Full Metal Panic! Director's Cut Edition Part 1: "Boy Meets Girl"

[yugioh54]

no info on these movies. any help?

[Mafty]

They seem to be compilation movies with updated footage (like the Gundam Compilation Movies). After 5 years there doesn't seem to be much info, and its not clear if they were exported. They may have been made as a way of catching up on the series for invisible victory's release, which currently is the last animated season(and may be the last period, as I am not sure how well the season did and there doesn't seem to be any word on another season).

[yugioh54]

I was wondering why there's no page for the movies either here or the FMP wiki, they seem important, funimation didn't even license it. I also find it weird Funi didn't release FMP IV on dvd except in the special edition boxset

[Mafty]

There seems to be two separate releases of the Blu Ray on Right Stuf, but I hadn't even heard of these movies until now. It seems like Invisible Victory will be the last season, though that's probably not how the creators intended it. There's really not a lot of information out there (I asked about something like this a few years ago), but it seems like the last season didn't do very well ratings wise, so they decided not to continue the franchise (which is really a shame because it's a very interesting story, and the final books would look great animated, and there's not that much more story left anyway).

Honestly this situation reminds me a bit of the Fafner mech franchise. It was quite interesting and well animated, but evidently wasn't selling in North America , so Funimation just kind of forgot about it, and doesn't seem interested in releasing any other sequels.

On the plus side (Unlike Fafner) FMP's books are still available internationally, so you can finish the series that way.

[yugioh54]

Figures when they turned the christmas special into an audio commentary, I'm sure they'll animate the rest, there still making the spinoff manga and it's still running.

[yugioh54]

The series was big when ADV films had it and both them and Tokyopop released the manga and light novels, I have no idea why funi didn't license the movies considering they thought they had gold when they licensed TSR

[Mafty]

It is odd when a franchise just sort of disappears in the middle of releasing. It is kind of like Fafner in the first series and movie were released, but the second season was only streamed on Crunchyroll (and that doesn't seem to be available anymore) , and none of the other projects were released at all, despite it nearing the end of the story.

However this case seems to be an issue locally in Japan as well with ratings, as Invisible Victory had no follow up. So it seems like there just wasn't enough of an audience after all these years to justify making more (which as I said previously is a shame because I thought the story was actually quite interesting).

It almost seems like a Broken Blade situation wherein a big budgeted work abruptly stopped making installments, probably due to sales or ratings.

[Seto Kaiba]

The series was big when ADV films had it and both them and Tokyopop released the manga and light novels, I have no idea why funi didn't license the movies considering they thought they had gold when they licensed TSR

Yeah... but that was almost 20 years ago. Yes, it's been THAT long. **** do I feel old now.

ADV Films released the first TV anime in '03, Fumoffu! in '04, and FUNimation did TSR in '06 with ADV's help. The official English release of the manga was in the same timeframe, and Tokyopop started doing the light novels in '07 only to give up five volumes in in 2011.

I don't doubt that Funimation thought they had a winner when they licensed TSR in '05. It was coming in hot and fast on the heels of the first Full Metal Panic! TV anime and Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!. There's a twelve year gap between that and the Japanese release of the Full Metal Panic!: Boy Meets Girl compilation movie that came out in late November of '17. They probably would've snapped the movies up in a heartbeat if they and Invisible Victory had come out in '07 or '08, but interest in the series had ten years to cool off (esp. after the novel license was abandoned in '11). Full Metal Panic!: Invisible Victory was a risk... a renewal of a 15+ year old property that'd been forgotten for a decade.

It is odd when a franchise just sort of disappears in the middle of releasing. It is kind of like Fafner in the first series and movie were released, but the second season was only streamed on Crunchyroll (and that doesn't seem to be available anymore) , and none of the other projects were released at all, despite it nearing the end of the story.

For the record, Crunchyroll does in fact have all the seasons still available.

Because they have different titles for each season, it lists each season as a separate series.

[yugioh54]

not saying the show is a masterpiece, it was at least a B/B+ series, the manga was a great adaptation, they never got to Sigma, but the light novels are available with a new translation by J Novels Club so there must be some international interest even the short stories were licensed this year. Looking back the series is surprisingly pretty short, especially if they don't adapt the Christmas arc and leave it as an audio drama. It's pretty much two arcs, the original series then TSR, IV, and the final 3 books with tessas brother as the bad guy. It's weird

I can't even get IV on dvd unless I buy the boxset with the bluray. It's a strange situation considering they made a spinoff manga as well Full Metal Panic another.

[Seto Kaiba]

not saying the show is a masterpiece, it was at least a B/B+ series, the manga was a great adaptation, they never got to Sigma, but the light novels are available with a new translation by J Novels Club so there must be some international interest even the short stories were licensed this year. [...]

Oh agreed, it's a fine series... I quite enjoyed it back in the early 2000s and you'd find a few books for it squirreled away in my collection like the tech manual for the Geotron M9 Gernsback.

Full Metal Panic!'s problem wasn't its quality. The problem was that interest in the series outside of Japan dried up when there wasn't an animated follow-up to The Second Raid, and even in Japan it withered a fair bit once the light novel series ended in 2010. The franchise really could've used Invisible Victory about ten years earlier to keep its momentum going. Instead, the TV anime ended with The Second Raid and Invisible Victory just feels like an afterthought or a forgotten property trying to recapture the spotlight a decade after its heyday.

J-Novel Club's interest in the license is a product of Crunchyroll licensing Invisible Victory. In the last several years, it's become standard practice for publishers like Yen Press and J-Novel Club to focus on licensing light novels for which a TV anime has just been produced and licensed for global distribution. That way they have a built-in audience. It's a hit-and-miss approach, but as long as it's more hit than miss they turn a profit. (Esp. as they don't pay their translators very well and a fair number of the translations have been kind of sloppy and problematic, ignoring things like official romanizations and so on.)

Looking back the series is surprisingly pretty short, especially if they don't adapt the Christmas arc and leave it as an audio drama. It's pretty much two arcs, the original series then TSR, IV, and the final 3 books with tessas brother as the bad guy. It's weird

I can't even get IV on dvd unless I buy the boxset with the bluray. It's a strange situation considering they made a spinoff manga as well Full Metal Panic another.

Yeah, the series as a whole wasn't very long... which is a shame, because a lot of the second half after MITHRIL falls felt like a bit of a plot tumor to me.

Kinda found a bunch of the supplemental material pretty disappointing too. Almost felt like bait-and-switch, considering the MITHRIL D-type is front and center on the cover and the entire book save for a handful of pages is about the barely-in-the-story US Army version instead.

[yugioh54]

It probably came from Kyoto Ani on the fence about animating more, Xebec gave us IV and probably more if people had let go of Kyoto Ani who were never interested in animating another mecha anime TSR probably killed there staff. If we were to get more it'd be by Xebec or maybe another studio like Sunrise which are known to animate mecha

[Kuruni]

Remember that Shoji Gatoh (the aurthor of original light novel) did awesome "damage control" back in 2019 (just when it look like the franchise was on resurrection) with a Twitter post about his sick fantasy of torturing Greta Thunberg.

He did apologized, although I heard (read: take this with a field of salt) that he has reputation of a bad boy for a light novel author even before that.

[Chris]

If we were to get more it'd be by Xebec or maybe another studio like Sunrise which are known to animate mecha

Xebec doesn't exist anymore, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any more FMP to be animated by them.

[Seto Kaiba]

It probably came from Kyoto Ani on the fence about animating more, Xebec gave us IV and probably more if people had let go of Kyoto Ani who were never interested in animating another mecha anime TSR probably killed there staff. If we were to get more it'd be by Xebec or maybe another studio like Sunrise which are known to animate mecha

To be honest, I doubt it was the studio's issue.

The light novel's release schedule was irregular, sometimes skipping a year or two between volumes, and the early licensed works tried to play up the school drama/comedy side of the story and didn't test well. The later works were based more on the TV anime than the actual light novel, and when that well dried up it hurt the licensed works too. TSR's reception in broadcast was mixed, and it had to be censored to meet some broadcast standards requirements, and the impact it had on the light novel's release schedule didn't help.

Remember that Shoji Gatoh (the aurthor of original light novel) did awesome "damage control" back in 2019 (just when it look like the franchise was on resurrection) with a Twitter post about his sick fantasy of torturing Greta Thunberg.

It didn't exactly help matters, but it didn't exactly hurt them either since his brief revival of Full Metal Panic! had already died down and Amagi Brilliant Park had been tapped out for years.

[yugioh54]

FMP movies were done by gonzo or at least some temporary version of them was credited. I'd like to think sunrise would be interested as they did a bunch of inuyasha revivals.

[Mafty]

Gatoh wouldn't be the first creator to shoot their franchise in the foot with their actions, though it does seem like there are several factors as has been discussed here.

So how much difference in content was there between the Light Novels and Anime? Were the Light Novels more comedy focused? TSR is pretty much the darkest part of the anime as it has a lot of violence and nudity, But I haven't read enough of the light novels to see how dark they actually get (the last three novels are more serious, however not as much so as TSR).

I do agree however the later part of the story did have some filler

Spoiler

The Votoms style mech tournament in Namsec could have been at least a bit shorter, as it takes up of a third of the last season of the anime. If there had been an easier way of Sosuke meeting up with allies, it might have been possible to finish the whole story in one season, granted the season would still probably have to be 2 cours.

[Seto Kaiba]

So how much difference in content was there between the Light Novels and Anime? Were the Light Novels more comedy focused? TSR is pretty much the darkest part of the anime as it has a lot of violence and nudity, But I haven't read enough of the light novels to see how dark they actually get (the last three novels are more serious, however not as much so as TSR).

So... it's complicated, and it varies series to series.

The Full Metal Panic! TV anime could best be described as a very simplified version of the story of the first three volumes of the light novel. It omits much of the original story's emphasis on the sci-fi aspects of its plot surrounding the Whispered and Black Technology, significantly tones down or outright removes many of the darker aspects of the story and plays up the school comedy angle, completely removes AMALGAM from the story in favor of making Gauron out to be a lone wolf, it tones down the parental nature of Kalenin's relationship with Sousuke and gives him an anime-only "brother" in Zaid, and of course it moves the events of the first and third story arcs to fictional places instead of North Korea and Afghanistan respectively. It's less important, but it also largely ignores establishing much of anything about the nature of the setting and alternate timeline the series is set in. (It makes no effort to explain why the Soviet Union still exists in the late 1990s, for instance.)

Full Metal Panic! the Second Raid is much closer to the original work. It restores a number of characters who were removed from the story in the first TV anime, but still removed a lot of the plot pertaining to Black Technology and the Whispered. The first four episodes are not in the light novel at all, and anime-original scenes are scattered throughout the rest of the series. It follows in the first show's footsteps in minimizing the actual role of AMALGAM in the plot, introduces an original character in Gates, gender-flips Gauron's two assassin child soldiers from boys to girls, and never mentions the reason Gauron wants to die (that he's already dying of cancer). It also still largely glosses over Sousuke's backstory, including his past as a graduate of the Soviet special forces assassin school and later Muslim upbringing. It weirdly zigzags the subject of having been an Afghani insurgent by using a fake name for the nation but referring to the very real Badakshan Province in Afghanistan. It does still largely ignore the circumstances of the greater world too, acknowledging that China has split into a Communist North and Democratic South, but not why, when, or how.

I do agree however the later part of the story did have some filler

Spoiler

The Votoms style mech tournament in Namsec could have been at least a bit shorter, as it takes up of a third of the last season of the anime. If there had been an easier way of Sosuke meeting up with allies, it might have been possible to finish the whole story in one season, granted the season would still probably have to be 2 cours.

The whole thing with Sousuke's replacement goldfish after Kaname is kidnapped is just a waste.

[Mafty]

I agree the whole Nami bit could have been much better handled

Spoiler

Even Gatoh allegedly regretted killing off her character.

, and it just seems like a longer retread of the earlier identical stranger Sosuke met in Hong Kong.

Also the Anime does an odd job in worldbuilding, as like Kaiba said it largely ignores the geopolitics, and simply has the setting of Millennial Tokyo with mecha, but few other changes in society.


So it seems like the novels go more in depth on the world, Which is a positive because the world seems pretty interesting. On that note , which novel features Sosuke's trip back home? I read novel blurb summaries, but I can't narrow it done to more than the first three novels.

[Seto Kaiba]

Also the Anime does an odd job in worldbuilding, as like Kaiba said it largely ignores the geopolitics, and simply has the setting of Millennial Tokyo with mecha, but few other changes in society.

Which, with the benefit of hindsight, was a bad decision that severely limited the TV anime's long-term viability.

After all, an awful lot of Full Metal Panic!'s story is invested in the concepts of AMALGAM, the Whispered, and Black Technology, and how those three have (forcibly) changed the course of history. The farther that the TV anime adaptation gets, the farther it goes off the rails as a result of having omitted or minimized the role of those plot-critical aspects of the original story. It's probably a roadblock for adapting the conclusion of the light novel, since the entire final story arc revolves around the main villain (Leonard) and his attempt to correct what he sees as a distorted history by retrocausally removing the influence of the Whispered and Black Technology from the world in order to restore the correct history (the real world's history).

So it seems like the novels go more in depth on the world, Which is a positive because the world seems pretty interesting.

Substantially so... especially since the backstories and circumstances of several main characters heavily depend on the differences between Full Metal Panic!'s history and the real world's history, and the conclusion of the entire story involves an attempt to "correct" history.

Spoiler

Admittedly, one specific omission was probably motived more by then-current events. Specifically, the 9/11 terror attacks.

Details of Sousuke's background and upbringing were omitted or modified in the TV anime to remove references to his Muslim upbringing and involvement with the Taliban. There were a LOT of markets where that would not have tested well in 2002. The TV anime omits all minor references to Sousuke having been raised Muslim like his being able to recite the Qur'an from memory, his aversion to alcohol is retained but reframed as being a personal choice because "it kills brain cells", etc. References to Afghanistan were changed to a fictional nation of Helmajistan except in the case of his foster father's nom-de-guerre "Badakhshan's Tiger" (with that being a reference to a specific province in Afghanistan). The conflict his foster father died in is reframed as a non-specific armed conflict rather than him being a Taliban guerilla leader fighting in the resistance against a second (and successful) Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with Gauron's association with AMALGAM and the Soviet Union being omitted from the series entirely.

On that note , which novel features Sosuke's trip back home? I read novel blurb summaries, but I can't narrow it done to more than the first three novels.

You mean the anime three-parter "The Wind Blows at Home"? IIRC, that whole story is an anime-only arc. Zaied doesn't even exist in the light novel.

[yugioh54]

I assume Invisible Victory is more like the novel?, but Nami being a whisprered isn't acknowledged, like in the manga, they should probably do the Christmas arc instead of the final novels if those changes effect the story about a parallel history. Is the manga adaptation better then the anime ?, I've read there ending chapters but I'm not sure they negate stuff like the anime? Invisible Victory opening even animates sosukes backstory in an eyecatch. Also has anyone seen these FMP movies? do they change anything