Kaname, Tessa and friends head to a hot springs for
Tessa’s last weekend of vacation. But
Kutrz and Sousuke’s classmates have other, devious ideas for their trip. Back home, Sousuke finds the perfect use for
a new breed of tech he’s been working on and a bio weapon gets loose in Jindai
High, putting everyone on edge. Sousuke
and Kaname have been through a lot this season.
But can they survive battle with
the Yakuza, a school club civil war, and rabid students who think they’re going
to melt to death? Find out as the
exciting and hilarious season of Full Metal Panic Fumofuu comes to a close.
I don’t want to go back to the old Full Metal Panic,
there I said it. This season has been
such a fun ride from start to finish.
Comedy was more miss than hit in Season One and was an area that really
needed work going forward. Dedicating a
full season to zany antics, minus the high stakes world catasrophes was a smart
move but maybe too smart. But I’ll nag
about that towards the end, onto the final set of episodes, for now.
Kurtz and Mao made welcome returns this week and it’s
good to see neither have lost their touch.
Mao is still as sexy as ever and is good at laying on the tease. The real meat of the second part of Tessa’s
visit to Japan came from Kurtz’s mission, with Ono-D and Shinji, to aquire
sights of the girls in their birthday suits at the hotsprings. It makes sense Sousuke would plan in advance
for something like this. But I wonder if
Mao had a hand in setting up the army of defenses the trio had to get
through. Still, it was as over the top
and fun as any other story Fumoffu has done this season. We even got a subtle Gundam Seed reference,
if you can spot it.
It made sense to have one more Bonta Kun themed episode
before the series closed out and they saved the best for last. Sousuke alone in a cuddly mecha plushy is all
well and good…but an squad of Bonta Kun prepared for war is the absolute best. While I agree with Ren’s Head Yakuza father
that the prospect of his men being trained by a theme park mascot is absolute
insanity, the end results cant be denied.
For five minutes, we got to see Sousuke and a small team of Bonta Kun
lay the hurt down on a rival Yakuza gang to rescue a kidnapped Kaname and
Ren. There was some added confusion as
to what exactly Bonta Kun is, as the Head of the rival family called him a
Teddy Bear, while others this season have called him a rodent. In the end, it doesn’t matter. The Bonta Kun episodes have been the cutest
and most enjoyable episodes of the season and, as a finale to this little
trilogy of episodes, this one didn’t disappoint.
The Challenge of the School Clubs is sadly the one little
chink in Full Metal Panic Fumoffu’s armor.
This was the only episode that kind of felt like how they did the humor
themed episodes of Season One. It wasn’t
as entertaining as other episodes and it just felt like it was thrown in
without a lot of thought. Sure Sousuke
literally kidnapping women, as he thought “flirting” was a “girl hunt” was
funny but the rest just seemed…meh. We
did get a nice ending with Kaname dawning her mothers kimono to bail Sousuke
out of trouble. Man does she look good,
I’m glad Sousuke figured out how to compliment Kaname on her stunningly
beautiful good looks.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end and man did we
get a gut bursting funny end indeed.
From Sousuke calmly taking Kaname’s slaps like it’s routine to the class
freakout over being exposed to a foreign substance to the moment when the noise
drops out and the class as a whole descends on poor Sousuke, the season finale
kept me laughing from beginning to end.
I’ll admit, Sousuke knew how to play up the scary realisms of a
biological attack…maybe too well. Still,
his calm acceptance of the situation didn’t drown out the humor, especially
when he and Kaname engaged their class in an epic free for all. Of course, enjoying all of this makes me
realize that come the return of Full Metal Panic in Season Three, these good
times might be far and away.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Full Metal Panic: The Second
Raid could end up being really, really good.
My issue is that Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, for the most part, was too
good. For a series that wants to mix
military drama with high school humor, taking away the military drama helped
things a lot. Tessa was a bearable
character as a high school rival and not as a submarine, mercenary
captain. Kaname and Sousuke were still
given time to grow as friends and as a couple without being shot at (most of
the time). We still got a fair amount of
action…with a Theme Park Mascot with a shotgun of all things. If anything could have been done better, I
kind of wish that Hiyashimizu and Ren had gotten a bit more to do. Yeah, Ren was kind near the center of the
third Bonta Kun story after we found out she’s a mob bosses daughter, but she
could have had a more sizeable role I felt.
Same with Hiyashimizu. For a guy
who seemed perfectly ok with the way Sousuke handled everything with guns and
explosions, I think this show could have benefited from having the two of them
have a short story of their own together.
Hiyashimizu probably could have given Kurtz and Mao a run for their
money as the perfect partner for the serious Sergant Sagara.
I really wish Full Metal Panic was a full blown comedy
series after watching this season. But
it cant be and for that alone, I’ll always remember the good times I spent here
at Jin Dai High School this summer. And
the best part, you don’t have to know anything about Full Metal Panic to enjoy
it. Prior knowledge isn’t a bad
thing. However, since this season
probably wont have any reprucussions on things going forward, Full Metal Panic
Fumoffu is fine on its own. Which is why
I will be awarding this series a…
9/10
Next week I’ll have a special movie review in place for
the week gap between shows im covering.
Check back in two weeks as I begin my epic summer adventure with a dear
old friend. Yes, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
will finally be reviewed on the Gundam Anime Corner…feels so right and feels so
good.
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