Full Metal Panic!
Full Metal Panic

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I started reading Full Metal Panic! already being a huge fan of it because I had watched the anime adaption of the series first. Also this is my first review so I hope you enjoy it.

With that being said lets get started with this review:

Story - 10/10

The story is that of a romantic comedy which is full of hilarious situations between a sergeant named Sousuke Sagara and a girl named Chidori Kaname. As the story progresses you get to witness not only their developing relationships, but you also get a bit mecha action as you get to see into the everyday life of Sergeant ... Sousuke Sagara as he tries to protect both Chidori Kaname and the rest of the Mithril crew from terrorists.

Art - 10/10

The art was great in my opinion it was all well drawn and you can see that Tateo, Retsu put a lot of time and effort into most of the scenes in the manga.

Character - 10/10

The character development of Sousuke Sagara is that of a socially awkward guy who always seem to resort to military tactics before he uses common sense which he seem to be lacking. Then we have Chidori Kaname who is a strong and independent woman who was living a normal life until Sousuke Sagara came into her life. Then we have Kruz Weber who is a sniper from Mithril and Melissa Mao who is a Second Lieutenant from Mithril and they both make great supporting roles in the story. Last we have Captain Teletha Testarossa of the Tuatha de Danaan Submarine, who is in love with Sergeant Sousuke Sagara but he is to dense to realize that she likes him.

Enjoyment - 10/10

Enjoyment overall was great because the story has several hilarious moments that will make you laugh out loud.

Overall - 10/10

Overall it was a great read and I would recommend it if you haven't read this series before that you pick it up and start reading it because it is worth every minute to read it.

"I don't have any regrets. I'm glad I met you" Is what our heroine Kaname Chidori has to say seems romantic ? Quite a lot.

So what we have here is an intense Romance and Comedy manga mixed with action and Mechas all over the place making it quite a nice read so looking closer we see a story of clueless guy and strong willed girl trying to survive seems nice but lets add Tons of comedy , deadly battles and drama here and there we would get an story line so Writer Gatoh, Shoji brought us an story with many turns here and there ... and above and below Making us confused at times and laughing at times and angry at times with an story that changes from school to deserts and from there to Oceans and underwater places its bound to happen or am i Wrong?
Saving comrades , attending school , doing deadly missions , running after girl that seems that you like but you just do not know because you are soo clueless in life that its hard to live outside the base. Still learning new things it fun to watch how characters develop while being soo good at One thing they need to learn about something they never did before it makes you laugh and cheer for the one that's trying in this case its more of a laughing matter i guess?


Boy Meets Girl? Or Girl Meets Boy?

That i had in thought while reading the manga because i did not know from which perspective to look at but still first meeting was quite the one i guess first impression was amusing and well it captured me it was funny it was nice and it was something a bit new i guess ? A little bit dumb protagonist and strong hearted Heroine what else do we need?


Action and A little bit of Gore side to it

Yes you heard me right Gore Seems funny since i told you it was really funny manga and such but there are some gore moments that can't be left out which actually spice things up a little bit but end quite quickly sadly...

Overall

It was a nice read and a nice laugh i read the manga when it was being released so for me it was quite different than nowadays it was really something new and funny and dramatic just because i was yet to read the mangas of today... But if i remembered it this whole time than it was an read worth the time!.

Art

Well what to say about art its quite older than any other but its still nice all battles and backgrounds are drawn nicely at some points whole serious scenes are eye candy and the characters show nice expressions be it comedy or be it in action.

TL:DR
Confused plot, wild tonal dissonance, can't decide what genre it wants to be. Boring characters. barely any romantic progression and not a lot of chemistry anyway. Do not recommend, I'd give this one a hard pass

Story: 3/10
The manga reads like the author had two different ideas that they tried to do at the same time. It veers between comedy gag manga and serious shounen action so quickly and frequently that I'm getting complete tonal whiplash. Sometimes it happens mid-chapter! This confused plot works to the detriment of both ideas. You can't get into the romcom or comedy because look, Sagara just shot someone in the ... head. You can't get into the action because it's interrupted to shoehorn in romance tropes. It's disappointing because there's the seed of a good action spy story going, I could see the tense situations as the bodyguard tries to keep their identity a secret from the students while protecting their charge but the author just can't commit to it and it completely ruins any tension as well as keeping the actual plot (romance or action) very barebones as they try to juggle both storylines. You can be funny and have good action but not the way this manga does it.

There are some hints to bigger things that are never really explored. The main antagonists throws some hints that they know Sagara and that they've done something terrible to him but it's barely mentions. The more supernatural aspects (oh yeah, that’s a thing too by the way) but it's never really explored so it really just ends up more as Deus ex Machina and a reason for the plot to exist rather than an actual fleshed out concept.

There is very little romantic progression between the two main leads. Lots of trope type of stuff, misunderstandings, assumptions etc. Sagara doesn't feel anything for Kaname until the very end and even then there is no satisfying conclusion.

Art: 7/10
Pretty good, I like the mechs (oh yeah, this is a mech manga at some points). Nothing much to say.

Characters: 4/10
The main characters are dull, flat collections of tropes. Dense, tough guy and violent tsundere. Can't really say much more than that about it, they're pretty boring. There are some side characters too who have no personalities either. There's Kaname's best friends who basically exists so Kanames has someone to talk about Sagara too. There's Sagara's boss who is basically there for Kaname to be jealous of. There's so little character here, there isn’t even a lot to criticise.

Overall: 3/10
Disappointing. A good idea wasted with terrible execution. I don't recommend this manga at all. I suspect the manga is so highly rated because this is one of the first many people will have read.