Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, best of 2005?

Note: This will contain spoilers from FMP:TSR.

Frankly speaking, yes.

After being delayed by almost an entire day, Full Metal Panic, The Second Raid is finally out!

And hell, it's one heck of an ending to cap an incredible series.

First off, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid (Henceforth known as FMP:TSR) is the second season to the rather successful Full Metal Panic, which also had an OVA. FMP:TSR was directed by the dude who also directed the OVA.

That meant a little more violence then FMP season 1.

Not that I mind. In fact, the violence was used rather nicely. Not too much, but at the same time, not too little that would have turned this into a kids show.

The story starts off in a blast, with the main character, Sagara Sousuke in a mission where he almost sacrificed himself to save a bunch of refugees.

As the story goes on, more is revealed about the organisation Sousuke works in, for the benefit of those people who have not watched the first series (like me). The organisation is called Mithril, a Mercenary force bent on keeping world peace. Sousuke is a bodyguard of Kaname Chidori, a "whispered", which means that she has some super knowledge on computers (or something like that. I need to watch FMP season 1).

The main enemy appears in episode 3, which shows Mithril falling into a trap set by the enemy. By episode 6, more of the enemy is revealed, which is an organisation called Amalgam (note: Both Amalgam and Mithril are fantasy metals). Obviously, Amalgam is on a totally different wavelength from Mithril.

However, the fun part comes in episode 9, where Sousuke got relocated, with his orders telling him to stop his protection on Chidori. By then, some sort of a relationship had begun between the two, although both won't admit it.

That's also where the real story starts. Sousuke, who believed in Mithril, was suddenly confused, unsure of what his goals in life are. Unable to protect the one person who matters in his life, and also unable to pilot his machine properly, he was extremely distracted, with himself unsure of what's happening around him.

Obviously, as is of your typical clinche endings, he got over it in episode 13 (the final episode), with Chidori showing up and revealing the path. LoL.

With that, he just kicked ass as he finally bonded well with his machine.

However, this animes stands out via the fact that they actually spent time developing the ending. Unlike many other animes which would simply spend like, 2 minutes or something at the ending zone, FMP:TSR showed Sousuke heading back home to Tokyo, and resuming school, after he made a request with the higher ups in Mithril to return to school for half his pay. The fact that it's 27 minutes instead of the usual 23 minutes speak for itself. The producers are serious about making a good ending. And, it's 27 without the opening or ending animations.

That's probably why this anime shines above them all so far. 13 episodes was a little short for many, but I think it's just right. Anything more would have had fillers in the series, hence possibly tarnishing this series. The director did a great job by managing to squeeze a rather impressive storyline, with character developments all in such a short time. Besides, not all shows with a long series would mean that it is good (*looks at GSD*...50 episodes, and it's still crap).

If you are looking for action packed anime, with a bit of gore, a pretty nice storyline and character development, you should grab FMP:TSR. The ending did close a chapter, but it also left a door wide open for a third season, which everyone is waiting for.

Score: 10/10.

It really is that good. You seldom see a perfect score from the bird.

Screens:


Chidori! <3



Wake up..baka...



Yay..? Hahahahaha.


While TSR is finally over, not all is well.

Namely, the group which released the subs first: Anime-Shrine.

They are a pretty decent group, with plenty of staff members from Malaysia, which means that their release is usually in saturday mornings. However, there was a problem somewhere, somehow, and it was initially released at around 9pm.

Within minutes of its release, staff members realised that they encoded with the wrong script, and pulled it back, preparing to release a Version 2.

QCers were obviously sleeping on their jobs. However, one of the editors cum QCers, Sophia decided to blast the staff members, as according to her, she has to watch things which has her name in it, before the group are allowed to release it.

Since she isn't around at the time of initial release, they have decided to release it first. Thanks to that, Version 1 was screwed up.

Not that I mind. There are screw ups before in many other groups, resulting in Versions 2, or even 3s at times.

However, what disgusted me was Sophia's attitute towards her members. She has threatened to release the script to a rival Fansubbing group (Bakakozou) [not sure whether she did or not. Bakakozou did release pretty quickly this week, along with Blood+ 02], and wanted to declare "her" script stolen. On top of that, she decided to happily post a spoiler of a text which she did not edit on the main channel, with over 700 users online waiting for the release, hoping to show how poor her fellow staff member's editing skills are.

Don't get me wrong, I have great respect for fansubbers, since they are people who take time off to do things for others, when they can simply head onto a computer and play a game of Guild Wars instead.

However, this is simply ridiculous. Her lack of respect towards fellow staff members, and the way she "controls" the channel. Yes, she controls the #Anime-shrine channel in IRC as well. Last week, we, the users, were pretty much having fun, enjoyig the stories of a guy who was an Assistant Prof, who was saying about the crappy students and what he does to them. Sophia then stormed in, and said that she will NOT tolerate (emphasis on the word "not") making fun of others in her channel.

Oh well.

The chat pretty much died after that.

Since then, I don't really like her, so I simply typed /hop and decided to get rid of my voiced status in that channel.

Other than being a staff of Anime-shrine, she also happens to be the team leader of AnimeU, which does Shuffle!. I was curious as to what their subs looked like, and went into their channel (I usually wait for KnKF's version).

Seeing Sophia as an OP there made me decide against wasting my bandwidth.

To know that she, a person with such a definate lack of team workmanship, appals me. True, you are doing this out of your own time, but respecting others is also a must, especially in this industry. Fans are what make you famous. Without them, you are nothing. Scaring and blasting team members when they have admitted their mistake and is willing to correct it in any way possible also won't make a lot of friends for you.

One thing is for certain.

I definately won't bother to get any of AnimeU's releases.
--

GSD episode 4:

-Minerva falls into a trap, a note highlighted by Athrun.
-Shinn and Lunamaria battle for their lives, as they watch two pilots (I didn't even know they exist in the first place...) from their crew die.
-Minerva tries to hide in the huge astroid.
-Plan backfires as the enemy ship, Bogey-1, takes advantage by attacking the rocks instead, allowing the rocks to do the damage.
-Meanwhile, Shinn and crew were just barely hanging on against the three stolen machines. Lunamaria loses against a quick duel against Gaia, but was saved by Shinn.
-Athrun advices Minerva to fire against the rock, allowing the explosion to propel them away from the astroid.
-The plan worked, and Bogey-1 is coutnerattacked.
-Bogey-1 escapes, giving Minerva some time off.
-Minerva then repairs during the rest period.
-Shinn and gang meets Athrun briefly.
-Shinn says that "all who lives in ORB are cowards"
-Junius 7 begins it's movement to earth.
-Episode ends with Shinn listening to Mayu's voice from her cellphone.
--

A kid named google...

XD!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16978909-401,00.html

Well, at least he's better then this one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116

Now, this one is really sad....LoL.