Entry 034: "Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid"

Dear Internet,

                I called it.  I called it out before it even happened.  What did I call out?  Never you mind it right now.  What you should mind is the show "Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid" as a whole because even that one predictability is done so well that I cannot fault it.  In the last three entries I have spent detailing the first animated series and the spin-off series.  Each one had its strengths and weaknesses.   "The Second Raid" goes so much farther than the other two that I need to go a little slow lest I gloss over what made it so much better.

                "TSR" continues right off of the original series and pays little to no attention to "Fumoffu" in any way.  It does however cite the second series as cannon due to a single photograph taken during "Fumoffu" reappearing very quickly.  This is a risky move because it validates a show that was taken to the other end of the spectrum.  If it allowed too much of a spin-off series to make way into very serious nature of the show, it would detract from the various themes present in the show.  However, "TSR" plays it smart by not constantly referring to "Fumoffu."  A single photograph is all that is left of "Fumoffu" with no mention of Bonta-kun, the various extra characters, or anything else nonsensical.  On the note of continuality, the first animated series is required to watch to understand "TSR."  There is no way to get through "TSR" without a firm understanding about what occurred in the first series, and even then you might need a moment to remember what is being referred to.  Not a long moment, but a few seconds longer that might cause you to miss the next line or two.  "TSR" knows that it cannot spend time recapping all the events of the first series and knows not to try, lest the quality drop.  

Two of these characters do not even show up in this show.

                The quality of nearly everything, from the animation to the score, seems to have been given a double budget.  Perhaps it is because there are half as many episodes as the first animation or because the popularity of the series allowed for a higher investment.  I am not sure why, but the proof of that is evident.  The animation shows signs of higher production values by having the characters move.  Reading that back makes it seem a bit funnier than it should.  Obviously, there needs to be movement in an animation.  Otherwise you might as well read a comic book or view a slideshow.  There are tricks that animation studios use to minimize the cost of shows by reusing the same drawings so that fewer drawings need to be made.  More drawings take more time and more time means more money is needed.  The simplest way to do this is make the various characters stand still or not move their head while talking.  Only a lip flap needs to move to make someone talk.  "TSR" does not do this.  Instead, characters are constantly punching, grappling, running, and interacting with the world around them.  When people talk, they move their head and bodies, just like real life.  Even the most listless person in life cannot stay still while talking.  When the battles start up, the mechs are constantly changing positions from standing to running to crouching instead of standing still with endless bullets flying past.

                The production quality goes to the score as well, which learns how to properly build up a scene.   The violins and brass section plays wonderfully in the combat sequences and are able to inject ferocity into the scene.  When Kaname's justified paranoia begins in episode nine, the same instrumental selection is able to drive fear and reflect the terror she finds herself thrust into.  The show's score even more importantly learns how to be quiet.  Back in the first series review, I wrote about how the show had a good sense of suspense for the most part, but only in regard to the plot and not to the safety of the main cast.  In episodes six and seven especially, there are long pauses between dialogs that goes farther to build up the suspense of a single scene that any time that the characters lives are threatened.  The scene of Kaname cutting Sousuke's hair in her bathroom is one of the most emotionally jam packed moments in the show, but there is little dialog.  Instead the scene is driven so deeply because of a lack of musical accompaniment.  Every little foley sound, from the ruffling of hair to the newspaper crumpling underfoot to the scissors, adds tension by being highlighted.  It is a quiet moment and should be treated as such.  It seems silly to mention a lack of music as a point for the score, but knowing when to keep your mouth shut is a virtue in public speaking.  Dramatic pauses are done for a reason.  With this scene in particular it shows the level of trust Sousuke has towards Kaname.  His trust in the common barber is on the same level of PSTD.

                "TSR" outstanding qualities go beyond the production values.  Anyone can throw enough money at a project and get higher quality animation and sound.  What makes this show so well done is all the various things added up.  The characters are completely fleshed out, again, but here their interactions with one another are played out.  When Tessa is confronted with her feelings towards Sousuke, she voices her conflicting emotions that arise from also being his commanding officer and the commander of many other soldiers.  Her job takes precedence, and she is unwilling to let her emotions take a higher standing.  That does not mean that she is unemotional but is torn apart by those same emotions.  The show does a much better job is showcasing her commanding skills with episode four.  Previously, I found myself asking why a sixteen year old was allowed a level of submarine captain, and the show did little to bring to light her leadership abilities.  In that episode, she is forced to give orders by manually creating a battle plan to a group of soldiers who are already fighting.  Later on, Tessa has to reaffirm Sousuke's skills as a member of Mithril without relying on her emotions.  The show finally gives testament to her rank as captain instead of falling back on her status as a "Whispered." 

                Sousuke goes through the complete cycle of a hero with "TSR."  He has nearly every hurdle and test of the classic hero.  He has to make a decision on the matter of following Mithril's orders or choosing to continue his life at high school.  He has to determine what exactly his feelings to Kaname and Tessa are.  His shortcomings in being able to activate the Lanbda Driver are thrust out for all to acknowledge.  The entirety of episode eleven where he attempts to wallow in his sorrows with either liquor or a stand in woman is a standard turn of events as far as story goes, but the plot changes things up.  Not only are his beliefs questioned but his eventual choice reflects his true feelings.  Those same feelings are complex and even contradict at times.  Eventually, he is even brought beyond the line of morality that the show had made for both him and Mithril.  His final straw falls and breaks him down.  Afterwards, he is brought back together and is able to sort out his feels and acts upon them.

Living the dream.

                There were also a number of plot elements that "TSR" was able to clean up for me.  It was one of my bigger complains with the first series.  The problems with Gauron's constant use of high budget mechas and purpose for fighting were finally explained.  The way the show does this is probably one of the most memorable confrontations with Sousuke confronting a limbless Gauron taunting Sousuke all the while.  Even after their final confrontation Gauron has a trick up his sleeve, the genius madman that he was.  "TSR" does not tidy up all the loose ends, however.  The "Whispered" plot line is nearly completely ignored, and the introduction for the shadow group Amalgon creates a whole new set of problems, but that does not seem to matter.  The point of "TSR" was to finalize the character development of the most major characters.  It was meant to delve deeper into the complex emotions that surround Sousuke's and Kaname's situations of being split into two different worlds.  The worlds of civilian life and military/espionage life are placed right next to one another, and the two people that come from one and attempt to bridge to the other must decide how to handle it.  Sousuke learns that he prefers the civilian life with Kaname, but he must continue to pilot the Arbalest to protect his comrades in arms.  Kaname learns the horrors of the world beyond her sphere and how she is capable of more than what she thought.  

                I briefly want to touch upon the Xia sisters.  The two bad guys, or should I say girls, introduced in "TSR" mirror Sousuke in a way.  In the same way that Sousuke was brought up and raised on the battlefield, the Xia sisters were as well.  However, they are horrible twisted, killing anyone who comes in their way.  Allies are only there for an end and are expendable.  They are a reflection of Gauron's philosophy.  If it were not for the saving grace of Andrei Sergeivich Kalinin or of Mithril's positive influence, Sousuke would have ended up like them.  

                "Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid" is a great television series.  It took the foundation that the first series made and crafted a tale of such deep and varied emotions.  Character relationships are shown to be more than single variable that fall into either-or categories.  The story is more than satisfactory and weaves a tale of intrigue that does not pity the viewer by making things simple for them.  What might make it difficult to get into is the fact that the first series needs to be viewed to understand "TSR."  It is nevertheless a product that goes to prove that sequels do not necessarily become degraded carbon copies of the original.  

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Tomorrow is "Tales from Earthsea" the movie.

Entry 032: "Full Metal Panic" TV Pt. 2 End

Dear Internet,

                Well, there I go, all 24 episodes down for the first animated series of "Full Metal Panic."  All in all it was a good show, but I am getting ahead of myself, and if I do that there is not much reason to keep reading.  For the most part, the things that I went over in the last letter continued for the rest of the series.  The pacing was pretty constant and continued to keep the tension high, short of one aspect.  The characters are well developed.  And every time the brass section plays in the background music I feel that the theme from "The A-Team" is going to start.  There are only a few things that I want to cover before moving on.

                From episodes 15-17, Sousuke is tasked with teaming up with Mithril soldiers from the Indian Ocean division to track and kill Gauron.  The story introduces about five characters at this point.  Each one is able to display a different personality, albeit a bit shallow and lacking any sort of depth.  This is not something that I fault the show for.  With the limited amount of time that the show gives them, it is not enough to make them anything more than typical individuals.  Not that the show needed to with what it had in plan for them.  By the end of episode 17, all the introduced characters are dead.  Even the newly introduced sub-antagonist was killed off.  I do not mention this series of events to complain about their unceremonious deaths or how the show minimalists their sacrifices during such events.  No, I mean to point it out about the one problem that the show fails to overcome that is inherent with episodic stories.  The show is unable to create tension when there is no threat to the safety of the main characters.

                That might be a loaded statement.  Numerous times Sousuke and Kaname have guns pointed at them, bullets fly near them, and they are sometimes even injured.  This goes for the rest of the main cast.  Even Kurz gets heavily sliced violently by a combat knife at one point.  Yet, no one has died.  The only ones who are killed off are introduced one or two episodes prior.  When the last arc finishes of the series, two members of Mithril are laid to rest with honors.  While their deaths are shown to be significant to Tessa, the captain of the submarine, they invoke little sympathy from the audience because the viewer has next to no emotional investment in them.  When they are killed, there is a moment of suspense and twisted thrill because of the nature of the scene, but there is little to no after effects.  There is no sense of loss or even frustration on the behalf of the viewer, only the characters on the show.  Since only newly introduced characters risk being horribly killed off, there is a protection bubble around the central characters.  The main cast then becomes safe from dying and only risk being heavily injured.  Once the viewer learns this, the jig is up.

She was so close to making "safe-zone" par, too.

                When a character only needs to live three episodes to be in the safe zone, then the show looses tension, something that is essential for its suspense filled scenes.  The threat of your favorite character being killed off is a high level game to play, something that "Panic" does not wish to play.  There is some amount of leeway allowed when it comes to this.  The main two characters are allowed a free pass because it would not be much of a story if the absolutely main characters do not exist.  But when the show does not allow any death of a character that the viewer has gained emotional connection to, then the times when the central cast is threatened becomes predictable, at least to the point where the audience knows that they are going to escape.  For example, Melissa Mao nearly dies two times, and the second time is only so that she can suddenly reappear in the nick of time.  The show does a good job of making the viewer wonder about her health, but once the pattern is identified, then the suspense is gone before the show wants it to.  Gauron, the show's antagonist, "dies" about five times or so.  Even when he was introduced at the beginning of the show, he was thought to be dead.  Even now, I do not think he is dead, despite his piloted robot self-destructing.  Until someone identifies his dismembered head, I will not think he is finished because people do not seem to die on this show once they last three episodes.

                And where does he keep getting giant robots that have Lambda Drives?  Is not that supposed to be some super special rare technology that is still in prototype development?  Yet the black market merchant is able to constantly get a new one that not only has special non-explained technology that borders on the supernatural but also is better than his last one.  His goal was never really explained, other than to mess things up to enable him to trade his illegal arms better.  If he was after money, he already had enough to buy giant robots with crazy technology.  Power never seemed to be what he was after, only a good fight.  That is all he got by the end, so in a way he got what he wanted, but I still feel that there was more to it than that.

Gauro's robot self-destructs.

                "Full Metal Panic" is a good show worth watching, and it is difficult for me to give this any definitive rating because there is still a second season/series that is supposed to continue where this left off.  But the production times were obviously made far enough apart to mark them as two different shows.  If the show ended right here, I would have to mark it 4 stars because of the lack of a clear ending.  Things are so ambiguous and open ended at this point that there is no closure or even explanation for many things.  Who are the Whispered exactly?  Where did the Lambda Drive come from?  Where did Mithril come from?  Why is a 16 year old given command of a submarine despite her obvious inexperience in actual combat situations?  I hope "The Second Raid" answers them.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Tomorrow is "Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu."

Entry 031: "Full Metal Panic" TV Pt. 1

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.

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