full metal panic

much has been written about Full Metal Panic, yet it has always been a puzzle to me why i've always found it difficult to write anything about this series (although it ranks high in my list of favorites). part of my reluctance stems from this irrational dread that i would somehow botch it — that anything i say about it would only sound trite and a rehash of all the things that's been said about this great anime series. 

well, enough of this useless hand-wringing. this time, i'm just going to concentrate on the things that i love about this highly entertaining series.

cast of characters

one of FMP's main selling point is the fantastic chemistry between the main protagonists: sgt. sosuke sagara, a highly trained 17-year-old combat expert sent by MITHRIL to protect kaname chidori, a beautiful and brilliant but temperamental high school student. In theory, they're like oil and water. And given their respective backgrounds, you know that there are bound to be some explosive confrontations. but when sparks begin to fly, the interplay between these two can range from funny, violent, touching, to ludicrous, and occasionally sweet.

what makes this pair special? hmm, let's see… how about sosuke's utter inability to blend in with his new surroundings and his hilarious misinterpretation of ordinary events? top that with kaname's often violent and exasperated response (quite understandable, mind you), as she tries her best to minimize the havoc that sosuke's actions invariably create. put simply, they are a joy to watch. no other anime couple has completely won me over as much as these two have.

other notable characters include the cute but klutzy capt. tessa testarossa, skirt-chasing kurz weber, the highly capable and sexy military babe melissa mao, kaname's best friend kyoko tokiwa, etc. most of the major characters act and sound like real people; they are vividly brought to life, thanks mostly to the spot-on performance of their seiyuus.

the story

this anime combines hardcore action (battle scenes involving robots [arm slaves!], tanks, planes, surface ships, submarines and plenty of infantry hardware), comedy, romance and science fiction, which accounts for its continuing popularity among its legion of male and female fans. It is loosely based on our own timeline (parallel reality) with many notable differences.

basically it deals with MITHRIL (this name should ring a bell among tolkien fans; another familiar term: Tuatha de Danaan), a stealthy and powerful paramilitary organization whose agenda includes fighting against various terrorist groups and ensuring that the "whispered" (individuals with special knowledge and abilities) do not fall into wrong hands. sosuke, melissa, tessa and kurz are members of this organization. both tessa and kaname are "whispered".

animation

great artwork! FMP looks and sounds far better than most of its contemporaries. animation is crisp and clear, and you can see that considerable attention has been to devoted to make the action scenes look dynamic and free-flowing.

**other points

1. the dubbed version (english) of this anime is topnotch; it's one of a few titles that i would willingly watch both in english and japanese.

this train i’m on

whew! this Alexa train is on a roll… i got tagged by daisy again. and frankly when i saw how long it was i almost swallowed my tongue. it took me awhile to fix things up, but now let's just get this show on the road…

Start copying on the ~Start Copying Here~ and copy all the things listed without removing the links. (Of course, the train would be no use without those links. 

Move all the sites labeled "Newcomers" to the list labeled "Oldies".

Add 5 sites that you want to include in the train and make their link like this:

http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.example.com then invite them to join the train.

Of course when you do this, it's inevitable that you'll get to visit all the sites included in this train. So it's also a way of discovering new interesting blogs and perhaps make new friends too.

the 5 latest add-ons:

zarine

Pseudoshrink

t2rad

reishin

misty

and the list starts here *takes a deep breath*

jen

rainydazeee

cmoud

ann

jona v

daisy

deden

kiss fendi

juliet b

nora

jean

julai

MWP

Yatot

kookie

era

francesca

yen

marie

dangkin

cess

ann

liz

bambi jho

glenn kev

Carey

louis
eli
dimaks
fingertalks
female gamer
garry conn
pinoy seminars
sasha
cafe romanza
blog about money online
manila mom
scottpot
how to earn money online
quasi fictional
make money blogging
jozzua nate whitehill
grow your writing business
ultureshock
gary lee
smart wealthy rich
techZi
erik karey
tjantunen.com
hate the grind
earn money blogging
ate ghee
mousey ju
cai
karen/malaya
devilicious

~end copying here~

[oh man, i need a drink]