Full Metal Panic

Title: Full Metal Panic
Alternate Title: None
Genre: Mecha, Action
Run time: 23 minutes
Episode count: 24
Vintage: 2002
Review:

Full Metal Panic is set like most modern mecha styled animes. Its about a girl born with special technology embedded in her brain. Who has a secret "good guy" organization protecting her from a secret "bad guy" organization. Mix this in with a love story and comedic situations and you have an enjoyable anime that you can sit back and watch with out having to think to hard.

The animation was done beautifully. The colors are bright, the faces are expressive, and the mechs are gorgeous and creatively done. Every mech product is different. They even did a good job of making the mechs look worn after battle. They made good use of multiple geographical backgrounds. This is nice. Too often are mecha animes either based in a boring space atmosphere or in the same place on the planet episode after episode.

Full Metal Panic is full of situational humor do to the fact that the male lead doesn't understand social sensibility in any manner. However, this is coupled with heart racing action in both mech fights and war style battle scenes. Add a little drama from secret organizations running around and you have a show that never slows down.

This anime is great for anyone looking for a fast paced show that is easy to get into. This would be a wonderful anime to start with. Its full of characters with real personalities, has amazing battle scenes and a delightful little love triangle. This anime has something for everyone but not everything for one person. I give this anime an 8 out of 10.

Next Up:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Ai Yori Aoshi

Title: Ai Yori Aoshi
Alternate Title: Bluer than Indigo
Genre: Comedy, Slice of life
Run time: 30 minutes
Episode count: 24
Vintage: 2004
Review:

Ai Yori Aoshi is a slice of life anime based on two people who were arranged to be married in childhood. With that being said, the anime starts off with the male lead being in college and by chance running into the female lead.

The animation of this series is done quite well. The colors are vivid. The female lead constantly wears kimonos and they are vividly colored as is her hair and the landscapes. It seems they didn't cut corners anywhere in the animating process. If any corners were cut I could not see them.

Ai Yori Aoshi is full of slapstick humor and off the wall cuteness. However, this doesn't make up for the fact that almost all of the characters are one dimensional and never grow. I think that if they did cut costs in this series is was in the script.

Ai Yori Aoshi leaves a lot for the fans to make up for themselves. Constantly you get a small glimpse of the past and what could happen in the future. However, they stick to the slice of life theme. There is so many places this anime could have went that would have made it a tad more interesting, but for some reason the developers were locked on this slice of life story line. This actually hurt this anime, because for a slice of life it is not very original. Its the archetype of harem and slice of life animes such as Love Hina.

This anime is a fun watch if you like anime with slapstick humor, Japanese cuteness and zany characters, however, it falls short of series such as Azumanga Diaoh. Over all I give this a rating of a 7 out of 10 due to the fact that it is a generic series with many plot points unexplored.

Next Up:
Full Metal Panic