Full Metal Panic Volume 7

Full Metal Panic! #7 is the concluding volume of what has been another underwhelming piece of eye candy from the popular GONZO animation studio. There has been no real sense of suspense or drama building up to this mech-infested finale. Themes like the oft-mentioned ‘black technology’ have been scattered throughout the story, pushed aside in favour of random school class antics and a distracting focus on mundane teenage life, culminating in the viewer feeling either frustrated and just disappointed in what could have been.
Full Metal Panic! could have been an outstanding ‘slice of life’ series but has suffered by playing too much with serious side of mech-based combat, and indeed, it could have also been an enthralling action story too, but ultimately paid the price for one too many light hearted ‘drama queen’ moments.

Sousuke makes an interesting and conflicted hero, but is unfortunately let down by a group of template sidekicks and villains; from the up-tight and frankly dumb Kaname to (the straight out of the ‘1980’s book of villains’) Gauron.
The writing and general characterization from GONZO has become increasingly uncreative and requires a much needed injection of originality – a real shame since their animation is, as ever, very pretty.
Let’s face it, if you’re not watching FMP! for the teenage kicks, you’re certainly watching it for the fluid action scenes and frequent moments of mech combat. As such, you won’t leave this series feeling let down, this climatic finale provides more than a few moments for mech fans to enjoy, including yet another cool face off between (the man with nine lives) Gauron and our hero Sousuke.

And so with the final curtain drawn on Full Metal Panic!, I have been contemplating what I would possibly recall about FMP! two or three years down the line. But the truth is – nothing particularly stands out here as being outstanding or even emotive. The moments of comedy and action are not particularly bad, but the story is executed in such a way that I never felt comfortable with such a strange, unbalanced formula. Sousuke Sagara is the saving grace of Full Metal Panic!, yet I still had a hard time feeling truly compelled by his scenes, especially when the people he is protecting are so poorly characterized and frankly, unlikable.

I most enjoyed Full Metal Panic! during Sousuke’s bitter-sweet mission stationed inside his war-torn, middle-east homeland. Throughout these cold and fairly brutal episodes, we see a different; perhaps more mature side of FMP! – and powered by the strength and sheer determination of Sousuke, I finally found myself on the edge of my seat, unable to predict what would happen next.
It is a shame the story didn’t maintain this tone – from this point onwards, we never truly feel like the good guys are in any kind of life-threatening trouble, and therefore, quickly become bored.

In Summary

Full Metal Panic! has left us on a fairly disappointing note, slowly petering out until there is nothing left in the story except a few moments of painfully predictable eye candy.

Many key characters lacked personality and fail to show anything but plastic emotion, and thus we are left with another fun, but totally unfulfilling series from GONZO animation studios.