Full Metal Panic! was the first mecha anime I had seen in a long time back in 2003. Prior to this I had seen super robot anime like Mazinger, and the three original Gundam movies, along with some live action shows like Super Robot Red Baron. This show and Love Hina were the gateway shows back into anime for me. I remember that this time period was kind of dead for good SF shows in general. I think the only one I would have watched was Stargate SG-1 and quite frankly, after the Star Treks had stopped airing, there wasn't much good SF on TV in general (and Star Trek is well... Trek with its own technobabble). When I watched Full Metal Panic, it was like a breath of fresh air and it had more realistic big robots battling in a conventional military environment, which was nice to see too. If you're curious about what I consider realistic, have a look at my own mecha stories and robot technology here. I also wrote an article about Gundam tech here.
 |
The series was released on 7 DVDS, and you had to wait months between disc releases. No one released an entire season at once.
|
At the time, watching Full Metal Panic! was a ton of fun and it was all pretty new and like a breath of fresh air. I hadn't realized at this point that high school settings and giant robots mixed together more regularly than you think yet. The characters, the cute girls, and the pretty cool looking ARM Slave robots were all very appealing. The storylines were good too and pretty believable as long as you could suspend your disbelief about whispered humans and black technology that made the ARM Slaves possible. The author, Shoji Gatoh, built a nicely realized world and populated it with a range of likeable characters with their personal flaws. There are stereotypes at work, but they work for the original light novels and in the anime. I think this show actually sets the bar for all real robot anime to be compared against. The Gundam franchise robots are also classified as "real robots," but I would almost put them in a real robot class of their own if you look at what they actually do to other robots in battle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Metal_Panic!
 |
M9 Gernsback completed action figure from 2012 by Alter. This is one the first ones I bought after the FMP TSR came out. I've actually never displayed it, but it looks pretty snazzy still after all these years.
|
 |
Inside the box for the M9.
|
The first story arc introduced our main characters and allowed Sosuke Sagara to show off his mecha piloting skills to rescue his primary love interest, Chidori Kanami, from a communist block country. I kind of liked how there were already first generation and second generation mecha involved. Also the communist mecha were well designed to look like they were the spawn of a T-72 tank design program. Out of the mecha designs out there, the ARX-7 has got to be one of my favourites. This particular mecha has a nice balanced humanoid form while still having distinctive armoured features and it carries a knife where its mouth is.
The second story arc featured a giant giant robot, building upon the secretive Lambda Driver technology, and featured Teletha Testarossa, the other love interest and capable submarine captain. Sosuke is the primary protagonist and the third arc focused on Sosuke's past and motivations. Finally, the fourth arc features the super submarine TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan and kind of wraps the series up nicely with a showdown with an old enemy featured throughout the series. This series builds up a world with the secretive Mithril organization that the characters work for, along with mecha and black technology quite nicely, and it seemed more believable than many shows out there.
 |
1/8 scale PVC Figure of Chidori with Panzerfaust 3 RPG and Teletha with a P90 PDW. These figures were released by Good Smile back in 2005. They were priced at about Y4500.
|
This is probably still my favourite real robot mecha anime as of 2021 and it has survived multiple rewatches. Sometimes you really like an anime but really don't watch it again all the way through. This series is an exception. It is also really nice that there are two more serious series, hoping for a third at the time of writing, and there is one comedy series more about high school hijinks.
 |
Collectors set for the original ADV DVD release. You got some nice liner notes and like 4 episodes a disk for $30 each. It was pricey to collect. I quite like the smaller boxes nowdays too.
|
For the next part of this article, I want to talk about anime collectibles relating to this show. Back then, in the early 2000s there were not that many reliable places to order things on the Internet. I would get most of my purchases from Hobbylink Japan for models and figures or JBOX for various blind box or gashapon sets. Back then, HLJ carried gashapon capsules (in blind box sets of 6 or 10) and JBOX sold complete sets. Its interesting to note that anime collecting was just starting to get popular at that point due to the first big anime boom in the West. Exchange rates (especially for Canada) were really good and it was way cheaper, with more variety, to buy direct from Japan than buy from anyone who imported and then sold again. The prices of figures and collectibles in general have also probably doubled at a minim since then. These days, I have a large collection and have slowed down collecting quite a bit simply because there are
a) only so many Rei and Asuka figures you can own
b) the cool looking ones are way too expensive now
c) I have no room to display it :(
 |
Full Metal Panic TSR Blind Box Art for the tiny action figures below. I don't know the release date for this.
|
 |
Full Metal Panic TSR figures. The Venom mechs were left out of the shot.
|
I have a few collectibles relating to this series, some of which have already been shown. My favourites are the swim suit figures and the BOME figures below, but I also quite like the mecha figures. There was a blind box set that I picked up years ago and I'll just say they are cool but a little fragile to pose. I don't have a massive collection, but I bought stuff for my favourite series. I have to say that with disc purchases declining due to streaming, I'm not sure if the merchandising aspect will continue as strongly simply because you don't own the show. Time will tell.
 |
Bome Figures are really high quality in general. The figures of Kaname and Teletha here are quite nice. This set was released in 2006 for about Y7300. The BOME figures all came in rugged plastic blister packs that showed the figures nicely.
|
 |
Revoltech ARX-7 and ARX-8 Laevetin. These action figures were released in 2008-2009. They were priced around Y2500. Revoltechs are about 10 cm high, typical collectible aciton figure size.
|
 |
The Laevetin with its gigantic cannon - needs Lambda Driver to use. We never saw this mecha in action until the Invisible Victory series.
|
 |
ARX-7 with Boxer Shotcannon.
|
Aged Anime Index Page
Other Anime Related Articles
Other Japanese Pop Culture Articles
Comments
Post a Comment