Weekend Review: Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu

Our Full Metal Panic! reviews now goes to the second season of the show, featuring a change in animation studio, and a change in the tone of the show for the more-than-a-little silly.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info:

Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto
Writesr: Fumihiko Shimo, Shoji Gatoh, Yasuhiro Takemoto.
Animation by: Kyoto Animation Studios

Cast:

Satsuki Yukino as Kaname Chidori
Tomokazu Seki as Sousuke Sagara
Tomoko Kaneda as Bonta-kun
Akiko Hiramatsu as Youko
Wakana Akio Ohtsuka as Andrei Kalinin
Ikue Kimura as Kyouko Tokiwa
Jun Fukuyama as Issei Tsubaki
Mamiko Noto as Shinji Kazama
Michiko Neya as Melissa Mao
Rie Tanaka as Ren Mikihara
Shinichiro Miki as Kurz Weber
Tomomichi Nishimura as Richard Mardukas
Yukana as Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa

Premise:

Taking a break from the Mecha Melodrama from previous seasons, instead they’re focusing on the High School Romantic
Comedy, with an emphasis on the High School and the Comedy.

High Points:

  1. Bonta-Kun – I can’t explain more without spoiling the gag. Let’s just say every where he appears is an high point

  2. The obligatory Onsen episode.

  3. Chidori’s and Sousuke’s friends from school really get a lot more screen time here, including a few new friends, and by the end of the show you really grow to like them (not care as much as in FMP, but you enjoy having them in the show). Now, they didn’t get as much screen time in the previous series, and they don’t get as much in the next (that’s not too much of a spoiler), but it’s nice getting this time to know them nonetheless.

Low Points:

  1. The show is very, very episodic. With a handful of exceptions there isn’t very much continuity within the show. While this means you can watch any episode out of order without any problems, you don’t get especially emotionally invested.

  2. If you don’t like fanservice, you’re going to want to skip the Onsen episode entirely.

  3. Tessa Testarossa can be one thing here that she wasn’t in FMP – annoying. Incredibly annoying.

  4. Kurt is a bit more perverted here than he was in FMP. There, he just fancied himself a ladies man. Here, he’s totally a pervert.

The Scores:

Originality: There’s only so much originality you can get in a slice-of-life High School comedy. Particularly one that’s a sequel and adapted from a bunch of short stories. 2 out of 6.

Artwork: The art is very nicely done. Kyoto Animation isn’t quite as good as Gonzo, but it’s a nice change. 5 out of 6.

Story: The episodes, as you tend to get with something as, well, episodic, are hit or miss. Stories like “A Fruitless Lunchtime,” “Hostility Passing-By” and “A Goddess Comes To Japan (Part 2: The Hot Spring)” are hilarious, other
episodes like “The Hamburger Hill of Art,” “The War cry Of Excessiveness” and “Uncontrollable Bluebird” aren’t quite as good. 4 out of 6.

Acting: The recurring characters are still just as good, and characters who you wouldn’t think would be comic,
are positively hilarious (particularly Mardukas). Some of the newer characters are hit-and-miss, particularly since many of them are fitting into your standard High School Comedy Cliches. 4 out of 6

Production: The production values are good, but the show is also shorter then the previous series. In general it’s just about as good as FMP, sort of. 5 out of 6.

Emotional Response: The show is funny, but because of the nature of the show you don’t quite get invested in the characters, any more then you already were coming in – with the significant exception of Kaname and Sousuke’s friends from school who were introduced in the previous season. I found myself invested in them enough that I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see them very often in the next series. 4 out of 6.

Overall: I laughed my butt off – which is really what counts here, being as that’s the point of the series. 5 out of 6.

Total Score: 29 out of 42