Full Metal Panic! - Reviews

The STORY of Full Metal Panic!  is very interesting.  A man named Sousuke - who's part of  an anti-terrorist group called Mithril - must go to a high school to protect a young high school student named Chidori due to her being one of the "whispered".  That is, she possesses knowledge of an advanced technology called "black technology" that everyone is trying to get their hands on.  This could have been a fantastic plot had it been presented better, but the anime did a poor job.

The ANIMATION for Full Metal Panic! really isn't anything to brag about.  It looked very 1990's to me and, for me personally, I don't like it when anime looks like that unless they were actually made in the 1990's.  Otherwise it just looks sloppy.  I didn't really like any of the mecha designs either.

The OP for Full Metal Panic! was fine, but nothing exciting and the voice acting wasn't great for me.  I watched this English dub and couldn't stand it, but I continued on because I was watching it with a friend - I wish I had seen it in Japanese.  For me, none of the voice actors did a good job except for Sousuke.  And they mispronounced Chidori's name the entire time, which is annoying.

The CHARACTERS, once again, were just a bit below average.  Sousuke was interesting with his socially inept ways of dealing with things and Tessa was an interesting choice for captain - I liked that she was only like 15 or 16 and was a captain who was a bit inept herself.  That made for an interesting character.  However, all of the others felt like they were taking away from the show rather than adding to it.

My PERSONAL ENJOYMENT for Full Metal Panic! might be more of a 4.  I did not enjoy this series.  Normally I like mecha anime, but this just had so much promise that it let slip down the drain that I couldn't bring myself to appreciate anything except for the concept storyline.

OVERALL, I probably would not recommend this anime unless I knew that the person had read the light novels or were just so into mecha anime that they want to see all of them.

It's one of the garbage anime where every character is displayed so dumb that even middle schoolers will be smarter than them.

Another oldies review brought to you once again by that drunkard Dion bloke.Warning to all that my reviews are full of mature language and some other shit.

So FMP! what has it brought to our little world of moe and cute and huge eyes with glitter in them?Well it brought chaos and death and blood pooring from the screen and.....What?Wait a minute?Did i get this wrong?School?Romcom?What the fucking hell?What is this?Mr Jimmy and Dr Jim?

I should point out that i'm not in any way unfit to write a review it's the anime itself that is bipolar.One min it's a romcom another min it's an all guns blazing military mecha punch in the fez.

How's this for a story?A top secret top of the pops unit has been assigned the protection of a high school girl(my my what a surprise)who yada yada doodly has info in her head that is top secret and terrorists want them and so the 3 of the best guardians of the galaxy venture to protect the blue haired hottie.Sagara,Kurtz and Melissa are the chosen ones.They're the best,the deadliest the most fearsome team.And not only that,they can also handle the so called "arm slaves" mechs.So you expect at this point to see me saying that all hell breaks loose right?Nope...They send Sagara the military nut,as we're kept reminded through the series,to fuckin school so he can be close to Chidori,his protectee.This was supposed to be funny cause Sag has no concept of real life much less school life.But take it from me this ends up just like any other ecchi harem anime you've ever seen.Everyone "hates" Sagman but also loves him big time..That's women for ya right there:"I want him,no i don't,maybe i do i don't know leave me alone i need time to think"...This also holds true for our little Tsundereness Chi.

After some seriously bad attempts at comedy we stumble upon the strangest transition known to man.They thought:"We have this military nut,we have mechs...Why don't we use them?".....And in an instant the anime becomes an Arnie Schwarzenegger-esque one.Where bullets fly like there's no tomorrow and shit explodes and blood poors from your hard drive.Or that's is exactly what they wanted you to think..The thinking behind the scenes was well thought of,the planning,the execution all that stuff was good...But the on screen result was a bit lifeless.It didn't grab me by the balls and make me stand up and sing songs of praise.I can summarize it like this..They wanted to please 2 audiences and in the process failed at both.Comedy was cheap,action was mostly an afterthought and the switch between the 2 was as unnatural and disgusting as seeing Weinstein jerking off!

The indecisiveness between action and comedy ultimately is the main issue with FMP!.It feels like two separate shows with a weak connection between the two.Had it focused on Sousuke and Mithril and kept to being a mecha military anime,that would be fine.Or if it instead concentrated on Sousuke's inept attempts to adapt to a normal high school,that too would have been fine.But given the separated layers of mecha action and high school comedy,the result is a half great parfait.

Animation was for the most part good.Nothing outstanding but still pleasing to the eye.The characters were nicely done as were the mecha and the military stuff like choppers and jeeps and shit.As for the movements they were jiddery at best,especially when it counted the most.In the fight scenes.There were some details that were absolutely sweet,make no mistake,but the actual scenes themselves were not quite as good as i expected.As for the use of CG,it isn't as bad as most people say they are.They are comparable or even better than modern ones.Or at least they feel like so,maybe the dark tone of the anime helped a bit there.

Soundwise nothing stood out i'm afraid.The songs used were not fit for the tone of FMP!.In any other anime they would be fine but that was like using kids music in a porn film.VA was subpar.It could have been tons better,but like the anime itself it was medium.

Onto the chars.Most of them are there just to fill the space.No apparent reason why the exist and when taken off screen you don't really miss them or even remember who they were.That's 70% or so of the cast rendered useless and one trick ponys.As for the main cast..Sagara is a man on a mission,an emotionless robot.Granted it is fixed later on but it wasn't anything to celebrate either cause the way it's done is stupid beyond belief.I mean this is a merc who has killed countless people from the sweet age of 8,he has witnessed the death of many loved ones.But that doesn't show in his attitude.It only shows later on in the series where some people in his team die.So we're led to believe that all of a sudden he went from I-Robot to Ms Robinson by the deaths of people he met some days ago?

Then is her Tsudereness Chidori.who somehow falls for the robot and wants all the attention to herself.What do you mean you're off fighting terrorists who want to kill thousands of people?I want some Sagman candy and i want it now...Oh what?You are sad people died?I WANT MY ATTENTION!Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch  like someone famous said once.As for other aspects of her personality..She also switches from missshelteredtoLaraCroft in an instant.Must be the drugs she took.

Kurtz is the womanizer of the series.That's it..Melissa as i can recall smokes more than a VW and drinks like a fish and has a hot body.

Then there's the Cap...Tessa...This was the one character that didn't contribute almost anything trivial to the story.And she was the fuckin captain..I had to wait until the very last eps to see some signs of life or personality from this one,to see as to why she has the title of genius.She also has  a crush on Sagman for no apparent reason other than we needed a love triangle.

So a failure at romcom,a failure at action and in between some very very good moments.But i can't stand here and say it's all bad.I really enjoyed it,i don't know why and i can't explain it but the damn thing is good.The eps really flew by and it didn't feel like it overstayed it's welcome even though it was 24 eps long.Sure there are better animes out there that can deliver much much more but still i do recommend watching it.

Also i'm really sorry if this review was a mess but the whole anime is a mess of idon'tknowwhatiwanttodoorbe.This is the best i could do with the things presented to me.But watch it for yerselves,draw your own conclusions.

A confusing mess of a high school drama and a sci-fi mecha anime.  

Monitoring teenage girls in their High school days using spy equipment and tactics. Tons of ecchi and/or mistaken pervert instances. Lots of avoidable drama- if things were properly explained to all parties. The comedy was cheap and the action scenes were brief.

Eventually it became too annoying to continue watching. A 3/10 overall.

Full Metal Panic season one was originally released way back in 2002 by Gonzo animation. Now when this anime originally aired, the transition from cell to computer animation was taking place. Fortunately for us, Gonzo did an animation job that would rival that of other anime to be released years later. Full Metal Panic's animation style was considered revolutionary and groundbreaking when it originally aired, and this still holds true today, the style is fantastic and manages to stand up to the trials of the cruel mistress of time.

Now I could go on all day about how pleasant it is to look at, but then I'd be skirting the meat of the issue. Probably of greater concern, is it entertaining to watch? Ladies and gentlemen, all signs point to yes! I found the story pleasantly balanced between a myriad, a veritable cornucopia of subjects and genres. The plot is centered on two integral characters, Sergeant Sousuke Sagara of the Mithril Mercenary Corporation. Mithril is a mercenary organization that acts as a sort of international peacekeeping division, ensuring through the use of technology that someone is available to keep larger countries from bloating and war mongering. Sousuke is tasked with guarding Kaname Chidori, a Japanese schoolgirl. Kaname is thought to be one of the "whispered", a sort of person that holds key information received at birth locked within their minds. Previous "whispered" had pioneered technology previously thought impossible, like mechs for example. The key for the plot is that it shifts between the two realms. School is used for humorous interactions, tsundere romantic moments (with blushing and awkward yet cute moments galore), and even everyday slice of life. The second common area, mercenary missions and terrorist situations, are used to progress the plot and to even further character development. This is the meat of the action portions of the show; also these parts tend to focus on heavier dialog occasionally tossing in more serious romantic conversations to stir up the ol' emotional response. Despite including such varied content, the show never suffers from poor pacing. It manages to keep the viewer firmly planted within the situation at hand, yet leaves you excited for the next "school" or "mission" portion (I don't care for school anime too much either, but I thoroughly enjoyed the school interactions in this series, they were done right).

Audio for Full Metal Panic is top notch. No crazy sound effects or terrible voice actors here! Kaname Chidori is played by Luci Christian, who does a magnificent job of conveying the strong-willed girl, but then effectively can immediately morph into the blushing, "vulnerable" romantic at will. Chris Patton does an absolutely stellar job of playing Sousuke Sagara, the blunt and ever-serious military man with a no-shenanigans attitude. The voice acting for the entire series was hands down stellar work, and it only seemed to get better and better the further into the series you get (especially in "FMP: The Second Raid", which managed to grab many a tear from me for the situations the protagonists were forced to endure). General sounds were excellent as well, with every different weapon in the series sounding different. Each gun had “oomph” to it when it was fired and sounded unique, I could tell that sound weren't recycled, instead the team chose to really go full boar and do it right, which is a testament to the devotion they had when making the series. Conversation always felt natural (naturally awkward in some cases, which was a VERY good thing from an entertainment perspective) and all of the actors sounded genuine. It may be interesting to point out, Gauron, the villain of the series sounds an awful lot like Jack Nicholson the way his voice actor played him, I just found that sort of neat.

Ideally, one would do as I did and watch the whole series in a straight couple of days, but I'm realistic enough to know that can be quite a tall order, considering that the series has three seasons currently with a total of about 49 episodes split between them. As of the time this review was posted, there are three seasons: Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. Do yourselves a favor and watch them in the order I listed, as that's the chronological release and plot order. Full Metal Panic! and The Second Raid are part of the "main plot" whereas Fumoffu is a humor side series. Fumoffu captures the epic of the school portions, kicks the comedy up times ten and takes out the mechs so that it ends up being a very refreshing experience. The Second Raid is considerably more emotional than the first season and Fumoffu combined, I don't cry easily but it made me do so quite a few times towards the end =O (manly tears of course).

Naturally, we've reached the critical point of the review. By now you may be wondering, "Akawoa, how would you quantify your overall opinion of Full Metal Panic as a series? Well, I'm quite pleased you're curious, as I think it has earned the right to be placed among the pantheon of anime. Full Metal Panic creeps into my top five at number five, with a 10... Out of 10

Full Metal Panic as well as Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu were both dubbed and distributed by ADV and can be found on rightstuf.com. Full Metal Panic the Second Raid is available from Funimation (still dubbed by ADV with voice actors preserved, happened as ADV was going under) in DVD and Blu-Ray formats and can also be found at rightstuf.com.

Give this series a serious look, as I'm sure it contains a special something for all sorts, whether you like science fiction and action or you prefer slice of life and romance, you'll most certainly put me into a panic, if you don't enjoy FMP ^_-!