice touch, one of the 10 commendment of firearm safety, it is good they try to pay attention to detail.
Not enough though, and the attention is all in the wrong place. I know they tried to make him look cool, but Lehm’s sniping position was quite unrealistic, don’t you think? And I still can’t shake off the fact that their guns have just about no recoil.
lehm can’t stabilize his recoil from that position, pistol hunter use a position where they are on their back and use their knee as a pistol rest, again hunting pistol has less recoil then a rifle and if lehm uses that position, her should be against a wall for support. The scope should be a acog, elcon or aimpoint for better field of view with an ar platform within 50-400 yards.
typo (canadian elcan not elcon)
Hmm, the reason that Koko sells weapons even though she will probably end up getting killed for it… I find it interesting that she muffled the speaker. Unfortunately for her it seems Jonah heard her.
While it would have been
awesomeinteresting to see Chinatsu join the team and watch her grow like Jonas, the show doesn’t seem to build much on the other members of the team. :/The only real character development has been in the occasional passing remark and vague at that.
Chinatsu receives commando teachings/training from Fudo Zen.
that is not a Brugger and Thomet APR . It’s Blaser R93 Tactical
Its blaser pull bolt action, not APR rotating bolt so your right.
Local store only offer LRS 1, LRS2 which is featured in the series isn’t offered for sale here yet.
There’s a lil beauty and psycho
wth >:( i picked up this episode because of this screenshot
https://randomc.net/image/Jormungand/Jormungand%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
.. now im sad 🙁
picked up this series*
Apologies. But I know you’re not the only one to be sad at this development. :/
I’d like to note that the Japanese public and animators have a very weird view of the CIA. At the very least, they’d never hire someone as conspicuous and impatient as him.