 A four-part story arc on one disc, here, as Full Metal Panic tries to merge its Mithril / military & high-school personas into one story. No-one is more surprised than me that they managed to pull it off...
9 - Dangerous Safe House
A young boy goes psycho while dealing with Japanese immigration - at first you might wonder what significance this could this have for Kana & Sagara, but it soon becomes clear that the boy is a member of terrorist group 'A21' and, according to Mithril's sources, may have the ability to operate the Lambda Driver. That makes him, and his proximity to Kana, a concern to Mithril - enough of a concern that Tessa feels the need to investigate the matter in person. When A21 come looking for their missing member, though, Tessa finds herself in real trouble and, with nowhere else to run, find herself at Sagara's apartment, her captive in tow. There are no problems with that in theory, of course - at least until Kaname finds Tessa emerging, half-naked, from the bathroom...
10 - Run, Running, Run
After a little bit of explaining, Sagara has managed to avert Kaname's wrath for another day - although she's having an understandably hard time believing that Tessa - a 16-year-old girl, remember - can be captain of a submarine. There's little time for rest for anyone, however, as A21 are hunting down their missing member, with the help of a micro-transmitter embedded in his arm that leads them straight to Sagara's apartment. A moment's drop of the guard & Teletha and Kaname are captured by A21, leaving Sagara with a hostage situation he'd rather not deal with...
11 - Behemoth Awakening
With Sousuke's rescue plan undone by Kaname & Tessa's stubborness, it's up to him to come up with a Plan B, and fortunately reinforcements have just arrived in the form of Kurz & Melissa. A21 have an ace up their sleeve, however, in the form of the Behemoth - an Arm Slave of mammoth proportions, just waiting to be unleashed on Tokyo...
12 - One Night Stand
With the JSDF unable to offer much resistance, it ends up being up to Mithril to stop the Behemoth, but with Tessa aware that she would have been able to avoid the havoc wreaked by Behemoth if she had taken her chance to kill its pilot when she had the chance previously, she's having a crisis of confidence in herself. The delivery of the Arbalest to Sousuke gives the forces of good a fighting chance, at least...
Remember, kids, don't try microwaving your arm at home. It's really not good for you, embedded micro-transmitters or not. I'm vaguely surprised that that scene got past our friends at the BBFC, doubly so since this volume only carries a PG rating. Go figure. But that's it for Public Safety Announcements on this page...
This disc is pretty much one self-contained story arc in a nice bite-sized chunk, following A21's efforts to release mayhem - in the form of their Behemoth - on Tokyo. Unlike the previous hijack arc, though, this arc manages to mix serious drama & comedy fairly well - while it's not as much fun as the pure high-school life stories, it manages to make all the serious military stuff more fun to watch than the previous foray into Mithril territory did. The big difference that makes it work? The presence of Tessa & the way she and Kaname play against each other, which is a real joy to watch. Much as Kana may not want to admit she has feelings for Sousuke, the presence of a rival doesn't half fire her up, and Tessa clearly has her own ideas of what she'd like to do with the sergeant. And there's me thinking there were rules against commanding officers canoodling with their subordinates.
Another big difference is that, unlike stories involving Gauron, the members of A21 are much easier to feel some sort of sympathy for - their leader in particular, with the connection that she manages to form with Kalinin & the tale she tells of her organisation's formation. For all that these are one-trick guest appearances, they manage to be more fleshed out & believable characters than Gauron has managed to be up until now (and as far as I can remember, ever gets to be) - and he's the big series badguy. Go figure. It's things like that that only add to the sense of annoyance I get whenever the big man appears on screen.
On the downside, the Behemoth itself is a bloody awful plot device, with a number of aspects to it - its size included - that just had me shaking my head. Worst of all was the deep, rumbling laugh that the mech has been endowed with - what, the designers took the time to add voice-modifying hardware to its sound system so that the pilot sounded more ominous? Yeah, that's one of those essential tools of modern urban warfare. If I was being brutally honest, I'd also liked to have seen Tessa being a little more assertive in her role - there are times shen she's confident and clearly in charge, but there are also a lot of moments where that slips and she becomes a teenaged girl again - and that persona really doesn't fit with what the series paints her as being, the commander of a military organisation. Grow a little backbone, girl, and don't just look cute.
Overall, though, this is a fairly impressive disc that manages to bring together a large chunk of FMP!'s disparate cast for a sidestory that manages to work a lot better than the main arc sometimes manages, with plenty of action, some surprises along the way and a few laugh-out-loud moments as well. Recommended.
|
Reviews Archive 
