ull Metal Panic! helpfully begins by showing viewers what 16-year-old Sousuke Sagara is like in his native element. As a terrified, traumatized girl and a stoic man flee through the Russian tundra, a helicopter pursues and attacks, overturning their vehicle and killing the driver. The helicopter begins firing on the girl, but Sousuke, piloting a gigantic armor suit (known in this series as an "Arm Slave"), intervenes, takes the helicopter down in the most direct way possible, and emerges to confront the girl and inject her with a sedative. By the end of the first four-episode volume of the series, her fate is still unknown.
Sousuke's fate, however, quickly becomes clear. As a member of a military-style mercenary group called Mithril, he and his teammates are responsible for protecting individuals whom the Russians might target for mysterious experiments involving human elements called "the Whispered." A hardened, professional career soldier and campaign veteran at 16, Sousuke approaches every assignment emotionlessly and obediently. But this causes problems when he leaves his military element and goes undercover as a high-school student in order to watch over 16-year-old Kaname Chidori. For one thing, he keeps bringing guns to school. For another, he has no idea how a boy his age is supposed to behave, and his vague attempts to fit in are even more embarrassing than his jarring slip-ups when he simply approaches everything at face value. Kaname quickly decides that he's interesting, but also strange and possibly dangerous—especially since he follows her everywhere, insisting that they're in the same place by coincidence, even after he throws himself out of a moving train when she unexpectedly exits it.
But when their high-school class goes on a field trip to Okinawa and their plane is hijacked, it suddenly becomes clear that Kaname really is a valuable commodity, and certain forces are willing to kill hundreds of innocent students in order to kidnap her and cover it up. Sousuke's commando skills are necessary for the first time, but as experiments on Kaname begin it seems unlikely that this will be the last time he's needed.
Maintaining a mystery without being coy
The first volume of Full Metal Panic! ends on a cliffhanger and leaves a large number of questions in its wake, particularly regarding Sousuke's past, Kaname's nature and Mithril's very existence. From comments made by outsiders, it's clear that Sousuke's group has higher tech and better weapons than America or Russia; they reportedly work as international white knights, in a vigilante-military sort of way. Where their funding and focus comes from, and why they seem to be led by a meek young girl, are still utterly unaddressed. But unlike so many anime series that deliberately withhold information to keep viewers intrigued (RahXephon and Gasaraki leap immediately to mind) Full Metal Panic! doesn't dish out its story in obtuse scraps to heighten the mystery. So far, it's a remarkably straightforward, viewer-friendly series that relies on gradually changing character dynamics and straight-faced humor rather than an air of mystery or secrecy.
It helps that while Sousuke's clueless interactions with Kaname are funny, neither one of them is actually the butt of the joke. He's a bit stiff, and she's occasionally a bit ditzy, but they're both relatively likable, and it's easy to root for them both at the same time. Add in Sousuke's good-natured teammates, who poke fun at him and each other, and Kaname's school friends, who genuinely look up to her, and the result is a comfortable series that occasionally darts toward giddy, high-impact humor and drama, but mostly keeps things moving along a steady, well-paced track.
Full Metal Panic!'s character designs run a wide gamut; some are exaggerated, gaudy and cartoony, while others are simple and muted. They don't always fit together well, especially when the detailed mechanical Arm Slaves enter the picture as well. Visual conflicts aside, the animation is decent, though not exceptional. But it's not really the reason to tune in to this series. Full Metal Panic!'s real strength lies in its intriguing backstory, its pleasant humor, and its somewhat hapless but congenial cast, all of whom seem to deserve a happy ending.
The first volume of this series has a neat reversible DVD jacket that sums up the series' central character conflict: On one side, a detailed image of an Arm Slave is depicted in dark, muted tones, while on the other side a cartoony Kaname poses in vivid pinks and blues. DVD owners can pick for themselves which aspect of the series they better identify with—the grim military side or the bubbly school-comedy side.
— Tasha
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