Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory

The boisterous student Kaname Chidori and soldier Sousuke Sagara are enjoying a blissful high school life. However, their peaceful days are disrupted by the threatening terrorist organization Amalgam. Leonard Testarossa, a member of the organization who possesses "Whispered," seeks to procure Kaname and her knowledge.

Kaname and Sousuke's battle against Amalgam starts right in their own neighborhood, which eventually takes them on a hunt around the world. From the exotic lands of Laos to the barren Mexican coast, Sousuke must gather intelligence to bring down Amalgam. Meanwhile, Kaname's abilities grow, but so does her frustration as her resolve withers. Caught up in an intense game of hide and seek, as well as strategic plots, the pair try to connect and push beyond their own limits.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sagara, Sousuke Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Chidori, Kaname Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Testarossa, Teletha Main

Yukana Japanese

Mao, Melissa Supporting

Neya, Michiko Japanese

Weber, Kurz Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Wraith Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Kalinin, Andrei Sergeivich Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Kurama Supporting

Yamaji, Kazuhiro Japanese

Hayashimizu, Atsunobu Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Testarossa, Leonard Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Nakayama, Katsuichi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Abe, Masashi Episode Director

Reviews

Jul 18, 2018

Stark700

Recommended

There’s an old phrase that goes “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it”. It’s been over a decade since Full Metal Panic aired and we got a new season at our hands. However, reviving old franchises isn’t something new these days. Just ask series like D. Gray Man and Dragon Ball. The real question is if Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory can be welcomed back like a hero.

With a new director and studio, the series felt like a breath of fresh air. Honestly, it almost felt like the series never left us despite the 13 year gap. I also confess ... that Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid is among one of my favorite mecha series so expectations coming into this for me were high. If you haven’t watched that season, do yourself a favor and do it now. Invisible Victory isn’t going to spoonfeed you information especially since this season takes right off without absurd recaps.

For starters, the first episode made it clear that there’s a quiet and looming threat. It felt like an atmospheric episode that brings back Sousuke and Kaname together but not in the happy-go-around way that some fans may expect. This didn’t come as a surprise to me as the franchise is known for its psychological elements. Sousuke and Kaname deals with a terrorist threat that puts their friends at risk. It also didn’t take long for Kaname to realize she is in trouble. Remember Amalgam? Well, they are back this season in full force and stops nothing to capture her. It shouldn’t take fans long to realize what they are in stored for. Up to this point, Sousuke and Kaname has been through a lot together but there’s always the curiosity of what may happen do they if they’re not careful. Invisible Victory carries an unpredictable suspenseful plot that shows how the pair deals with their own personal demons. Neither character has changed much as their personalities will be familiar with fans. However, it’s their raw emotions that surfaces at times which highlights their personas.

In addition, this season also introduces a new girl named Nami. Now, I’m not a big fan of new major characters being introduced in this franchise especially when one seems like a potential love interest. There’s already characters like Tessa to fill that role from previous seasons. However, I will say that Nami is a character to keep an eye on especially for her tomboyish personality and courage. The season spends a decent amount of screen time for her and Sousuke to bond during Kaname’s absence. It almost feels refreshing as Sousuke is able to interact with someone who is different than others he’s met before. In later episodes, the show really puts Sousuke’s emotions at stake when dangerous enemies like Kurama enter the story.

I have mentioned Tessa before but in this season, she does get a meaningful role. I’ve never been a big fan of Tessa and she still maintains a strained relationship with her brother, Leonard. Yet, Tessa is valuable in the conflict against Amalagam. In the later episodes, she provides key information that proves to be imperative for Sousuke and his allies. Similarly, Sousuke continues to fight the good fight and maintain his image as a soldier. At this point, the conflict against Amalgam has become much more personal for him and the show capitalizes on the stakes.

Adapted by Xebec, I was initially optimistic about this adaptation. Sure, the animation quality looks familiar to the previous seasons. However, they produced some questionable anime in the past like Tokyo ESP and Triage X. Luckily, Invisible Victory is safe from broken animation and mostly remains intact with the quality that I expected. The CG may take some time to get used but not too distracting once you get used to it. The battle choreography remains sharp to capture the vivid details of the violence. There’s minimal censorship so watching close up duels between Sousuke and others is a gift to the fans. Furthermore, character designs still remains generally the same as previous seasons. There’s some minor fan service in the case with Kaname and Nami but nothing really too distracting. The real fan service is the psychology in the character emotions shown their expressions. The music and OST sometimes reflects this too through their clever timing. As this is perhaps one of the more serious seasons, the theme songs even shows a bit of their colors.

Invisible Victory is a 12 episode series that give the fans what they wanted and that’s a new season of surprises. It’s been a long time since the franchise aired on TV and I feared that the time gap may have done its damage. However, this season lived up to its expectations while raising the stakes it needed to. While the plot may not be too refreshing, it still captures the essence of the franchise that I loved all those years ago. To me, the revival of Full Metal Panic is a victory in itself.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 23, 2018

Midou

Mixed Feelings

Overall Summary:
For my first review on MAL, this hurt to write. I'm a fan of FMP. I saw the original around 2003, loved Fumoffu and TSR, and waited 13 long years for this. Sadly, I came away disappointed because they wasted so many opportunities to make this as great as seasons 2 and 3. In the end, it's clearly the weakest of all 4 shows, despite the advances in 3D animation AND a delay from its original air date. I really wish KyoAni had done the show instead.

It had good moments, but they could've done SO much better. I pray that IF they make another ... season that it's given more money and attention. After the first few episodes, it really went downhill.

Story:
It's pretty straightforward action a lot of the time. It suffers from bad pacing, and stupid tactics/decisions in parts. It's merely "OK".

The bigger problem is the execution, and that many of the familiar characters are MIA for long periods of time... Lots of wasted cast.

Art:
After the first 3 eps or so, the art is terrible when no mechs are on screen. They put all their effort into the 3D mech animation (which is pretty great), and it makes me sad that they lacked the funds on the non-3D parts. The show really suffers from the low budget.

Sound:
It's pretty decent. Nothing wowwed or made me notice a major problem.

Character:
I wish the main cast showed up more often...

Enjoyment:
Pretty clear by now. I'm trying to be fair, but I get why others might rate this lower.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 18, 2018

Karhu

Not Recommended

The love Full Metal Panic gets has always fascinated me. It's widely acknowledged among its fans that the characters deserve to be in a better series. The writing for the first 2 seasons was such a miss that you can ask any fan what their favorite episode from those were and they will name a you a filler. You know this series is peculiar when things like this can occur.

Kyoani realized --after the first cour-- that Gonzo's route is not what the fans really want, and gave us the comedic masterpiece that Fumoffu was. And now, it would seem like that will be the ... pinnacle of the franchise, as this 4h season - by Xebec this time around - is not very different from the first 2. For that reason, those who liked and those who disliked them, will most likely have very similar opinions of Invisible Victory for the given reason.

Our plot resolves around mind-numbingly dull mecha fights, gun sounds and random explosions caused by disagreement. I do not recall witnessing such tension-lacking battles in any anime since the first 2 seasons. The whole military side of the story is once again a joke that I either do not get or just won't laugh at because it's not very funny. The driving motion from random kidnapping incidents (yes, plural) to evil men planting bombs and murdering women, all feel so forced and mainly just bad excuses for the story to go somewhere. It's truly interesting how the main content feels more like filler than the actual fillers do.

The romance is going somewhere at least. 16 years and some month it took, but now Chidori and Sousuke are finally holding hands and not feeling blushy blush baka every time they realize some feelings stuff. This is all good, but mainly reminds me how most amazing stories (such as Chrno Crusade (also by Gonzo)) are always filled with gigazillion tons worth of shit. Even this time around, we are talking 1:10 ratio of good shit to bad.

Some good decisions have still been made. For one, Tessa is not constantly pushing herself to get a role in the harem - which is great because she is the opposite of great. Her brother, on the other hand, is but a random plot device. Kurz and Mao of course still exists to make the series more boring than it would otherwise be. And naturally, the best friend Kyouko is there to hold the important role of being tied to ropes half of the run time, making annoying anime sounds.

Xebec did decent job by making the series seem like FMP. Some obvious problems still exist. The mecha fights would probably be less boring if some music was used during those scenes. Weird decisions here. The art is super inconsistent. The series suffered from production issues which caused things like 3fps climbing scenes to exist, as well character design so sloppily drawn that the faces are occasionally nearly unrecognizable. Some better choices could have been made, especially with voice actors who only make their archetype characters seem even more generic presentations of their character types. Otherwise I can't say the production is the reason why I am not very pleased with the show, but it surely didn't make it seem any better either.

Enjoyment-wise, I wouldn't mind most of the problems and the questionable stuff the show has if I had been at least able to not get bored while watching it. The show didn't exactly make is as easy as other similar series, such as Black Lagoon, Jormungand, Gundamn Vietnam, Break Blade, Kaze no Stigma and even Canaan.

*The last 2 episodes were rescheduled due production issues, I saw the finale and pre-finale via atx. I am mentioning this in case moderators think this review was posted too early*

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	I feel like I missed some character development taking place between TSR and Invisible Victory Monkadude15 - May 23	6 replies	by Monkadude15 »» May 25, 4:57 PM
	Where do I continue? please tell me RealityChanges - May 5	5 replies	by ryoougi »» May 7, 8:47 AM
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