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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Friday, 14 April 2006 00:00 |
 Take the original Full Metal Panic!, remove annoying villians (Gauron), Arm Slaves, and anything else resembling the action side of the series, and ramp up the comedy - and you're left with Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU! I challenge anyone to keep a straight face for this one - comedy series can be very hit or miss depending on your sense of humour, but FUMOFFU seems to hit all the right buttons...
1a - The Man from the South
When Sousuke finds signs of tampering near his shoe locker, in his mind it's obvious that someone's trying to kill him, and controlled explosions soon follow. Well, maybe not controlled ones. Truth is, though, it's no terrorist - one of the girls at school has somehow managed to fall in love with him, and was just leaving a love letter in his locker - but by the time Sousuke recovers what's left of the letter, he's convinced it's a challenge, and isn't about to listen to Kaname's protests that it's not...
1b - A Hostage with No Compromises
Sousuke's made enemies of the three guys who were trying to take advantage of Ena in part 1, and they're looking for revenge - with a little help from gang leader Mari Akutsu, who advises them that sometimes the indirect approach works better. In this case, that means kidnapping Kaname and using her as a hostage. Seems they still don't quite realise who they're messing with...
2a - Hostility Passing-By
After an unfortunate lunchtime incident at the student snack stand leaves the catering staff hospitalised (all Sousuke's fault, of course), Sousuke and Kaname are left in charge of student lunches. Kogure-sensei, one of the teachers who holds a grudge against Sousuke, sees his opportunity to discredit him by sabotaging the lunches, but Sousuke's ready for anything that Kogure can throw at him...
2b - A Fruitless Lunchtime
Sousuke's having problems with his Japanese Classics homework, so Kaname lends him her notes to help him out. One good turn deservers another, but this isn't to be Kaname's day as Sousuke forgets to bring her notes in the next day. With the Classics teacher being the unforgiving sort & less than an hour to go until class starts, the race is on for Sousuke to get Kaname her notes in time for class...
3 - Summer Illusion of Steel
It's summer, and Kaname & co are at the beach - fun for everyone, normally, except Kaname doesn't seem to be enjoying herself. She's gone to all the effort of buying a new bikini, and Sousuke won't even comment on it. Fortunately, there's someone who will pay attention to her - local rich kid Masatami, who's determined to meet this vision of beauty and sends his manservant to bring her to him. When Sousuke eventually realises she's gone, he heads off in search of her...
One thing that always bothered me about the original Full Metal Panic! series was that it never seemed sure if it wanted to be a serious action series or a comedy, which left the whole thing feeling just a little disjointed. FUMOFFU looks to correct that issue, by jettisoning anything remotely serious and concentrating solely on the fun stuff - so it's back to high school for Kaname and Sousuke, and not an Arm Slave in sight. If you want the serious side of the story, you'll have to wait for FMP! The Second Raid to appear. Me, I'm perfectly happy with the comedy mayhem.
The whole comedy aspect comes from Sousuke being completely out of his depth in high school - he's been fighting wars of one sort or another since he was a kid, so dealing with normal people in a normal setting is so completely abnormal to him that he has absolutely no concept of how to react, and just sticks to what he knows best - explosives and guns. If an everyday incident can be interpreted in both a threatening or non-threatening way, guess which way he goes. There are some rare flashes of common-sense in there - for example, the way he deals with Kana's kidnapper by persuading the kidnapper's little brother to help him out - but for the most part it's just slapstick comedy that hovers right on the edge of believability.
Depth and story? Not a bit of it, and it really isn't required. FUMOFFU is one of those series that just lets you switch off completely and forget about anything that's bothering you, leaving nothing but an idiotic grin. It's not entirely perfect, but it's pretty damn close. Well worth checking out.
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