Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory Part 4 Episodes 10-12

After barely surviving his clash with Kurama, Sousuke hurries to heal and prepare for the final push to his objective: his class rep Kaname Chidori.  It all comes to a head as all eyes converge on one fortress beset on all sides.  Even when he reunites with his old friends, Sousuke finds the impossible waiting before him: his rival-Leonard Testarossa, who defeated him soundly six months ago; his mentor-Andre Kalladin, who has turned his back on Mithril for unknown reasons; and Kaname Chidori, the girl he swore to protect with his life.  All roads, all blood soaked battles have led to this point.  For victory, for revenge, for love, Sousuke Sagara presses on.  God help whoever gets in his way.

The season finale of Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory had some serious expectations to meet.  And, for a moment, even though things had been on a good roll, I’ll admit, I had some doubts.  For all the time Sousuke spent in Namsac, there was still a lot of story that could have be explored elsewhere, such as the whereabouts of Kaname, Tessa and the rest of Mirthril.  No matter what the finale had in store, I had a feeling everything wasn’t going to be tied up as nicely as in The Second Raid.  And while some of that is true, Invisible Victory’s last episodes offered a tremendous amount of payoff not just for sticking around for the whole season but from Episode One of Full Metal Panic Season One as well.

The beginning of the end is where I feel this set was at its weakest and the cracks were hard to ignore.  Part of that was it was hard to gauge the passage of time.  It isn’t mentioned until Sousuke is back with Mithril that it’s been six months since the season began.  I guess that tracks right.  Considering the state Sousuke was in at the end of last week, he wasn’t going to heal instantly (even if he did manage to pull a MacGuyver and protect himself from an assassination team).  There was also the rather murky and less fleshed out storylines of Kaname, Kalladin and Leonard.  It’s clear Leonard has his own plans for Kaname that the rest of Amalgam isn’t onboard with.  What are those plans and why?  We don’t know.  And what about Kaname?  It looks like she’s been unharmed during her imprisonment but could we have seen more than one episode of her in captivity since we last saw her being abducted by Leonard?  Then there’s Kalladin, who’s betrayal comes so out of left field that his excuse of “this happens all the time in this business,” feels lazy and unworthy a motivation of someone who is supposed to be Sousuke’s mentor.  My only hope is that any and all of these lingering questions are given some answers in Season 5…if/when that ever comes around.

However, all of my season story structure concerns aside, Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory still managed to deliver on pretty much every other front.  The best action was saved for last as Sousuke not only reunited with Mao, Kurtz, and Clouseau but also got a sweet new AS upgrade: The Laevatein, complete with the return of his trust AI, AL.  Holy crap, Sousuke has the equivalent of a Gundam now as he stormed the worst Amalgam had to offer with a suit that match and surpassed their most powerful mechs.  Seeing it’s massive cannon tear through all three Behemoths made my jaw drop…remember in Season One when bringing down just one of these things was almost impossible?  Looks like Mithril isn’t ready to quit the fight yet and Sousuke has a new toy to bring the pain.  Not to be outshined (though they kind of were), Mao, Kurtz and Clouseau got to kick their fair share of ass too, especially Mao, who’s intro to the battle was as sweet and sexy as her character.

And then came the moment everyone had been waiting for all season long.  Would Sousuke be able to reach Kaname?  What would they say to each other?  Could Sousuke make good on his promise to bring her back home to her school and her friends?  Well, in what started as a very Empire Strikes Back way of ending things, Sousuke failed to get Kaname and it felt like a true loss.  Seeing Kaname taken away was like losing a Carbonite Frozen Han to Boba Fett while Leia watched helplessly as her love was flown away.  After all the mess we’ve seen Sousuke go through this season, was that really it?  Would we have to wait til Season 5 to exist for better closure?  Well it was here where Invisible Victory truly delivered.  As the classic Season One end theme began to play, Kaname at first shared her wish not to return home for fear of bringing more harm to her friends…and then said screw it.  I cant tell you how satisfying it was to finally hear Kaname and Sousuke share those three little words with each other before Kaname told Sousuke to never stop until he got her back.    What’s more, the very first opening theme of Full Metal Panic “Tomorrow” was an inspired choice to close everything out for now, putting Sousuke back where he belongs with Tessa and his A-Team, with renewed promise that they would work together to get their Kaname back.  For a season ending on a cliffhanger, this made everything feel worth it and more.  I’m going to just say it, the last fifteen minutes of the season finale managed to top the beautiful end of The Second Raid. 

Time to close it out.  It might not have been as perfect, but Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory was a very worthy successor to Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid.  The sudden shift in tone and atmosphere made you worry about pretty much everyone, from the soldiers to the civilians.  It was a bold move to inflict harm on characters who felt safe like Kiyoko but I dare say it worked.  Sousuke was pushed beyond any limits he ever thought he had as his mission was never unclear: save the woman he loves and tell her how he feels.  As such, this felt like mostly Sousuke’s story and the lack of Kaname was a bit bothersome.  After all, she’s as much the heart of this whole series as Sousuke, so why didn’t we get more time with her after the opening arc?  Same goes for Mithril, whose fate was left somewhat ambiguous after the opening, though it was a safe bet they were mostly ok. Thinking of this makes me focus on the middle portion of the Namsac arc, that probably could have been jettisoned, along with new character Nami, in favor of expanding those other untouched plot threads (same with Lemon, who felt more like a means to an end than a truly important character).  Still, where the storylines didn’t balance themselves out well, the character drama and the action were stronger than ever.  The CG animation on the Arm Slaves got better as the season went on and it was notable to see Sousuke engage in more modern warfare outside a mech, showing us a truly unleashed Sousuke for the first time.  Every other main character was given just as much attention.  Tessa had some of her best moments yet as Commander, as did Mao, Kurtz and Clouseau as they and the rest of Mithril were pushed to their own limits trying to survive an enemy that was holding back all this time.  Each episode was well paced and ended on a great cliffhanger, leaving me wanting more.  One big problem though, momentum was derailed a lot by the inclusion of two recap episodes that felt thrown in for no real reason.  They just weren’t needed at all.

In summary, im giving Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory an 8.5/10. 

It’s a teeny step down from The Second Raid because of some misteps prioritizing one storyline over many others.  But in the end, the heart pumping action and intensity from the bold new direction kept things going right up until the end.  Not bad for a show continuing more than a decade after its last season.  I suppose that’s all going to make the wait for Season 5 of Full Metal Panic all the more aggravating.  While you knew more story could be told after the end of The Second Raid, everything still felt adequately concluded in an almost perfect way.  Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory leaves so many threads dangling it almost feels confident that we wont have to wait 13 years for the next chapter of this universe that has only gotten better with each entry.  And hopefully, Sousuke and Kaname will get that kiss and that happy ending they have deserved for a very, very long time.