Full Metal Panic Overload

Publisher
ADV Manga
Writer
Shouji Gatou
Artist
Shikidouji, Tomohiro Nagai
Country of origin
Japan
Length
4 volumes
Year
2001

Full Metal Panic Overload 1 and 2

By noghri
24th Feb 06

One day whilst browsing manga novels, I came across these, I didn’t even know it had been made, but I snapped them up as soon as I laid my eyes on them. I’m a big fan of the TV series. There are currently two volumes available to buy out of four.
It was originally released as ikinari full metal panic, with the first volume released in June 2005 by ADV manga.

Looking just at the cover for these volumes, you get a sense of the utter insanity of the content. They are presented in amazingly bright primary colours with cutey versions of characters from full metal panic displayed in a variety of manic poses. From the cover you can tell that the story was originally serialised to attract a younger audience than the FMP manga.

As the first volume blurb states, 'Forget Mythril. Forget the whispered. This is a Full Metal Panic like you've never seen!' it really is exactly what it says. This is a stand-alone storyline, without any of the mecha action and Mythril. The first volume sees Sosuke having lost his memory assume the mission to protect Chidori, but now he doesn’t really have a clue at what he is doing, instead of being the professional who is always awkward, he is now the most accident prone and incident causing individual in the world.

The storyline is presented in a group of shorts titled Bombs, these titles are between 20 and 40 pages each. The storyline has an ongoing story of sorts although it doesn’t seem to go anywhere, but this is only the second volume of four, so ill give it the benefit of the doubt. Despite the fact that the story may not go anywhere it does not mean it is not entertaining, in fact the story is great. Yeah its only for fun, but that’s exactly what it is, fun.

The second volume is really not to different, although it does have one chapter, or bomb, that if completely ‘off the wall’, Sosuke becomes a police dog and together they try to solve mysteries. The comedy in these volumes is not to be confused with the grown up subtle humour of the anime or the manga, it is more similar to Azumanga Daioh, but with a hand full of slapstick added for good measure. There are bombs going off people being thrown through windows and the maintenance costs for the school must be astronomical.

The only thing I didn’t really like about these volumes was the ability Sosuke to remember how to set traps and how he grew up on the multiple battlefields of the world, but he doesn’t know who he is, or who any of the characters are. He also knows how to prime bombs and the likes but doesn’t know how to hold his pistol. These things wind me up a little, but really not enough to dissuade me from recommending this series.

Overall if you enjoy the anime you would probably be intrigued to see this, if you like the more in your face comedies as well, you would love this. Its certainly not the most involving storyline, but if you just enjoy light comedy then look no further.

-- noghri 24th Feb 06