I was so excited to restart watching this series. I love Sousuke and Kaname so much. I love Melissa Mao. I even love some aspects of Kurz Weber. Khalinin is still great (so far). The 2002 pervert jokes are few and far between, even if they’re still there.

But G-D DAMN do I hate the bullshit arcs taking up episodes 9-13.

Episodes 9-12 (the A21/Behemoth arc) do drive the overall story forward somewhat, but it’s so hard for me to care about Takuma and Seina and A21. I’m not even sure they want me to. We get a good AS battle and foreshadow Tessa’s Whispered abilities and her working together with Kaname, but I can’t get over how it starts with blatant provocations to make Kaname jealous right after we had a joke episode introduce the concept (Part Time Steady).

I’ve said many times that I have issues with Shouji Gatou (the writer of the light novels FMP is based on)’s penchant for love triangles with one extremely weak side. It’s here and in the criminally underrated Amagi Brilliant Park: you have a male character who is very good at a couple of things and is kind of a failure in a lot of other respects (Sousuke with his military training and little to no social skills, Kanie with his smarts and business savvy but delulu narcissism), a beautiful, intelligent, courageous female character with slight tsundere tendencies who works extremely well with him in a variety of scenarios (Kaname here, Sento in ABP), and a frail, boring, underage-looking, waifish female character with some special power who is also there and everyone keeps insisting is very beautiful and a total catch (Tessa here, Latifah in ABP). Should I do a rewatch of Amagi Brilliant Park after I finish all four seasons of FMP? It will take me substantially less time, but I have things to say about that one too…

This is my main gripe with Tessa as a character: on paper, she’s super interesting.  She’s a genius with an unfortunately more genius older sibling, so she has an inferiority complex (completely glossed over in the animated series, probably fleshed out in the novels).  She is a Whispered like Kaname, so she has a rare insight into what Kaname is going through.  She’s spent a long time with the SRT (Sousuke’s squad), and she’s earned the respect of almost everyone in Mithril.

Unfortunately, in the anime she’s a jealous teenage girl who falls over almost every chance she gets.  Like I said in the last entry, she FORGETS HER STATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES when trying to explain to Kaname what her relationship is with Sousuke.  What would it be like if she was written to be competent, even more so in her element?!  If she took pride in her work and how much her subordinates look up to her, and felt confident enough to go after Sousuke on her own?  And what if she had to weigh her feelings against the fact that she is his BOSS??  So much of her actions towards him read to me as desperate or forced, especially because he only really sees her as his commanding officer.  I know he knows she’s a girl his age too, but at this point Sousuke is too consumed with his rules and patterns of behavior to break the chain of command and really look at Tessa that way.  It bothers me when the story tries to Make Fetch Happen with her.

This only gets worse in episode 13 when Tessa enlists Sousuke’s help to win a mock battle against Melissa Mao (over a bullshit conflict that comes out of nowhere).  Mao is astonishingly childish in this one, but we do get a scene at the end where they make up and recognize each other’s strengths.  Also Tessa buries her face in Mao’s boobs and Mao just lets her.  2002 strikes again!

I just looked up the studio responsible for season 1 of Full Metal Panic (since I know Kyoto Animation took over for TSR), and it’s Studio Gonzo! They’re responsible for some truly iconic 2000s era anime (Welcome to the NHK, the original Hellsing, Gankutsuou, Afro Samurai, Samurai 7), but their work really suffers when they don’t have enough of a budget (that’s the case with all of the aforementioned). I think FMP isn’t, ahem, gonzo enough in the art department to really be impactful. They did excellent work on Hellsing and Gankutsuou (especially for the time period), and I even love the wacky fantasy scenes in NHK, but apart from the mecha battles there isn’t much about FMP that is especially artistically creative or at least out of the ordinary for other anime of this time period.

Assorted thoughts

• Khalinin being present for Seina’s final moments and telling her his name is still a nice moment
• LMFAO at Tessa’s “declaration” to Kaname that she’s fallen in love with Sousuke and “may the best woman win” (and Kurz is excited about this? Not even about Sousuke being in a love triangle, but he’s actively cheering for Tessa?? Ridiculous)
• TESSA. You need to STOP inching your body along on top of Sousuke when he tries to crawl away. You are a MENACE.

It recently came to my attention that I haven’t watched any anime in over a month, which is a decent dry spell for me.  My friend group I usually watch with is unavailable/going through some changes, so we haven’t been able to keep up with our shows.  I’m also not particularly interested in any new or ongoing shows on streaming platforms, so I don’t really have any pressure to watch anything that’s not an old favorite.

And since it’s been a few years, I decided it’s high time I sat down and watched one of my favorite series of all time: Full Metal Panic! (2002-2018)

I will definitely be watching the three main (serious) seasons, but depending on my mood I may also watch the joke season Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu.  Fumoffu was technically the first FMP story I watched (absolutely wild that that was my introduction to this world), but as I got more and more into the main story I started to just see it as a waste of time.  Too much jerking around and not enough real intimacy building.

I’m definitely looking forward to The Second Raid, that’s when I really feel the series hit its stride and really started to develop the characters.  Kaname and Sousuke don’t change a ton between the start and the end of the first season, despite the huge life shifts they go through.  It isn’t until TSR that we see Kaname becoming proactive about her situation and Sousuke really thinking about his feelings and the impact of his decisions.

That’s a lot of vague spoilery stuff, so for anyone reading this blog who doesn’t know what Full Metal Panic is I’ll say this: it’s a mecha/action/comedy/romance anime (it’s a lot).  A teenage mercenary is assigned to infiltrate a Japanese high school to guard a popular girl with latent psychic abilities that would make her a target for militarized groups (mostly global terrorists).  He is terrible at blending in with normal civilians (because he’s a child soldier), but eventually he makes friends and establishes a close relationship with the girl he is guarding.  For her part, as she gets pulled more and more into his world by various kidnapping attempts, she learns to harness her psychic abilities (as well as her existing bravery and forthrightness) to protect herself and her loved ones.  There are also hijinks with the mercenary group our male lead is a part of as well as at the high school, and there’s a bullshit love triangle that I like to ignore most of the time (because Sousuke and Kaname are OTP).

The action is packed, the jokes are mostly pretty good (thanks in large part to the excellent voice casting, minus Mr. Filet Mignogna), the romance burns achingly slowly, and the animation really gets good once Kyoto Animation comes on the scene.  Every time I start the first season I remember, “Oh yeah, anime in the 2000s was a little rough…” but I even relish getting through it because I know how great it gets later.

Assorted thoughts while watching FMP episodes 1-9:

• Sometimes people pronounce Kaname’s name more like Konami and that bothers me
• I think this relationship dynamic (hyper-competent vs autistically oblivious) permanently scarred me
• Karenai Hana is still one of my favorite anime theme songs of all time, and I still want it played at my funeral
• The scene where Mao hears the order to destroy Kurz’s M9 is heartbreaking, I felt such a sense of loss
• The 2002 obsession with panty shots/calling someone a pervert is killing me!!
• The A21/Behemoth arc is a real snooze (and where I ultimately stopped), particularly because Tessa is so annoying.  “I’m the captain of a…what is it again?” Are you serious right now?? You can’t be a legitimate rival to someone like Kaname if you don’t seem like a credible threat.  Get your act together, you big baby!