The main character (Sosuke) is a socially inept, black-haired school-age guy. There's romantic tension between him and the two main female characters who are both his age: one of whom (Tessa) has a quiet, soft-spoken personality but shows steely resolve at times, the other of whom (Kaname) is loud, fiery, overreacts and always calls him a baka or hentai, but everyone suspects she has feelings for him.
The main character, as well as being a schoolage boy, is also an operative for a secretive military organisation, and the best person in the world at piloting a unique mech whose power is not fully understood (much to the envy of one of his schoolfriends, a military otaku). The quiet steely girl is also at this military organisation - in fact she's been there for longer than him. They seem to hire schoolkids, for reasons not fully explained.
The third main female character is Melissa, a woman in her twenties, also working for this organisation, who dresses skimpily and drinks beer to excess. But she has a good heart and is committed to serving militarily as best as she can (as is her associate in the organisation, Kurz, a male playboy type about her age, with long hair). This woman and the fiery-tempered girl are the main focus of the series' light fanservice, although the quiet girl is also shown near-naked quite early on...
Of the two school-age girls, the blue-haired one so which one's that? is introduced in episode 1 as a main character, the other only around episode 8 (of 26).
Alex is trying to make the description fit both NeonGenesisEvangelion and FullMetalPanic. The problem is, the girls don't quite match - the blue haired one in NGE is the quiet one (Rei) and in FMP, the blue-haired one is the loud one (Kaname). Thus he uses unclear wording. It's quite clever, but if you haven't seen both series, it is confusing - SunKitten
Contrast NeonGenesisEvangelion. Originally a novel (there are now several), then a manga serialised (still going as of 2002-03) in Kadokawa's Comic Dragon magazine:
There is a second TV series, "/Fumoffu", which apparently started on 25th August on Fuji TV.
Indeed. It's on Mondays at 2:28. We like Fumoffu a lot in our house :-) It's funny.--Mjb67
Interestingly, Fumoffu is not "Full Metal Panic!", but rather "Full Metal Panic?". Subtle, eh?
They seem to hire schoolkids, for reasons not fully explained Not entirely accurate. The reason both Sousuke and Tessa were hired was fully explained.
No concept of DangerMoney?, and only having to pay more than a PaperRoute?? (C'mon, you can't just leave it at that) --Vitenka
It seems that they're both actually quite good at their jobs, though :-) Sousuke doesn't even angst as much as his pretty-boy counterparts from _other_ series --Mjb67
But then, this is a shonen series, not a shojo one ^_^