FullMetalPanic/Fumoffu

The second FullMetalPanic TV series, much more in the style of the first FullMetalPanic manga: they abandoned the attempts at NeonGenesisEvangelion-style dark plot which the first series tried for (with an arguable degree of success), and focused on making an excellent romantic comedy. And they succeeded. The whole series is 11 episodes long. But this is 11 25-minute sections, some of which are split into two 12-minute stories which the series calls "episodes": so it has 15 "episodes". There are also two 12-min "episodes" (which weren't screened at the time due to unfortunate news stories, but are hilariously funny), to bring the total created to 12 broadcasts.

It appears that the most popular bits of the original FullMetalPanic were the HighSchoolRomance comedy, because that's where all the development of /Fumoffu went. The comedy is mostly genuinely funny, with some great settings and one-liners. I can imagine some would find the "Sousuke misinterprets normal school happenings in military ways with OTT consequences" pattern gets old, but they keep up enough variations that it didn't seem too formulaic.

Tessa, Melissa and Kurtz do put in an appearance later on, and there's even mech combat of a sort, briefly. But this is all about the characters and comedy, so don't hold out hopes for a gritty military drama here. If on the other hand you can cope with hilarious exaggerated antics that, while ridiculous, somehow don't seem as forced as those from LoveHina or any number of other comedies, you should find this great fun.

It has an unusual attitude to FanService. Thankfully it's dropped the first series' occasional gratuitous panty shots and suchlike; but two episodes are chock-full of lingering shots of female (and male) flesh - on the beach in episode 2, and the hot springs later on. Even the hot springs camera angles are chosen for visual comedy, though.

For those wondering, "Fumoffu" is the sound that Banto-kun makes. Banto-kun is a popular teddy bear icon (think Yogi Bear or ScoobyDoo) whom Chidori has a doll of. It's not a spoiler to reveal that life-size Banto-kun dolls crop up early on, for which Sousuke naturally finds unique uses.

CategoryAnime