English Dub Review: Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory “Intermission 2”

Next time, use the bathroom before the show starts!

OVERVIEW (MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Waking from a centuries-long coma from his injuries, Sosuke finds himself in the far future, learning that the Whispered are actually descendants of humans experimented on by aliens. With Mithril gone, Sosuke must now work at his great-great-great-great-great nephew’s delivery company while moonlighting as a mecha pilot vigilante! A bold and dramatic shift in Full Metal Panic’s story begins now!

OUR TAKE

Wow, what a jump! I knew they were making big changes when they got rid of the school setting and then going into that whole underground fighting ring, but I’m really looking forward to this new era of FMP and…

…okay, none of that happened, it’s just another recap episode of the past four episodes narrated by Tessa (who wasn’t even there!). And really, you can understand me wanting something more interesting to happen, since this one is kinda inexcusable. It’s not even a good recap, considering how it spends the majority of its time on Episode 8, which would be the one most fresh in viewers’ minds anyway so WHY ARE WE RECAPPING IT. And look, last time, okay, we didn’t really need to summarize the first four episodes, but different cultural holidays or whatever, that’s fine. THIS time, though, is not only a giant red flag about the mismanagement of resources going on over at Xebec (who are apparently notorious for letting this happen with at least some of their other shows), it’s also a harbinger of the likelihood that we may never see the proper end to Full Metal Panic’s main story.

Remember that the time between Invisible Victory and the show’s last season, The Second Raid, was almost THIRTEEN YEARS. So, we’ve been lucky enough to finally get some further development in adapting the source material, and it has been plagued by numerous production problems big enough to delay episode airings not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. Yep, as those who have been following the subtitled release over on Crunchyroll probably already know, Episode 10 aired on June 29th, and we are currently one week down in a nearly three-week wait for the last two episodes. I can’t imagine any of this does any good towards the chances of Invisible Victory doing serviceable numbers in terms of DVD sales, which is kind of the only way any company will be able to tell if doing more Full Metal Panic shows would be financially viable. I’m unsure of exactly how this season came about after all this time, but the idealist in me says it might’ve been through the dedicated fanbase’s support, and yet even that’s not going to guarantee a fifth season if the show’s sales do poorly. And I’m guessing they’ll be impacted at least a little by this whole Snafu.

As much as I’m a fan of this series, I’m not going to go on a sermon on how this is an underappreciated masterpiece that must be completed at all costs, but I can tell you that it’s beyond infuriating to think that we could be so close to the end of the story and not get it for decades because of this Arm Slave sized screw up, which lands entirely on Xebec’s shoulders. Obviously, we’ll be covering the last four as their dubs come out, but since I have to do a review of the recap, I might as well use it as a chance to vent how much this been mishandled from the ground up. See you next week for the start of the final arc of the season.

Score
.5/10