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「ウォーモンガー」 (Uo Monga)
“Warmonger”
Continuing off from last week’s major cliffhanger,Jonah’s ultimately decides to run away—unwilling to accept Koko’s method of achieving world peace, but also unable to explain why. Looking in hindsight, it’s not particularly surprising this separation was coming—though it didn’t make the scene that much less emotional. In the end, the fact of the matter is that despite their similarities in terms of how much both Koko and Jonah hate weapons and war, it doesn’t change the fact that they both have fundamentally different views on what to do with the world. On one hand we have Koko, who believes sacrifices are necessary and is willing to commit them if it means changing the world. On the other hand we have Jonah, who despite hating various aspects of the world, still feels that there are parts of the world worth preserving and that lives in general are precious. One represents the view of an adult—one disillusioned by years of knowing nothing but wars and battlefields, a view of jaded pessimism mixed in with the ultimate of idealism. The other a view of a child who has still managed to maintain his youthful “innocence” and optimism in humanity. Inevitably, this makes you wonder: which side would you choose? Is there a correct choice?
And like every series that does moral dilemmas and philosophical matters correctly (Zetsuen no Tempest comes to mind)—the answer is: who you choose will depend on who you are. There is no right choice. Because if you think in the viewpoint that war will be inevitable, then 700,000 lives really is a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions that would die. At the same time, how can you know for sure there will be one? Can’t you try to take other proactive methods to try and prevent that? Or do you use what’s available now (the Jormungand system) and try to change the world while you have the ability to? Do you believe it’s one’s responsibility to use one’s potential to its maximum as Koko is doing? Or do you trust that someone else can carry on in your stead? There’s just so much here to discuss and phew* It’s a testament to how much this series has managed to develop in the background while luring us in with hollywood-isque action scenes.
Moving onward, perhaps the best part of this episode was that the aforementioned wasn’t even the only highlight this week either. Yup. I’m referring to the sequence of events where Bookman gets trolled (for lack of a better term)—BIG TIME. I mean wow. The guy spent so much time developing Operation Undershaft in an attempt to use Koko and her Hek-GG system, but as it turns out, Koko ends up being the one deeming Bookman useful and even rubbing it in his face by intentionally giving the Marine rescue operation responsible for saving him the same namesake. Not only that, but she manages to paint Mr. Plame as the mastermind behind “an assassination attempt” on Bookman, and well.. it was just spectacularly done and hilarious to boot.
Sadly though, as the age old adage goes: all good things must come to an end. The coming of next week brings us finale (SO FAST!) of Jormungand and it’s just gonna be a darn shame to see such a great series end. To say the least, it’s been a darn enjoyable ride and Jormungand in general (at least I feel), has been one of the best series of the year. I am slightly worried about how all the respective threads will work out in one episode (Kasper and Jonah for instance)… but if they do it right (and I have every confidence they will)… it could be one of the best finales of the year too.
Full-length images: 03, 04, 05, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 29, 31, 35.
Author’s Note: Just want to express my gratitude to Guardian Enzo for covering last week, as well as BakaMochi for providing this week’s caps! Thanks again! (:D).
Preview
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Is the next ep going to be the last episode ? And does anyone know why they took some time to sub this episode ?
Funimation airs Jormungand on a delay (Thurs night-ish EST). Chances are some issues cropped up in between that caused it to come out even longer (upload to server issues perhaps). Happens occasionally (rare for Jormungand, but happens a lot overall).
As for “other sources,” you can find the reasons for them on their respective sites. 😛
And yes, next week should be last episode.
Ughhh its ending, ITS ENDING! Havent seen some good gun action since Black Lagoon.
I’m just so confused as to why nobody is subbing this episode, it’s been out for days, is it DMCA doing?
just check, and it finally is, derp
still weird how RAW was up for 2 days without anyone touching it.
See above reply to first comment.
so koko even more why she doing this plan cause of dislike of war, killing, etc want to change it all give doing for the reasons it cause johan to swim away from koko.
yet after swim here kasper little talk with johan with more wonder to asking for answer so johan hang around with kasper.
& koko let show here plan having bookman witness it all being like a test subject that koko’s plan is about having bookman meet rebel then rescue by marines & seeing it happen so amaze indeed bookman is also a koko’s person.
1ep left to see how it all plan.
Jormungand seems to be subbed by gg, in their website there was a post about the sub is going to be delayed till friday or saturday it seems now
You’ll be miss long hair Koko and Kasper’s chief guard has some nerve saying Koko smiles all the time. She’s always got that creepy grin going.
Koko, the female anime character of the year.
A shame that this series isn’t long enough to see this whole plan work out at length.
But it’s kind of doomed from start anyway…
Restricting air travel to bring about world peace may sound far fetched, but it still is much more realistic than putting the world under a damn big illusion with the help of the moon and some demon with ten tails.
I wasn’t aware we were expecting a show about magical ninjas to be realistic.
Kasper sure has a good radar when it comes to picking people up, doesn’t he? Both with Tojo and Jonah. (And we finally learned the names of the rest of Kasper’s team! Poor side characters.)
I also liked how Koko’s team was discussing about her plans and how each of them had their own reasons to support her. They really are such a great team, but I couldn’t help but think that Wiley was a little disappointed that he won’t be able to blow things up anymore. Maybe he’ll become a demolitionist when this is all over? XD
As with all good series, I really want to see the finale but really don’t want it to end either at the same time! >_<
Can't wait until next week!
Guess when you think about it, the arrangements made with the scene between Koko and Jonab does have some impact in Jonah’s refusal to take Koko down.
I really liked the way they resolved the scene from the previous episode (Jonah pointing his gun at Koko in refusal of her plan), it was kinda surprising to find out that Koko is actually so similar to Jonah (she hates war, weapons and arms-dealing) as we were led to believe she was doing what she was doing “because” of her feelings towards Jonah, turns out that she picked him up in the first place because he is like her, and that she was working on her plan even before she met him .. the part where she tried to find some reason/logic regarding the people she who were killed by her weapons was pretty interesting because it showed how she was trying to “cope” with the hefty consequences of her actions.
That also explains why having 700,000 die for the final stage of her plan to work isn’t a big deal from her point of view since tens of thousands have already been killed by the weapons she sold to get the money to start her plan (probably something the Jonah didn’t give much thought about given his age, at least she was trying to get that point into his head, but he felt it was too much for him to think about and decided to withdraw for now, which was quite a realistic reaction given the circumstances).
Now i wonder how Kasper will react when he finds out his sister’s plan, and what decision will Jonah make (note that Lutz still seems to be on the fence when it comes to accepting Koko’s plan, he was going to say something but he backed off after Valmet interrupted him so i can still see him doing something about Koko’s plan later if he gets the chance in the final episode).
OK, Bookman you have been UNDERSHAFTED. You’re pro though and accept it in order to gain fromthe new world Koko is planning.
As much as I like Koko’s godlike information tech powers, she has nothing on those not using EM spectrum, or using methods not relying on computers. She is ready to take on the entire world, but she is woefully, woefully unaware of the scale of opposition she will face – not to mention she might inadverently start the very war she was predicting – only this will be the war over control over Jormungand. She created the master prize for all current and wannabe empires!
As for the Jonah’s escape, he simply knows there are things that you can’t do even if they promise (falsely) utopia. He doesnt have the philosophical attitude to discuss with Koko, but the gut feeling of right vs wrong.
The rest of the crew generally goeas along with Koko’s plans. Only ones I can see potentially rebelling are Lutz (remember, as ex-cop he is always on the lawful good side of the things), and possibly Lehm who doesnt say anything but seems to be deeply pondering the situation – and he seemingly is aware that nothing they say or do can change the course of Koko’s actions now.
Oh and btw now it is crystal clear how exactly did Koko manage to get her revenge for R’s life via B-52!
Bookman getting trolled was the best thing ever.
“There is no right or wrong.”
Pfft. NO ONE has the right to singlehandedly decide to take the life of 700,000 people, regardless of the reason. Koko is deciding how people should live their lives. She’s just pushing her own values upon the world, and it is for that reason that she is simply WRONG.
Except that this happened several times in history, the two nukes dropped on Japan took the lives of at least 30,000 of innocent people in a flash of light … and it was excused as “it was necessary evil to end the second world war and save millions of lives”, that’s the exact same logic Koko is using (especially claiming her plan will prevent WW3) .. her plan is just on a larger scale, there are many other similar examples of “necessary evil” in human history but the nukings of Japan where the most recent (and that doesn’t mean i support that necessary evil is a valid excuse).
But she’s still gonna lose and/or make things worse, especially by making her system the must-have gift for any general this holiday season. So she’s pretty much the unnecessary evil.
And yes, her motivations are understandable because characters who make these kinds of plans always are. Anyone would want to end all conflict forever somehow. The problem is that characters that force this desire and their chosen (usually crazy) methods onto the rest of the world like Koko, Charles Britannia, Madara, Seele, and the like have done, they end up losing because world peace is a path that mankind has to choose for itself.
@Da5id
I don’t think she intends to share it with anyone (general or government or whatever), yeah they might try to get their hands on it but she seems to have taken precautions not only to shrink the Quantum PC into an easy to hide size but also to make sure it works even after she dies.
Also .. about “world peace is a path that mankind has to choose for itself” .. while that’s theoretically true and morally correct it isn’t always the case, carrying over from the nukes example, see what the USA did, they forced world peace through use of overwhelming force and killing tens of thousands of civilians in an instant, and it worked, sure it is far more subtle than the larger-than-life methods used in anime stories but again like i said, the American government back then forced peace, ended the war and eventually became the most influential military and economic force in the world .. it’s just more subtle than what’s Koko planning.
Also the other example from anime i mentioned before in Rahxephon Show Spoiler ▼
——————————————–
Sure Koko’s plan could backfire, fail or make things worse, but IMO it could also work, that’s why the wait for the final episode of Jormungand will be a grueling one XD
I’m not sure the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a very apt example, seeing as that wasn’t forcing world peace, it was about forcing one country to surrender because they might or might not have kept attacking the US without a serious kick in the balls. There’s also the fact that no wars in history have ever been simply about ending all conflict on the planet, and more about either 1) taking land and the political, geographical, and economical resources within that land OR 2) defending your country from another which would be attacking you for the first reason. The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the second, as a Japan had attacked them first at Pearl Harbor. It’s not the same as declaring war ON war itself.
What Koko’s doing isn’t about ending one single conflict to preserve peace, it’s about her childish ideals and not wanting anyone to fight ever again at any cost. Forcing world peace and ending one war by forcing one side to cease fighting are different things in both morals and objectives. Even the end of both World Wars didn’t force peace anywhere because there were wars after them for whatever reason, and Koko’s established as a genius so she should know this. As well as the fact that Humanity will always find a reason to go to war and pulling the plug is not going to change that, because if they know she did it, they’re going to fight her. And if they don’t, they’ll keep fighting each other with whatever resources they have. In fact, you could say Instrumentality and the Infinite Tsukiyomi plans are actually more logical because they involve assimilation and brainwashing, respectively, which take away any reason for us to fight. That’s something you’d think Loco Koko would be smart enough to figure that out. But she didn’t and there’s the big crack in her plan.
Also there’s only one episode left and that doesn’t really allow us time to actually see a prolonged effect of this plan (good or bad), so it’s safe to say we’re not going to see it because it’s going to fail. If you think it might succeed, that’s fine, just don’t be surprised when it doesn’t.
And I haven’t seen Rahxephon, so I can’t really tell if that’s a good example or not.
I have to agree with Hunter and Zephyr on this matter. There really isn’t a right or wrong answer when it comes to these things because it would be simply naive and ultra idealistic to believe that only humanity can choose peace for themselves. That’s a fallacy. We’ve been around for thousands of years and we have recorded history from thousands of years as well. After all the many wars and conflicts, we STILL have not “learned” our lesson about the prices we pay each time we engage in large-scale conflicts. Thousands of years! I think it’s safe to say that conflict is in our nature. We have just evolved to the point where the destruction is so much larger than just a misplaced arrow. Resorting to violence in a conflict is human nature and the most basic of primal instincts, self-preservation. You cannot change that that. You can be as educated and morally sound as you want to be, but when it comes down to it, you will save your own skin before you consider the moral ramifications of your actions. Fight or flight responses will always, always kick into gear and you cannot change that.
Also, the notion that someone at some point would have to take matters into their own hands and make the decision for us isn’t unreasonable. We elect other people already to manage our countries and governments. We collectively already don’t make decisions of that scale for ourselves.
The cost for Koko’s plan isn’t unrealistic either. Think about all the great changes that have occurred in the world. When have they ever come free and clean? Never. The largest example is Pearl Harbor and the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan. The US would have joined the fight so much sooner had it not been for our own domestic woes. But we opted to not to get involved. That was until it was brought to our doorstep. Many people died in Pearl Harbor and as a result, we got involved. That changed everything! The US moved and tossed those atomic bombs over at Japan and that also changed everything. There has yet to be another World War because of those two events, sure there are conflicts, but never again on that scale. I’m not saying that it’s morally right. I’m saying that is how the world is. That is how humans are, always have been, and always will be. Things don’t change until there is a loss of life. The civil rights act didn’t pass until both JFK and MLK were assassinated. The unity and peace that Gandhi strove for was not totally actualized until after he was killed. A traffic light on a high-traffic intersection isn’t placed until someone is ran over. These are smaller costs in terms of quantity, but the quality is the same. Human lives are simply usually the cost of massive and widespread change. I think that Koko knows this and that’s why she isn’t entirely phased either by this 700,000 number.
I also think she is pretty smart and isn’t simply taking away the resources. Remember, she has control of the information and who knows what else with that quantum computer. She said it was only the first part of her plan. I don’t know if it will work, but that idea… It’s interesting. All things being constant, I wonder if it could actual work in the real world. It might very well be her plan to have everyone fight her, at least then people aren’t killing innocent people. The world united against a common enemy? Who knows. But this talk of her plan being wrong and unnecessary and people have to choose for themselves… I’m sorry, but that is the truly unrealistic and naive when you think about it. If that were true, people would not still be dying in Gaza and Israel from bombings and troops would’ve never been sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. People have chosen. They’ve chosen themselves.
Except that no one elected Koko to do this. Elections are an example of people choosing something for themselves, not having it forced on them. Democracy is not about relinqueshing your ability to make decisions, it’s about picking the best person for the job of making these decisions. They choose they best person to preserve them. If the world had elected for Koko to try this plan, that’d be a different story, but she’s forcing her equally naive, if not more so, ideals on other people. Ironically, her strive for more conflict will simply cause more. Even if humanity will never choose to stop fighting, my point is that forcing them to stop is not going to stop them either.
And I think you may have misread my position. It may be true that nothing changes certain situations until there is loss of life, but even loss of life is not going to change all things. Humans fighting themselves is one of those things that will never stop no matter how many lives maniacs like Koko sacrifice to prove a point. If this were the case, there wouldn’t be war today. And considering the Cold War had a moment we were nearly thrust into Nuclear Apocalypse (the Cuban Missile Crisis), I’d say that major wars since WW2 have only escalated, especially when it comes to fire power and global impact. As for JFK and MLK, there’s a key difference: THEY WERE MARTYRS. They died fighting for their causes and their sacrifice emboldened people to support it. Koko, however, isn’t sacrificing her own life, but hundreds of thousands of innocent ones, so there is pretty much no comparison.
The US dropped the atom bombs on Japan to stop Japan from continuing a losing battle. Martin Luther King Jr fought against discrimination and segregation of African-Americans and his death and sacrifice gave a second wind to his cause. Koko’s fight is against the concept of war itself. Literally “separating humans from war”. This. Is. Impossible. Period. Her first method is to kill innocent people to show she can and then kill anyone who opposes her, so the only long term way of making her plan work is to literally destroy the world, because only then will there be no war left on Earth. “Well maybe she’s trying to turn the world on her so they don’t fight each other!” Then she will still be making war against herself. War will still exist, it will just be concentrated on her, until they start fighting each other again, which she can’t prevent, therefore her plan is a failure. “Maybe she’s going to sacrifice herself!” Then the moment she’s dead, they’ll go back to fighting each other, therefore her plan is a failure.
Even if she threw mankind back into the stone age, they would simply use sharp stones and their bare hands to fight. Unless she’s planning to blow up the planet and kill everyone, there is no possible way the Jormungand system could ever make world peace.
Might as well give Koko a Death Note <3 Lovely girl.