Anime Full Metal Panic!

[Guest john_dbz2003]

Has anyone seen this? It is an awesome anime!!! It has great graphics along with cool and funny characters. I suggest this anime to all.

[Dagger]

I've seen the first eight episodes. As I said in a different thread, it's certainly a promising series, but after all the hype, I definitely expected more.

The animation is certainly lovely, and I appreciate that they exercised restraint in the use of CG. However, good graphics alone do not make a show great.

I liked the main characters well enough, particularly Chidori. Yet FMP just didn't grab my attention the way other, better series have (RahXephon, for example).

If it included more character development, sharper humor, and a tighter plot, I'd be a huge fan.

~Dagger~

[Kinoko Shima]

I love FMP. It's one of my favorites. I've only seen it in Japanese, though, but that doesn't really change how good a show it is, right?

It's really funny too. My favorite character is Sousuke. He's like a mix between Heero from Gundam Wing, Kamui from X, and Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. (the X shaped scar)

I like the art, and everyone's well drawn. All in all it's an awesome show. BLAH! I'm babbling....

[lumberjack80]

i enjoy FMP, but it isn't my favorite anime by a long shot. it's good, don't get me wrong, but it can't stand up to powerhouses like cowboy bebop. i picked up the first 3 FMP dvd's and some of the episodes seem like night and day. for instance, the episodes are grouped together like 3 will occur at the high school and then 3 will occur on a battlefield. i think the plot could have been smoothed out a little better to help balance out the comedy, romance, and action. i'm interested to see how the rest of the episodes pan out. but, i have to hand it to them, some of the funniest television i have seen are the scenes where sousuke tries to act "casually" around other students his age.

[Kinoko Shima]

Oh yeah! My fav. was when Sousuke was pretending to be that girl's boyfriend on the second dvd. I forget the girl's name though. It was hilarious though.

[Verykawaiineko]

yayy FMP ....the nicer funnier more romantic version of Gundam wing..ive only read the manga but i must say this poor sousuke is SO henpecked!!!!!!

[Hittokiri Zero]

It's a weird combination of humor and action, and at the end of the series all I can say is I was expecting more =\. Not to say this is still one of my favorite animes ^___^. Probably becasue i'm a huge mecha fan... but that's just it despite it's appearance there isn't a whole lotta mecha action in FMP it's really about relationships/change and it's just all out funny =O. Not to say it didn't have it's serious moments as it did have alot of them. I just wish there was a "real" second series *a continuation* now that would be sweet ='].

[Dagger]

What do you mean by a "real" second series? I've heard that the second season (which is supposed to be even more comedically oriented than the first) is currently showing in Japan.

I really, really wanted to like FMP, and I definitely plan on attempting to finish its first 26 episodes. Is the conclusion (or lack thereof) something of a letdown? I'm mainly curious because I don't want to waste my money on a show that will only end up disappointing me.

~Dagger~

[Hittokiri Zero]

Hmmm... The conclusion just seems very rushed =\ and really left you wanting more... You should watch it anyway but it's really not up to par with other parts of the series.

Anyway the secound series is "Full Metal Panic Fumoffu" it is indeed a real series I guess but what it lacks from the original is really any mecha battle scenes and instead focuses mainly on the relationship between Sousuke and Kaname. Um I don't believe it's done airing yet and i've only seen the first few episodes but really it's just a pure comedy/romance version of Full Metal Panic more on the comedic side I guess from what i've seen of it, it is quite good and humourous at that. But it really lacks any serious/dark aspects to it (so far...).

[url]http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=590[/url]

There is a review for the series it doesn't contain any spoilers either but it should much better explain what the 2nd series is all about.

[Guest niassassa]

I think anyone into anime probably has heard of Full Metal Panic, I think it is one of the best anime series, but thats just me. It combines a lot of everything I like. please post what you think of it below:D

[Dagger]

I recently bought the first two volumes of Full Metal Panic. After all I've heard about it, I ended up being pretty disappointed. FMP has many fantastic (albeit short) action sequences, but so do a number of other recent shows; at this point, good animation really isn't a sufficient reason to watch any otherwise unremarkable series.

I'm very, very picky about comedy in anime, which may be one of the reasons why I'm judging this show a bit harshly. I don't see what's so funny about yet another feisty female lead who yells "Pervert!" when [i]she's[/i] the one wearing an overly skimpy school uniform. I have nothing against fan service, but I'm tired of series that carry it to unrealistic levels. Faye Valentine is a grown woman--her body type may be somewhat improbable, but at least she's not supposed to be sixteen. Frankly, Kaname just doesn't look her age.

Even this would not be problematic, were it not for the fact that Full Metal Panic has difficulty establishing a consistent tone. Combining genres is one thing; veering back and forth between (poorly done) romantic comedy and tense, dramatic action is something else all together. Light-hearted fan service, such as unusually short skirts, belongs in the first category. The heavier stuff (of which FMP has quite a bit) belongs in the second.

What I'm trying to say is that this series feels a little incongruous. I love its action, and its character designs are very easy on the eyes, but I'm quite bored by FMP's humorous episodes. The show's plot also seems somewhat suspect: the whole "sketchy guys doing bad stuff in Russia" theme is so cliched that I just couldn't bring myself to take it seriously (especially since those scenes are accompanied by extremely cheesy background music).

I wanted to like Full Metal Panic, and I may try to give it a second chance. But for now, I just don't see what sets this series apart.

~Dagger~

[Guest niassassa]

yeah i guess thats right. and especially about Kaname not looking her age and her calling Souske the pervert... just out of curiosity, what is your favorite anime movie/series?

[Dagger]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by niassassa [/i]
[B]yeah i guess thats right. and especially about Kaname not looking her age and her calling Souske the pervert... just out of curiosity, what is your favorite anime movie/series? [/B][/QUOTE]

Although I'm glad that you agree, it's really just a manner of opinion. So I technically can't be "right." ^_~

At the moment, my favorite series are RahXephon, Gravitation, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Boogiepop Phantom, Fruits Basket and The Big O. I haven't seen enough full-length anime films to list my favorites, but I do watch OAVs. Of those, I particularly like Read or Die, Shamanic Princess and Voices of a Distant Star.

How much of Full Metal Panic have you seen? I've only watched its first eight episodes, so I have no idea how the show turns out. If you've seen its ending, would you say that it wraps things up in a satisfactory manner?

~Dagger~

[eleanor]

[size=1] I really don't like Kaname, I don't know why, I just don't. She give me the impression of a hyper teenager who bounces around with PINK TENNIS SHOES insulting Sosuke every moment she gets, and she can't control herself at all. Wait, she [i]is[/i]. Dagger, the last time I saw Kaname on manga cover, she was wearing a two-inch skirt while bending over, holding this random strip of paper or whatever, so I'd have to agree with you on that part. [/end rant]

I watched parts of Full Metal Panic after my friend Andrew kept on insisting that it was the best anime show ever and that I had to see it. Frankly, I don't like it. Heck, I don't even like the actions scenes. I don't like mecha-battle scenes for some reason [except for Evangelion, even though they're not really machines.] I forced myself to watch another episodes, but to no avail, it was no good. The whole romantic situation is unoriginal, and I will have to say that I don't like the art style. It's shallow, but I usually dislike watching an anime with an art style I don't enjoy... unless the anime is good enough to make me forget about the art style. *sighs* Maybe it's just me and the lack of episodes I've really watched.[/size]

[ElvenSlurpee]

FMP had too many sub-plots beneath the main-plot, too many for how short the series was. I didnt mind the character attitudes, since they're so steriotypical that they dont bug me anymore. The fact that he had what seemed like 300 Lbs of weapons on him at all times, even though meant to be humorous, just got old after the first 5 eps. I do think after a while into it gets much much better. But overall its just an average anime in my eyes.

On the otehr hand you have FMP, Fumoffu! which i found very very entertaining. I loved Fumoffu, it was more focused around one plot, opposed to many. It was just much more fun to watch, since it wasnt meant as a drama or romance, just humor. Or at least thats what my take was on it. More about Sousukes struggles of being an average teenager than a Military Man, fumoffu was just great fun to watch.

[Guest niassassa]

sorry dagger I haven't seen the end yet, only the first three dvd's. At the local store where I buy my anime they didn't have the others. they said they were sold out, I will check back this weekend to see if they got them.

[Shizoku]

Well I think This is a great show too. Its interesting, sasuke or however you spell it, is funny how he is always acting like a proper military guy. I think its funny that the captian and him are only 16. What counts for me is at the end of an episode I am always wanting to see the next so badly (watching it On Demand lol). And when I have to wait I watch Excel saga heh.

Yaya, she has a short skirt, but so does every anime, where the setting takes place at school a majority of the time. But, I'm not watching anime to see girls in short skirts, so doesn't bother me.

[Dagger]

You know, I think I've been a wee bit unfair in judging FMP so hastily. Part of the problem is that I started purchasing it around the same time I began watching RahXephon (one of the best anime [i]ever[/i] made). I also had ridiculously high expectations for the series, since many fans raved about it when first few volumes were released. Full Metal Panic is a fun, semi-serious romp. Considered in that context, it succeeds well enough to satisfy--and besides, the mecha battles are pretty damn awesome. :D

~Dagger~

[Solo Tremaine]

[COLOR=#503F86]I enjoyed Full Metal Panic. Although it lacked some of the deeper storylines of series like RahXephon, it didn't pretend to be anything other than what it was, which was a light-hearted action show. Being GONZO studios, I liked the animation and character design- slightly more shoujo than RahXephon, but not over-exaggerated.

It's not my favourite series, and I wouldn't buy it on DVD, but I'm glad that I watched it. A friend of mine was interested in the series after seeing it shown in a comic shop. I didn't really have many expectations of it, apart from one person who said it was 'not that bad'. I loved the chemistry between Sosuke and Koname in the first few volumes, but it seemed to lose something towards the end, when it started becoming more action-based. It might have gotten in the way of the storyline a bit, but somehow it never really felt concrete enough towards the end to have really resolved. I know the Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu (or whatever it is) mini-series looks more at their school life together, but it would have been nice to have seen more of that. I felt the LAMDA Driver and [spoiler]Gauron's constant reappearing[/spoiler] were left too unexplained as well. But it was worth watching.

As for the mechs... I think I prefer Zoids, but they were still pretty cool ^_^[/COLOR]

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

Well, I've watched about half of both seasons so far (watching them simultaneously, which seems to work well actually). It's quite amusing, and I like the artwork. The characters are generic, they look older than they are supposed to be, and the plot is bogus, but ignoring that it's enjoyable. I don't plan on getting much out of this show, but so far it holds together no worse than any other anime I've seen. It's not like the plots of Trigun/Cowboy Bebop/NGE were any less bogus, really.

[Dagger]

I wish I didn't change my mind about specific series so often. It's rather inconvenient. ^_^;;

Oh, well... I can't exactly complain. I started to revisit a series which I had really, really thought I would enjoy, and I've discovered that it is in fact quite nicely suited to my tastes. Having become more comfortable with the characters, I'm starting to find their antics amusing (while in earlier episodes the attempts at comedy just annoyed me). It helps that Full Metal Panic's dub improves drastically around episode 9, and from thence forward is absolutely stellar. Now I'm actually looking forward to ADV's release of Fumoffu, the more humorous and light-hearted second season.

~Dagger~

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

Yeah Fumoffu was a real treat. The fact that the fansubs are of really good quality helps, but mostly it was that the show was actually funny.

FMP, with Fumoffu, does exactly what a whole bunch of other anime should've done but didn't. Trigun and Cowboy Bebop are examples--add more episodes with just random funny stuff to make you like the characters more. Vash's antics were in my opinion the best part of Trigun. I'm glad that FMP had the opportunity to make a second season and did it right (the first season was good, too).

Really FMP is my favorite anime by far. It's just way way more polished than any other I've seen (which is not to say that it's perfect, but rather that the others I've see are very far from it).

[Hittokiri Zero]

While I never bothered with FMP: Fumoffu, I enjoyed the original Full Metal Panic; the ending was anti-climatic and I really wish many more of the loose ends were tied up but... Supposedly a 3rd installment of Full Metal Panic is in the works! The September 2004 issue of Dragon Magazine is supposed contain a big announcement about Full Metal Panic (wasn't this similar to how Fumoffu was announced o_O)? The japanese fansite fullmeta.com (which is considered credible by many people). also states that the series will be directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto (the same person who directed Fumoffu). I'm honestly hoping for a continuation of the first series rather than Fumoffu though >_>...

[Shinjitsu]

[color=dodgerblue]I was never actually ever going to watch FMP, but it happened by chance that I saw a FMP AMV and ended up getting hooked ^_^ Though so far I've only watched the first five episodes - because my computer's slow -_-[/color]

[Guest VietYukikochan]

[COLOR=Indigo][B]I really enjoyed watching Full Metal Panic Fumoffu because it was a great anime to watch full of comedy and romance.It was really hilarious and I don't regret watching Full Metal Panic.[/B] [/COLOR] :)