Full Metal Panic was one of 2002's biggest hits in Japan and it's easy to see why. The anime mixes beautiful animation with an engaging plot and likeable characters. The story follows Kaname Chidori, one of the most popular girls at school, who lives the life of the normal high school girl until a strange boy named Sousuke Sagara shows up in her class. She soon learns - and admittedly has a difficult time accepting - that Sousuke's part of an elite anti-terrorist organization and his latest mission is to protect Kaname from anyone that might want to kidnap her.
As it turns out, Kaname is one of the "Whispered," which means she has hidden knowledge of advanced technology. Several terrorist organizations are looking to get their hands on her because if they can probe her brain, they'll learn how to make weapons more advanced than nukes. The anime doesn't really go into much detail on who the Whispered are, where they came from, how many of them exist, or how they came to possess such knowledge - perhaps they'll expand on this in 3rd season, just announced. Regardless, this is all revealed in episode 5 and the anime doesn't come back to this theme until eps 20+ where clarification is scanty at best.
As it turns out, Kaname is one of the "Whispered," which means she has hidden knowledge of advanced technology. Several terrorist organizations are looking to get their hands on her because if they can probe her brain, they'll learn how to make weapons more advanced than nukes. The anime doesn't really go into much detail on who the Whispered are, where they came from, how many of them exist, or how they came to possess such knowledge - perhaps they'll expand on this in 3rd season, just announced. Regardless, this is all revealed in episode 5 and the anime doesn't come back to this theme until eps 20+ where clarification is scanty at best.
Sousuke grew up in Afghanistan and joined a guerilla movement at age 8. He's been with some type of military unit or organization ever since. So, you can imagine that he doesn't deal real well with the perils of high school life. Still, he's "undercover" and must protect Kaname from any potential threats or suspicious activity. His backups include Sgt Melissa Mao, his spunky supervisor who's not afraid to speak her mind, and lady's man/ expert shooter, Kurz Weber.
The anime works really well as a combination of action/adventure mixed with romantic comedy. Several of the episodes are mission driven military crusades involving intense mech battles while others are light-hearted slap-stick school scenes where Sousuke must learn proper high school etiquette. Some of the more humorous scenes include him attempting to understand the dating scene by failing miserably at a dating sim, and him giving Kaname a lovely set of earrings and a bracelet, only to inform her that the earrings are really flash grenades and the bracelet is a tracking device. Despite Sousuke's good intentions, he gets smacked by Kaname quite a bit.
The anime works really well as a combination of action/adventure mixed with romantic comedy. Several of the episodes are mission driven military crusades involving intense mech battles while others are light-hearted slap-stick school scenes where Sousuke must learn proper high school etiquette. Some of the more humorous scenes include him attempting to understand the dating scene by failing miserably at a dating sim, and him giving Kaname a lovely set of earrings and a bracelet, only to inform her that the earrings are really flash grenades and the bracelet is a tracking device. Despite Sousuke's good intentions, he gets smacked by Kaname quite a bit.
I was surprised by the excellent pacing of the storyline. Most animes lag somewhere along the way, but FMP worked really well to contrast Sousuke's life as a military mercenary with Kaname's life as a popular high school girl and still maintain flow.
That being said, there were a couple of times when Sousuke had ample opportunity to kill the anime's big bad along the way before things ballooned to the last several episodes, but I'll give the anime the benefit of the doubt. You can't have a mech anime without the last episodes being the grand finale, I suppose. And I do wish there had been a bit more background information on the Whispered, Mithril, and some of the characters. Still, given that I'm not a big mech fan, I was amazed that I enjoyed this one so much.
That being said, there were a couple of times when Sousuke had ample opportunity to kill the anime's big bad along the way before things ballooned to the last several episodes, but I'll give the anime the benefit of the doubt. You can't have a mech anime without the last episodes being the grand finale, I suppose. And I do wish there had been a bit more background information on the Whispered, Mithril, and some of the characters. Still, given that I'm not a big mech fan, I was amazed that I enjoyed this one so much.
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