Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid (TV) is much better than the first FMP! series. I had to force myself to finish the first one. The main villain was way over-used and I couldn’t wait for him to get off the screen, but he was real chatty and annoying, so he just wouldn’t go away. Not sure why I gave TSR a shot, other than it was cheap and the packaging was attractive. I did love Fumoffu, but more regular FMP? You’d have to pay me to re-watch the first series (I own Fumoffu and The Second Raid, but have no desire to get that first series on dvd). Having a different studio on board for TSR also makes a big difference, especially when the studio is Kyoto Animation.
Wallpaper from Madman Entertainment
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the first series that I really can’t point to why The Second Raid was easier to watch. True it’s half the length, but that’s not it. The action scenes have a flair to them, a sense of rhythm. There was this one car chase where Mao and Kurtz are firing at the pursuit, but then there’s a prisoner in the back seat who needs to be taken care of, and Sousuke hunched over the wheel trying to shake off the pursuit while dealing with Chidori who’s calling from the other side of the world, all these elements fire off in a rotation, blam, blam, blam.
But, I’m a sucker for shows that have a low-key episode and there’s one here in The Second Raid which won me over. There’s a scene in what looks like a throw-away episode where Chidori ends up giving Sousuke a haircut. It’s an amazing scene for several reasons. The way the animators paced how Chidori gathers Sousuke’s hair before she cuts it, the lack of music, the lack of flashy frame changes, the lack of anything but a girl cutting a boy’s hair. The way Sousuke falls into peace was volumes. What makes it even more fantastic to me, is how this quiet moment turns the story over. Sousuke is a boy with a new haircut.
And everything changes.
That’s really what I like about The Second Raid. I felt like the characters changed, even if the end result is things wind up back to normal. Some of how that comes about, the details during the middles were a little “oh come on!”, but I like where they wound up.
I love how people make the first season out to be a monstrosity, it’s so overdramatic. Honestly, I found the Second Raid was a mere rehash of the first series with more shinyness per frame. Gates reminded me to much of Gauron and was just as bland and one-dimensional a villain and the events weren’t anything new or original for the series. More of the love triangle between Sousuke, Tessa and Kaname, more Lambda driver deus ex machina, more psychotic villains screaming while blowing up anything and everything in sight, and just nothing I would call overwhelmingly appealing or memorable.
Honestly I think people just beat up the first season cause they think it’s cool to hate Gonzo and awesome to love Kyoani and are keeping up appearances. Though if you ask me personally I think the whole franchise is rather overrated. It’s entertaining to me, but not the godly mecha franchise others think of it as.
Also I find it interesting that you found Gauron overused as he was only in about half the episodes. And at least he had something going for his storyline in that he had a historic grudge against “Kashim” that he wanted to settle, Gates was just there for having another crazy fellow. All in I wish the Full Metal Panic franchise had more compelling shade of grey villains instead of cliched psychos, but what can I do.
Over dramatic? I read about that someplace recently. Well, at least you have a strong opinion. It’s rare that I get a dissenting opinion, so thanks for the change of pace.
I’m not really aware of how overrated it is or isn’t since I watch these shows long after the fansub watchers have had their say, which I don’t read so I don’t spoil myself. I actually didn’t know bashing the first season was popular. Given the number of times ADV released the first one, I would have thought people generally enjoyed it.
A little confused as to what you see as the general consensus since in the same paragraph you imply both unjustified bashing and unjustified praise by people. Though I suppose you’re pointing to different seasons.
I saw Gates more as comic relief, rather than attempting to fill the same role as Gauron. Particularly in the second half, it’s more Sousuke vs. himself than anything.
Well i do like the first season a lot .
Problem is that i did love a lot the second raid too but i was expecting too much , more that what we got …
Still it was great and i would love to see a sequel coming soon …
It’s not a bad franchise at all, I just think it has some critical flaws that could be improved upon. I mostly blame the light novel format for how the series is unfortunately split into seperate short story arcs that Gonzo and then Kyoani were forced to try and combine into one 13 episodes series. It makes the character development somewhat erractic between the series and sometimes episodes.
That is why I tend to prefer original mecha series that are developed in studio, because it gives them control over how everything develops and more often allows for one long and often more smoothly flowing narrative over the course of the series rather then several seperate stories with the same characters tied together as best they can manage. For example if Kaname and Sousuke’s relationship weren’t developed over the course of several novels I fell it wouldn’t seem so much like they were restarting parts of their relationship from square one so often in the series.
Give me some Fumoffu season 2 and we will all be happy. I like all the FMP series, but the Fumoffu was just plan funny stuff, and I think we need more, more, and more of it. And none of this 12 episode stuff, need a whole season.
James: I kind of thought another one would have been out already or least announced, but I guess not.
Kaioshin Sama: The relationship restart thing is a bit of a drag, yes.
Lowlife: More Fumoffu I can definitely get into that.
sorry this is rather off topic. congrats on winning the best figurine blog for the anime blog awards. a well deserved win. cheers! ^^;
I thought TSR was pretty good myself. After marathoning Season one a week ago i bought TSR’s complete set pretty quickly and enjoyed it. Hope there’s another season, in the meanwhile i’ll pick up Fumoffu.
I think one reason why I’d call TSR more successful is that Kyoto gave the viewers all the high school antics they could handle with Fumoffu, and concentrated mostly on the dramatic/action stuff with TSR. Gonzo had a tougher row to hoe by balancing everything. The “Wind Blows at Home” arc proves that, although overall they did a good job.
I don’t see what the problem with extra “shininess” is. This is animation, and the purpose is to enjoy watching it, no? And to say that Gates was the same as Gauron, especially after the naked-Gates-with-giant-kitten scene, is just silly.
But all that aside, putting TSR on its own, there really are some fine moments. You’re so 100% right about the haircut episode. I was riveted by that scene, and of course the harsh ending of the episode. Kaname at home alone after that comes to mind as well.
sorry for the dissertation…
Gordon, thanks for letting me know!
Equinox, I got the TSR complete set as well and burned through it in two nights.
Otou-san, it’s good. Also, naked Gates…oh the horror.
@Kaioshin,
I love how you keep trying to knock down TSR by focusing on the failings of Gates, while conveniently ignoring the real villain who unfortunately was too subtly portrayed currently for you to pick up on. You think that long white-haired guy with the two AS bodyguards was a throwaway character?
Other than that, I think it’s pointless to keep arguing with you. You’ve shown that you’re still as much of an illogical anti-KyoAni-ist as before, and it certainly hasn’t changed now.
Nothing to add really since I’ve yet to see Second Raid, but I’m surprise to see Madman’s logo on the picture.
Ascaloth, there are anti-KyoAni people? Shouldn’t be surprised I guess, that whole curmudgeon thing.
Nork22, I got the Madman wallpaper from a Google image search and it shows up as one of the first images. I didn’t find any walls from people who didn’t have a please ask before using. Funimation has some nice wallpapers, but since none of them show up in a Google search, I’m guessing they don’t want people to actually find and use them.
@super rats,
There are, and Kaioshin was considered the most infamous of the lot not so long ago. He doesn’t do that much these days, but he still lapses into that every now and then.
You’ll see for yourself. There isn’t a single thing produced by KyoAni that he likes, regardless of its merits.
For the life of me I just cannot finish the first series. I’ve tried multiple times, but it is just so fricking boring. I have Fumoffu, maybe I’ll enjoy that more. I like the main set of characters (except really Chidori, she’s annoying), so perhaps seeing them in something lighter will be funnier, and all Chidori’s constant yelling will be justified
.
I’ve heard really good things about TSR, well, I’ve heard great things about all 3 seasons. Of course, each season has it’s detractors.
Haha, yeah the Kaioshin is antiKyoani and always shows up to flame them. Which provides a counterbalance to the Kyoani fanboys I guess.
Season one was alright but I would never watch it again or buy it. And I’m not a studio hater/fanboy, it’s just a matter of FMP trying to be and do too much at once and suffering for it. Fumoffu and TSR, because of their more narrow focus on humor and action/drama (excluding the OVA) respectively, work so much better. I’ll prolly grab that TSR boxset soon.
I liked the first season, but TSR did little to impress me. The series is starting to feel like a treadmill to me. Events just seem to conveniently occur for the sake of having something take place and with no other thought behind it. The diverse and interesting genre jumping that made the first season stand out is also somewhat lacking. The comedy and action worked together well I thought, the comedy did pretty good in Fumoffu, but as a primarily action series I’m afraid it just comes across as a generic series loaded with cliches.
Add to the other genres the fact that the series has a romance, and this only adds to the problems since that component seems stuck on that eternal treadmill far more than the rest of the series. I could forgive the series a little if it would just go somewhere at least when it comes to this element, but it just never does. I really got in to the series some time back, but with each release my interest drops. Heck, I didn’t even watch the first episode of TSR until the series was already entirely released. Frankly, I just had little interest in watching a story run in place.
I do agree that the cutting hair scene was quite nice indeed, although I actually expected her to mess up with his hair completely and provide some funny scene. But in fact, it’s all a lot of drama!
Despite all this, I’m actually part of the “FMP season 1 is better than TSR” camp. For some reason, I found FMP funnier, more enjoyable and more powerful (especially considering how sad the story became later on), even though Gauron annoyed me and I didn’t like the pace of the series. TSR is still good, of course, just not as outstanding for me, even though characters, animation and directing are much better. It just did not make me laugh and didn’t give me this “Oh, this is so much fun, I want to see more!” feeling.
I have watched TSR, but not the original series. Thanks for the heads up, I will now not bother.
Hmm, the first season of FMP was probably one of the first anime I watched episodically. I thought it was a real eye opener. It kinda skewed my perception of anime a bit, kinda like what Code Geass does to a new anime watcher. xD
I can see that FMP as a show that smacks people in the head and leads them down the rabbit hole.