Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid Ep. 3

[cerusee]

::shakes fist:: Less mecha! More Chidori! Damn you!

The best part of this entire episode was Chidori watching the funky vintage Japanese Spiderman show. She's such a responsible person that it was incredibly funny to see her complain about the broadcast being interrupted by breaking news.


Crazy psycho balding guy, in the immortal words of that one Tru Calling TWoP recap: "Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares." At all. Please die.


I think I need a Full Metal Panic icon.

Comments

[octopedingenue]

I love that as more people I see start watching Full Metal Panic the reaction goes something like, "Chidori and Sousuke weren't onscreen together enough in this one! It was so boring! Stupid mecha, I hate you, die! Why don't I have a Full Metal Panic icon yet?"

the sheep says

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Baaaah, baaaah. ::eats grass::

It's nice to know you're not alone, isn't it?

Re: the sheep says

[octopedingenue]

Oh, totally. That is MY reaction too, of course. :D Less fight-y! More UST-y!

Although I grudgingly admit that the mecha fighting serves a purpose by making the high school comedy that much more rare and sweet letting Sousuke show his stuff. Sousuke being a fish out of water at school is hilarious, but it might get uncomfortable after a while if all he ever did was publically humiliate himself--I have real embarrassment-squick/empathy for movies and TV (I often can't watch or have to hide my face during parts when characters are being completely embarrassed or ridiculed). The military stuff gives Sousuke a chance to shine and be brilliant and efficient and deadly, and then he goes back to school the next day and is a lovably clueless dork without changing a single thing about himself.

Doesn't mean I still don't yell "stupid mecha, I hate you, die!" at the screen, though.

Re: the sheep says

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

If the mecha was a little more focused on Sousuke and had less graphic throat-slitting and less Tessa, I probably wouldn't mind it.

I am so the girl who used to have to leave the room while watching sitcoms. I can't handle humiliation comedy, not when it's a character I love.

Re: the sheep says

[octopedingenue]

throat-slitting? OWW. sounds like Second Raid kicks it up a notch

I wish I liked Tessa. I really do. I almost did for the first ten minutes of her, when all I knew about her was that she seemed important and had really pretty hair. And then she showed a personality and my tentative sympathy went away QUICKLY.

Neither can I. I really don't watch any sitcoms regularly on American TV or anime. (In my head I classify FMP as more action-comedy-movie than sitcom.) I want to murder everyone doing the mocking, even if the mockers are also people I love. On the flip side, one of the ways to immediately weld my fast affections to a character is to cruelly humiliate hir. Pathetic defanged Spike falls in love with a disgusted Buffy? Orphaned outcast Naruto is the only person to miserably fail his ninja exam and is scorned by his entire village? HELLO MY DARLINGS.

Re: the sheep says

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

They don't do that sort of thing in the first series? Oh thank god. But yeah, there's a lot of extremely graphic blood and violence, not to mention...well, not sex per se, but a fairly extended, explicit scene of robot-voiced assassin sisters bathing and putting their hands all over each other. It's really...really...sketchy, and not in a good way.

They keep having these little moments where Tessa catches sight of Sousuke, and makes a little "umph" noise. And each and every time, I want to tell her to shut up, even though she hasn't said anything. I have no tolerance at all, apparently.

Nice hair, yeah, but she's no Ruri.

Tessa ranting!

[octopedingenue]

There's been a lot of violence but so far it's been of the RAWR RAWR STABBITY type that I can remember, although I do think some guys got shot in the face. And there've been some uncomfortable scenes with the bad guy trying to sexually molest Chidori while he's kidnapped her and such.


I have no tolerance either. I hate Tessa, as a character/person first and then as a romantic rival for Kaname. She's petty, catty, and manipulative; she's supposedly a brilliant military mind but every other aspect of her characterization paints her as simpering, coyly weak, kittenish, girlishly klutzy, and fluff-brained. She's forever doing stupid things that put her in danger from which one of her male subordinates will have to manfully rescue her so that she can bat her long fluffy eyelashes at them. Tessa is the #1 thing I have to suspend my disbelief for in the show (more than the GIANT TELEPATHIC ROBOTS), because it's incomprehensible to me that any military body would put someone like her with so little emotional maturity, so little ability to depend on herself, and so little ability to get her priorities straight in charge of that many soldiers and that much firepower, no matter HOW great she was at physics in high school.

At one point Tessa makes Sousuke turn off the outside microphones in his mecha while she and Kaname are standing in front of it so that Tessa can inform Kaname that she's in love with Sousuke and Kaname better watch it, without Sousuke hearing her. Because God forbid she inform Sousuke of her interest in him before she tries to run off the GIRL SHE ASSIGNED HIM TO PROTECT.

Kaname isn't always a bastion of feminism and logic either--at one point she starts kicking Sousuke in the head for being a pervert because he flung himself on top of her to shield her from a bomb blast--but she says what she thinks and doesn't try to play games, she doesn't scare or back down easily, she upholds her responsibilities, and she thinks of Sousuke as a person and not as her pretty little convenient bishonen cat toy who she wants to hide in her basket so that no one else can play with him.

Re: Tessa ranting!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

God forbid she inform Sousuke of her interest in him before she tries to run off the GIRL SHE ASSIGNED HIM TO PROTECT.

Bah. The dismissive kind, this time.

Hey, Kaname's habit of throwing logic to the wind where Sousuke is concerned is half of her charm. Sousuke's permanent soldier mindset irks her beyond reason, and it's a beautiful thing. She's also very straightforward, and honest, and thoughtful, and she'll apologize to him when she knows she's wrong. That takes as much spine as yelling at someone.

icon! love! eee!

[octopedingenue]

I would've been a lot more intrigued if the "love triangle" had been set up with Melissa Mao instead of Tessa. Melissa is an efficient snarky badass, and she would've been an interesting romantic foil for Kaname as a military woman who loves guns as much as Sousuke does. But I like Melissa as a character much better as her efficient non-romantic self.

You're right about Kaname. She makes my list of Cool Anime Female Characters. She's got guts and class, and Sousuke wouldn't get under her skin as badly as he does if she didn't care about him so much. I want her to make out with Sousuke in front of Tessa so that Tessa can screw up her face and wail.

Re: icon! love! eee!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

That would be hilarious and awesome in a very mean way.

Re: icon! love! eee!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Oh, the icon, which I just acquired like an hour ago, is a slightly edited screencap from the ending theme of TSR. There's a long shot of the two of them walking together, with Sousuke centered, and Kaname half off-camera, and then Kaname centered, and Sousuke half out of the frame. It's lovely.

Re: icon! love! eee!

[octopedingenue]

*happy sigh of the true romantic sap*

[octopedingenue]

I totally had a long comment in here ranting about Tessa and it has DISAPPEARED. I WEEP.

[octopedingenue]

And now it's back. WTF.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

LJ is doing that disappearing-reappearing comment thing again. It showed up in my inbox, though.