show review
by aidschbe on 2019-04-01 22:27
Rating:8.66
Approval:-
FMP tries to do many things - war drama, high school romcom, tragedy, mecha action - and, surprisingly, succeeds at all of them. I had mostly just remembered the comedy parts, which hit as hard as ever, but watching it as an adult I really appreciated how honest, unapologetic and understated the delivery of the tragic moments is. A rare thing in any medium, and one to be respected highly. The constant tonal shifts that necessarily accompany such a dense mix of genres might be jarring to some people, but I found them to be very well executed.
The plot itself is often predictable, but never in a way that makes it boring. To the contrary, the invetibality of what is going to happen ultimately enhances the tragedy, or comedy, when the moment finally comes. Something like that is incredibly hard to pull off, making it all the more impressive.
The art style is where the age is most apparent, it is very much of its time, but appearances are deceptive here. The animation quality during the frequent sakuga moments is absolutely insane, not even just during action scenes but sometimes completely random slice of life moments. Random comedic bits have much more mediocre animation, but overall I just got the impression that they budgeted the project impressively well, knowing when to pull out all the stops for maximum effect, reminding me a lot of more modern shows like Haiyku with their mix of high fidelity action and lo-fi comedic animation. All of that, combined with many unbelievably striking shot compositions and cuts quite unsual in anime and just generally artful but effective direction really make me wonder what else the director has done and why I've never heard of him before.
The anime's only real weakness might be the music. Many tracks seem like bad imitations of old action movie and TV themes, the most prominent one sounding almost exactly like the A-Team. Personally it just made me laugh everytime I noticed these hommages, as one could kindly call them, but your mileage may vary.
I was afraid the show might not have aged well, but to my surprise I enjoyed it a lot more this time around, having a better understanding of life in general, and animation and cinematography specifically. A stunningly well-crafted mix of genres, a classic not to be missed.
show review
by irohma on 2012-05-11 18:55
Review
Full Metal Panic! (FMP) is one of those lucky and unlucky animes to be released in a time where there were lots of great shows. It's lucky because it rides on the good quality of its contemporary shows and, as a consequence, is very good as well. It's unlucky because it can be easily forgotten amidst the quality shows around it.
FMP is a good mix of the strong points of late 90's shows and a bit of new elements from the early 2000's. It has a great production value, making it one of the best of its year in this regard, and also mixes a lot of genres in a good way. FMP has mecha, warfare, comedy, school life, ecchiness, shounen, shoujo-style characters, and a whole lot on its bag. While nowdays shows that mixes a lot of stuff usually fails miserably, back in the years they managed to put a good balance and deliver a show that never feels too sexualized, dumb, or childish. This good mix certainly makes FMP more remarkable, and its comedy parts are so good they later made a show whose focus was exactly that (Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!).
This is the story of Sousuke Saraga and Kaname Chidori. The first is a elite soldier, born and raised within conflicts and the strict teachings of military, and now working for the secret organization called Mithril. The later is a normal high-school student on verge of being dragged into a global terrorism battle.
- It's Stunning
Simply put, FMP was top of the top during its release. It offered an almost shoujo-like art art style along with some superb animation and CG elements to fuel the nice and tense action scenes with mechas, gunfire, fist-fights, and much more. The sharpness and maturity of its style helps to keep it fresh even for today's standard and it also has power to give a decent expressive power to its cast without resorting to cartoonish smiles and clumsy deformations. The expressive cast is boosted by a mature voice-acting and a decent sound direction. If someone told me this was done by Gonzo without knowing, I would doubt it.Military Shounen Nicely Mixed with School!
Secret organization dealing with terrorists and some freaks trying to kidnap a girl to extract mysterious information puts a heavy start to the show. The pace of the show slowly presents Mithril and its members as Sagara infiltrates the school environment to protect Chidori, bumping in speed as danger start to become the norm in her life. The terrorist background and the use of a super secret organization are not exactly new, but things gets more interesting because the show uses the school element and the quality of its cast in some very good ways, making some kind of mix of slice-of-life with shounen action.Constant Action and Great Comedy
Chidori's hunters appear in a good pace, making for some more comedy-heavy episodes and others where action and tension kicks in. We even get mechas, nearly-supernatural technology, global-level terrorism, etc. The show gets more serious as the episodes goes on and the plot thickens, making it a bit more like a Gundam by the end, but it never forgets its comedy root. There are some good twists, the show never really suffers from pacing (except if you're expecting a full comedy or serious show), but it lacks true powerful moments to make an impact on those who watch it.Fuc*n Sagara and his crew
Sagara is a comical military-freak guy specialized in all kinds of military skills while Chidori is your regular hyper-active and angry japanese girl. While they appear to be a bit overstereotyped at first, the intensity of their personalities vary a lot in the show. For some episodes Sagara's addiction to discipline and military is more exaggerated to allow better comical scenes and in others he acts more like a human thriving to do his duty would. The same happens to Chidori. The support cast, on other hand, is more direct and remain faithful to their roles most of the time. There are no spetacular characters in the support cast, in fact some of them are very cliche'd, but they do a good support job for the two great protagonists. Character development is not strong, only with Chidori changing a lot through the events, but the small changes to everyone are at least believable.New and not new
FMP is some kind of updated-Escaflowne here. It's a huge bag of mixed genres put in a mainly shounen plot, but it succeeds in almost everything it dares. The comedy is great, the action is tense, the plot and characters are good, the animation quality is superb and the overall experience is one of the best of its age. These kind of shows are rare. You'll see many of these mixed shows losing themselves to exagerated ecchiness, lots of dumb useless action, stupid powers/machines only made to show off a new design, etc. FMP never derails from its path, and added with such a good production value you have a kind of show that appear only once in each 5 or 6 years.A change of focus
Initially there are lots of comedy and school life and later you'll be watching more fights, strategic missions, mecha combats, and more serious stuff. This change in the heart of the series makes it a very enjoyable show, introducing the elements of its story in a slower but more tolerable approach. Those looking for either a more comedy-like show or a shounen action will be pleased, as well as any who like the usual school life mixed with other elements. If you're looking exactly for comedy or shounen you'll only be pleased by half of the series. So, before watching it, be ready to both laugh to school comedy and keep your eyes open for the action sequences.
Comments
Lots and lots of shows try to put mechas in a school enviroment. It's perhaps the most common type of mecha usage that always fail. I can name Linebarrels of Iron and its slow fall to a terrible harem anime as one example. This is what usually happens to most shows who tries to mix lots of stuff in the jar. Those made after 2007 or so usually become harem shows filled with shy girls and lolis, those before it became far too childish, and today most mainly became tsundure-plagued shows.
FMP, however, succeeds in bringing a good mix. It's light-hearted in some moments, making you even think there will be some shoujo romance, in others it's pure action and gunfire, but the best parts are when the freakish military fanatism of Sagara puts him in terrible situations. Some of them are very typical of the comedy anime, others more original, but the fact that he's not your stupid japanese teenager but in fact a dumb-serious guy makes everything funnier.
Any anime fan can give FMP a chance and like it. From the young boys to shoujo girls, the show has what is need to please a wide audience. Perhaps of that it lacks a little "magical" point to make it a true behemoth, but it does what is supposed to do superbly.
show review
by Zaku88 on 2011-05-18 06:38
Rating:7.33
Approval:-
Sosuke is part of Mithril, a secret organization dedicated to protecting the planet from terrorism with technology and armament far surpassing that of any nation.
FMP is a mech/action about Sosuke who is sent to protect a high school girl, Chidori, who unknowingly possesses amazing technological knowledge. Overall, the series is pretty good but is overshadowed by the grandeur of it's successors (Fumoffu and TSR).
Animation:
Personally I think the mechs look strange and, well, unappealing. The characters are also somewhat odd at first, but I overcame that. Those aside, the general animation is done fairly well and the colors reflect the mood of the series.
Sound:
The OP was fairly good but I didn't like the ED that much. The background music also wasn't anything that memorable. Voice acting is the only plus here with the two main characters (Chidori and Sosuke) having superb voice actors.
Story:
There is a sharp contrast between the real battle world for Sosuke where death is a daily reality and the innocent high school life of Chidori.
The plot basically has Sosuke fighting to protect Kaname from various foes, and certain fights are quite intense. There isn't really a conclusion, more of a settling down after the climax, which makes sense since TSR takes place right after.
Character:
Sosuke is an amazing character. Not only is he highly trained and knowledgeable about military technology and mechs, he is also completely clueless regarding civilian life. This makes for a great deal of humor. His antics with Chidori alone make this an above average show.
Value:
While the show was entertaining and exciting at times, it is neither as intense as TSR nor as humorous as Fumoffu. Therefore, it serves only as the base and background for the latter two series.
show review
by lmm on 2008-08-11 01:15
Rating:8.5
Approval:15.0% (1 votes)
It's a great paradox that, at least for the "top half" quality-wise, the better a show becomes the less there is to say about it. Full Metal Panic is one of the best anime series I have ever seen, but because of that this will probably be my shortest ever review.
Where many of the "classics" of anime lose some or all of their enjoyment when held up to the light of present-day shows, FMP is the fine wine which is only improved by ageing. Of course the animation shows its age in places, but this is never enough to impinge on the crucial aspects of the show. Precisely what these aspects are remains curiously elusive, because FMP is that rarest of things - a show which is great not because of any one aspect, but rather excels in all areas, to the extent that it would be impossible for the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts, but there is no need for it to be.
If forced to pick the very best, I have to vote for the superb characterisation; no other series has succeeded so well at creating clear, distinct and distinctive characters without them being reduced to one-dimensional archetypes as exemplified by Evangelion. The personalities of many of the characters are simple, but never simplistic, and not one of the characters is anything other than believeable. The role of some first-class voice acting cannot be neglected in this either.
I could say more, but I'm conscious that I'm already waffling, when ultimately my views can be summed up in one line: I would recommend this series to anyone.
show review
by shogunrua on 2008-07-30 14:33
Rating:3.83
Approval:10.0% (4 votes)
[br]What, that's it?
[br]Despite not being much of a mecha fan, I decided to check this series out after a lot of strong recommendations from friends and online sites alike. I was expecting a compelling story, jaw-dropping action scenes, and decent humor. Those predictions went zero for three.
[br]Instead, I got a series which seems to have no clue what kind of story it wants to tell. Is it a romance story framed around action and comedy? Or is it an action series with comedy and romance thrown in? This synthesis can work, as long as the director is talented enough, and as long as putting these different elements together actually makes sense. Here, it doesn't.
[br]It's ridiculously contrived; there's no logical reason for a secret military organization to protect a Japanese schoolgirl, there's no explanation for why they would do so by any means other than kidnapping her, and there's no attempt at justifying a valuable military agent being used for that purpose. The whole pay-off here is supposed to be the humor in a naive member of the Special Forces going undercover in a Japanese high school.
[br]Now, if this set-up was treated as something absurd in its own right, with the fourth wall being broken, it could work. But therein lies the problem. It's treated seriously, just like a 14 year old, pink-haired, cute girl with giant eyes and a soft voice being the supreme commander of our secret military organization is treated with stone-faced sincerity, also.
[br]Then, the viewer is suddenly expected to care when the show takes a serious turn, and our Japanese schoolgirl heroine Chidori is kidnapped by an evil terrorist. It just doesn't work together; either stick with a humorous, light-hearted comedy approach, or go with a suspenseful action series instead.
[br]Worse still, neither the comedy, action, nor the romance in this series is particularly good.
[br]The humor was bland. A lot of canned, frequently repeated jokes from live action films, and too much of it based on a clueless military protagonist who doesn't understand civilians, a running gag which wears thin quickly. Most disappointingly, the show at no point mocks its own absurd premise.
[br]The cast is filled with shallow, cliche characters, stereotypical and retarded anime conventions (high school girls beat up a highly trained military operative), and perplexing and unreasonable events. One can't make a solid romance in such circumstances, either.
[br]The action was marginal at best, and an awful, mailed in job at the worst. The hand-to-hand fighting was stiff, awkward, and is worse than at least half the action anime from the nineties, let alone this decade. The mecha action was worse than any Gundam series from the mid 90's onward.
[br]The positives of the series is that it has good pacing and at least tries to inject some comedy into the work. The animation is also nice. That's about it. Don't believe the rest of the hype.
show review
by pakxenon on 2007-09-15 08:42
Rating:6.33
Approval:76.5% (2 votes)
With the hype of Fumoffu! and The Second Raid (produced by KyoAni), I had to see what it was about, so with the pickup of the first series (produced by GONZO), I intrigued myself into the world of Full Metal Panic!.
Foremost, I must comment on the different studios that worked with the same story. Because KyoAni supposedly did a superb job with both Fumoffu! and The Second Raid, I was hoping GONZO would provide at least the same level of animation as KyoAni would (Heck, KyoAni must be famous for AIR and Suzumiya Haruhi! Must live up to the hype, I guess). Unfortunately, this is not the case, and it shows mostly in the flow of the story.
The animation is okay. The CG with the submarines, torpedoes, and whatnot were pretty well done, but it doesn't match the 2D animation. Thick lines, thick colours, and thick just about everything else doesn't do the anime justice. This reminds me of the animation for D.N.Angel (see my review).
The OP and ED were dreary. I forced myself to listen to them, but they came off as boring pop songs. I didn't think it suited both the comedy and mecha aspects of the series, either. The soundtracks were okay, and the seiyuu did a good job.
The story... hmmm... find and kill the bad guy. In the middle of it is a mix of secondary character fillers, a poorly-developed love triangle, a couple of comedy moments, and people dying. Then things are mostly left unexplained - the Lambda Driver, the Whispered, and several other things. And it's got mecha in it! Yeah. Overall, splice the arcs up and you've got an uncohesive story that never brings anything to the table other than the suspense of what happens next, fights (with the occasionally good CG), and questioning whether that explosion killed the bad guy or not. And they weren't impressive - it was boring. The only good parts were the school-life arcs, which were very funny. The rest of the story falls flat from the usual mecha aspects.
The characters couldn't pull it out of the boringness as well. Sousuke is an okay insensitive mercenary who gradually gains humane aspects after watching people die. Then he took a 90 degree turn and he ended up fishing with Chidori - fishing is boring. Chidori is the female lead with the job of smacking the insensitive Sousuke and pretending that guns aren't real. Heck, when she was at gunpoint, I didn't think she was afraid of it even though she put on a face simply because of all the bitching she's done in the beginning of the series. Then Tessa is the captain of the ship with all the mercenaries googling over her for her cutsy charms and being a 16-year old. I found nothing special in each of them, and they all got boring. In these cases, I was hoping the villain could bring some light into this field, but Gauron is a psychotic terrorist who seems invincible and has the advantage with the Lambda Driver. No, he was boring and should have died in the first arc. He never should have appeared in the Desert arc, and Sousuke should have shot him on sight instead of taking him captive to make him confess.
With the review being this uncohesive, it's hard to choose cohesive words for this review as well seeing as the anime itself was uncohesive in the first place. Overall, GONZO's Full Metal Panic! must be watched before KyoAni's takes, but beware the boringness. It should have been shorter so I could move on to Fumoffu! and The Second Raid faster. I'm going to watch Fumoffu! and The Second Raid now.
