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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 05 November 2007 17:00 |
 Sometimes, you get a series that has the potential to be a real killer, and starts off looking like it's going to make the most of that potential - and then somewhere along the line it all falls apart and you're left with a disappointment, not to mention a pile of DVDs that you have a sudden urge to throw on ebay. Guess how I felt after watching seven volumes of Full Metal Panic!? Unfortunately, the discs will have gone by the time you read this. A much easier task than killing Gauron, that's for sure...
Full Metal Panic! comes from two distinct sources: a series of novels, which focus on paramilitary anti-terrorist organisation Mithril and the mecha battles that flow from their efforts to maintain peace and order in the world; and a more comedic manga side which revolves around the high-school lives of Kaname Chidori and her Mithril-assigned protector, Sousuke Sagara. FMP! tries to mix both sides of the idea into one animated series - and it's probably a testament to how well that worked (or didn't) that the two sequels that spun off front it both picked an aspect and stuck with it, Fumoffu! taking the comedy role and Second Raid taking the mecha. Sometimes, when you try to give the audience the best of both worlds, you end up annoying everyone.
The setup is good, though. Mithril is headed by child prodigy Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa - no more than 16, and she's already captain of the organisation's state-of-the-art submarine, the de Danaan - a ship she designed herself. Her abilities come from her being a Whispered - a person with an innate understanding of technology. No-one knows where or why the Whispered got their abilities, but their level of knowledge is far beyond what modern science has worked up to, and that makes them very valuable.
No prizes for guessing, then, that Kaname is also one of the Whispered, and once Mithril become aware of this, Sergeant Sosuke Sagara is sent to Japan to be her protector. He's been involved in the military, first through civil wars and then Mithril, since he was a kid, so when he gets to Japan and takes up his role as a normal high-school kid, he finds it almost impossible to fit in - it's a world so alien to what he's always known that he has great problems adjusting, and his military over-reaction to just about any perceived threat to Kaname, no matter how small, becomes the bedrock for the show's comedy side. This is where FMP! really shines - the interactions between Kaname and Sousuke (and later Tessa, when she visits Japan - she has something of a crush on Sousuke, you see) are just pure comedy gold and the real highlight of the series.
Problem is, producers GONZO have opted to focus on the more action-based side of the series. This introduces series villain Gauron, someone who Sagara has dealt with in the past and who has proven himself to be a formidable foe. He's a mercenary, willing to take on any job as long as the price is right, and he's currently trying to gather up the Whispered - his employers have a number of experiments they'd like to carry out in the hope of gaining their knowledge. Mithril isn't about to let the power of the Whispered get into the hands of any potential terrorists, and so they set about defeating Gauron and his plans.
Problem #1: FMP!'s action sequences just aren't up to scratch - settings and mech designs are uninspired, there's too much posing and shouting going on, and battle choreography doesn't really do anything that gives the combat a "wow!" factor. It just happens, and the story moves on, leaving you just thinking, "okay, now what?". There's no sense of engagement.
Problem #2: Gauron Just Won't Die. Several times here, he's put into situations that should kill any person, normal or otherwise, but every time he comes back. It stretches disbelief to breaking point, and eventually you just get to the point where you don't care any more - no matter what Mithril and Sagara do, they're not going to defeat him, so why bother any more? Find some other way to protect the Whispered, and get back to the comedy, please.
Problem #3: Not being able to decide if it's a comedy or action series leaves the whole experience feeling just a little schizophrenic. The show's backers clearly realised this when it came to continuing the show, but it does this incarnation no favours at all. The end result is completely underwhelming.
It's a damn shame, too. Apart from Gauron, the characters - both the school side and Mithril side - are a great bunch, with a wide range of personalities on show, each of them with their own flaws that can be played on for comic or dramatic effect. There's a huge amount of fun to be had playing with the stereotypes and the interactions between them, but sadly as the show goes on that gets done less and less as the mecha action begins to take over. By the end of the series, it had become a real chore to watch - Kaname and Tessa have their own charm in any situation, Sagara, Kurz and Melissa also work quite well most of the time, but when the story eventually comes down to endless action against Gauron, it just becomes tedious.
So I'd have a hard time recommending Full Metal Panic! in the first place. The problem becomes worse, though, when you look at the price - I'd complained about the disparity between the UK and US prices in my review of the Chrono Crusade complete collection, and this release suffers from the same problem. If I can get it for £25 after online discounts from the US, why on earth would I pay £50+ for it here? The US price is justifiable - the UK price isn't, and that's the real killer for me.
If you want full episode summaries, check out the reviews of the individual releases. No screenshots, sadly, as these are from way back in the site's early days (when we were running on a Movable Type blog - remember them?) before I started adding them. How the times have changed!
» Volume 2
» Volume 3
» Volume 4
» Volume 5
» Volume 6
» Volume 7
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