Review of Full Metal Panic!

Note: This will be a review of the series in its entirety. Overview: "Full Metal Panic!" is a military mech anime with a twist, combining the genre with the painfully plain world of high school, and showing the struggles of an overranked young soldier attempting to fit into such an environment. Much hilarity ensues as a result of this concept but the series is ultimately the sum of its parts, and as a result can be rather lacking in certain areas. However, while far from the smartest series I've seen, I nevertheless consider it to be one worth your time, especially for fans of the mecha genrewho want a series that departs from the norm.

Story (7/10):
The story is set in an alternate version of Earth, where military organizations employ the use of mechs known as Arm Slaves, and revolves around mysterious human beings known as the Whispered, who somehow have the ability to tap in to mysterious knowledge that many government agencies would love to get their hands on. One such person is Kaname Chidori, though she doesn't know it as she's otherwise a completely normal high-school student, with nothing unusual about her background at all. Unaware or not, however, the nature of her existence still makes her a target and so a soldier is assigned to watch over her and make sure her and her knowledge don't fall into the wrong hands. That soldier is Sousuke Sagara, a 16-year-old sergeant in the secret anti-terrorist private military organization Mithril, who comes to Kaname's school disguised as a student. However, it's not long before his true purpose and background becomes known to Kaname, and so while he attempts to protect her from those who would try to use her for their own ends, she attempts to help him adapt to the mundane world of school life, the latter of which proves to be just as much of a challenge as the former, if not more so.

One thing the story has going for it is that it takes the near-universal anime trope of an improbably aged soldier then both justifies and deconstructs it. Out of the main military cast, two of them are teenagers- Sousuke himself and his submarine captain Teletha "Tessa" Testerossa. In Tessa's case, she's a Whispered like Kaname, but unlike her, she's able to tap into her mysterious knowledge at will, which has enabled her to design the very submarine she commands, be a truly excellent tactician, and essentially gives her all that she needs for somebody of her rank. As for Sousuke, well, he's basically a walking study of exactly what one would have to sacrifice in order to become such a competent soldier at his age, and how useful and important those skills truly are. Much of the series' humor stems from Sousuke reacting to typical high school situations with extreme paranoia, often resulting in Kaname scolding him or reigning him in, and an entire season is based around this aspect in the form of "Full Metal Panic Fumoffu!", though watching this is entirely optional as it has no bearing on the actual story.

Sadly, the story does have a good number of problems. Even though the plot revolves a great deal around the Whispered, to the point that both of the main heroines are them, the series ultimately focuses little on exactly what Whispered are. Sure, we know that they have access to knowledge that shouldn't even exist, which allows Tessa to be a captain and Kaname to help Sousuke fight despite otherwise being an ordinary girl, but that's all we know about them. At no point do the characters ever sit down to talk about the knowledge Whispered possess or question where it even comes from or why they have access to it, to the point that by the end of "Invisible Victory" (the third and latest main season), we're still nowhere closer to getting any answers. There's also the fact that the story eventually does away with the school life aspect entirely in favour of becoming a straightforward military series, and while this does make for better pacing, it kind of takes away what made the series unique to begin with. As a whole, the story just feels incomplete, which certainly isn't helped by the fact that "Invisible Victory" ends on a huge cliffhanger that we can't guarantee will ever get resolved.

Art & Animation (8.5/10):
"Full Metal Panic!" is notable in that it's animated by three different studios- Gonzo for the first season, Kyoto Animation for "Fumoffu" and "The Second Raid" and Xebec for "Invisible Victory". As such, the animation quality varies from season to season- the first season is rather average-looking, "Fumoffu" and "The Second Raid" look much better and "Invisible Victory" looks about on par with the latter two, though this is mainly because it aired more than a decade after the rest of the series rather than the studios being as good as each other. Regardless of the studio, however, the characters are all distinct and very well-drawn and the various fight scenes are a joy to watch, especially in later seasons.

Sound & Dialogue (8.5/10):
"Full Metal Panic!"'s soundtrack really isn't anything special, consisting of mostly typical action tracks that tend to just blend into the background than actually enhance what's happening on screen. I also didn't particularly care for any of the ending themes except "Invisible Victory"'s or the opening of "The Second Raid", though I loved the openings for the first season and "Fumoffu" and quite liked "Invisible Victory"'s opening as well. On the other hand, the voice acting is great, with the title of "best actors" going to Chris Patton and Vic Mignogna, who provide the voices of Sousuke and Kurz, respectively. However, Luci Chistian's Kaname, while good, may take a little bit of getting used to, mainly because it's rather odd to hear a Japanese girl speak with a fairly obvious Texan accent.

Characters (7.5/10):
As usual, I will start with the protagonist of the series, in this case Sousuke, who is also the show's best character. As a result of being trained to be a soldier since he was very young, he knows almost all of the ins and outs of warfare, but that's just about all he knows. When it comes to civilian life, he is absolutely clueless, to the point that he will constantly miss the point of things, can't have a normal conversation to save his life and will respond to even the most basic situations with violence. While he's not exactly a jerk (quite the contrary, he's rather polite and respectful, as one would expect from a soldier), his obliviousness and insensitivity, particularly towards Kaname's feelings, means he can come off as one rather frequently. He can also be rather apathetic, with the only things that really concern him most of the time being completing his missions and protecting Kaname. However, he is a good guy deep down, and while he won't hesitate to kill if necessary, he generally prefers to use non-lethal force, which is particularly thankful when he threatens a civilian due to his extreme paranoia. The irony is that he is easily the funniest character in the entire show despite frequently being shown to have no sense of humour. In other words, he is the king of comically serious. However, while his social cluelessness and paranoia are frequently played for laughs, they're just as often played for drama, particularly when we learn about the horrific childhood that made him the way he is, and "The Second Raid" in particular spends a good bit of time examining that he has no real plans for the future and he's been unable to adapt to normal society, which especially becomes a problem as he starts to fall for Kaname, though it takes an awful lot of time for him to realise it. In fact, for most of the series, Sousuke doesn't even know what love is, making his obliviousness to the feelings of girls entirely justified. Long story short, while he may seem rather flat at first due to his stoic nature, he's actually a very complex and interesting main character, and a total badass to boot.

On the surface, Kaname seems like a typical damsel in distress, given that Sousuke's mission revolves around protecting her and she gets captured rather frequently by the villains. While this is justified by her being a mostly ordinary girl with no training of any kind, she does manage to break from this role with her Whispered abilities, which enable her to help Sousuke out in combat multiple times, usually by telling him a crucial weakness of the enemy he is facing. As for her personality, she acts like a violent tsundere a lot of the time, frequently hitting Sousuke with a paper fan when he steps out of line or lets his paranoia get the better of him. Despite this, it's obvious that she cares for him as early as the first episode, and eventually she becomes wise enough to know that when Sousuke says it's not what it looks like, it really isn't. Her character doesn't revolve solely around Sousuke, however, with one notable trait she has being that she's clearly seen too many action movies for her own good. While this does come in handy most of the time, the twist is that she doesn't seem to realise she's in an action ANIME, and so is blindsided by the more anime-esque tropes of the series e.g. when meeting Tessa for the first time, she doesn't believe that she's Sousuke's captain, believing that submarine captains are always middle-aged men with some kind of facial hair and that Tessa's more the type to read off telegrams. Essentially, she can be seen as a surrogate for viewers who often complain about anime protagonists being too young for whatever position they have or just aren't too familiar with anime in general. However, Kaname really comes into her own during "The Second Raid" and onwards, when she manages to survive several hectic situations by herself through quick thinking and sheer dumb luck. All of this proves to make her a great, well-developed character even if she can be a bit annoying at times.

Third in importance is Sousuke's aforementioned captain Teletha Testerossa, though pretty much everyone calls her by her nickname Tessa (when they're not calling her "Ma'am" or "Captain", that is). While most of the time, she seems like an innocent, carefree, and airheaded girl, her status as a Whispered alone makes it clear there is much more to her than that, and she shows several times that she got her position for a very good reason. Not only did she design the submarine she commands, but she's also an expert leader and strategist, as well as surprisingly competitive; it's noted at one point that whenever someone tells her she can't do something, she takes that as a point to prove that she can, which is implied to be due to an inferiority complex she feels towards her brother, who's even more intelligent than her and would always one-up her when they were children. However, while she's quite adorable most of the time, I ultimately didn't like her as much as Sousuke or Kaname. Like Kaname, she has a crush on Sousuke, but unlike Kaname, she seems to have no respect for his personal boundaries and will frequently invade them. She can also get ridiculously jealous at times, and often makes rash decisions based on her jealousy, one of which has consequences that last an entire season, though thankfully she has the sense to recognize when she goes too far and even apologises on occasion, which keeps her from becoming unbearable.

Of course, these three are far from the only important characters. Two notable examples are Sosuke's squadmates in Mithril- Kurz Weber, a master sniper and resident perverted comic relief, who nevertheless hates to see women cry, and Melissa Mao, Sosuke and Kurz's no-nonsense Major who bears a striking resemblance to Evangelion's Misato Katsuragi, complete with the same English voice actor. Neither of these two are quite as fleshed out as the main three, but they're nevertheless a welcome addition to both the cast and the series. The rest of the Mithril cast consists largely of people who show up every now and again but don't do anything particularly significant (or, at least, nothing I can say without giving away serious spoilers). The villains are decent, but you definitely shouldn't expect a lot of depth from them, as a lot of them seem to cause chaos with no particularly grand goal in mind. One villain, in particular, just keeps showing up when he's supposed to have died, with each instance being increasingly improbable as to how he survived, making you want nothing more than Sousuke to finally kill him for good (though this could very well have been intentional, as Sousuke feels the same way, which for him is a big deal).

Enjoyment (7.5/10):
"Full Metal Panic!" is a very entertaining series throughout, with great action scenes and some truly hilarious moments. However, things do get significantly darker and more serious as time goes on, which starts in "The Second Raid" and culminates in "Invisible Victory", the latter of which can be downright depressing at times, with the comedy of previous seasons being seriously reduced, even if it's not completely gone. It's because of this very reason that, while watching "Fumoffu" isn't essential, it is recommended, as it's the perfect breather you need before everything goes to hell.

Overall:
"Full Metal Panic!" is an anime that's easy enough to recommend, but is kept from true greatness by falling short in several areas, with an interesting but unfinished story, entertaining but clichéd villains, variable art and animation and largely forgettable music aside from a few standout tracks. It's certainly worth watching, especially if you're a fan of action anime, but if you go in with your expectations too high, or just have very high standards in general, then there's a good chance you'll be disappointed.

Score:
7+8.5+8.5+7.5+7.5=39/50=7.8/10