Title: Full Metal Panic!
Chinese Title: 惊爆危机
Japanese Title: フルメタル・パニック!
Author: Shouji Gatou
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Mecha, Romance, Shōnen
Year Published: 1998
No. of episode: Full Metal Panic Season , Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic Season 2
No. of Manga: Full Metal Panic 9 books, Full Metal Panic! Sigma E 1 - 4 ongoing
Completed: No



Summary
Full Metal Panic!, the animated series follows the events and relationships surrounding Sousuke Sagara, a professional soldier of a covert, international, anti-terrorist mercenary group named Mithril, and Kaname Chidori, a spirited, Japanese high school student that unbeknownst to her, is more than she seems.

Due to his Japanese heritage and young age, Sgt. Sousuke Sagara is selected to go undercover as a transfer student and secretly remain Kaname's undetected bodyguard. With orders only to protect her from abduction by an unknown hostile force, neither Sousuke nor his two fellow Mithril soldiers assigned to the mission - Sgt. Kurz Weber and Sgt. Major Melissa Mao - are told any further details except to remain undetected and avoid drawing attention to their charge.

For Sousuke, a regular bodyguard job would be a piece of cake, except that this military bred soldier has no concept of the nuances and pitfalls of the unfamiliar territory that is "high school" making the situation less than smooth...

Sousuke's odd upbringing and background's incongruence within the classroom is almost instantly highlighted. In his sensitivity for any threats towards Kaname, he over reacts towards innocent events. The relationship between the two is rocky, with Chidori frequently angered by Sousuke's seemingly random and inexplicable behavior. The relationship between the two slowly softens, eventually blossoming into a genuine friendship when Kaname realizes Sousuke's earnest care and efforts to protect her.

It seems that the worries of Mithril, the secretive and covert anti-terrorist armed forces employing Sousuke were misplaced, as Kaname goes on living her uneventful life. However, a terrorist hijacking of the jetliner she and her classmates is aboard changes things. The coin has flipped, as she finds herself in a world much more familiar to Sousuke. Guns, bombs, tanks, bloodshed and arm slaves.

Kaname finds her self a key piece in the intrigue between Mithril, their Pacific Battlegroup and its flagship Tuatha de Danaan. Kaname slowly realizes that she has crossed the point of no return, and is now inextricably a part of a frightening and hostile reality. The world is arming itself with impossible technologies, and only a handful of super genius intellects can produce these items that defy scientific convention. As one of these Whispered, she is a latent Manhattan Project all on her own, a valuable source of stellar advances in technology that can tip the balance of world power. She meets Teletha Testarossa, and faces the mysteries surrounding her.

Not everything is different between high school and a multi billion dollar military submarine, though. As Kaname realizes her emotions towards Sousuke, a love triangle between Chidori, Sagara, and Teletha is formed. Super-genius or not, the teenagers nurture and learn from their still immature emotions and relationships.

An important subplot revolves around the obsessive interest of Gauron in Sousuke. A die hard terrorist and psychotic highly adept at utilizing the Lambda Driver, Gauron is the shadow of Sousuke's past. Sousuke and his Teammates Kurz Weber and Melissa Mao show why they are the best of the best as they face down Gauron and the ominous organization Amalgam behind him.

My comments

Full Metal Panic is a awesome anime!! It never fails to make me laugh from the start to the end. I simply love this series! Don't ask why, just watch!!!!

17 June 2007...