Jormungand Review: Can Arms Trade Lead to World Peace? – bonutzuu’s manga archive

An ex-child soldier that absolutely hates weapons was recruited to be the bodyguard of an arms dealer who has the goal of disarming the entire world. The story follows Koko Hekmatyar and her group of bodyguards as they travel the world selling weapons – and funding her project for world peace.

why does the thai version need to have that red bar… it doesn’t look very pretty lol

Jormungand features political conflicts, arms-dealing, intelligence warfare, and a lot of character drama. Each volume focuses on a different member of Koko’s crew, looking at their goals and what lead them to join her team along with the contributions they make. My favorite part is the strange relationship Koko has with Jonah. Jonah is Koko’s moral restraint; he is a reminder of what she might become. To Jonah, I’m not sure what Koko is to him, but he has a deep bond with her and her crew. And it’s this bond that hurts. Most of the time, it’s just fun to look at Koko fawning all over Jonah and Jonah making his signature triangle mouth face.

Jonah also has some pretty fun interactions with the rest of the team, most of it involving him running away from his math and science classes.

Although Koko’s team may seem invincible, Jormungand has a lot of suspense and twists and turns which keeps the story going, and the biggest mystery is what exactly Koko’s ‘project’ is. Even after the reveal, it was still super interesting to see what she would do with it. Although her goals are good, her methods aren’t exactly white, and so Koko’s dilemma under her smiley face is an interesting part of her character.

Also, this is just for the Thai version, but the speech style Koko uses with Jonah in the translation is soooo intimate. She calls herself P’ (pronoun for an older person in general) which is like calling herself big sis, and she refers to Jonah as ‘Nong Jonah’ which is like ‘little (bro) Jonah’ or ‘young Jonah’.

Overall, I enjoyed Jormungand a lot. The characters know and embrace that they are evil, but for a good cause, and their interactions within the team and the team’s clashes with people of different ideals were interesting to read. It’s a mix of military, mafia, and intelligence stories lol.

*spoilers* One thing I must say is that the ending was quite abrupt. I thought I’d see Koko bring the whole world down, but leaving it open-ended it really nice as well. *end spoilers*