Don't Panic

Written by hibbardangela on December 28, 2011 at 4:29 AM

I was reticent to watch this show because all I knew of Full Metal Panic! was a bunch of soldiers running around in giant mechs fighting each other, which isn't really my thing, but this series is just hilarious. It follows the romantic high school subplot from the main series and makes it the focus, resulting in a whole series of awkward stuff ups by the highly strung soldier Sousuke, who as a result has to keep being punished by Chidori, the young girl he has been assigned to guard. The animation is excellent, and although the drawing style is the same as the original series, the bright colour palette gives it a very different feel. Each episode stands on its own, rather than having a continuous story arc, and I preferr the construction of these shorter episodes, as I feel the story gets a bit lost in the main series. The humour mostly results on the way Sousuke misinterprets the situation, but the dialogue is so cleverly written and delivered, that you happily go along with the show's fairly savage and occasionally bizarre setups. If you want something a bit different from your regular romantic anime, give this a look.