Full Metal Panic!
"Wait! If you cut off negotiations, it can only lead to war. Accept a truce, and I will listen to whatever you have to say. Let's work toward a compromise!"
Full Metal Panic! is a light novel series adapted into four seasons of anime, including three that follow the main run of its plot and a fourth that turns the high school shenanigans up to 11. It presents a world in which the Soviet Union never fell, still gripped by a Cold War that could turn hot at any moment, and manipulated in secret by organizations with access to the real reasons the world is so... off.
Full Metal Panic!
Sousuke Sagara, a teenage mercenary with the private military company-slash-secret benevolent world peacekeeping conspiracy Mithril, has been inserted into Jindai High School to watch over Kaname Chidori, a member of a human subspecies known as the Whispered. The access the Whispered have to all manner of strange technologies, 'whispered' to them from some mysterious source, makes them an attractive target for various shadowy organizations who know of their existence. There's just one problem:
Sergeant Sagara is incapable of relating to normal people.
Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu
Sousuke Sagara is still at Jindai High, and... not doing any better a job at relating to people or living a normal life. Fumoffu! takes the emphasis off the shadowy conspiracies and giant robots in favor of a lighter-hearted approach to the contrasts between Sousuke's soldier upbringing and the civilian life he's been shoved back into.
Integration Notes
The following covers things that changed or were adjusted in the process of integrating Full Metal Panic!
- The fundamental conflict between Mithril and Amalgam runs less directly in parallel with the US/Soviet conflict; Amalgam nominally supports nationalist and independence movements, while Mithril nominally attempts to foment stability, if not actual unity, in the Federation. The Republic of East Asia is still heavily compromised by Amalgam, however, in keeping with the repeated use of Soviet, Middle Eastern, North Korean, and Chinese assets by Amalgam in-show. (Mithril, conversely, is not too terribly excited by the Britannian Union.)
- The origin of the Whispered differs somewhat from canon; while the integration is not the same as Super Robot Wars V's, it is a fair bit closer to that than the original.
- Mithril is part of the broader Shuffle Alliance support network, though this is a fairly recent development.
- Amalgam contains several characters from other themes who have broadly similar goals (either to the superficial goal of Amalgam or to Leonard Testarossa's actual goal), most notably the Mazinger Series's Dr. Hell and Front Mission's Bal Gorbovsky.
- The Vist Foundation and Anaheim Electronics of Universal Century Gundam were formerly associated with Amalgam, and were recently ejected due to an attempt to give up a crucial piece of leverage.
- Arm Slaves are part of the MULS-P2 standardization agreement, alongside the Advanced Wanzers of Front Mission. MULS-P2 is still new (as are Arm Slaves) and the standardization agreement is, as a result, very loose.
Full Metal Panic! Jargon
Development Trivia
The following is some Full Metal Panic-related trivia regarding the development of the game.
- Full Metal Panic! has been an indirect beneficiary of a lot of decisions made well after it was integrated. It just somehow reliably gets more interesting and more central.
- However much you think we like the Anti-Tank Hammers you are wrong. It is more than that.