Monday, February 13, 2017

Full Metal Panic Part 2-Episodes 7-12


Sousuke’s job has not gotten any easier since it started.  Having barely survived a botched student trip/kidnapping, Kaname now knows of Sousuke’s mission and isn’t willing to be left in the dark when her life is on the line.  Things get a bit more complicated when Sousuke’s commander, Teletha “Tessa” Tesstarosa, appears at his house with another potential Whispered.  The sparks fly when the terrorists come calling.  But Sousuke finds more danger closer to home when Kaname meets Tessa, who is secretly in love with Sousuke.  Sousuke’s gonna need more lives to survive this ordeal…and a brand spanking new Arm Slave wouldn’t hurt either.

Giant monster mechs roam the streets of Tokyo.  Kaname finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.  And the only thing making Sousuke’s life more complicated than high school living is his incredibly inept but for some reason she’s still in charge Captain.  The former of those two sentences does make for some exciting watching material this week but the last sentence, yeah let’s start with Tessa.

So last week I made a comparison between the de Danaan’s short skirted figure head and the lovable Yurika Misamaru from Martian Successor Nadesico.  Even at her most irritating and irrational, I always believed Yurika was a capable tactician and captain, able to pull out the win against all odds…even if one of the odds was herself.  Seeing Tessa near the forefront of this weeks set, I have to say, Yurika might fare a bit better as an overall captain.  Sure, Full Metal Panic is a much darker series than Nadesico.  But seriously, how the hell did Tessa end up the Captain?  Even Sousuke is able to point out her flaws during a prisoner exchange and know that collecting Tessa before Kaname would be a smart move cause…well Kaname can take care of herself and Tessa cant.  All the explosions happening around her and Tessa just kind of shuts down after a bit.  She has maybe one moment of, ok kind of Captain like quality, but it isn’t very long.  Hell, a subordinate has a Plan B ready for the finale because she didn’t think to have the Arbelast on standby launch cause…hell if I know.  And now she’s calling Kaname out, declaring her love for Sousuke and challenging Kaname for his affections.  She does know that Kaname did far more than she did in this entire weeks set of episodes right?  Ugh, Tessa is a pain in the ass and not even a short skirt can save her in my eyes, in fact it might be her downfall.

If you could stomach the dead weight that is Captain Testarosa, there was still fun to be had this week.  Most of that fell to Sousuke and his acquisition of the Arbalest AS.  This AI outfitted mecha, with a knife taped to it’s mouth (not kidding) and a shotgun on it’s back, is really something else.  Design wise it looks a bit sleeker than most Arm Slaves we’ve seen so far.  But it’s how Sousuke uses it that is pretty awesome.  Oh and through it, and Gauron’s AS, we discovered the Lamda Driver capabilities some mechs can use.  Basically these channel the thoughts and wants of the pilots for form additional barriers and weapons for combat (think biotic energy like in Mass Effect).  It’s a neat trick but it bear the possibility of making some mechs a bit over powered.  Case in point with Gauron and his ponytail sporting mech.  For a while it seemed like nothing could take him down until Sousuke was guided by Kaname.  Do I think Gauron’s dead?  Well he survived a bullet to the head once cause of paranoid precaution.  I doubt a nuclear like explosion of his mech is going to do him in right now.  As for the Behemoth battle that closed out this week, well it did leave a bit to be desired (like where the hell was the Japanese military when a Godzilla sized mecha was roaming around?).  Again, it was a bit OP but the fact that Sousuke and Kurtz were able to score winning hits (Kurtz with nothing but a sniper rifle) made the chase and battle a bit more unique.

Kaname once again stole the show in several spots.  Whether it’s being serious or enraged at Sousuke’s antics, she always manages to pull off the best expressions and be even more of a commanding presence than poor Tessa.  Her comedic timing with Sousuke hasn’t become dull this far in either, in fact it’s still pretty funny.  Probably one of my favorite scenes of the week is Kaname walking in on Sousuke when Tessa has just arrived and gotten out of his shower.  Sousuke, and us for that matter, know what’s coming next.  Strangely enough, Kaname doesn’t freak out and beat the mess out of him, she tries to figure out if he’s lying about Tessa being his captain instead.  Unexpected reaction, still a fresh one and still very entertaining.  Of course, moments like Kaname chucking a baseball mound at poor Sousuke are also crowd pleasing moments.

I’ll admit, the villains weren’t as interesting this week as they could have been.  Gauron feels like another addition to the “so annoying I cant stand them” category along with Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night and Naraku from Inuyasha.  He’s just posturing and bloodthirsty.  Can be scary for sure but it’s a bit overdone that he’s more cartoony than scary.  Speaking of, there was Takuma, who was basically a possible example of what Kaname could become as a Whispered if things go sideways.  Overconfident, scary OCD when he’s off his meds (his internal rant about a security officers crooked tie reminded me of Death The Kid from Soul Eater), but not quite the tragic figure to me they were going for.  It didn’t help that Tessa was the one who tried to get through to him with I guess peaceful negotiations only to wonder why she didn’t just have him killed to spare Tokyo an attack from the towering Behemoth.  Kaname had a better time getting a fun rise out of the overconfident brat (again cementing why she’s a better choice for Sousuke than Tessa and why she’s a better character overall).

When it’s just Sousuke and Kaname getting into trouble, with welcome appearances from Kurtz and Mao (who randomly sported a sexy nurses uniform btw), this show works more often than not.  Throw in some not so greatly written bad guys and characters who infuriate more than impress (looking at you Tessa), and the show does tend to get a little bogged down in listening to itself talk a lot.  At least the comedy was toned down to one tiny episode in between serious storylines (even if it didn’t go anywhere, seeing Sousuke threaten a guys life for trying to hit on Kaname never gets old).  Still, how are they going to top Sousuke vs the mountain of all Arm Slaves?  We’re only half way through the first season.  Let’s hope they didn’t burn all of their big ideas (and budget) on this one event.

And that’s it for Full Metal Panic for two weeks.  I’m off to Katsucon on Thursday, so that means no new review on Monday.  HOWEVER!!!! I do have something special planned for the rest of this week to pass the time and hope you all enjoy.  Til then, see ya in two weeks for the start of the second half of Full Metal Panic.

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