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SUMMARY

(Note that this review uses Japanese name convention of surname followed by given name.)

Okinawa has warm beaches, sunny skies, and great hotels.  So why is grade 2 class 4 of Jindai High School still on their plane being served borscht?  Class Representative Chidori Kaname would surely get some answers, if the hijackers hadn’t taken her off the plane.  Why isn’t Chidori back yet, and where did Sagara Sousuke go?  For grade 2 class 4, the annual field trip is going to be one to remember.

Even though there wasn’t an in-flight movie on the plane, the video Chidori Kaname is forced to watch is too much to take lying down.  If it weren’t for the guys with automatic weapons, Chidori would be getting everyone back on schedule for the holiday with a vengeance.

Allies? Whispered? Black Technology?  What are Sagara and that evil looking guy talking about?  Sagara Sousuke might be the Jindai High “Military Otaku” poster-boy, but what can he do against automatic weapons and real Arm Slaves? He’s just an otaku, an amateur, right?

Wait a minute… Who’s that girl?  

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The video in mission 2 is the same superb quality you had in mission 1.  It is still best viewed on a television set, but even on a persacon the edge enhancement becomes unnoticeable amidst the action. This volume has excellent color with no bleeds and outstanding lines.  The blending of CG and cell animation is more noticeable due to the outdoors settings, but it is still some of the best Cell/CG animation available. 

EDITS: The original Japanese credits have been replaced by English graphics.  There are also inserted frames of the translation of the title sequence.  Aside from these changes there appear to be no other edits.

AUDIO:  Mission 2 sports an upgraded 5.1 English track along with the high quality Dolby 2.0 Japanese and English tracks.  All three tracks had excellent clarity and stereo separation; however, the Dolby 5.1 track now has clarity matching the 2.0 tracks and excellent stereo separation.  The only downside to the 5.1 track is some of the ambient sound treatment.  Lines spoken from another room were muffled and almost unclear, but this is really a minor point.  Your home theater system will get the workout it deserves. 

Notably, the Japanese 2.0 track had excellent balance, and the off camera voices were loud enough to be easily understood.  One of the most impressive details of the track was the treatment of the voices on the radio.  Each voice was buzzy, yet clearly recognizable and added much to the ambience of the scenes.

No matter which track you listen to, you won’t be disappointed in the least with mission 2 from an audio perspective. 

TRANSLATIONS:  The subtitle translations in mission 2 are done better and sustain the story very well.  There are times when the subtitles force the viewer to interpret the usage based on the situation, but I feel this adds to the ambiance of the show, and is much preferred over a spoon fed or incorrect subtitle.  One negative aspect of the subtitles is that they still retain incorrect rank references. 

The ADR script was a disappointment for several reasons yet again.  In mission 2 the errors are not related to degenerative speech, but gross errors and simply poor writing or directing.  I’ll go into some detail on those shortly, but for now, the English dub still falls far short of the original production in characterization and continuity.

EXTRAS:  The omake content of mission 2 follows the same format as mission 1.  The fold out poster includes very good background information on the encyclopedic reverse side, but who is Inaba Mizuki?  She must have a good agent. The poster artwork is excellent, although I would have preferred a poster of Teletha…  The DVD studio cover art is of Melissa Mao’s Gernsback, and the reversible cover sports Sagara Sousuke for mission 2.  The on-disk content contains sketches and background information found on the reverse of the poster, and includes clean opening and closing animation and ADV previews.  The additional copyright admonitions in this volume are by Tokiwa Kyoko and Captain Testarossa.  Captain Testarossa calmly warns that she’ll send some cruise missiles your way if you violate the copyright.  If she’d include an autographed picture, it might be worth pitting your backyard Patriot system against them, ne? 

By the way, the XL Tee included in the mission 1 art box has Sagara and Chidori posing in front of the ARX-7 Arm Slave.  The artwork and quality of the print on the shirt are good, and I’ve already had girls ask me for my shirt…

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Gaulin has one objective, and that is to extract the black technology information out of Chidori Kaname.  The deaths of Chidori, the rest of the school children, or the men around him are of no concern as long as he gets that information. 

For Sagara Sousuke, even though he is a professional soldier, he can’t forsake Chidori, even when given a direct order.  Is this a sign he is slipping?  A sign that high school life has made Sagara soft, or that his school days have made him crack?  Or could it be that there is something within Sagara that he doesn’t understand himself?

Can Sagara and the rest of the crew of the Tuatha De Dannan save the school children and Chidori Kaname?  As Mithril forces embark on their daring rescue of the hostages, Sagara faces off against his nemesis Gaulin. If Sagara can dispatch Gaulin and survive, this would mean the end of his mission to protect Chidori, right?  A new assignment, leaving Chidori and Jindai High School behind, those thoughts are possible only after defeating an exceptional pilot in an exceptional Arm Slave, the Coder.  With an obviously outclassed RK-92 Savage, can Sagara hope to win against Gaulin and his Coder? 

Lambda Driver… what is that?

ACTING: It is obvious that each seiyuu in Full Metal Panic showed up to the recording studio loaded for bear.  The quality of the Japanese acting is evident in each scene.  Andre Kalinin is voiced by veteran seiyuu Ohtsuka Akio (Kijima Touta in Bakuen Campus Guardress [Combustible Campus Guardress]).  Ohtsuka-san imbues Major Kalinin with finality, command, and old-world sophistication.  In his speech to the crew of the De Dannan, his words carry a palpable resolve.  In speaking with Captain Testarossa, “Taisa dono” (Madam Captain), his use of this highly respectful language is deftly in character.   Voicing the role of Sagara and Kalinin’s nemesis Gaulin, is Tanaka Masahiko (Wong Saiyo in Outlaw Star).  Tanaka-san portrays Gaulin as a consummate villain.  His absolute delivery and gritty egocentricity is perfect for this calculating and ruthless man.  These two characters bring a classical feel to the series and the sub-plot of Sagara-Kalinin-Gaulin.  It is very dramatic, and compliments the lighter side of the story perfectly.  Yes, we’ll discuss some other very important characters in future reviews.  Fans of Kurz need not worry! I’d like to close this with a comment on the background seiyuu of the Mithril forces.  Each one voices their small role with the resolve and toughness expected in a member of an elite fighting force.  Sugoi ne.

The English voice actors on the other hand still seem to be either working into their roles, or are perhaps directed poorly.  Chris Patton and Vic Mignogna still have yet to grasp their characters fully; however, Mr. Mignogna seems to have progressed where Mr. Patton still quips his lines like a haughty schoolboy.  Unfortunately, Ms. Christian seems to have had bad direction in mission 2; she never grasped the depth of Chidori Kaname in some very dramatic scenes.  In the largest role so far for Andre Kalinin, Mike Kleinhenz (Shirow Watari in RahXephon) did a satisfactory job.  Mr. Kleinhenz does have a mature sounding voice, and conveys an air of sophistication; however, he never captured the command presence of Kalinin.  The inflection one would expect never happened; Mr. Kleinhenz sounds more like a diplomat than a battle hardened commander.  Andy McAvin (Coach Kido in Princess Nine) voicing the role of Tuatha De Dannan Executive Officer Mardukas also suffered from a lack of presence.  Kalinin and Mardukas are both veteran servicemen and highly capable; unfortunately this was never effectively conveyed by Mr. Kleinhenz or Mr. McAvin.  On a positive note, Mike McRea voicing the role of Gaulin did show improvement over his performance in mission 1.  Just as Vic Mignogna illustrated a deeper understanding of his character, Mr. McRea voiced Gaulin with decent inflection and emotion, and he’s almost to the point of a character one loves to hate.  Strictly speaking, the acting in mission 2 is better than that in mission 1 due to the progress made by a few actors.  However, with some poor direction for some key roles and the bulk of the tertiary roles, I would have to say that the English dub is still in the development stage. 

FAN SERVICE: For mecha junkies, this is the volume you’ve been waiting for.  The detail in the combat scenes is superb.  No flash filled frames and swipes of color, the action is filled with flying bits of Arm Slave.  There is also closure in mission 2 that may or may not be to viewers liking.  Is the story over?  Not by a long shot given the empty space in the DVD art box. 

For the fans of Chidori Kaname looking for more ecchi content, sorry to disappoint you, you’ll have to fight your way through these RK-92 Arm Slaves to get your pictures.

CONCLUSION:

Series Director Fukushi Susumu from T2 Studio clearly knows how to communicate his vision, and Gonzo Digimation delivers in full.  As I said before, this volume is one for mecha fans to really enjoy.  The mecha designs by Ihara Toshiaki and Ebihara Kanetake are awesome.  If you find yourself at the store and place the volume 1 and 2 covers side by side (yes you can try this at home too), you’ll have a good indication of the quality of the designs.  The cover art of mission 1 has no artist listed, and is clearly fan art.  The cover art on mission 2 is credited to Ebikawa Kanetake, and I’m guessing this is a typo and should read “Ebihara”.  By the way, Mao’s M-9 Gernsback on the cover is fitted with the flight module.  After watching mission 2, I can only hope that there really will be an interactive “Jane’s Arm Slave Recognition Guide” released.  A 1:1 scale M-9 action figure might be pushing the envelope a bit, so I’ll just ask Santa for that interactive “Jane’s Arm Slave Recognition Guide”…

I made the comment that the English dub is still lacking and doesn’t stand up to the production standards evident in the Japanese language version.  There are things that will jolt you out of your seat if you’re the type that pays attention to details.  For instance, as the enemy forces begin to counterattack during Mithril’s rescue operation, Major Kalinin orders Mao to move.  He says in the subtitles, “Reinforcements have just crossed the bridge.  Interceptors are coming this way too.”   This was written in the ADR script as “Their reinforcements have just crossed the bridge, and our interceptors are on the way.”  Not only is this gross error shocking from a purely story based perspective, the scene during “Interceptors” shows upgraded Soviet-block Mig-21 type aircraft.  How could those be mistaken for Mithril aircraft?  There are also many dubbed scenes that simply lack verisimilitude.  But these incorrect details or the lack of resolve in the dub is only exacerbated by the incorrect pronunciation of names.  It really does get tiring to hear Mr. Patton say “Chidery” instead of Chi-do-ri.  However, the dub does score points for consistency.  Inaba Mizuki’s name is continually mispronounced Miz-key instead of Mi-zu-ki, and even Mithril is pronounced Mee-thrill…

The ending of mission 1 worked you up into a frenzy, and left you white knuckled and waiting for the action to start.  Full Metal Panic Mission 2 delivers 200cc’s of pure adrenaline and it doesn’t slow down. You don’t have to be a mecha otaku to enjoy Full Metal Panic, but you should like excellent action and comedy.  The first four episodes delivered on the comedic side, and the next three episodes deliver in full on the drama and action scale.  The mecha battles are superbly animated and will have you on the edge of your seat. 

Don’t worry too much about cardiac arrest, the last episode of the volume brings you down from the adrenaline rush gently, and puts you back into the not so everyday world of Tokyo high school life.  But, who is that girl Mizuki?   Has Chidori Kaname finally been saved and the story now settling around Kazama Shinji and Mizuki-chan?  Is she another operative from the same organization as Gaulin?  Ouch! Whoever wrote that graffiti is going to pay! 

Full Metal Panic is not a series to step into the middle of.  With excellent writing, superb animation, and knuckle bursting suspense, you owe it to yourself to see both volumes. But don’t relax just yet!  The end of the volume hints at more pulse pounding action to come.  Like what you ask?  Let’s just say that I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. 

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