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by Gwynn Grandy
I originally thought Full Metal Panic Fumoffu was a sequel to the first season of Full Metal Panic. It's not. It has the same characters, and I believe the same artists. The plot, however, is entirely different-and much, much funnier. The original Full Metal Panic was a fairly generic Mecha Anime about a boy who was raised a mercenary and the high school girl he goes undercover to protect. Well he's still protecting her, and he's still the same unsocialized misfit. Other than that, there's no resemblance to the original series.
In the first scene, Sagara blows up his shoe box (think locker) because its security has been compromised-by a love letter. Really, how can you be THAT clueless? Sagara would have a better understanding of society if he'd been raised by wolves. In a classic scene, he thought a robber was attacking a woman, and gets mistaken for a molester. The series then goes on to mock multiple Anime tropes-the Mecha, the terrorist with the angst-filled past, etc. in addition to the socially inept boy.
Then Fumoffu starts in on other movie tropes. Gangsters are taken out by Bunta-kun (a Mickey Mouse equivalent). The Indian Jones revelation is repeated: gun trumps knife expert. A little Monty-Python stair climbing is thrown in (think the bit where they charge the castle). It even mocks The Matrix. My favorite episode is the one where Sagara is elected art class model, and misunderstands his "mission," leading to chaos, explosions, and enraged art students. And what cinematic excursion is complete without a car-chasing-bike scene?
If you didn't like Gundam Wing, this is an excellent bit of not-so-subtle mockery. If you have seen Full Metal Panic, or just a random selection of anime, it's easier to catch some of the subtler jokes, but I don't believe it's necessary to have seen anything else to enjoy watching this series. If you're looking for a bit of lighthearted fun, Fumoffu is a good place to start.
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