FULL METAL PANIC: FUMOFFU COLLECTION
April 3rd 2011 22:02
Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto
Original Story: Shoji Gato
Producers: Takatoshi Hamano (Fuji TV), Shigeaki Tomioka, Tsuneo Takechi & Toshio Hatanaka
Starring: Chris Patton (Sosuke Sagara), Luci Christian (Kaname Chidori), Vic Mignonga (Kurz Weber), Hilary Haag (Teletha Testarossa), Chris Ayres (Hyashimizu), Nancy Novotny (Ren Mikihara), Monica Rial (Kyoko), Greg Ayres (Shinji Kazama), & Alison Keith (Melissa Mao)
Produced by: Fuji TV & Jindai High School Students Committee
English Language version produced by: ADV Films
Released by: Madman Entertainment
Running Time: 300 minutes Rating: M
Actually I have had this particular DVD collection for some time now; it’s just unfortunate that it’s taken me so long to get around to reviewing it. It’s been more of a case of finding the means to actually watch it without it the various discs freezing on me at key points which for some reason it continually used to do on my old system – now with the new system though I no longer have that problem and its meant that I can enjoy Full Metal Panic (FMP): FUMOFFU in all of its entirety. The collection is made up of four discs on which are thirteen episodes of high school action/comedy/drama/romance which taken as a whole comprise a rather slightly off centre story in comparison to the accepted norms of such genres.
My first encounter with this particular series was with a single volume consisting of the first four episodes of the series, I enjoyed that volume so much that I just knew I was going to attempt to track down the rest of them, at the time I didn’t have a viable internet connection so a hard copy was the option I was going for. Watching it at the library streaming online was an option but I wanted to be able to enjoy the show in the comfort of my own abode also whilst partaking of a beverage or two and some snacks. Eventually the collection arrived in the post and I was finally able to watch the series in its entirety – or so I thought but problems arose. And it’s only been fairly recently as I mentioned earlier that these problems have finally been resolved. The freezing and jumping have been dispelled and I was at last able to enjoy things as the makers of the series had intended…
With various divisions scattered across the world in regional commands Mithril exists to keep the fragile peace and prevent terrorist groups and extremist factions from plunging the world into global conflict. Part of maintaining this ‘peace’ also means keeping the whispered, those talented individuals, safe from harm and from the clutches of less salubrious groups. Kaname Chidori, the key female protagonist in this series happens to be one such individual, a whispered who has caught the attention of Mithril. Consequently the organisation has assigned her a bodyguard, the capable yet somewhat out of depth Sgt Sosuke Sagara. An orphan who was raised in the battlefields of Afghanistan and Cambodia Sosuke only manages to just fit in with the milieu of Japanese high school life. His saving grace is that he is himself Japanese and thus speaks the language and doesn’t stand out too much…
In essence Sosuke is very much a soldier, he has known no real childhood only the military so as his class homeroom teacher aptly points out he has a somewhat skewed and dangerous worldview, at least in relation to the life of an ordinary high school student. As far as his efforts at fulfilling his role as a bodyguard and undertaking the mission assigned to him he’s partially on the money, but his military mindset is still a major blind spot in trying to fit in and keep a low profile. Much of the comedy comes from Sosuke’s inability to seamlessly meld into high school life along with his constant misreading of situations and events. He applies a soldiers mind and reactions to events and frequently this ends up with him in some kind of hot water or hilarious situation. A classical example of this is the episode “Hostility Passing By” where inadvertently Sosuke causes a riot at the food stalls and thus the bakers opt to forgo supplying Jindai High for a few weeks.
Student Council President Hyashimizu informs Kaname and Sosuke that if the student council does not take matters into hand anarchy and disorder will prevail. Consequently he assigns our two hapless heroes the job of overseeing the effort of provding food in the interim. Naturally one of the teachers, Mr Kogare, isn’t too happy about the situation and doesn’t like Sosuke’s attitude to the affair. He informs Sosuke of his feelings to his face and consequently the bodyguard turned student totally misreads things. And then there is his efforts at securing the supplies delivered to the high school – electricity, tear gas, all of which are designed at preventing theft but in the end turn out to cause unforseen problems for the hapless Mr Kogare.
Full Metal Panic: FUMOFFU is definitely an oddball series, coming somewhere out of left field, I was glad to finally be able to watch it without all the glitches and jumping that plagued my viewing pleasure initially. Like a large majority of anime FMP: FUMOFFU is based on a manga, the Full Metal Panic manga which is available on the web at http://www.mangareader.net and no doubt can be tracked down at any good comic shop. As far as the anime goes this is but one of several series set in the FMP universe, I haven’t been able to track down the others which are more action orientated. Still it doesn’t detract from the fact that in spite of its quirky nature FMP: FUMOFFU is an enjoyable series worth tracking down if you enjoy something quirky…
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