Post by jj96 on Nov 22, 2021 18:15:33 GMT -7
My experience on Full Metal Panic!
I clearly was not expecting to get such a powerful feeling over this anime. I just hoped for something a bit different to what I had seen before, but "Mecha" was never of my taste, military was on my previous experiences but was never my first choice, and, to add insult to injury, it did not say anything about romance. I gave it a try anyways, I don't know what I was thinking. I had seen it in the lists of best rated ones before, and I even selected it for possible viewing a few times, but always rejected the idea of the "bodyguard of a school girl that also rides a giant robot". I didn't imagined how that could work. Boy was I wrong.
It started really slow, I admit I got bored a few times, thinking the story was all over the place and that there was no clear objective. They started with Sosuke, a battle raised kid with his only aim on the mission, rescuing a girl from the grips of an organization that was doing experiments on her to get the knowledge she carried inside her, and, judging from her state of mind at the moment, they most likely succeeded. It is here he sees what this people are capable of doing and is this that drives him, initially, to protect Chidori. Chidori is a regular school girl with a clever sense of humor, quite stubborn as well. This two worlds collide under the imminent threat of an enemy: Gaul. In my opinion, the three main seasons (counting off Fumofu) have an intrinsic battle directed right at the main characters, and personified by their main villains. In this first season, is the physical battle, embodied by Gaul, an unstoppable force of nature that always managed to put, mainly Sosuke, but also Chidori, in physically exhausting situations that drew all their strengths up until their last battle, where they both had to unite to defeat him. At the end of this season, they overcome the physical barrier that separated them, each knowing what the other was capable of doing on certain situations and living with it, getting close to each other.
On the 'Second Raid', they had to overcome a mental battle, almost psychological at times, against a formidable crazy foe: Gates. Here, the constantly worsening situation and their eventual separation takes a toll on both the characters. The powerlessness they feel for not being able to be with one another as they would like is grueling. They get face to face with a reality: they need to look for what they want. And this time is Chidori that goes in the rescue of Sosuke. He, that gets to a tipping point were he's led to believe that she is dead, has, in his own words, nothing left to live for, and even in the middle of the battle where he is the only one capable of fighting in equal terms with the enemy, he feels powerless and hopeless. Nothing can save him. Then a voice from the shadows comes shouting insults to him, in a way only one person could. Finally, a knee comes flying straight to his face, revealing the face behind it all: it's Chidori. She had realized that she needed him, how much he meant to her, and decided to go look for him. She knew she would find him, because he's too damn hard to kill, so she went to look for him. The sudden change in his face, from wanting to die in that same moment to wanting to be so much more alive, was impressive. She hurt him physically with all her frustration from him not being close when she need it, but he did not feel that at all, he was just happy to see her alive. After that, he was mentally stronger than what he had ever been, capable of overcoming obstacles that were thought impossible. He defeated the enemies with a show of strength never seen before, all because of what he realized at that moment: she is his future. He doesn't know how, but his future is with her. He even confronts his superiors defending that idea, remarking that 'he did not sell his soul to them'. At the end of it all, is Chidori that becomes vulnerable and falls on Sosuke's arms, crying of frustration that she had accumulated over the hole season. She exploded, but, at the end, he was there, all they needed was there. It was the beginning of a different relationship, they were on the same mental page.
On the 4th season, the 'Invisible Victory', they confront an emotional battle, personified by their worst enemy yet: Leonard. He starts by remarking the truth that has been hinted at of their situation: he's a mercenary contracted to kill who only chose to protect her because of a direct order and she's a special human being with abilities that make her superior to anyone she's close to, including Sosuke. They are not normal and they can't pretend they are. They can't be happy together because of how the world is. This hits Chidori specially hard, because she sees herself in the middle of a war that has her as an objective. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt, but yet, they do, and she blames herself for it. Sosuke is unsure of who to trust, not even her, seeing as she even fears him. Their hearts gets distanced and so do their bodies, making reconciliation almost impossible. They roam their own infernos, going through what they were supposedly prepared for and failing. At the end, they come close to meeting but they don't get the chance. It is a failure in all directions. But, a final conversation throws a glimmer of hope. In the middle of a final goodbye from Chidori to Sosuke, where she insist he should stop looking for her and leave things as they're meant to be, she realizes that it would be the end for them, and snaps. This is not her fault, they don't have to be apart, she cannot stand leaving him, and gives him a final order: "Come and rescue me. Use all your stupid abilities and come to me, come and hug me, I don't care who gets hurt, I want to be with you". She's in love and she's happy with it, so is he. The Invisible Victory that was achieved was the one over their hearts. They are now emotionally linked and, after this, no physical nor mental obstacle can stop them from achieving their goal: themselves.
Chidori is a great character on her own, she's the complete package, is really smart and witty, with her sharp comments always keeping everyone on edge and grounded. She slowly learns to look after herself because of Sosuke but was never a puny. She looks at things as they are, which made it hard for her express her feeling towards Sosuke. But that made it even more satisfying when she did. She starts to see how vulnerable he is and that drives her to help him as much as he is driven to help her. She's also never sure, that's why she denies having any feelings. But she knows there's something.
Sosuke is a bad-ass. But that is because of his upbringing, which is quite complex. He's not a hero, he has never fought for just cause, just obeying an order. But, by being in contact with Chidori, he starts to find the cause to drive him into any fight and win it. He is cunning and calculating when it comes to battle, yet it is an absolute idiot when it comes to personal relationships. He's innocent bordering in stupidity. But, behind it all, he is a good person, a strong one at that, putting his life in danger for those he cares the most. Not being able to correctly identify how he feels is what limits him from expressing himself to Chidori. He's not sure of what he is feeling, so he can't yet say it, but he still acts upon it, because he knows it will bring him closer to her.
One detail that comes to mind as a discussion point for the 4th season is the death of Nima, a secondary character that appeared halfway through the season and was killed by one of the secondary bad guys (which, for now, I will call 'Harry') . She was prospecting to be a "fallen one" for Sosuke, just as Tessa is. She was also suspected to be, by Sosuke, a 'Whispered', just as Chidori and Tessa. I'm starting to think he has some kind of magnet for those types of girls. They developed a nice friendship with, as always, Sosuke being completely unaware of her feelings for him, and even in the moments he was, thinking of Chidori. In the middle of a fight against Harry, she gets caught and used as a bargaining tool to get Sosuke to reveal himself. Saying he would count from ten before shooting Nima for Sosuke to come out of hiding, he starts to count, stops at four and decides to shoot her on the back, without anyone expecting that, including Sosuke that was watching from afar. On Harry's own words, he did not want to do it, but he needed Sosuke to be angry enough to follow him. In my opinion, he had a better reason, he knew what Sosuke was capable of when he knew the conditions he was up against. Had he waited for the ten seconds to run out, Sosuke would have idealized a plan to, at least save Nima, and, at most, kill him. He was capable of doing so. He decided based on previous experiences with him that there was no way of escaping this situation without killing her. He guessed wrong when he thought an angry Sosuke would mean an unstable and easily beatable one. At the end, Sosuke killed him, relaying on what Harry himself mockingly called 'the power of love'. It is hard to imagine why was the death of Nima necessary, after all, she was a really good character. But this show has something that really makes it stand apart from others I've watched before: consequences. When Nima agreed to fight in the illegal battles she knew it was dangerous, and so did Sosuke. They both knew what they were in for, but they never imagined it would be that real. But it was. That's the nature of the reality that they portray, and is most present in that season. Reality does not care about you or your feelings, it moves on. She did not have to die, yet she did. Sosuke somehow saw it coming before it happened, but still couldn't avoid it. She had so much potential, and a story to tell, yet she did not get to tell it. This gives Sosuke strength to fight on, knowing that no one will give him what he desires, he needs to go and look for it. It is a big toll on someone who has seen countless friends and partners die in front of his eyes, but it is also a reminder of what he needs to do: fight.
I also admire the detail they put into explaining all the things said in the anime that did not have a proper explanation for the original audience. This is a praise I need to give to the team that translated the anime into Spanish, because it was them who really shined in that matter. They explained every detail present in the dialog such as references to old stories and initials used by the characters in a normal way, but that we, as outsiders, could not understand. This went as far as to explain dialog expressions only present in Japanese language that only Japanese speaking people would be able to understand, even if it was translated, such as idioms and local food. The peak of this practice was shown when, in various episodes they showed either Chidori or Sosuke attending class or doing homework, and they detailed what the class or the homework was about, even further than any dialog would or even if it had absolutely nothing to do with what was being said or any other detail of the story. I'm still impressed of how they managed to know what a drawn written paper on the hands of a character that was almost never on focus was about. It's a work of dedication and sheer will. This overexposing served a purpose to the story, it made it so much more real, created a world the audience could understand as much as the characters and help me get much more involved on what was going on. This practice did not continue on the fourth season, maybe because of the time difference and how subtitles where treated back then (2003-2005) compared to how they were treated much later (2018). Still, the bases they built on those previous seasons helped this one go right into business with out any further explanation needed.
I sincerely hope there is 5th and possibly final season. The fact that the last season, 'Invisible Victory', was released almost 15 years after the previous one, gives a lot of space for hope. But, it case it is forever forgotten in time, I'll remain satisfied with the results delivered. Even if the tags did not say it so, for me it was a love story developed in the space of various conflicts. It gave itself time to truly expand on all the situations it presented and never rushed the details more than it should. It could have relayed the love story of Sosuke and Chidori to a spin-off, but it wouldn't have had such an effect, at least on me. The driving force for the story was always a bigger conflict, but they never left behind the true purpose of their main characters. Even with such a serious tone, they manged to give a comedic undertone that really gave a complete experience of reality. They are in war, but they are still teenagers. I will patiently wait for the next season to drop, always on the lookout for updates on anything related, but, for now, I'm happy. That final kiss is something that would bring joy beyond anything before it, but the 'I love you' they shared on this last episode of 'Invisible Victory' really made all what they've been through worth it. It was well deserved and well earned by both of them, but, most importantly, by us, the audience.
I clearly was not expecting to get such a powerful feeling over this anime. I just hoped for something a bit different to what I had seen before, but "Mecha" was never of my taste, military was on my previous experiences but was never my first choice, and, to add insult to injury, it did not say anything about romance. I gave it a try anyways, I don't know what I was thinking. I had seen it in the lists of best rated ones before, and I even selected it for possible viewing a few times, but always rejected the idea of the "bodyguard of a school girl that also rides a giant robot". I didn't imagined how that could work. Boy was I wrong.
It started really slow, I admit I got bored a few times, thinking the story was all over the place and that there was no clear objective. They started with Sosuke, a battle raised kid with his only aim on the mission, rescuing a girl from the grips of an organization that was doing experiments on her to get the knowledge she carried inside her, and, judging from her state of mind at the moment, they most likely succeeded. It is here he sees what this people are capable of doing and is this that drives him, initially, to protect Chidori. Chidori is a regular school girl with a clever sense of humor, quite stubborn as well. This two worlds collide under the imminent threat of an enemy: Gaul. In my opinion, the three main seasons (counting off Fumofu) have an intrinsic battle directed right at the main characters, and personified by their main villains. In this first season, is the physical battle, embodied by Gaul, an unstoppable force of nature that always managed to put, mainly Sosuke, but also Chidori, in physically exhausting situations that drew all their strengths up until their last battle, where they both had to unite to defeat him. At the end of this season, they overcome the physical barrier that separated them, each knowing what the other was capable of doing on certain situations and living with it, getting close to each other.
On the 'Second Raid', they had to overcome a mental battle, almost psychological at times, against a formidable crazy foe: Gates. Here, the constantly worsening situation and their eventual separation takes a toll on both the characters. The powerlessness they feel for not being able to be with one another as they would like is grueling. They get face to face with a reality: they need to look for what they want. And this time is Chidori that goes in the rescue of Sosuke. He, that gets to a tipping point were he's led to believe that she is dead, has, in his own words, nothing left to live for, and even in the middle of the battle where he is the only one capable of fighting in equal terms with the enemy, he feels powerless and hopeless. Nothing can save him. Then a voice from the shadows comes shouting insults to him, in a way only one person could. Finally, a knee comes flying straight to his face, revealing the face behind it all: it's Chidori. She had realized that she needed him, how much he meant to her, and decided to go look for him. She knew she would find him, because he's too damn hard to kill, so she went to look for him. The sudden change in his face, from wanting to die in that same moment to wanting to be so much more alive, was impressive. She hurt him physically with all her frustration from him not being close when she need it, but he did not feel that at all, he was just happy to see her alive. After that, he was mentally stronger than what he had ever been, capable of overcoming obstacles that were thought impossible. He defeated the enemies with a show of strength never seen before, all because of what he realized at that moment: she is his future. He doesn't know how, but his future is with her. He even confronts his superiors defending that idea, remarking that 'he did not sell his soul to them'. At the end of it all, is Chidori that becomes vulnerable and falls on Sosuke's arms, crying of frustration that she had accumulated over the hole season. She exploded, but, at the end, he was there, all they needed was there. It was the beginning of a different relationship, they were on the same mental page.
On the 4th season, the 'Invisible Victory', they confront an emotional battle, personified by their worst enemy yet: Leonard. He starts by remarking the truth that has been hinted at of their situation: he's a mercenary contracted to kill who only chose to protect her because of a direct order and she's a special human being with abilities that make her superior to anyone she's close to, including Sosuke. They are not normal and they can't pretend they are. They can't be happy together because of how the world is. This hits Chidori specially hard, because she sees herself in the middle of a war that has her as an objective. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt, but yet, they do, and she blames herself for it. Sosuke is unsure of who to trust, not even her, seeing as she even fears him. Their hearts gets distanced and so do their bodies, making reconciliation almost impossible. They roam their own infernos, going through what they were supposedly prepared for and failing. At the end, they come close to meeting but they don't get the chance. It is a failure in all directions. But, a final conversation throws a glimmer of hope. In the middle of a final goodbye from Chidori to Sosuke, where she insist he should stop looking for her and leave things as they're meant to be, she realizes that it would be the end for them, and snaps. This is not her fault, they don't have to be apart, she cannot stand leaving him, and gives him a final order: "Come and rescue me. Use all your stupid abilities and come to me, come and hug me, I don't care who gets hurt, I want to be with you". She's in love and she's happy with it, so is he. The Invisible Victory that was achieved was the one over their hearts. They are now emotionally linked and, after this, no physical nor mental obstacle can stop them from achieving their goal: themselves.
Chidori is a great character on her own, she's the complete package, is really smart and witty, with her sharp comments always keeping everyone on edge and grounded. She slowly learns to look after herself because of Sosuke but was never a puny. She looks at things as they are, which made it hard for her express her feeling towards Sosuke. But that made it even more satisfying when she did. She starts to see how vulnerable he is and that drives her to help him as much as he is driven to help her. She's also never sure, that's why she denies having any feelings. But she knows there's something.
Sosuke is a bad-ass. But that is because of his upbringing, which is quite complex. He's not a hero, he has never fought for just cause, just obeying an order. But, by being in contact with Chidori, he starts to find the cause to drive him into any fight and win it. He is cunning and calculating when it comes to battle, yet it is an absolute idiot when it comes to personal relationships. He's innocent bordering in stupidity. But, behind it all, he is a good person, a strong one at that, putting his life in danger for those he cares the most. Not being able to correctly identify how he feels is what limits him from expressing himself to Chidori. He's not sure of what he is feeling, so he can't yet say it, but he still acts upon it, because he knows it will bring him closer to her.
One detail that comes to mind as a discussion point for the 4th season is the death of Nima, a secondary character that appeared halfway through the season and was killed by one of the secondary bad guys (which, for now, I will call 'Harry') . She was prospecting to be a "fallen one" for Sosuke, just as Tessa is. She was also suspected to be, by Sosuke, a 'Whispered', just as Chidori and Tessa. I'm starting to think he has some kind of magnet for those types of girls. They developed a nice friendship with, as always, Sosuke being completely unaware of her feelings for him, and even in the moments he was, thinking of Chidori. In the middle of a fight against Harry, she gets caught and used as a bargaining tool to get Sosuke to reveal himself. Saying he would count from ten before shooting Nima for Sosuke to come out of hiding, he starts to count, stops at four and decides to shoot her on the back, without anyone expecting that, including Sosuke that was watching from afar. On Harry's own words, he did not want to do it, but he needed Sosuke to be angry enough to follow him. In my opinion, he had a better reason, he knew what Sosuke was capable of when he knew the conditions he was up against. Had he waited for the ten seconds to run out, Sosuke would have idealized a plan to, at least save Nima, and, at most, kill him. He was capable of doing so. He decided based on previous experiences with him that there was no way of escaping this situation without killing her. He guessed wrong when he thought an angry Sosuke would mean an unstable and easily beatable one. At the end, Sosuke killed him, relaying on what Harry himself mockingly called 'the power of love'. It is hard to imagine why was the death of Nima necessary, after all, she was a really good character. But this show has something that really makes it stand apart from others I've watched before: consequences. When Nima agreed to fight in the illegal battles she knew it was dangerous, and so did Sosuke. They both knew what they were in for, but they never imagined it would be that real. But it was. That's the nature of the reality that they portray, and is most present in that season. Reality does not care about you or your feelings, it moves on. She did not have to die, yet she did. Sosuke somehow saw it coming before it happened, but still couldn't avoid it. She had so much potential, and a story to tell, yet she did not get to tell it. This gives Sosuke strength to fight on, knowing that no one will give him what he desires, he needs to go and look for it. It is a big toll on someone who has seen countless friends and partners die in front of his eyes, but it is also a reminder of what he needs to do: fight.
I also admire the detail they put into explaining all the things said in the anime that did not have a proper explanation for the original audience. This is a praise I need to give to the team that translated the anime into Spanish, because it was them who really shined in that matter. They explained every detail present in the dialog such as references to old stories and initials used by the characters in a normal way, but that we, as outsiders, could not understand. This went as far as to explain dialog expressions only present in Japanese language that only Japanese speaking people would be able to understand, even if it was translated, such as idioms and local food. The peak of this practice was shown when, in various episodes they showed either Chidori or Sosuke attending class or doing homework, and they detailed what the class or the homework was about, even further than any dialog would or even if it had absolutely nothing to do with what was being said or any other detail of the story. I'm still impressed of how they managed to know what a drawn written paper on the hands of a character that was almost never on focus was about. It's a work of dedication and sheer will. This overexposing served a purpose to the story, it made it so much more real, created a world the audience could understand as much as the characters and help me get much more involved on what was going on. This practice did not continue on the fourth season, maybe because of the time difference and how subtitles where treated back then (2003-2005) compared to how they were treated much later (2018). Still, the bases they built on those previous seasons helped this one go right into business with out any further explanation needed.
I sincerely hope there is 5th and possibly final season. The fact that the last season, 'Invisible Victory', was released almost 15 years after the previous one, gives a lot of space for hope. But, it case it is forever forgotten in time, I'll remain satisfied with the results delivered. Even if the tags did not say it so, for me it was a love story developed in the space of various conflicts. It gave itself time to truly expand on all the situations it presented and never rushed the details more than it should. It could have relayed the love story of Sosuke and Chidori to a spin-off, but it wouldn't have had such an effect, at least on me. The driving force for the story was always a bigger conflict, but they never left behind the true purpose of their main characters. Even with such a serious tone, they manged to give a comedic undertone that really gave a complete experience of reality. They are in war, but they are still teenagers. I will patiently wait for the next season to drop, always on the lookout for updates on anything related, but, for now, I'm happy. That final kiss is something that would bring joy beyond anything before it, but the 'I love you' they shared on this last episode of 'Invisible Victory' really made all what they've been through worth it. It was well deserved and well earned by both of them, but, most importantly, by us, the audience.