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Full Metal Panic GN 6 & 7

It’s the Summer of 2005, and right now that means the biggest thing coming out of a book store would be Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. After all it DID sell 6.9 million copies in 24 hours!
But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you are NOT a Harry Potter fan, then what? You want to get something to pass the summer away reading and yet you do NOT want to get the latest adventures of that teen Wizard sensation Harry Potter, then what? How about a bunch of mangas of titles worth reading? Like this week’s recommendation of Full Metal Panic! For starters?

Full Metal Panic. Three words that speak of a series that is just too good to not be a part of. What with two Anime series that I know of so far (Full Metal Panic & FMP! Fumoffu) and two Manga series (Full Metal Panic and FMP! Overload!) you can’t help but feel that this series is something of a fan favorite. Yeah, sure it could have went differently since they almost stopped publishing the manga in English with FMP! GN 5, but thanks to some skillful negotiating ADVManga got the series rolling again with the series going up to GN 8 (to date), as well as the new launch of Overload GN 1 (which I also reviewed this week)! So, then, what is the series about? Hmm… I’m not entirely sure. Why am I not entirely sure? Well, I AM going to do more reviews -- up to a point. I have FMP GN 4-5 as well as 6-7, but that’s it. Sadly I still need to get the first 3 books, but from the introduction at the beginning of GN 6, combined with what I know of the series, I can tell you this much…

Previously…
The world of FMP seems to be your typical normal Earth type world with all the typical advancements befitting it’s… hmm… Late 20th Century to Early 21st Century setting. That is, of course, until you account for “The Whispered” and their contribution to this world. “The Whispered”, it seems, are unique individuals that can “hear” voices, voices that tell them how to build things. But unlike the voice that told Kevin Costner to build a baseball field in “Field of Dreams”, these voices tells the hearer how to build technology that has yet to be created… as opposed to the useless power of hearing voices that tell you how to build a standard Major League Baseball style field in the middle of your crops.

That technological “one-up” has given to the birth of advanced technology, including mecha like machines, and is obviously coveted by nations across the world. That’s where this series comes in. This manga, which used to be a series of novels (like how the Dirty Pair was a novel series before it became an anime, and how Vampire Hunter D was a novel series before it became a cult classic movie), tells the story of one Kaname Chidori, one who seems to be a normal high school girl if not for the fact that a certain terrorist organization has come to the belief that she is one of these “Whispered”.

When plans to abduct her reaches the ears of a group known as MITHRIL (yes, like the rare metal found in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) they counter this plan by sending a war crazed gun nut named Sosuke Sagara to protect her. The job is hell, though only occasionally hell caused by terrorists, and it’s sheer torture for Sagara… which doesn’t seem to be a problem as we enter GN 6 since he seems to like his job nicely now… but after a few missions to save the world, some botched terrorists kidnapping plots, and one capturing by the North Korean government, we have come to this point.

So take a break and forget terror because it’s two fun laden books coming at you!

Graphic Novel 6
This time out we experience the following…
- Art class becomes the “art” of war when Sosuke gets the wrong idea… again… and learns that being a model for art class is to blend in with the surroundings and become invisible.
You know where THAT instruction is going to be leading to already, don’t you. Ok. Moving on.
- When Kaname has decided she has had enough of watching Sosuke eat the same jerky or rations over and over again she decides to teach him how to cook. Disaster ensues.
- When Tessa (from MITHRIL) shows up looking for Sosuke during the Christmas holiday, Kaname decides to follow her to see what Tessa is going to do… besides fall flat on her face every 100 ft.
- It’s the new year and Kaname & Kyoko are working as Shrine Maidens to make a few extra yen. Sounds simple enough, right? Well Sosuke and his pals show up and Sosuke gets drunk on this really meek “alcohol” and his friends gets into trouble and he can’t do anything so… well… you’ll see.
- When Sosuke is in trouble with his Japanese Classics homework Kaname lends him her notes… which he promptly forgets when Kaname needs them the most. Hillarity and chaos ensues.
- When somebody leaves an envelope with a pink letter at Sosuke’s desk he takes action… by blowing his class up (along with the letter). When the smoke clears it’s clear that somebody is looking to make a love connection with Sosuke -- well, it’s clear to Kaname at any case, Sosuke on the other hand… well… you know where this is going. Chuck Woolery would be outraged. Outraged, I tell you! Outraged!
- And finally we wrap up with a Tessa story.

Graphic Novel 7
- It looks like Sosuke has adopted a mouse, and he has been named Mousuke. Yeah. That’s when weird things happen, all blamed on a mysterious “enemy”… yeah, I think you know where this is going. Didn’t they do this once in the original Dirty Pair TV Series with a mouse, only it wasn’t this funny?
- What is it that has Sosuke going off on his own without telling Kaname about what he’s doing? Once again Kaname jumps to conclusions and finds her suspicions are nowhere near what the truth is.
- Apparently Sosuke has a talent for Synchro, or so his teacher (who is abit odd to say the least) claims.
Maybe his talents would be better spent in a sport that doesn’t includes a talent which gives him the opportunity to drown his fellow classmates.
- Some woman has a grudge against Sosuke… when did that happen? I don’t know. Probably in an earlier book, but for now it looks like she’s going to kidnap Kaname in order to use her to draw Sosuke into a “trap”. Yeah. That should blow up in her (and her gang’s) face quite nicely. Bam.
- In another instance when Kaname’s imagination gets the better of her it looks like she and Sosuke are going to be sent to investigate a certain “business” that seems to have a “clientele” that is into… weird things. Once again Kaname jumps to the wrong conclusions and is promptly shocked by the truth when it smacks her right in the fact (only in a figurative way). Will she ever learn, will she ever learn.
- One more story, one more short and then we’re done. That’s that. Breakdown time.

Full Metal Panic Breakdown the 6th & 7th
What’s Hot?
I’m glad ADVManga got the rights to publish this in English. Chock full of goodness these two are just plain solid reads, and fun to boot. I don’t know much about the series, having never seen the Anime or read the novels that preceeded the mangas, but it’s one of my favorite reads of the year. If you haven’t tried it out yet you should grab these two and give them a whirl. Nice stuff.

What’s Not?
Next time it’s going to be a long single story, no more of these short episodic stories, so I guess they’re going to get serious again… more or less. Well, I’m still going to be looking forward to it and looking forward to buying it (is it out yet?) but still… ah, don’t worry about it, I’m sure to have a positive review of it when I finally review it.

Moments to Remember?
Way too many to list here. It’s just chock full of memorable stuff.

What to Ignore?
Hmmm… ahhh…. Well, the humor isn’t as “direct” as in Overload, which is probably why I like these two better than Overload GN 1. Still having both these books and the new Overload in your collection is a recommendation from me to you. Must have reads here, check it out.

Overall?
I haven’t gotten into the series much, and I could do better… like I could be getting into the FMP-FUMOFFU series for instance… but I like what I’ve seen so far and it’s a good read. If you have the chance to get either these books or FMP-Overload GN 1 I suggest getting them. Now all I need to do is backtrack and get the first 3 Graphic Novels, as well as the latest to come.
Stay tuned, in the near future I’ll have a FMP GN 4-5 review for you! Nuff said for now.

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