Friday, August 23, 2013

Full Metal Panic Review

STORY:

Kaname is one of "the Whispered," though she doesn't know this. She also doesn't know a group of very dangerous terrorists are after her. And Sousuke is the hot blooded soldier assigned by an anti-terrorist group to protect the popular high school girl. But piloting a mech is one thing. High school? That's another.




VIOLENCE:

The violence in this show is on par with some moments of , although it never gets much worse (this does not include the other seasons. Just the first one). So expect some gunshot wounds, cuts, bruises and even a broken bone or two.



LANGUAGE:

The worst offender in this category is Kurtz (start laughing Vic fans). He uses some pretty nasty language, such as the b-words, d-mn, sh-t and so on. Since he's in the military, it's not like it comes out of nowhere. That said, this section alone is bad enough to bunk this to a YA.



NUDITY:

Your typical fanservice goes riiiight here. Boob jokes, conversations in the tub with mist covering anything "too bad," hot springs, innuendo and even some "artistic" nudity at the end. No details are there, but it's just not needed. At all. And it nearly got this show into the Warning Zone at the very end.



THEOLOGY/MYTHOLOGY:

It's unclear exactly what "the Whispered" are, but they are likely connected to having ESP abilities. The show never really goes in depth with that, however. And it doesn't try to make any overall point with life in general.



PERSONAL IMPRESSION:

There's a reason this show had such a fan following. It's fairly entertaining for mech fans. Unfortunately, it tries a bit too hard to be too many things. It tries to both be funny and deadly serious at the same time. It really would have done better choosing one over the other (which actually is the case for the next two seasons). As it is, the serious parts are hampered by the comedy and the comedy is darkened by the plot. So it's hard to fully enjoy either element.

It's also hard to not associate Sousuke as Heero Yuy from . Honestly. He's like Heero's twin. With more comedy. A lot more.

If you like mech shows, this is probably one of the better mech shows in the last decade or so. Just don't expect it to match Gundam in terms of plot. At least not in this season. Also, the high school element keeps this show from fully reveling in its mech roots, so don't get too excited for the first season to rival Gundam in terms of mech battles either. Still, it's a good start and skipping it risks losing out on a lot of necessary info for the more serious third season.



PERSONAL RATING: Young adult



Episodes: 24 (first season only)

Languages: Sub and dub

Official rating: TV14

Genre(s): Action, comedy

Legal streaming: and

Screen shots:



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