English Dub Review: Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory “Onward, Onward”

And the budget is going downward, downward!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Lemon and his troops easily take out the attacking Amalgam goons, though one manages to make it to Sosuke, who tricks them into catching on fire by setting off gas with the sparks from their gun and then shooting him in the head. Though at least he apologized first. What this tells them is that Amalgam is still gunning for Sosuke’s head, and probably still looking for the remains of the Arbalest to take out their last legitimate threat. With no safe houses left, Sosuke directs Lemon’s group to the Florida camp of former marine John Courtney, who helps whip Sosuke back into shape with some strict endurance training.

Back on the Mithril submarine, Tessa catches everyone up on the failed plan last episode, as well as catching the audience up on what really happened since the attack on the base in Episode 4. Apparently, even after Tessa told the remaining crew they couldn’t be paid, everyone decided to stick around anyway. Though really, I’m sure at least a few of them were just afraid of losing face if they bailed that quick.

As for their future plans, Tessa explains Amalgam’s business structure. There’s no clear chain of command, and every high ranking member they may take out can be easily replaced, so they’ll need to find a way to plant a “virus” amongst the ranks and corrupt it from within. What exactly that means is unclear, but what is clear is that they need the help of Leonard, Tessa’s brother, to do so. After the meeting, Tessa decides to get some rest, but the stress doesn’t give her much of a chance.

Meanwhile, Kaname sulks in her captivity, though Leonard tells her they’ll be taking a trip farther than the moon, and this isn’t Jackie Gleeson, so it’s probably not a domestic abuse metaphor. She ends up wandering around the compound, overhearing the failure to stop Sosuke, as well as the eventual capture of the ARX unit. But no time for that, because it’s time for some FAAAAAANSERVIIIIIICE before she gets back to doing…something on her laptop.

In Alaska, Wraith sends out Gavin Hunter to deliver the ARX-8, but they’re stopped in the road by Amalgam and their new recruit, Kalium, AKA KALININ! I KNEW the change in voice actor made him evil! He kills Gavin and takes the mech back to Leonard.

OUR TAKE

Aaaaaand there goes a fair portion of that good will. Not only did the animation and art take a considerable dip in quality, the direction for this episode was pretty sloppy all over, and the plot pacing has noticeably slowed. Sosuke’s getting on the mend for the final battle, but the talk between Lemon and Courtney seems redundant at best and pointless at worst, not to mention the odd censoring of Courtney’s swearing when just last episode, we had Tessa cursing out Lee Fowler over the phone with nary a bleep in sight. And of course we have Kaname just sitting around with her captor and no progression forward besides vague foreshadowing about her “project”, as well as further evidence of just how boring a villain Leonard is. The only real step forward we can really identify here is Tessa and Mithril’s plans to put a “virus” in the “animal” that is Amalgam, but who knows if we’ll fully understand what that is by the time the season wraps.

And, as said, the direction is all over the place here. We have one brief and weirdly animated firefight at the beginning of the episode before things hit a tepid crawl for the remainder, then an oddly placed flashback regarding what Mithril was doing which at least had some necessary blanks to fill, followed by slow and plodding scenes of Kaname being a damsel, and then an odd flash forward-flashback combo regarding how Sosuke led Lemon to the training camp that could’ve been solved with them just being there already and one brief line of exposition, and finally the payoff to a mystery about an “Agent Kalium” that gets no time to be a legit mystery before the reveal. It’s just a series of stumbles and pitfalls that I frankly don’t remember the last nine episodes of this season happening, but have somehow managed to pile up all at once right here before the end. And in case it wasn’t clear, this was after TWO EXTENSIONS to the studio’s deadline, because apparently Xebec is not exactly known for good management of time and resources. One only hopes that, whenever the final season of Full Metal Panic comes to us, it will be in the hands of a studio that can give it the love it deserves. Maybe Sunrise? BONES even?

At the time of this writing, the last two episodes of the subbed release came out together about a week ago after a three week delay, but it’s unclear how Funimation will be handling that. Maybe we’ll get them both next week, maybe we’ll get them one at a time, maybe we’ll have to wait the full three weeks. I hope it’s the first choice, because I hear the last two at least end the season on an optimistic note, but I can’t say for sure. Regardless, I look forward to seeing the end of this section of the story, even if its mismanagement may spell yet another massive wait for it to finally be finished. For now though, this was a mess, and I equally look forward to putting it out of my mind.