 Tying up the loose ends from the last volume before getting back down to some good comedy, it's the latest volume of Full Metal Panic!...
16 - The Wind Blows at Home, Part II
Sagara's mission in his homeland continues. With two of his team-mates
out of the action, the remaining ones are beginning to pay a little
more attention to his advice. While Gauron appears to have pulled back
for a while, the enemy's regular troops aren't giving Sagara & co
much chance to catch their thoughts. With one injured team member,
though, the first priority is getting him to some medical help, &
during the trip to 'safety' there's a chance to find out some more
about Sagara's past...
17 - The Wind Blows at Home, Part III
Gauron's back, with a trap laid for Sagara and his team. One of
Gauron's team is Zaied, childhood 'friend' of Sagara's who has switched
sides. That gives the enemy something of an advantage over Sagara's
team, and it's an advantage Gauron uses to full advantage. In the end
it comes down to a one-on-one between Sagara & Gauron - and with
Gauron seemingly having more lives than a cat, can Sagara salvage something from his mission?
18 - Deep Sea Party
Back to school. finally, and away from the battlefield stories. Yayy!
It's the last week of the summer holidays, and Sagara's invited Kana on
a holiday to the southern islands - "Just the two of us", he says. What
he forgets to mention is that this particular southern island is one of
Mithril's base. Not that Kana ever gets to see it - thanks to an
emergency, she ends up being parachuted on board the deDanaan along
with Sagara, just in time for a party... Meanwhile, Gauron (who somehow
still manages to be alive) seems to have anothe plan up his sleeve...
The more I see of the serious side of Full Metal Panic!, the more I wish they'd just stick to the comedy - which is why I like 'sequel' series Fumoffu!
so much. I found myself wishing Gauron and Sagar would just get on with
it for most of the first 2 episodes, and my attention was wandering
through most of it - even looking at these as purely action episodes,
they're lacking in terms of both plot (too predictable) and setting
(one desert canyon looking much like another - a bit like Star Trek, where away missions teneded to take place in anonymous caves when there wasn;t enough budget to do anything fancier.
The final episode was a welcome relief - while it was still
essentially a serious episode, there was enough comedy in there to
lighten the tone and remind me what parts of the show I liked -
otherwise this disc would have been a total bust, for me anyway.
Mecha fans will probably get more out of this than I did, but for those who watch FMP! for the Sousuke / Kaname comedy scenes, this isn't the greatest of volumes... |
