Let's Watch Full Metal Panic Together!

[Darthtabby]

With a new season of Full Metal Panic set to begin airing in Fall 2017, I figured now would be an excellent time for newcomers to get acquainted with the franchise (and for franchise veterans to get re-acquainted with it). To that end I plan to do a weekly group watch of Full Metal Panic and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid starting in the new year. The idea is to watch and discuss the shows as if they were currently airing. Conveniently, they are both available via streaming on Funimation's website (its also available on their youtube channel but the video on their own website looks sharper).

I plan to begin this group watch on January 8, 2017 -the 15th Anniversary of the airing of the first episode of the first season of Full Metal Panic. (If any of you hardcore fans can find out the timeslot the show originally aired, I might even try to kick things off at exactly that time if it proves practical to do so.) My intention is to begin discussion at 10am Pacific Standard Time on that day.

I know there are a lot of FMP fans on this forum. If any of you would like to assist me in promoting this event via word of mouth and forum signatures I would appreciate your help.

That being said, I want to stress that part of the purpose of this event is to introduce Full Metal Panic to newcomers. For that reason I insist that all spoilers be put in spoiler tags.

[Darthtabby]

For those of you who haven't seen Full Metal Panic before and don't know what it's about, here's my attempt at a summary of the series.

Sousuke Sagara is not an ordinary Japanese teenager. Orphaned overseas at a young age, he’s an ace pilot and former child guerrilla employed by Mithril, a secretive counter terrorism organization tasked with missions too sensitive for regular military forces. Now this elite soldier must face his most difficult assignment yet: to go undercover at an ordinary Japanese high school and protect Kaname Chidori, a girl infamous throughout the school for her fiery temper. But why would terrorists and intelligence agencies want to kidnap a seemingly ordinary high school girl?

Set in an alternate 2001 where the Cold War didn't end and giant suits of powered armor called Arm Slaves rule the battlefield, Full Metal Panic is a combination of romantic comedy and thriller whose influences include Gundam and American action movies such as Die Hard and Under Siege.

[Evleve]

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83...3%83%E3%82%AF!
We have this. Different Broadcaster and different time/day /month/ year. On 8 January , 4 broadcasters show FMP. but year 2008)))
In 2002 year broadcast (WOWOW) show in 15 January, Tuesday, 18:30 - 19:00 in local time.

[Dextro]

Hell yeah! I'm game on this one. I've got my UK collectors edition boxset standing by. I just finished rewatching it a couple of months back but I'll gladly do it again

[Tak]

About time! I've already finished reading the damn thing couple times already. They better complete the whole gig this time around!

- Tak

[Darthtabby]

Thanks for the interest all of you!

Originally Posted by Evleve

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83...3%83%E3%82%AF!
We have this. Different Broadcaster and different time/day /month/ year. On 8 January , 4 broadcasters show FMP. but year 2008)))
In 2002 year broadcast (WOWOW) show in 15 January, Tuesday, 18:30 - 19:00 in local time.

As much as I like Full Metal Panic, I don't like it enough to get up at 1:30am my time in order to start discussion at the exact time it originally aired. I think I'm going to go with 10am Pacific Standard Time instead. Hopefully that will be early enough for those of you who live in earlier time zones than mine.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Thanks for the interest all of you!



As much as I like Full Metal Panic, I don't like it enough to get up at 1:30am my time in order to start discussion at the exact time it originally aired. I think I'm going to go with 10am Pacific Standard Time instead. Hopefully that will be early enough for those of you who live in earlier time zones than mine.

6pm GMT sounds good for me

[Darthtabby]

Episode One: "The Guy I Kinda Like is a Sergeant"



I've also seen the title of this episode listed as "The Worrisome Guy is a Sergeant" which might be more literal but definitely isn't as much fun.

I'm not going to say a lot here because I want to let viewers -particularly first time viewers -lead the discussion. That being said I do want to briefly draw attention to Mithril's profile of Kaname. Kaname's past isn't touched on all that often in the anime but it played an important role in shaping her character. On a related note, the person Kaname was talking too on the phone at the end of the episode is her younger sister Ayame.

I'd also like to remind series veterans that this is supposed to be a newbie friendly group watch so be sure to put any spoilers in spoiler tags!

[Dextro]

No matter how many times I see that scene with Sagara going into the Girls locker room it always cracks me up

[MisterBaka]

Originally Posted by Dextro

No matter how many times I see that scene with Sagara going into the Girls locker room it always cracks me up

This was actually the first scene in the trailer I saw for the anime that got me interested. His stone-faced expression sold me.

[Darthtabby]

Personally, I like the bit where he looks questioningly over his shoulder, gets yelled at by the girls, then quickly looks back to the front.

Actually I think most of the stuff in this episode is great. My only major criticism is that Kaname's initial interest in Sousuke seems a bit forced (though its worth noting that Tokyopop's translation of the first novel has her describe him as "entertaining" rather than "interesting" during her phone conversation with Ayame). IMO Shouji Gatoh got a lot better at writing convincing romance as he went along!

[Darthtabby]

Things seem a bit slow so far, but hopefully the activity level will pick up a bit as we go along.

Episode Two: "I Want To Protect You"



I find some of the translations in this series a bit suspect. The line about Mithril "defending" nuclear weapons exports for instance. I'm pretty sure Mithril would want to limit that kind of thing.

Apparently the scene with Gauron scoping out Kaname's apartment (the bit where he sticks gum on the leg of Kurz's M9) was something Shouji Gatoh planned to include in the original novel but had to cut due to page count.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite humorous episodes in the series. It also has some nice relationship building between Sousuke and Kaname. Their early relationship development can be a bit forced but I love that train station scene.

I know this series is generally considered to have an excellent dub, but I generally watch it in Japanese, so I'd like to draw special attention to Satsuki Yukino's voice acting as Kaname. I think she does a great job of bringing the character to life. I'm glad she's coming back for the new season.

[Dextro]

It's funny that you mention that particular line because it also jumped out to me. Clearly we're watching the same subtitles.

And so episode 2 of FMP is here and we get one of the worst placed panty shots I've ever seen. Why did they have to ruin such a lovely scene with a completely silly angle like that? Why GONZO? WHY!?!!?!!? *shakes fist*

*ahem* So we get some scenes of best girl this time (our lovely captain) as well as what looks to be our big villian for the show. The way he shot that KGB officer in cold blood was particularly badass. It really puts into perspective how much one should fear that guy when he shows up stalking Kaname's apartment latter.

We also get to find out that the Soviet Union still exists in this universe which just goes to show that something massive happened that shifted the timeline from our reality. I always enjoyed more those shows that could convince you that there was a fully fleshed out world outside of the short sliver covered by the story and FMP is one such show.

[Darthtabby]

Originally Posted by Dextro

And so episode 2 of FMP is here and we get one of the worst placed panty shots I've ever seen. Why did they have to ruin such a lovely scene with a completely silly angle like that? Why GONZO? WHY!?!!?!!? *shakes fist*

While I could have done without the unnecessary panty shot in the train station scene, I find some of the shots in Episode 6 far more jarring and out of place.

On a related note, its strange how concentrated the panty shots in FMP are. There's a couple early episodes which have a whole bunch of them, and then they more or less disappear entirely before the end of the first story arc.

*ahem* So we get some scenes of best girl this time (our lovely captain)

Heathen! We can no longer be friends!

Actually I like both Kaname and Tessa as characters, I just like Kaname more. IMO Tessa's best moments don't come until later in the series.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

While I could have done without the unnecessary panty shot in the train station scene, I find some of the shots in Episode 6 far more jarring and out of place.

On a related note, its strange how concentrated the panty shots in FMP are. There's a couple early episodes which have a whole bunch of them, and then they more or less disappear entirely before the end of the first story arc.

I'd have to go back and rewatch episode 6 to remind myself of which one it was but I'm trying to avoid looking ahead for now. It's not like I would be spoiling myself but one has to embrace the spirit of the rewatching

I just cringe every time I see that particular scene because virtually everything else about it should make it one of the best moments of the show but all one can see is a massive pantyshot right in the middle of our heartfelt scene. WTF Gonzo?

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Heathen! We can no longer be friends!

Actually I like both Kaname and Tessa as characters, I just like Kaname more. IMO Tessa's best moments don't come until later in the series.

What's a show thread without some minor shipping?

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[QS_Bilal]

I loved watching the show back in 2007. I cannot wait to get started.. Are we going to do the Second Raid as well ? I've been waiting to see it for basically this thread. No joke.

Spoiler for Bad Nostalgia - (Spin-off material):

Side-note, be warned, I do not like Kaname, like at all. She was basically Hitler in Fumuffo (or whatever it's called). Arggggggg :angry:
All aboard Train Tessa. Choo! Choo!

Also, I hate to be that guy, but do we know if the original dub crew are coming back ?! They were extraordinary, dare I say, better than the Japanese (srry for the blasphemy). I had the DVD collection (awesome packaging, btw) and all the extras that came with it were really well done. You could tell a lot of love was put into FMP by the export team (I think the DVDs were from Anime Limited).

Anyhow, tune in soon for my essays! I want to go full on Digibro here.

[Ulin]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Heathen! We can no longer be friends!

Actually I like both Kaname and Tessa as characters, I just like Kaname more. IMO Tessa's best moments don't come until later in the series.

Thank God I'm not the only one!

The pantyshots are so concentrated that I didn't even rembember that there was one

[Darthtabby]

As much as this thread could use the activity, let's try to avoid a shipping war here. (I'm not saying never discuss that sort of thing, but show some restraint.)

Originally Posted by QS_Bilal

I loved watching the show back in 2007. I cannot wait to get started.. Are we going to do the Second Raid as well ? I've been waiting to see it for basically this thread. No joke.

I plan to do The Second Raid but not Fumoffu. At one episode a week we haven't got time to cover everything before the new season starts in the fall so I decided to prioritize the main storyline over side stories.

Originally Posted by Ulin

The pantyshots are so concentrated that I didn't even rembember that there was one

Episode 2 actually has several panty shots, but unlike the other episode that has a lot of them only one of the ones in episode 2 (the one Dextro complained about) is blatant.

I feel kind of ashamed for being sharp eyed enough to spot them. It's not like I was trying that hard!

[Alf]

Well, those shots are kind of blatant, so no shame That was the common type of fan service in anime of the time, but this case can already be considered as subtle.

The pacing is also different from today's anime, which is perhaps 1.5-2 times faster. It's feels like halfway of episode 2 would be end of episode 1 today.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Alf

Well, those shots are kind of blatant, so no shame That was the common type of fan service in anime of the time, but this case can already be considered as subtle.

The pacing is also different from today's anime, which is perhaps 1.5-2 times faster. It's feels like halfway of episode 2 would be end of episode 1 today.

It's the advantage of having 24/26 episodes to work with instead of 11/13. I'm still divided on whether I find the reduced runtimes of the current era better or worse than I did the larger ones of the early 00s. For one those larger runtimes allowed shows to better explore characters and situations but, on the other hand, we ended up with a lot of pointless filler to fill in the time. I find that, for plenty of anime shows, the sweet spot would be something like 18 episodes or so which presents a problem: japanese tv seasons don't really lend themselves to that.

I got remind of this when I was looking through my early post history here in animesuki and found the Kiddy Girl-& thread. That piece of trash got 24 episodes to do random hijinks while pissing on whatever was good in his predecessor... *ahem* sorry about that, still bitter