I finished Season 3 of "Fullmetal Panic" recently. This post will be filled with spoilers, because for obvious reasons only fans of this series will read it. A version for those who fell out of curiosity - it's a very good war anime with mechs - I highly recommend watching! This is not shounen, just an adult series. It has a few frivolous, humorous elements and sometimes typical manga characters, but the rest is at a sufficiently high level and if you don't mind Japanese style, you can go ahead and watch it. Anime is a few years old, but still enjoyable to watch. Edit: I am finishing Season 4 and this is where such good things are fucking off that I recommend turning a blind eye to all the flaws! Spoiler - I'll give him 10/10.
From this point on, there are spoilers. At the moment, season 3 is the best, but I've heard that season 4 is even better, so I'll leave the comparisons for the next review. There is a lot of action, the characters have been well developed and especially the relationships between them. I mean the relationship between A.I. Arbalesta and Sousuke, Chidori, and Souske, and Gauron and Souske. I was a bit surprised that the latter survived, but it was explained in a meaningful way, so I'm not complaining. When I was a kid, in Kawaii (an old Polish magazine about manga and anime, from the time when we had modem internet) I read a review of this fairy tale and the reviewer was very surprised that Gauron survived. For some reason, I have remembered this passage until today and have been waiting for this moment. And ... I don't understand why he wrote about it - if only because it was a big spoiler. Yes, you can guess at the beginning that he survived (after the words of these killer girls), but his role was small and did not take too long - probably not even half the episode. However, it was enough to make me feel the strength of his character, just like in season 1. Gauron, although barely alive, probably with injured internal organs, because the rest we could see, having artificially prolonged life for several months, still remained an exceptional motherfucker. Comparing him to the Joker is even more appropriate after this excerpt. He mocked Sagara as if Batman's arch enemy did. The mockery was made all the more forceful this season, we saw that the military, whether in the real world or in the anime, is just as motherfucker when it comes to obeying important orders. Feelings like feelings, but when people in advance tell you to do something, you have to fucking do it without talking. Sagara did use a bucket of cold water to make him realize that he was acting like a soft pipe. I also liked that his words had a double tone, as if Hisoka was criticizing Gon in "Hunter x Hunter". I don't remember any anime (other than FMP) that would better show this type of relationship. Ie an experienced, elderly man who found a youngster with equally great talent, a tough character, but even greater potential, and would like to fight him as often as possible - preferably by fighting to the death. And that hilarious look on his face at the time of his death was great!
It seems to me that Sagara, despite his misconceptions about Chidori status, was willing to help Mithrill deal with the new threat. This was how his behavior could have been interpreted differently, but he did not have time to give a clear answer before his girlfriend showed up, and his words suggested (at least to me) that he would get into the mech and fight anyway. Fortunately, Chidori showed up, and I saw the first scene of this type (which we see in almost every medium, even in the 5th volume of "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" there was such a thing), which I liked and I was not able to criticize or laugh at it . The point is that Sagara was unable to express his feelings because he does not understand them, and the blue-haired girl was ashamed. They always pissed me off, but in FMP and LotGH they came out naturally and normally (noticeably worse in the latter title), just like in life. They were not recolored like most of the cases I have seen. Sagara has never experienced such emotions + he is so anti-social that it does not surprise me at all - I have seen similar cases in real life. Whereas Chidori like women ... If she's not really forced, she won't express her emotions directly, she prefers Sousuke to do it for her. The only problem is that Sousuke doesn't understand xD. I can't wait to watch the next season, I am genuinely curious how their relationship will develop, especially after what Karol wrote to me - "History will go into these areas, that betraying such things spoils a lot."
As for the rest, it's unchanged from Season 1 - it's still a great war-themed anime. True, this is realism on the level of semi-serious Hollywood action movies, but there are so many real elements (battle planning, reconnaissance, navigating combat, spies, and more) that I can turn a blind eye to such details. It was nice to return to the main plot after the comedy season 2, especially since the beginning is very effective, and the rest of the episodes do not stand out in terms of level and plot content. We got more information about Mithrill, the geopolitical situation, we got to know better the military structure and relations between Mithrill and representatives of the most important countries in the world. The cool thing is that not only Russians and Americans have such technology. By the way, it's interesting that the best pilots of robots equipped with Lamda Drive (or at least that's what I think after the episodes so far) are cowboys, people with a highly individual approach to life, who are characterized by high intelligence, exceptional skills, huge cojones and a bit of arrogance. Kind of like the main character of the movie "First Man" and a lot of astronauts. Such was Gauron and Gates, and so is Sagara.
In terms of action and graphic aspects (animation, dash, CGI), this season was even better than the first. There was a lot of blood, brutal scenes (twice I was genuinely surprised to see something like this in the anime - for example, these two killers, Gauron's friends), just honey for lovers of this type of atmosphere. Each battle gave me a lot of fun and I watched many fragments twice in a row. Especially the clash in an underground tunnel in China or during the suppression of a military junta revolt in one of the countries. The final match was fun, Sagara had a dragon entrance, but ... In my opinion, this is the weakest fight. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it, especially in the context of the perfect cooperation between the AI of the main character's machine and its owner, but previous skirmishes made a stronger impression on me. Summing up, they did not make my jaw drop towards my ass with delight, but it was close. Speaking of Arbalest and Sousuke, I enjoyed their conversations. First, the AI told him that he was so weak and that he was the problem, but when the moment of trying came, they worked well together. Sousuke made good use of the possibilities offered by alien technology (electronics and something like psionic powers), and Arbalest was able to focus on enemies and threats that his pilot did not see.
All in all, this anime is so good that it is worth watching at least 1 season. He is almost 20 years old on the back of his neck, but as I wrote before, he is as good to watch as modern anime. Season 3 is a great show that provides a lot of relaxation after work. You can see that the author of manga and books is working with them - the anime clearly stands out on the script level from most of the competitors. My rating is 9/10.