Full Metal Panic: Adorably Clueless

[dangermousie]

Opinionated Opinion of the Day: The most snobbish word in the English language is "oenophile." Not only is the use of "oe" reserved exclusively to Nineteenth Century Oxbridge Dons, but that's an awful lot of letters added so as just not to say 'vino.'

Anyway, work has been crazy, but I have found a perfect cure: Full Metal Panic. I can't remember who recommended FMP (and thus am inclined to assume it was my standard anime go-to person, a.k.a. crumpeteer), but whoever it was? Thank YOU.

Take on very tired, very stressed person and add in a few episodes of FMP and you get total relaxation and total bliss. This is unbelievably funny, and even better, unbelievably fun.

It's an anime (of course, what else would it be with me lately). For any Bollyholics on my flist, think Main Hoon Na, only with teens and mechas.


Plot: FMP is set in an AU, post-modern world, where the Cold War has never ended, and various secret agencies still play their fun games. The protagonist of the story is Sagara Sousuke, who is a veteran with a mysterious mercenary outfit known as "Mithril" (they get points on JRRT homage alone) which is on the side of the angels. He is also in his late teens, so he is the ideal candidate for Mithril's latest mission: to protect Chidori Kaname, a high schooler who is also a number 1 kidnapping target for the nefarious 'Whispering' project (they haven't explained what this yet). Why is he the ideal candidate? Because Mithril can blend him in as a transfer student, and no one, not even Kaname, will know of Sousuke's true identity. But will Sousuke survive to even complete his mission, or will Kaname murder him first, as she finds the bizarre new student stalking her and protecting her from such dangerous enemies as art projects, fellow schoolgirls and a suitcase containing anime memorabilia?

Part of the true fun of the show comes from the delightful 'fish out of water' premise. Sousuke is intelligent, focused, and disciplined. He is also completely unfamiliar with the 'normal' life of an average teenager and his attempts to blend in are to die for (The series is worth getting for Sousuke's introduction to his new class alone, as he introduces himself as Sergeant and tells everyone to forget it immediately, and when asked about hobbies, lists every military mag on the planet and, in a little delightful detail, you see one of the classmen who has been reading just such a mag, gaze at Sousuke in awed adoration). Sousuke himself is rather cool: he is a too-serious perfectionist (crumpeteer told me that the author of FMP is a Hornblower fan and I can see a bit of Horatio in Sousuke), but of course the reason for all the comical situations is that he is a heavy combat fighter and thus all his reactions are premised on that, and are huge overkill for normal life. And I adore Kaname, who is one of the rare anime heroines who I would love to hang out with: she is confident and cheerful and a bit of Hermione Granger in her bossy, anal-retentive way. I have no idea if Sousuke and Kaname will hook up, but I hope so, because the vibes would be delicious.

The fun is doubled when you add in other characters, like Kurz and Melissa, fellow mercenaries helping out with the operation, and tripled when you look at Sousuke's dead-pan delivery. At one point he shows up with his hands handcuffed behind a chair and when Melissa asks him why, he tells her, completely dead-pan: "She handcuffed me to a chair. It made buying a train ticket rather difficult."

I love the S/K interactions, my favorite being the scene where they sit on a train platform, after she got off at a random station because she saw Sousuke following her and after she asked why, he said "coincidence" and he jumped and rolled off a moving train to not leave her behind. (When she runs to him with "are you OK?" he tells her he just felt like getting off. Heeee.) Sousuke is rather adorably serious and a bit clueless (and you can tell he likes Kaname even if he doesn't realize it), and Kaname is this mix of annoyance (is he a perv or a creep or what, with the following?) and concern (as he fell off the train), and gratitude (he did recently save her from a speeding truck), and even a bit of lust (he is cute after all). It's adorable.

The funniest scene so far? When due to a really too-delicious-to-ruin chain of circumstances, Sousuke ended up sitting on Kaname's balcony in full gear, having an enthusiastic discussion about weaponry with an underclassman who climbed on Kaname's balcony to steal some of her underwear as a dare by older classmen. Yes.

Of course, now on episode four, the plot really kicked into gear (and I am always surprised how smoothly and suddenly anime can switch from hilarious to deadly serious) as Kaname did get kidnapped (and the whole plane hijacked with her), and the only one who can help her is Sousuke as Mithril thought they already took care of the problem and terminated the protection order, thus Sousuke has no support (he was only on the trip because 'we already paid the fees' heeee). And it's remarkable how comfortable and in his element he seems all of a sudden. Navigating normal adolescence may be hard, but not so with high-risk missions. This is, after all, something he knows intensely.

I am such a sucker for 'uber-competent guy protects girl, who is no slacker herself' scenario.




Poster:



Kaname:



Sousuke:



More coolness:



Geee, can you guess if I have a ship for this show?



What do you mean I am not stylish?



Lots of crates:



And busty women:



Awwwww:



Sousuke and the ship's Captain:



This pic cracks me up. Does she have a thing for guns?



Yes, she does:



Run, Sousuke, run!



Talk about fan-service!



Kaname looking unusually chic:



Sousuke being dapper:



And military:



Kaname being sexy:



Other Mithril-ites:

Melissa:



Kurz:



Kalinin:

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm the FMP pimp.

I adore Sousuke. He's just so ridiculously sincere and so out of his league in a normal setting. My favorite scene is the one on the balcony with the other little geeky boy where you just have to laugh at them since they both are SUCH dorks, sitting under girls underwear talking about MILITARY stuff. I just *heart* Sousuke. I don't think he means to be funny but he just IS. I also can't tell you how much I love Kurz trying to pick girls while on the job. He and Melissa are just so suited to each other as partners. And I can see the Horatio proto type in Sousuke. Completely clueless about real life situations and not good at interpersonal relationships, but incredibly good when in his element. He and Kaname pretty much are the OTP of the series, but there is the element that his commanding officer likes him. Sousuke is completely not suited to her in personality though. I love them all, even Kurz, who can be noble when he wants to be and who is ridiculously good at his job too. And I like Kaname. Her feelings are understandable since there is a weird new guy following her around for some reason and he is a bit of a dork, but at the same time he IS cute. Her fluctuation between annoyance and interest is perfectly believable.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

And what a successful pimp you are :) Seriously though, I am so glad I had this, because I've been having a crazed, much too-sleep deprived week, and FMP was like a bit of sanity restorer.

My favorite scene is the one on the balcony with the other little geeky boy where you just have to laugh at them

That is my favorite as well. And of course, I love how FMP balances the fact that Sousuke is a quite capable professional and the fact that he is, well, young. When Kaname busts on them on the balcony, and he gestures with her underwear 'we were just talking,' totally clueless and oblivious, it is hilarious and endearing at once. And I love how when Melissa and Kurz hear Sousuke get into the machines talk with the kid, they just become these resigned 'here he goes again' people. I bet they had to listen to his enthusiam a bit too often.

I also can't tell you how much I love Kurz trying to pick girls while on the job.

Kurz is such a dope! Love him. One of these days, Melissa will either kill him, or just get too drunk and have sex with him. Heeeee.

Sousuke is completely not suited to her in personality though

I find the Captain a bit dull, because she is so breathy and odd and intuitive, she is like a non-psycho-bitch version of Delphine. Actually, the parts on the sub are the most boring ones, because none of the characters I like the most are on it, and plus the thing is a McGuffin to get Sousuke on his mission/in school environment.

Her fluctuation between annoyance and interest is perfectly believable

Yup. I think she is also plain intrigued as to why Sousuke is following her because until the underwear incident he doesn't seem to her like a perv (which is why she is so mad at him after the balcony thing, as she probably thinks that all this time it was just a sicko thing and she liked him).

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

And I love how when Melissa and Kurz hear Sousuke get into the machines talk with the kid, they just become these resigned 'here he goes again' people.

And Kurz and Melissa obviously like Sousuke a lot, but he's just one of those friends who is a leetle too over enthusiastic about their job. Of course Sousuke doesn't have a family and the military is about all he has, so it makes sense that he's thrown himself whole heartedly into it.

One of these days, Melissa will either kill him, or just get too drunk and have sex with him.

I like Kurz. Poor Melissa sort of has to babysit him AND Sousuke, but when he's in a combat situation, Kurz is just as tough as Sousuke, which is interesting because I guess it takes all kinds. When he's shot and sort of bleeding out, he's still a fast thinker and is a much better gunman than Sousuke ever is (Kurz was hired because he was a sniper after all). I could ship Melissa/Kurz if I didn't think they were more fun as bickering partners (honestly Kurz doesn't bicker much, but he can be distinctly annoying).

One of my other favorite moments is when Sousuke keeps tackling things in the hallway that he thinks are attacking Kaname. And he just has no idea how to take things when people are talking to him.

Sousuke. Just...bless his heart.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Sousuke keeps tackling things in the hallway that he thinks are attacking Kaname.

And ends up tackling the teacher instead.

And he just has no idea how to take things when people are talking to him

I love that conversation with Kaname where he tells her he has no gf because his friends tell him he wouldn't be enticing to a girl even in tundra and he says he doesn't understand it and she laughs and he looks at her, all puzzled and adorable and goes "Do you also understand what it means?" Heeee.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

Okay, you are now officially an anime geek.

Ye Gods, what have we created?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeee. See, this was perfect because I ran out of Bollywood backlog. Trust me, a year (at most), and I'll catch up on anything I really like and then it would be something else (but I am running out of things to like, as I've covered BW, HW and will finish anime. Sigh).

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Bless you, it's nice for me, whose FList is normally pretty non responsive to the anime posts and who craves someone to talk about it in depth with.