Full Metal Panic - DVD Series (Disks 1-7)

There is much about this series that I like. From a sci-fi perspective the Arm Slaves are flat out cool. The technology of the Doddona submarine is very cool.

The aspect of the plot that screams Japanime is that the heros are 16 year olds and completely incharge of this special section of Mithril. The value of the Doddona is likely in the Billions and the captain is a 16 year old struggling with hormones. I doubt that one seriously, but suspending reality is what this storyline is all about. The only young character who has credibility is Soske and that only because he was a child when he was taken in by a small band of gorilla fighters in a place that is somewhat reminiscent of Afghanistan.

The characters are okay except for Soske and Kanami, they are hilarious to watch as they do their dance around each other. They are completely clueless initially how to relate to one another. But they do develop a much closer relationship as the story progresses. By the end Kanami was showing signs of maturity.

The villain Garrin technically should have died at the conclusion of disk 6; but I guess they couldn't bring themselves to do it. Thus the maniac lives to torture Mithril another day literally. Though the less than believeable the final combat scene between Soske and Garrin was interesting. [SPOILER: Thankfully Garrin is finally a goner for good strapped into a 300-ton explosion sinking into the depths of the ocean.]

This anime adventure however is not for the kids. There is cartoon violence and strongly suggestive images toward the end of the series episodes (between 19-24) .

The DVD is easy to navigate and the piracy warnings are a regular riot and well worth listening to again. I wish more movies did this style of warning. Then I wouldn't hate the darn redundant warnings. The nice thing about the DVD is that you can skip the opening sequence straight into the story which is nice since the opening sequence default is the riske sort. The production images in the special features section aren't too bad with the exception of disk 7 which includes the questionable images of Kanami as "conscience" of the Doddona.