Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll
 

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Damn. I think this episode was more brutal than the second one. Few series make me want to watch mechas but Full Metal Panic sure grabbed me especially when we had to consider they were bringing chaos to the city.

Overall this is a tense episode. Belial cubstomping Arbalest is a bit short, but it already shows how OP Belial is. Leonard had a bit of mad moments while he only behaves like that much later though, I'm not too sure about the change.
How TDD escape Melida is also heavily modified from the original, which I prefer more than how the anime play out. Though I'm generally okay with the pace even I knew it'll be rushed.

There's a grave mistake though, as AL compared Belial's power to Erigor, which won't show up until much later. It should be Venom.

-The changes with Kaname having an active role in this episode was very good. I always thought her mental breakdown in the LN was quite iffy.
-The pacing was generally good all around
-There were actual meotional impact with Sousuke trying to stand his ground against Leonard, and when facing OnoD and the rest of the class.

And... that's about it for me.
This is probably the most bizarre episode in term of storyboard, hands down. I'm not sure how I can take seriously that scene with Sousuke and Kyoko being trapped with Amalgams agents. The absolute lack of camera works in that kind of scene is quite noticeable.
Same thing with how the Arbalest jumps and lands as if it was a lightweight mech or something (in particular at the midpoint where Kyoko got injured by some debris). On the other hands, it does crash forcefully at times, so it is really inconsistent.

But again, the music direction is beyond disppointing. I'm not sure why they keep insisting using Plan 1056 for chases involving nameless mooks. At least, the one used for Leonard was serviceable, but the rest of the episode was incredibly low key in term of BGM.
I'm not sure why they kept using Danaan BGM when it is ramming into the Behemoth and when Kurz sniped it.

I might sound like a broken record, but the series direction is incredibly weak.

And now you know why I like to describe the novel this story arc is based on as "Full Metal Panic does The Empire Strikes Back"... :heh:

Btw, if anyone is having trouble remembering who Wraith is, she's the agent from Mithril's Intelligence Division who was assigned to watch Kaname from the shadows. The one that Kaname confronted but ultimately ended up saving in the TSR episode with the assassin. (Note Wraith was disguised as an overweight man in that episode).

This episode was really great, they changed one moment that was quite important (Chidori getting tased by Sousuke) but in the end the result was the same, and honestly I prefer this version. The battle was very good, seeing Sousuke going on a rampage was cool, my only complaints are that the battle with Leonard felt too short (it was awesome but short) and that the mechas still feel a bit too weightless but that's no big deal.

It was sad seeing Sousuke dealing with all what happened in such a short amount of time, Kyoko badly injured, the Arbalest destroyed, Chidori leaving with Leonard and his classmates' reaction to the whole situation. Also AL's premonition was a good moment, Oh and my hatred for Leonard has come back in full force, fuck that guy.

OK, first off, another episode with no OP or ED. I thought they might do that, considering the amount of material they needed to animate, and the fact that they had to / wanted to do it in one episode. I wonder if we'll get a somewhat different OP now, like in the other seasons - no total overhaul, but small changes here and there (when I say OP, I mean visuals, not audio).

I would've liked Sousuke mention he knows who Kurama is - like in the novels - it shouldn't have taken more than 10 seconds or so. It establishes some kind of relation / understanding between the two of them, but maybe we'll get that later in the anime.

The battle between Arbalest and Belial was too short imo, I'm disappointed. No Lambda Driver effects - unless you count Belial's air attack - which kinda makes you wonder why Leonard was able to defeat Sousuke, and the others before him couldn't. As a novel reader you kinda have these answers, but as an anime-only watcher... not really.

The Merida Island battle / escape has also been modified and kinda rushed-over in this episode, but it still showed the key moments.

And one thing that's been talked about in ep. 3's topic as well, Chidori helping Sousuke instead of being left behind by Sousuke, after freaking out. I'm not sure it makes more sense; sure, she's been in some tight situations before, and even close to battle, but nothing on this scale and with these stakes. There was no all out attack in the middle of the city, no classmates in mortal danger*, nothing of this intensity or scale in the battles before. Plus, she's not a trained soldier, like Mithril's people, who are used to this kind of bloodshed and violence, she's just a simple high school girl in the end, even though she's a Whispered. I think her reactions to the events were very well captured in the second episode, and they fit better than her suddenly getting composed and helping by modifying Al's programming.

*sure, Gauron wanted to blow the plane after he got Chidori out of it in the very first novel / story arc, but she didn't know that, she thought it was simply a hijacking / ransom demand, unlike here where she saw a picture of Kyouko with a bomb strapped on her, plus a message saying there are bombs like that all over the school. As for the DVMC ship takeover, it was fake, staged by Mithril.

The fight is short indeed, but I think Belial's power is still shown properly. You see, it's kinda just "appear" behind Arbalest without AL or Sousuke realized before an arm was cut off, and also its otherworldly, nigh-impossible moves for an AS which simply tears Arbalest apart and Sousuke is clearly being beaten even at his full reflex. Also, back in the novel Belial doesn't demonstrate much LDS power against Arbalest, just chops and 40mm cannons near the end. So the whole thing is fine for me.

This episode corrected the negative trend of the previous installments. Everything came together very well. I was particularly impressed (and surprised) by the part where Wraith came in disguised as a teacher and then started killing the guys holding Sousuke and Kyoko hostage. The fight with Leonard was short but as HunterSeeker notes it successfully conveyed the strength of his mech.

Man talk about several years overdue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxEDqiVh1D4

Agree with Hunterseeker as well about the quality of the fight; the very deliberate CGI movements give a sense of coiled power. A longer fight would still have been more of good thing though, and the tragic parting scene does suffer from the rushed pace. The slow, rainy parting scene in 'The Second Raid' was much stronger, though this was maybe closer to the (also stronger) final scene of original Berserk. At least we should be getting a proper ending this time.

No comments about Mao and Tessa's mutual love? I guess no surprise that everyone loves Tessa. Behemoth death was impressive in a fun sort of way.

this anime makes good use of 2D with 3D.

I liked the scene where Ono-D got mad at Sousuke for deceiving the school better than the novel since since it shows the impact.

Maybe it's because I never ended up reading the novels past the end of TSR (no official translations) but I enjoyed the episode. Things are progressing nicely, the action movie clichés are there and characters aren't acting out of character. I won't even complain about Chidori there since she I can totally see her doing that when all she saw was the far away explosions, her best friend risking dead and the person she loves about to be killed. Chidori was always strong, it only makes sense that if she can do something to stop things she will (and there was no reason for her to freak out here since she didn't see anything too major).

You can totally see that some serious writing chops had to be pulled to tell the story as fast as they are doing so but what can you do? I only wish someone would pick up the novels again and given them a proper full translation this time. :(

There is a translation of the manga, though.

Bad news: It's clip show next week. Talk about hard schedules.
https://twitter.com/fullmeta_iv/stat...55020781268992

Why am I not surprised at this, considering the Chofu arc is over?

At least FUNI'll have time to catch up by one episode.

is there a reason why Sousuke wasn't using the lambda driver?

Well, in the novels he uses it against the Codarls, but against Leonard it seems he was no match, Lambda Driver or not. Keep in mind that Leonard is a whispered, while Sousuke is just an AS pilot, albeit an elite one specialist ;). So it's very likely Leonard understands the LD better than Sousuke, and had more time to learn how to use it.


Something had fallen from that plane. That's all that Sousuke knew. But, what was it..?
<Six o'clock, Range Zero!>
An AS was standing right behind him.
Sousuke moved at the same time the 'enemy' AS's right arm, quick as lightning, sliced the Arbalest's shoulder armor. Faster than the equipment could drop to the ground, the Arbalest defended, pulling the shot cannon from its waist and firing. The 'enemy figure' quickly wavered, and the shots cut uselessly through the air, disappearing into the distance.
"Uh..."
He jumped back to gain some distance, but the enemy was still there.
Quietly. So quietly it was almost suffocating.

[...]

His 'Belial' spun in mid-air, stopped, zigzagged, and flew towards the enemy's back. Right now his thoughts were concentrated on his intentions and all of the laws of physics.
He hadn't yet used any of the weapons fixed on his back. A strike from his hand was enough. Sousuke's machine turned around, and he cut off its left arm below the shoulder. Even though the damaged AS lost its balance, it pointed the shot cannon at him and fired.
Leonard stopped the shot without difficulty, throwing it back on his opponent. It hit. Metal fragments went flying, and the enemy's right knee bent back in the opposite direction.
There was no way he could win. Against someone like himself. Someone who could freely use the 'omnisphere' and bring out all of the Lambda Driver's power, like himself.

yeah, that makes sense. it also said the output of Leonard's AS was far greater than the "fodder" (which i remember right, were like elite AS and gave Sousuke a run for his money in TSR).