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| How do you translate a bullet? |
Dear Internet,
It has
been a while since I came across "Full Metal Panic." The last I had heard of it was with the "Fumoffu"
spin-off show, but that I had only seen one episode of. Looking back I can understand why that show
was made and why it is so rightfully different from the original show. I am getting ahead of myself again. The original source is a series of light
novels from Japan, and before today, I knew the general premise of "Full Metal
Panic" through what I had seen of that one episode of "Fumoffu,"
which is to say, next to nothing. The
story centers around Sousuke Sagara, a 17 or so sergeant of a mysterious
military organization, who is ordered to monitor and protect Kaname Chidori, a
like-wise aged high school girl, from an unnamed terrorist organization. How does he do this? By pretending to be a student as well, of
course. What might typically follow in a
setup like that would be a series of lengthy gags that all stem from Souske's
inability to be a very good spy, which he is not actually, but that is what
"Fumoffu" set out to do after the first animation finished. The first animation refuses to be a gag show,
only making a few jokes here and there.
"Panic"
plays it straight and is refreshingly serious for most of the time. Too many times have I come across an anime
that pretends to deal with serious topics for about one episode and devolves
into generic and tired out jokes, average characters with the personality depth
of a wooden board, and plots that are as complicated as a 34 piece Lego
set. So far, "Panic is able to
prevent all three. The characters all
first come off as simplistic, and they do walk a sharp edge where they can fall
into the hole of being a collection of tired clichés. The main characters Sousuke and Kaname can be
looked at for starters. Sousuke is very
much a soldier, and through the course of the show it can be seen why. He knows nothing of civilian life and is
better suited for frontline soldiering.
Why exactly he was chosen for espionage is probably only because he was
the right age. He is terrible when it
comes to creating a fake persona. When
he introduces himself in front of his class as a transfer student, he
mistakenly goes into abundant detail about military technology that crosses the
border of obsession. His paranoia about
protecting Kaname constantly gets in the way of him pretending not to be
following her. This continues so on and
so on but comes to a screeching halt when the bad guys show up. His ability for combat is then showcased and
the show switches to action. What makes
him a unique character is how he slowly begins to open himself up to Kaname to
the point where he disobeys an order by placing her safety above others when
told not to. Kaname is a typical high school
girl. She does all the typical high school
girl things and thinks very much like a typical high school girl. The only difference is that she has a bit of
a temper and has a strong constitution, but that is not really the point. Kaname is the control subject for the
plot. She provides the natural reaction
to the various situations that are presented.
She is thrust into a world of nuclear smuggling, terrorism, and underground
military conflicts and provides a contrast to those who have become hardened to
such things.
On the
matter of generic and tired out jokes, "Panic" has little of them,
and that is a good thing. Out of the 15
episodes so far, only 6 would be considered non-action oriented. What do I mean by this? The show bounces from school life and the
world of espionage but never too quickly, which is key. For about four episodes at a time,
"Panic" goes action oriented with guns blazing, bombs exploding, and
men in trench coats trading illegal weapons.
The pacing is spot on because of this.
The episode arcs are thus small and the plot progresses steadily. The school centered episodes only act as a
small breather between the arcs and act to further develop the various
characters while doing so. Although, I
would like to ignore episode 14 where the military stages a Japanese school
sports festival inspired exhibition but with giant robots.
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| Cute mechas doing cute high school things? |
The
plot of "Panic" at the 15 episode mark is not completely
revealed. This is both detrimental and positive
at the same time. What makes it detrimental
is that the audience is thrown wholly into an alternate history/world where
armies and paramilitaries have access to manned robots twice the size of
tanks. There is very little exposition
to help alleviate this. I am still not
quite sure about the status of Russia, China, and the United States in this
series along with the political ties that each county has with one another. There is also the level of other
technological advancement that has yet to be discussed. This becomes a useful tool for the show by
becoming a suspense show at the same time.
It is the old supply of information risk that shows have to worry about. Give all your information too quickly and you
risk drowning the audience in information, that is if there is a lot of
information in the first place. Give too
little and risk coming across as a tease who is trying to hide the fact that
there is nothing behind the clack and dagger routine. "Panic," so far, gives out just the
right amount of information while not coming across as being stingy or
insulting its audience.
Tomorrow
is the other nine episodes for the first televised series.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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