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「ジャイアント・キリング」 (Jaianto Kiringu)
“Giant Killing”
Do you remember the first season of Full Metal Panic!? Do you remember the first episode? Boy, that was a very long time ago. Honestly, I don’t really have much memory for old shows — I could re-watch, but where is the time? — and a lot of the first season of FMP! gets overshadowed by Fumoffu! and The Second Raid, but I do remember the first scene, the pitch that FMP! made to new viewers. In which, a giant robot wrestles a helicopter. That was cool. As far as anime hooks go that was exactly what you wanted, just something spectacular and visceral that grabs the viewer’s attentions immediately. FMP! was saying: this is what this show is about, and it’s awesome. And indeed, one of the main draws of FMP! is still giant robots being awesome. But I feel that we haven’t really had much of that recently. In Invisible Victory with Mithril destroyed, Kaname kidnapped, and Sousuke in exile, it feels like FMP! has been a nothing but a downer. So this episode, with its mecha action, is something I think I really needed. It’s not enough to just have Sousuke beat on noobs, like he was doing at the tournament. No, go wrestle a helicopter. Remind us of the highs. Maybe Invisible Victory will never live up to nostalgia, but it better try its damnedest regardless.
Speaking of nostalgia, how about that Weber 2.0? Just like the original model Weber, it seems Lemon is not what he seems either. Then again, of course he wasn’t; there wouldn’t have been much purpose for him in the plot otherwise. In the grimdark era of INvisible Victory we have no room for purely comic relief character (the clowns all got shooed out in the first episodes, remember?) so that can’t possibly be Lemon’s shtick. It doesn’t help that he’s American; if there’s anything I’ve learnt from anime thrillers it’s that all Americans work for the CIA. That, or they’re being hunted by the CIA. All of them. No exceptions. Well, we don’t know if Lemon is actually American or actually CIA yet, but we can be sure he’s a secret agent of some kind. Just goes to show, the global tourism industry is kept afloat purely by spies. I don’t appreciate Lemon pretending to be a journalist, though. Sure, it’s an easy disguise — you have excuse to both travel and snoop around — but it makes life hard for real journalists. It’s already a common stereotypes in regimes without a free press that journalist must be state agents, we don’t need it to be further propagated. There were some Australian journalists who got into trouble in Egypt not too long ago, and that was just unnecessary trouble.
We’ve got bigger things to worry about, though, because once again it’s time for a damsel in distress! I don’t know how Amalgam figured out that Sousuke is weak to those, but they sure did nail it. I don’t like the trope that our invincible supersoldier’s weakness is always some woman, but that’s what we’re working with. Rationally speaking, there’s really no reason for Sousuke to reveal himself. In these hostage situations, what reason is there surrender your weapon? ou only lose your advantage. It’s not like Kurama is the sort of gentleman you can trust to just let the lady go. To be completely cold-blooded, if Kurama does shoot Nami he’ll also lose his leverage, so if anything Sousuke staying hidden is the strongest deterrent. But of course, it;s hard to stay cold-blooded in a situation like this, and Sousuke has his own trauma. Hang in there, mate.
Show Spoiler ▼
At the very least this adaptation has been fairly thorough and methodically paced. I trust that they have things planned out.
You mean like the diving resort in Sudan in the 1980’s that was run by Mossad?
But anyway, I really didn’t see it coming that Nami was one of the whispered. Now if I had a dollar for every time I didn’t see something coming…
Yes, it’s all just spies hosting other spies. Which makes life quite awkward for the spy who genuinely just wants a holiday.
Sounds like a movie premise.
“But anyway, I really didn’t see it coming that Nami was one of the whispered.”
Nami’s skill in programming the Crossbow’s operating system before each match was subtle foreshadowing of that, with Sousuke remarking on the great work she does on it.
That, and Sousuke is pretty much a magnet for Whispered individuals at this point: Kaname, Tessa, Leonard…
Show Spoiler ▼
(P.S.: Fine, I’ll also add reading Sigma beforehand to why I know Nami’s a Whispered.)
Mithril (or whoever) should pay Sousuke to walk around randomly just to attract The Whispered.
Regarding Lemon, with the botched attempt at French there from his colleagues I’d say he’s Interpol.
The helicopter scene for me was a bit of a downer. It would have been much better if:
– it had music
– the most missiles were exploding around or behind the Savage with only the last in front for the coming out of the flames effect
– the helicopter crashing shot had the impact a bit closer and the cable still looked connected to it
Still, a solid episode…
You know what would make it even better? Helicopter using ATGMs as they should be used!
Yeah but then we’d have dead Sousuke instead of a badass mecha scene…
When you wage a war those in between gets unintendedly involved. The interesting thing between the ending of last episode and this one, is Nami who gets involved without really considering the relrocusion of her actions.
https://randomc.net/image/Full%20Metal%20Panic%20Invisible%20Victory/Full%20Metal%20Panic%20Invisible%20Victory%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Full%20Metal%20Panic%20Invisible%20Victory/Full%20Metal%20Panic%20Invisible%20Victory%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
She and her crew are no fools, so I’m sure they were aware that they were getting involved in something dangerous. Even without Amalgam they’ll have to deal with the corrupt law officials. But I doubt they understand the true scope of Amalgam and just wanted to help out a friend in need — for better or worse.
>”journo” scum
>not an asset
Then again, you have to be of questionable intelligence to watch this garbage, or write about it.
Or post a reply on a comment section about it.
Ah, you’re one of those. Noted.
Can you just delete this idiot’s comment ?
@danes256
I’ll leave this one here for now. Let’s call it ‘Exhibit A’.
I’m genuinely surprised he hasn’t been banned a long time ago. He offers nothing of value besides random troll comments, often with colorful language. I would assume he’s got the free pass because staff keep to their specific posts for moderating?
@Lyfe
Yeah, we don’t really go out of our way to police the comments, and we mostly manage our own posts.
Exactly. He has always been focused on his missions, why should he care for a random girl he just met? She can’t be of any more use to him. And of course rescuing Chidori comes first.
Well, her possibly being a “Whispered” doesn’t make her some random person though.
Sousuke doesn’t seem so focused on his mission that he can just abandon a friend, though. Recall that the first time Kaname was kidnapped Sousuke went out of his way to rescue her against his better judgment. As I mentioned in the post, he’s got a definite weakness for damsels in distress.
I think it’s a heroic quality. Heroes wouldn’t abandon someone in need, even at the expense of their own life.
Protecting Kaname was his mission, it was the only reason he was allocated a place in her school. Have you watched the first season?
As for Nami, she isn’t any more important than Kaname, it doesn’t make sense for Sousuke to give up his life for somebody he barely knows.
@Sherris
I sure have watched the first season. And so that we’re on the same page, I’m talking about the aeroplane hijacking arc. In that arc, Sousuke specifically judges that trying to rescue Kaname by himself was a dumb move, but he does it anyway. In fact, Kalinin even made an ironic comment about how he had never known Sousuke to be one to let personal feelings cloud his judgment, making it noteworthy that this was the first time that it did.
I don’t get it, why did Sousuke called out to Chidori in the last scene before the end credit rolls?
Probably because he sees her in Nami, and we are invited to do the same. At the same time, though, saving Nami (e.g. by surrendering) will likely ruin his chances for saving Kaname. Even though the two are now apart, she still seems to be intimately involved with Sousuke.
Happy to see that this episode was back to a decent quality standard charadesign wise.
I’d say MICHEL Lemon is DGSE (basically french version of CIA, known for much less political oversight and not hesitating to do dirty jobs – remember the Rainbow Warrior sinking?)
He was so adept at pretending to be harmless fool that I was deceived. Though journalist cover is not the best one, still it IS used sometimes in real world.
Kurama is not into cruelty for cruelty’s sake. I think he might let Nami go, after all she is not a threat or even obstacle to the AMALGAM. Sousuke migh just offer himself as mercenary to AMALGAM? His opponent might be a foreshadowing… Kurama is no-nonsense, he respects Souske’s capabilities, and he thinks he has leverage on him by holding Nami hostage, so why not?
random notes:
Nami is being tsunders. Down to a T.
I like how Kurama declined cigars in favor of sweet sticks. Healthy lifestyle villains FTW!
That corrupt cop chief is having like big death flag over him. Incompetent and cruel, I can see Kurama throwing him away at any moment. “As clumsy as he is stupid.”
Ah, the Rainbow Warrior. All the Kiwis I know are easygoing folk, but even they have some very choice words about the French when it comes to that incident.