Yup, started watching it. Im on episode 3, i think thats all thats out right now that are subbed. Well, its pretty good. Lots of action, but i get lost in the military jargons >_<
Full Metal Panic! tv Review
In an alternative universe, where the Cold War is not over yet and the URSS still exists, an organization composed by mercenaries, Mithril, has been created to mantain world balances. Among the most talented members is Sousuke Sagara, a sixteen years old boy, who has always been involved in wars since he was a child. The boy is entrusted to protect Kaname Chidori, a girl whose brain contains valuable informations on the Black Technology. In order to fulfill his duty, Sagara enters Chidori's school, but, since he isn't accustomed to a normal student's life, he ends up causing a lot of troubles.
Credit : orange-lisa
Story & Characters
The basics: The story revolves around the adventures/hijinks of renowned military nut Souske Sagara and his posse. On one hand there's Mithril, the extra-national mercenary group. Commanded by the extremely wussy looking Teletha Testarossa, Souske and his unit are the 'knights in shining armor' of the modern world. They're no ragtags- Although the lewd Kurtz and the outspoken Mao hail from opposite sides of the earth, they and Souske muster the most modern military equipment that the world has to offer. So what's a guy to do with a giant robot that can do everything up to and including slice bread?
Well... apparently his new job is to stalk teenage girls. The other half of the show is concerned with his protection of the beautiful (And again, outspoken) Kaname Chidori. They make quite a pair- most of the dynamics in the show involve Chidori's desire to do things in a normal, human way versus Souske's well-measured decision to shoot first and ask questions later. No. Wait. Shoot first and shoot later. I always get those two things mixed up. It seems like it would be easy to get tired of this, but it's actually not. In the 'main' two seasons, the high school humor frames the main conflicts- in which Souske, rumor has it, shoots someone in his robot. Excitement abounds, and we find ourselves with a host of different villains to hate- even if <a href="http://www.trip-machine.net/STFU.jpg" target="_blank"> none of them are as cool as Gauln. (I guess this link has swear words, so don't click it.)</a>
As far as the quality of the plot goes, it's really difficult to complain. This is not, say, Ocean's Eleven,
where you only figure out exactly what the hell is going on when they directly spell it out for you. You know who is
good and you know who is evil- and you have the sneaking suspicion that the evil guy is going to get shot by the good
guy. Call it a <i>theory</i>. But in FMP's genre- Action/Comedy - there isn't a lot of
mind-boggling that should be going on anyway. So don't worry... the plot is well-driven, if perhaps a bit
simple.
Rating:
Art
You might recall that the newest season of Full Metal Panic is actually on Japanese television, <i>Right Now</i>. This leads us to believe that the graphical stylings will perhaps be excellent, and they of course are. FMP season 1 and 3 feature the animation stylings of Gonzo to help out with all the giant robot bashing- Season 2 circumvents its lack of quality 3d animating by having no robots to speak of and focusing on FMP's comedic aspect. But let's not mock the ability of the in-house crew: The main production team for FMP has come up with extremely colorful and sharp designs for character and scenery.
Okay, so Tessa isn't really colorful. But she's sharp. Mmmm. Sharp.
As with the story, there isn't anything here that I feel really pushes the boundaries of anime, but that doesn't mean it isn't high quality animation with a good frame rate and excellent CGI tossed in. Sometimes the CGI feels a little sketchy - See Mithril's Sub - but this is me trying to mock someone who wants to make an enormous submarine using a 3d rendering program instead of drawing it like everyone else. It's interesting, and maybe a nice change of pace.
Oh, there's also a manga series out by, you guessed it, ADV Manga. The art style is different, and a bit more
adult, but it's also of excellent quality and some issues come with super sexy pinups. Not to mention a bunch of
random interlude art, which makes me happy to own everything. The excellent art that the manga features more than makes
up for any misgivings I had about the artist's style.
Rating:
Sound
Goddammit! The manga has no soundtrack! What a ripoff!
Let's talk about the anime, then. As an opening- all three seasons have opening and ending track that I find completely listenable. This is a minor miracle. I'm not too qualified to wax on about any of the other vocal tracks, but the soft rock tracks that make up FMP's intros and outros really are uniquely excellent. And guess what? The in-show music is well-timed and neat too. I'll grant you, it can get repetitive. But this actually plays to the show's advantage, since similarly themed scenes have the same music and this is established as the hip thing to do.
There are also, from what I understand, voice actors. I don't think I've ever seen an anime where the Japanese voice actors are worth disputing so I'll focus on the American set. As this is an ADV production, we get to deal with their in house crew- whom I have a pretty good opinion of. I personally feel that Hilary Haag (Tessa) is about five feet taller than the correct choice for Tessa's voice- But I also understand that ADV does not currently employ talking mice. I recognized Allison Keith playing as Mao this time around, which goes fine with my memory of her as Misato in NGE. Everyone was waiting to see if Souske's English voice actor had that odd 'wooden' feeling that Souske's social interactions have in the original language, and thankfully, they do. That might have ruined the show.
Basically, FMP continues the trend of having extremely strong elements while lacking in anything which makes me shout "OMEGZ WHAT". I like this.
Rating:
Presentation
Do we have a long history of shows like this? No, not that I know of. Even though its elements are simple in their strength, I'm also pleased to report the originality that they sport. The central commodity of the show (The Whispered) is a completely fly concept which I don't think I've seen anything quite like- and it's a fantastic chance to show off the eye candy which Gonzo is somewhat notorious for. Sure, you might complain that some of the characters are stereotypical, but I would dispute that. They're not stereotypes. If you saw one of them in a dark room, you could <i>mistake</i> them for a stereotype, but the main purpose of some of the common anime stereotypes (Excessively violent and tomboyish? Chidori?) are to be funny. And they are.
An added note about DVD presentation: I have all the DVDs and manga out in America, and they're extremely likeable setups so far. ADV's DVD set has the expected count of trailers and whatnot; the additional bonus of the American voice actors reading the piracy warning is unexpectedly hilarious. (Do not use the packaging as a weapon! I'll hunt your ass down! Of course you will, Souske.) Oh! And the manga is nice enough to include detailed translation notes! If only all companies were nice enough to do this. Complaint: What the hell is this board game thing that's in the box set for Fumoffu? The original FMP box has an included T-shirt, for the bargain price of like eight extra dollars. Truly, the DVD extras are excellent, and I wish all series had a presentation this ironclad awesome.
Rating:
Final Verdict
8.3333 (good)
Reviewed by Ezekiel, Aug 01, 2005
Comments
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zer0infinite Aug 02, 2005
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babyboy0852 Aug 03, 2005
Full Metal Panic is great i saw the original and fumoffu and i started watching the second raid. Its one of the most intresting animes ever....
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thedon6007 Aug 03, 2005
i love full manetal panic.....love full metal panic fumofo but not as much as full metal panic.....i just need to see full metal panic second raid now.
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twistedfreak Aug 10, 2005
full metal panic is one of my fav series have the complete collection and have started to watch fumoffu which is good but not as good as FMP itself. So far i have seen upto episode 4 of FMP the second raid and it is living up to my expectations and hope it continues to do so.
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Zachior Aug 10, 2005
Can you say? Most boring Hero, ever!!!! Sousuke has been a mercenary since birth, eventually joins up with the secret organization Mithril. This guy is a Soldier, through and through... nothing else... he has no personality!! I almost fall asleep just seeing his face. Thank god we have an interesting story line to keep us awake! He gets an assignment to protect some chick named Kaname who has some special power I've never heard of, she has all knowledge of mechas. Kinda a lame power but whatever! So anyways he's gotta protect her, at ALL times... even during school where he goes undercover as a student to keep watch over her. He makes a total ass outa himself with all his soldier nonsense and follows Kaname everywhere so he can keep an eye out for her. Of corse this totally freaks her out having some total stranger being protective of her. It's gets pretty funny, but still Sousuke is boring as hell! Awesome mecha fighting, with good animation. The climax is good, but for the romantic ending between Sousuke and Kaname... it comes off alittle weak!!!! But, there are sequels so yeah.... watch on FMP fans!!! 8.3/10
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Ezekiel Aug 11, 2005
Might I inquire why in the hell you are posting a useless mini-review as a reply to my own?
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marauder09 Aug 12, 2005
Currently working on a FMP FIC right now. The story will have Gundam Wing included and will be posted at: http://fmp.abstratica.org/phpBB2/index.php?sid=9460af3894f11ffe0c36fd58a81fd9ca
The story will not include GWing's space colony though.
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-Natsuki- Aug 17, 2005
yeah!! i love full metal panic too xD
but..i like sousuke..even if Zachior says that he has no personality TxT
i think he's a shy type man...>,>..and his realtion with kaname makes me laught a lot X3 it's a krazy and funny anime and the manga rulz too o,รด.. -
valsimot Aug 19, 2005
FMP and FMF rock. souske is a soldier, he has no emotions because his was drilled that way. thats part of what makes it so funny!
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Blademast3R Sep 02, 2005
All series and "kinds" of full metal panic rulz. It's probably my favourite anime. Chidori and Sousuke are so with so interesting and different personalities and that makes the anime so cool and enjoyable!
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Frenzy Oct 09, 2005
kawaii ^_______________________________________________________________^
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DreamVixen Oct 14, 2005
I love fmp!!! It's one of the funniest animes you can find!!!! LONG LIVE bonta-kun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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wildrig Oct 22, 2005
FMP is really cool...especially the 3D animations of the Tuathaa De Dannan...It's a really cool story throughout...most of the military vehicles are actual stuff in service with the associated militaries......(except the Arm Slaves and the Tuatha De Dannan...and..... well u know)....I atill treasure my FMP cds long after i bought them........
And I would give plusses to the cool alternate reality (the Cold War doesn't end in FMP)
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greatdragon Oct 27, 2005
very cute anime
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funkyhollow Nov 19, 2005
i really love this anime and have finished watching all of the series, full metal panic, second raid and 12 episodes of fumoffu... hahahahahaa
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aiBi Mar 14, 2006
FMA fumoffu is the funny version rite?can i know where can i get it(d/l)?could not find it.i happen to watched part of an episode and it was damn funny..haha..i like FMA 1st raid and find that 1st raid is better than the 2nd raid.2nd raid's bored in some part ofthe episode :(
merged: 03-15-2006 ~ 01:11am
ops..typo..hehee..it's FMP not FMA...haha :) -
bdrc Aug 21, 2007
This was the best anime I had ever watched! I hope there's going to have another new season. I think the story still havent end yet.
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Warpten29 Oct 18, 2009
Good review!
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Sanisa Feb 24, 2010
Thanks for the review! Nice ^__^
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Tsukiyomi Apr 22, 2011
Nice review. I rated 10 just because of Sagara Sousuke. He's just amazing but if you take in consideration all of the aspects of the anime I think you're right.
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Baraka-Senpai Jul 05, 2011
So good... Anime! Thaks for this...
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agasca311 Nov 08, 2012
You can buy the all series of Full Metal Panic for a cheap price at www.arturoga.gps5.com/shop.php
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