Product Description

The complete series for the first time in a box set - includes the Full Metal Panic OVA!

It’s tough to keep your grades up without having to take off at a moment’s notice to save the world. But for Sousuke Sagara, undercover high school student and member of the mercenary group Mithril, life in Tokyo seemed the same as always. But underneath the promising exterior spin the wheels of a conspiracy that threaten to destroy the peace. A new threat has arisen: Amalgam. An unknown element with advanced mech technology, this mysterious organization has been running things from behind the scenes. As dissension spreads throughout the ranks of Mithril, Sousuke faces his own internal struggle. Spread thin between schoolwork and war, the powers that be have decided to lighten his load… beginning with Kaname! Life and death hang in the balance as the clash between good and evil scale new heights. When the smoke clears, Sousuke’s path will be the one that he forges for himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26800 in DVD
• Brand: FUNIMATION PRODUCTIONS, LTD
• Released on: 2008-05-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 450 minutes

Amazon.com
Second Raid (2005), the third and darkest season of Full Metal Panic!, picks up about two months after the first adventure (and ignores the farcical Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu). Sousuke tries to juggle active duty with the Mithril mercenary corps, high school assignments, and protecting Kaname. Gauron, the bloodthirsty terrorist he battled during the first season, reappears in China. Director Yasuhiro Takemoto stages hand-to-hand combat and a major mecha battle in a claustrophobic tunnel beneath the Yangtze River to great effect. As the crisis deepens, the Mithril commanders order Sousuke to return to piloting the super-mecha Arbalest, leaving the sinister-sounding Wraith to protect Kaname. For the first time in his life, Sousuke is torn between obeying orders and genuine emotions. Kaname uses every trick she can come up with--and a few she learned from Sousuke--to outwit Wraith and expose the assassin who's been stalking her. Alone in a largely deserted Hong Kong, Sousuke confronts the sadistic Gauron and his own weird upbringing. After Kaname knocks some sense into his head--figuratively and literally--Sousuke acts like a proper hero: he arrives in the nick of time, in a mecha that crushes everything in its path. When he's not engaged in deadly combat, Sousuke remains as clueless as ever, and Kaname has fits at his excesses. As the voice of Sousuke, Chris Patton shifts from despair to righteous fury to hilarious confusion; as Kaname, Luci Christian matches him mood swing for mood swing. The extras include footage of Takemoto and Shoji Gatoh, the author of the novels on which the series is based, scouting locations in Hong Kong and studying the equipment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces; commentaries from the Japanese voice actors; and a 30-minute OVA in which Tess Testarossa tries to reconstruct what happened the night she got drunk. (Rated TV 14: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery, tobacco and alcohol use, nudity with suggested lesbianism) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

I didn't buy this for the ads...
I would have given this 5 stars if not for the advertisements that I'm forced to watch every single time I pop any disc into my player. They can't be skipped. They can't be fast-forwarded. I can't go to main menu directly. Each of the 4 discs contains about 5 minutes of advertisements (mainly Dragonball Z & Black Cat) that you must sit though before you're able to do anything else. I swear I'm never watching either Dragonball or Black Cat anime. Ever. To all marketing people out there: the surest way to ensure whatever it is you're marketing won't sell is to force the public to watch your ads before they're allowed to go on to the thing they actually want.

So that's all for my only gripe here. Other than that, this boxset really is superb. The packaging is well done, and comes with 4 booklets filled with FMP goodness, things every fan would love to know. Dialogue is in Japanese/English (selectable), with English subtitles.

The discs are also filled with extras, the best of which has got to be the bonus 30-minute OVA, "A Relatively Leisurely Day in the Life of a Fleet Captain", which can best be explained as fan-service for Tessa fans... but seriously, it's humourous in the vein of Fumoffu, and every FMP fan (even non-Tessa fans) would love it.

The anime itself is of course top-notch. It's FMP, after all. Seriously, if not for the compulsory ads that can't be avoided no matter what, this would be 5-stars. Possibly the only issue I had is the slight jump in continuity towards the last few episodes, but nothing serious that can't be explained away easily. Like Fumoffu, TSR was done by Kyoto Animation, and is not to be missed by any FMP fan.

Suitable sequel to FMP
This is quite a remarkable follow up to the first season of Full Metal Panic - it takes the tone of the first season and brings it up a notch - meaning that the action is a little more intense, the story is a bit more complicated, the relationships are more strained, and the fan service is a little more...well... obvious. Everything that I would expect from a sequel. The animation is fluid and easy on the eye, the new characters are interesting and engaging while our old friends from the first season all make their appearances.

My only complaint (if you can call it that) is that because the story is more complex (with various story lines continuously interweaving throughout all the episodes much more than in the first series) there was much more to explain and explore and not enough time in all the episodes to develop all the new characters and storyline as I would have liked. This does not detract from the enjoyment of watching and it doesn't necessarily detract from the story itself either - but it definitely leaves you desperately waiting for a 3rd season to answer a lot of your unanswered questions.

The set itself is simple - the DVDs are kept together in a slim box set case. I don't recall any amazing DVD inserts and the DVD extras are not really anything to get excited about - but for my purposes (which is just to watch enjoyable complete anime series on DVD) this is a perfect fit and I would not have purchased a different set.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
A great anime, and a great box set... includes a bonus OVA, commentaries for pretty much every episode, and a handful of behind-the-scenes specials that provide an in depth look at how the show was made. Well worth the purchase price.