Review of Full Metal Panic!

I really enjoyed the start of this series, but as I got further into it the shine wore off. I thought they tried to incorporate too many elements (mecha/military, magical girl, high school comedy) and didn't pull any of them off especially well. Things were brought up early in the series only to be completely forgotten about until near the end. I also thought that the series could have been half as long and would have benefitted from the faster pacing.