FULL METAL PANIC!
by Aaronlye-Sandrock Productions

WHAT IT IS
A highly unique blend of mecha action and romantic Japanese high-school jinx, that's what it is. Produced by Gonzo Digimation, and having recently ended a one-season run on Japanese TV, Full Metal Panic is the story of Sagara Sousuke and Chidori Kaname. Set in the year 2000 in an alternate universe with highly advanced military technology (mechas) and a highly active Soviet Union, the main plot revolves around a special breed of humans called the Whispered and the numerous plots involving the secrets of high technology that they possess. Interspersing hard-hitting action with light-hearted comedy, this series is a clear winner, though the otherwise stellar animation quality is let down occasionally (like in episode 14).

THE CAST (the ones that matter, anyway)

Name: Sagara Sousuke
Rank: Sergeant
Organisation: Mithril

See also: Heero Yuy, Gundam Wing

The strong, silent type with a sketchy past, Sousuke has pretty much been in the military for most of his life, apparently starting out as a guerilla fighter with Andrei Serenovitch Kalinin, who probably later introduced him to Mithril, a highly-secretive international organisation with advanced technology, dedicated to fighting terrorism and maintaining international law and order. At 16, he's quite possibly the youngest specialist in Mithril, and is highly skilled in combat and piloting ASs (an acronym for Arm Slaves, the mechas in this series).

However, he doesn't do so well when it comes to relationships. Assigned to protect Japanese high-school student Chidori Kaname, he assumes the role of a transfer student, but his overzealousness, a certain level of carelessness and his general cluelessness when it comes to anything civiilian usually gets him in trouble, AND in Chidori's bad books.

Sagara Sousuke is voiced by the extremely popular Tomokazu Seki, who seems to voice just about every other character today, including Ashton Anchors from Star Ocean EX, Shindou Shuuichi from Gravitation, Haru Glory from Groove Adventure RAVE, Rumina Asagi from Tokyo Underground, Souma Kyo from Fruits Basket... just to name a few. Tomokazu Seki was also Van Fanel from Escaflowne and Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi.

Name: Chidori Kaname
Rank: civilian
Organisation: Jindai High School

See also: Higurashi Kagome, Inu Yasha

Superficially, just your typical high-school student in Japan. Unfortunately, she's also one of the Whispered, and some very bad people have found out about that. Enter Sousuke and team, who sooner or later, discover just exactly why this girl doesn't exactly need protecting (short fuse, bad temper, violent streak - should say it all). For the most part, she plays the typical secondary role that heroines like Kagome and Hitomi from Escaflowne have played before her, pointing the protagonist in the correct direction, and providing highly useful hints to help in defeating the enemy.

Chidori Kaname is voiced by the also popular Yukino Satsuki, who voices Higurashi Kagome from Inu Yasha and the ditzy Mutsumi Otohime from Love Hina.

Name: Kurz Weber
Rank: Sergeant
Organisation: Mithril

The pretty-boy, playboy type, Kurz apparently moonlights as a model of sorts, and sees nothing wrong in flirting and getting drunk while on the job. Ironically, despite being in a miiltary organisation, his hairstyle is condoned.

Name: Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa
Rank: Captain
Organisation: Mithril

The super-intelligent (if not very mature) captain of the TDD (Tuatha de Danaan), the Mithril submarine that Sousuke, Melissa and Kurz are based on. At 16 years, she's quite possibly also the youngest submarine captain. While occasionally ditsy, she's also decisive and shows a keen ability to strategise, though her athletic ability has been called into question.

Name: Andrey Kalinin
Rank: Lieutenant-Commander (?)
Organisation: Mithril

Teresa's immediate subordinate, and possibly the first officer of the TDD. A veteran guerilla fighter who possesses a reputation for being hard to kill. Usually pairs up with Teresa whenever she leaves the submarine, and is a trusty right-hand man who gets involved in the nitty-gritty operations that Mithril has to poke around in.

Aaronlye-Sandrock Productions sandrock@sandrockproductions.com

Note by the author
Yes, that's the name of the video. :P
Despite a rather cheesy title (what would you name it?), this isn't exactly a comedy video, by any measure. Blending styles used in opening sequences and episode trailers, this video takes Full Metal Panic, a highly unique mix of the mecha action, espionage and shoujo romance genres, and combines it with the opening theme from one of last year's best PS2 games, Metal Gear Solid 2, a tactical espionage strategy game. The end result - well, call it a trailer for this highly enjoyable anime series. While not as technically complex as To Live By The Sword (one of my earlier works), this video did take about a week of harried nights filled with rendering to complete - but the most obvious technical edits are the scenes where credits appear, and the ending title (which usually appears on black in the opening title, but which I superimposed over a scene from the first episode). The rest of it is mostly selecting and timing suitable scenes that went with the music. Video footage taken from high-quality fansubs - this series is so new that even the Taiwan DVD "companies" haven't gotten their hands on it yet.

Please submit your opinion at
www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=8293

FEATURES & DOWNLOAD
High Res Music video
320 x 240 - 1340 Kbps

Title: Full Metal Gear Solid Panic!
Artist/Band: Harry Gregson-Williams
Song: Metal Gear Solid 2 Theme
From: Metal Gear Solid 2 OST
Footage: Full Metal Panic!
Size: 36,7 MB
Time: 3:53
Player: Windows Media Player (MPEG format)
DOWNLOAD

Sephyre-Zeroverge ks_chong@zeroverge.com - www.zeroverge.com

Note by the author
This was meant to look like the opening of a TV show, and not a trailer effect. The sound may have some artifacts due to the source, but otherwise encoded in MP3 format.
Completed in under a dozen hours, this was merely for fun, and the fact that I find the similar tune in FMP's soundtrack and A-Team's Theme Song so uncannily similar, I had to do this video. I have also concluded in my (possibly over two dozens variants of encoding) tests that DivX 3.11a have always, and forever will beat the crap out of DivX 5 in preserving better quality at lower bitrates, while consuming less processing power during decompression.
Once again, if you're watched Full Metal Panic!, see if you can spot the tune.

Please submit your opinion at
www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=15564
(where you cand find the 720 x 480 AVI DivX 3.11alpha version of the vid)

FEATURES & DOWNLOAD
High Res Music video
352 x 240 - 1140 Kbps

Title: A(nother) Team
From: A-Team
Song: A-Team Opening Theme
Footage: Full Metal Panic!
Size: 14,2 MB
Time: 1:31
Player: Windows Media Player (MPEG format)
DOWNLOAD

Animeksa - Zelgadis animeksa@hotmail.com - www.geocities.com/bma_ksa

Note by the author
THE VIDEO Story:
Sagara Sousuke is a member of the anti-terrorist organization 'Mithril'. He has been assigned to protect Chidori Kaname from abduction by another organization which wants her for experiments to extract her knowledge of 'black technology' which would be a useful weapon for Mithril's enemies and the 'Whispered' Project. Unfortunately, (for not only Sagara, but those around him as well) Sagara isn't going to blend in well as a new transfer student at Jindai High. His military training has taken too well and he isn't too adept at functioning in normal peaceful Japanese society. This may compromise his mission somewhat, but the fish out of water element as applied here makes the series thoroughly entertaining to the audience.
Chidori isn't the most willing protectee. She refers to Sagara as a strange military otaku boy initially, but as events occur, the reason of his nature begins to dawn on her. Not that it will stop her from trying to get him to relax a bit and act more 'normal'. She has started to notice that he just happens to be everywhere she is, but that's just a 'coincidence'... just like him happening to jump off a moving train at her stop, purely coincidence.
I think you will like this video. Download it now!!!!!!! And could you tell me your opinion. Thank you for your time...
NOTE: I can't find the name for the song... :P

Please submit your opinion at
www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=19575

FEATURES & DOWNLOAD
High Res Music video
352 x 240 - 900 Kbps

Title: Lost in a Dream
Artist/Band: Unknown (Japanese)
Song: Unknown (Japanese)
Footage: Full Metal Panic!
Size: 20,40 MB
Time: 2:47
Player: Windows Media Player (AVI DivX format)
DOWNLOAD + Codec DivX 6.5.1