From the very beginning, one senses that Chidori Kaname isn’t quite the normal high school student. Perhaps it’s the fact that she lives alone – without her family - in an apartment. Or perhaps it’s the fact that she is amazingly blockheaded and hot tempered. Or perhaps it’s the fact that there’s a secret terrorist organization out to capture her and use her for secret experiments. Luckily for Kaname, there’s another secret organization out to protect her, in the form of Sergeant Sagara Sousuke, a very able – perhaps too able – bodyguard. This is all because Kaname is in truth thought to be a member of WHISPER, a hidden and secret program of people who have “Black Technology” in their heads…
This anime had, in my opinion, a good deal of potential. Kaname has the problem of being annoyingly thick at times, but overall, she has a strong personality and a bright determination that is very admirable. Opposite her is Sagara Sousuke, the smart and paranoid military boy lost in suburbia. Together, they learn to adapt to each other (well, somewhat) and grow to fight the Big Evil Enemy. Because of this, the first ten or so episodes were truly a pleasure to watch, with good action (relying heavily on spiffy mecha), an interesting plot, and many mysteries left to uncover.
Unfortunately, the last half of the show becomes unbelievably staid, clichéd, and repetitive. Many of those mysteries, so fascinating so early on in the show, are never solved. For instance, the Black Technology, which was apparently so monstrous that it could never be used widely, is apparently so monstrous that the average viewer isn’t meant to know. Neither do we ever find out how Kaname ended up living alone, or how she ended up having secret technology in the back of her head. Lastly, there is a resolution in terms of Good Guys versus Bad Guys, but not with the love triangle between Sousuke, Kaname, and the leader of Sagara’s organization.
In the end, this turned out to be something I never thought I’d see – a very clichéd mecha anime. I love mecha anime, because they can be great fun and the action scenes very nice, but only if there’s substantial plot & other characteristics along with it. And Full Metal Panic! simply didn’t have it, and what a disappointment that was with its fiery and interesting beginning.
