Jormungand: The Complete First Season

The heroine of this manga-derived, non-sci-fi battle-adventure series is Koko Hekmatyar—a last name cleverly borrowed from a notorious real-life Afghan warlord. She's a striking, pale young woman—known as the “Little Lady”—who is part of the family-run, international arms-dealing business known as HCLI. Koko purports to be ethical, claiming that HCLI's seeding of world trouble-spots with high-quality weapons actually increases the peace (she and her crew also routinely kill the worst-behaved militia leaders, customers, and rivals). A fresh recruit to Koko's loyal team of mercenaries is Jonah, an orphaned boy soldier who hates firearms yet is a prodigy as a sniper/gunfighter. Thanks to his skills, Jonah is hired as Koko's bodyguard and becomes her surrogate little brother. The English-dub version name-checks Quentin Tarantino, which seems appropriate for the overall vibe and characterizations of this series that also features lengthy philosophizing about gun-runner morality (as well as female nudity and some R-level language—although the violence and bloodshed are mostly stylized). Presenting all 12 episodes from the 2012 first season in a dual-language Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, rated TV-MA, extras include a lighthearted discussion with American voice director Christopher Bevins about the English-dub casting process. Recommended. [Note: Jormungand: The Complete Second Season is also newly available.] (C. Cassady)