Full Metal Panic!

First off, I haven't written many reviews on IMDb this way, so if I do, that means the piece I'm writing on is really impactive. Full Metal Panic is to me, more or less, amazing.

The show is a perfect blend of high school romance, slapstick comedy, hard-pressed drama and balls-out action. It follows 17-year-old military sergeant Souske Sagara (pronounced "soh-skey") as he is assigned to protect 17-year-old Japanese high school student/orphan with the body of a goddess, Kaname Chidori (pronounced "kuh-nah-may") from unknown dangers. The dangers become apparent throughout the series as a bad guy with a scar on the side of his face, Guaron (pronounced "Gar-on") hijacks a field trip plane their class is on to kidnap Kaname and use her for mysterious reasons. You soon find out Kaname is part of a secret and extremely rare breed of people known as "The Whispered". Exactly what The Whispered are or who, we find very little out throughout the series. But it leads to some extraordinary events in the show's 24-episode run.

It's almost impossible to compress the series' events in a single review, so I'll just stop right there and let the viewer learn for his or herself. But know that if sounds like a typical weird explosion/sex Anime, you're pretty wrong. Yes, there does seem to be a focus on the guy genre (lots of robot action and hot half-naked babes, etc) but I know plenty of women who enjoy the show as well. And, it's not a "cutesy" Anime that the other half of the population seems to generalize it as. It has plenty of warm-and-fuzzy moments, but it's not what the show is based on.

The show is such a wide mix of emotions, I don't know how it could be done. And all in all, the show hooks any viewer into wanting to know more. The story arcs are excellently put out, the character work, though a little scrappy, is raw and enjoyable, and the dialogue (both original Japanese and the English dub) are very well-written.

I wasn't too big of an Anime person before I started watching this show. Before it I LOVED Miyazaki films (still do) and I thought Ghost in the Shell was a good movie. I caught a few episodes of this show's spin off series, "Full Metal Panic? fumoffu" (which is more romance and comedy, and almost completely different from this series) and thought it was enjoyable. When I bought this series on a whim, I was blown away.

And you will too! Just make sure you watch them from the beginning. You don't want to miss an episode of this legendary Anime series.

Wow, a very funny anime series that has a lot of stuff, action, comedy, romance, drama, a little psychological theme ala Evangelion, but not too much of it, but a bit similar, and the main character who acts a little bit like Heero of Gundam, except crazier! In this one, a secret military organization serving no certain country, with technology and military equipment that years advanced and is ahead of Japan, US and Russia, deals with dangerous situations and rescues people from terrorist attacks, now has to protect someone, a Japanese student who is said to be a "whispered" the ones who have knowledge about secret technology, and is said to be targeted by terrorists, so they send someone, a 16 year old of Japanese descent to be the one to protect her, the 16 year old, who is Japanese, was raised in Afghani deserts and was trained as a child soldier, has had a lot of training, from unarmed combat, to piloting the M9 mechs, but has one problem: he doesn't have a clue of how to live in a normal environment with people his own age. So this maybe a tough mission for him. Overall a very funny show and perhaps one the best new giant robot animes out there, cool characters and beautiful animation, and intense action, and great comedy, especially the school scenes with Sagara, who still doesn't know a thing about high school or Japan. Sad. The only problem is that some of the characters, especially the bad guy, had very little character development, that the origin and explanation of their background was too vague. But overall a decent show recommended to all otaku, even to those who non or open to this type of animation.

Anime is truly a genre of its own, but it should not to be mistaken as a linear or uniform genre. Fullmetal Panic is an all out anime with the distinct contrast between the more serious action related and the more humorous and everyday life orientated. The contrast is well told due to the story's plot. Kaname Chidori seems to be the average school girl, but there is more to her than meets the eye. Sagara Sousuke including his team from Mithril are set out to protect her because she is of great importance. Due to this Sagara is transferred to Kaname's school and has to deal with an environment that is quite unfamiliar to him since he is mostly used to be in the battlefield and lacks social abilities. It is Sagara's interaction with the school environment and his duty of protecting Chidori that creates the very charming and engaging contrast that is in the series. It has enough mystique to engage the viewer and enough humor and interesting details that leaves a feeling of hungering for more. It is definitely a series worth watching and a good series to start of with for persons who consider Manga and/or anime as a breath of fresh air. Full Metal also has some aesthetically beautiful scenery especially in the first episode, but it is not overambitious in any way and it has a very clean and simple look to it. The intro and ending themes are also very catchy and are both in the typical Japanese rock/pop genre. The instrumental music supports the different scenes as well. Maybe it is a bit of a risk to buy the complete collection at first, but if one wants to give it a chance then either buy Mission 01 or try to look it up at you-tube. It cannot be promised that the series falls in one's favor, but this certainly is a part of what Manga and Anime is all about.

I've got to say, what I've seen of Fumoffu was a bit plot-light, and even the first series had its duller moments, but at thirteen episodes TSR packs so much in! Expect to see more action, faster AS battles, scarier bad guys (seriously... Gates has *issues*).

Unfortunately for fans of Fumoffu, neither Hayashimizu nor Ren Mikihara have speaking parts in this series, although Ren can be seen briefly in one scene. Much of the story takes place aboard TDD-1, and that means more Kurz and Mao, and even a little background on Tessa's family!

The animation is wicked smooth with clean, sharp lines and plenty of background detail. Voice actors for this series are excellent (my personal favourite being Miki Shinchiro, who plays Kurz =^_^=) and towards the end of the series it's hard to believe that the anguish played out by Souske is line drawings and a voice actor in a studio. Completely convincing- good job that man. According to native speakers of Chinese, the voice actors in this series sound a little stiff, and the same is presumably true for Italians, but for the rest of us the diversity of this series is great. (I personally have issues with Mao's pronunciation of the words 'Rock and Roll'... probably not the best choice of words for a Japanese voice actress). ~_~'

Anyway, wicked plot, great pacing, good character expo, awesome character development, particularly for Souske. Spectacular animation. The background music won't survive more that one or two listens out of context, but the energetic and heartfelt 'Minamikaze' (South Wind) of the title theme is excellent, and the slower closing theme has plenty of fans. Look forward to this!

*~Pips~*

Remember back in chemistry you had to mix the various volatile chemicals in the right proportions or it will all go up in smoke? Full Metal Panic is a daring experiment that mixes serious military style action with high school humor and romance with mech battles. Dangerous combination there of serious and light hearted: too serious and the comedy loses its flavor, too comedic and no one would take the show seriously. So many anime have tried mixing genres with less than satisfactory results. Full Metal Panic on the other hand maintains its perfect balance of serious and silly, making for a very unique anime series.

Full Metal Panic takes place i a world not to different from our own. However in that world, there exists "Black technology" and selected special individuals called "The whispered" who possess enhanced cognitive capabilities. This Black technology allowed the mass production of giant humanoid mecha units called "Arm Slaves" which soon fell into the hands of terrorists. A secret organization called "Mithril" was formed to combat this rising threat of and to protect the Whispered from being captured and exploited by the terrorists. Mithril Operative Souske Sagara, only 17 but already a battle hardened soldier, is assigned to protect a newly discovered "Whispered" named Kaname Chidori. Along with his teammate, the wisecracking Kurz Weber and team leader Melissa Mao, Souske enrolls undercover as a student in Kaname's high school. Kaname's seemingly normal life comes crashing down as Souske tries to protect her in the only way he knows how: violently, decisively, like a well trained soldier, even employing some common battlefield strategies usually used to take down armed assailants. Hilarity ensues as Souske, who has only known a life of warfare since birth, tries to integrate himself into "normal" society and to fulfil his mission, much to the chagrin of Kaname. But just as it seems like the story is becoming a typical romantic comedy, a mysterious terrorist organization has discovered Kaname's whereabouts and is out to capture her by any means necessary.

Adapted from a series of novels as opposed to a manga aimed at kids or teenagers, the writing on Full Metal Panic stands out as decidedly more mature than its contemporaries. Every character is fully fleshed out and given a decent amount of development as the series moves along. Even side characters that would usually be just one-dimensional stock archetypes end up rather likable. Central to the story is the excellent chemistry the emotionally suppressed yet tenacious Souske and the hot headed Kaname. Though at first Souske only regards Kaname as a "mission objective" and likewise, Kaname regards Souske as "sergeant Psycho", the two grow closer as they get to know one another. There is definitely a theme of romance yet it is tastefully played out without any of the cheesy mushy stuff.

The way the dialog is written and lends a stronger feel of realism to the entire story. This top notch script, full of wit and charm, is complemented by equally top notch acting. Of particular note is the English voice acting by ADV films. Other reviewers must have watched the South East Asian English dub shown on animax asia to be able to criticize the English dub so. Rest assured the superior English dub from ADV films matches the quality of the Japanese track tone for tone. Some of the roles may even come across as more natural in English such as Chris Patton's role of Souske Sagara in which he peppers his dialog with military jargon and maintains a stoic drill sergeant type of tone. There is also a Chinese dub track released in Asian countries but that one is plagued by serious miscasting of roles and a certain lack of actor enthusiasm. All in all, Both the Japanese language track and USA English track are equally enjoyable and sound equally natural.

For a 2002 production, Full Metal Panic is among the better looking ones, yet it has not aged too well despite being so recent. Boasting a beautiful level of art detail and an adequate frame rate animation by GONZO studios, Full Metal Panic's quality gets inconsistent as the series progresses. Badly rendered CGI is thankfully kept to a minimum, used only on a Submarine and some aircraft, but the show has its fair share of obvious cost cutting techniques in the later half, almost as if the production went over budget halfway through. There is a stark contrast between the animation quality seen in the first episode and the last episode. Quite a disappointment coming from the same studio that produced some awesome animation in Samurai 7 and Afro Samurai.

Animation flaws aside, Full Metal Panic is a rare series that manages to feel as good as some of the best Hollywood blockbusters of all time. This makes it easily accessible to viewers who have not watched anime and is a great series for "newbies" to jump into anime fandom. Two anime sequels, a couple of manga spin offs and a dedicated fan base despite its young age, Full Metal Panic might just end up a modern classic, talked about for years to come.