Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu 9/10

I really like the original Full Metal Panic! and I especially enjoyed the episodes that focused on the introduction of a professional soldier into a regular Japanese high school. Amazingly enough so did someone else and POOF!, we get Full Metal Panic?. Yahoo!

On the technical side this show looks like any typical Gonzo show, amazing. Excellent production quality is brought to the table here and while the show has little in the way of the great CG mechs from the previous TV series the character designs are among my favorites, the lighting effects are amazing and the few CG effects that are present are really well blended with the rest of the animation. The music and themes are also quite good with special mention to the great OP theme and the military march that plays whenever Sousuke goes into full soldier mode. I'll note here that the 12 episodes were aired in 2003.

If you don't remember Full Metal Panic!, an international military organization has sent Sousuke, a high school aged professional soldier, undercover into a Japanese high school. His mission is to protect Kaname, a girl with a special power from being kidnapped by bad guys and used for evil purposes. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu doesn't get into the overall plot of the original series but focuses on the day-to-day lives of Kaname, Sousuke and their friends. We get some cameos from characters in the previous series so those Tessa fans reading this don't worry, you'll get your love-triangle fix and some Tessa fan-service to boot. This show has some of the funniest anime episdoes I've ever seen. Sousuke being as socially inept as he is causes much hilarity, booby-trapping things, shooting stuff, and training the school rugby team. (This has to be seen to be believed.)

My one complaint is that there's little character development here. We've been through 2 series now and Kaname and Sousuke are still the exact people we met at the beginning of the first series. While they do have a couple of peaceful moments we can only hope that the upcoming 3rd series "2nd Raid" makes these characters more than what they currently are.

Any episode descriptions I give you here won't do the shows justice. See this show. It's awesome. The last episode alone is worth seeing the whole series. SEE THIS! SEE IT NOW!!!