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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Full Metal Panic!-Mission.02 (2002)

Full Metal Panic!-Mission.02 (2002)

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Released 24-Oct-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Anime Main Menu Audio & Animation
Credits-Clean opening (1:30) and closing (1:31)
Gallery-Production sketches (1:43)
Unseen Footage-Japanese piracy warnings (1:03)
Trailer-ADV Previews (5:31)
Reversible Cover
DVD Credits
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2002
Running Time 90:17 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (45:39) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Kôichi Chigira
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Satsuki Yukino
Tomokazu Seki
Yukana Nogami
Michiko Neya
Shinichirô Miki
Akio Ôtsuka
Masahiko Tanaka
Luci Christian
Chris Patton
Hilary Haag
Allison Keith
Vic Mignogna
Mike Kleinhenz
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $29.95 Music Toshihiko Sahashi


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures Yes
Subtitles English
English Titling
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, next episode preview

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This disc starts with a gentle voice-over from a male voice (Sousuke) over the copyright warning statement. It sounds simple enough, until it reaches the end, where it gets a little surreal. I like these!

    If you read my review of Full Metal Panic! Mission.01, then you are equipped to read on. If not, I strongly recommend you do so before proceeding.

    The episodes on this disc are:

5 Whispered Kaname is being subjected to experimentation when Sousuke gets a chance to express his disapproval. Kaname learns that Sousuke is not who, or rather what, she thought he was
6 Still Alive Sousuke, Kaname, and Kurz have been left behind — can Mithril do anything to rescue them?
7 Boy Meets Girl Sousuke gets a chance to discover what a Lambda Engine is. He needs to master it to save his life, and strangely, Kaname can help...
8 Part-time Steady Things are back to normal, or as normal as they can be for Kaname

    This disc features a fairly mild level of fan-service, mostly in the form of occasional flashes of Kaname's underwear, although she does appear briefly nude in the opening credits.

    If you remember the end of the first volume, the jumbo taking the class on their trip was hijacked, and Kaname was taken off; Sousuke left the plane stealthily to protect her. The first episode on this volume picks up at that point.

    This series seems to alternate between comedy and drama. The first three episodes of the first disc were mostly comedy; the last one started a dramatic sequence. The first three episodes of this disc continue that dramatic sequence, then the last episode returns to comedy. This is quite effective. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the scenes. In few shows would a high school boy propositioning a girl suddenly find himself with a 9mm under the chin and a cold voice suggesting in his ear that he desist. The dramatic episodes are linked tightly together, with cliffhanger endings to each episode; the comic episodes are more loosely coupled. It's an interesting construct, and one I hope persists.

    We learn more about Kaname's secret, but that opens up more questions. I look forward to learning more about this.

    The relationship between Kaname and Sousuke gets a real kick along in these episodes, even if they are yet to fully admit it. Kaname seems to like the fact that Sousuke looks after her, even though she may get a touch irritated with the way he chooses to do it.

    Sousuke is a wonderful character. He is so comically single-minded, and so utterly unfamiliar with civilian life. The other characters could be from other series, but Sousuke is very distinctive and unique to this show.

    There are some very cool mecha (alright, Arm Slave) battle scenes in these episodes, and Sousuke gets a chance to show how good he is at piloting an Arm Slave.

    I had initial doubts about this series, but they are all gone now. I am really looking forward to the next volume, and I'm trying to guess what balance of comedy and drama will appear in it.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. This is, I believe, the original aspect ratio. The opening credits are letterboxed, but the show itself is full-frame.

    The image is almost always clear and sharp; there are some shots that appear soft, and I can't excuse them completely as simulating fog or twilight or rain — it is as though that was the intent, but they have gone too far. There is no film grain, and no low-level noise.

    Colour is beautifully rendered, and quite varied, including some fully-saturated vivid colours. There are no colour-related artefacts, but there's an over-bright moment at 17:40 in Episode 6.

    There are no film artefacts.

    There is a fair bit of very low-level aliasing, but I didn't find it troubling. There is no moiré and there are no MPEG artefacts. There is some interleaving - you can only see it when single-stepping, and not when playing at normal speed.

    The usual two subtitle tracks appear, both in English, with the first being a "signs and song lyrics only" track while the second is full subtitles. These subtitles are yellow, attractive, and easy to read. There are occasional errors in the subtitles, but they are minor.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered, RSDL-formatted. The layer change is invisible, placed between the end of Episode 6 and the start of Episode 7.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English (both 5.1 and 2.0) and Japanese (2.0 only). The 2.0 soundtracks are Dolby Digital, not surround encoded, at 192kbps. The 5.1 soundtrack is Dolby Digital at 448kbps. I watched all the episodes in English 5.1 first, then again in Japanese 2.0. I didn't listen to the English 2.0 soundtrack.

    The English dialogue is easy to understand, well-acted, and synced well with the animation. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear enough, but there are numerous discrepancies between the dialogue and the mouth movements (mouths moving without sound, sound without mouth movements).

    The score from Toshihiko Sahashi is exciting stuff, and well-matched to the action. The martial themes that are used for Sousake, sometimes at quite inappropriate moments, are quite entertaining.

    The English 5.1 soundtrack provides some good examples of well-mixed surround sound, including some neat rear sound effects. The subwoofer gets some serious use in a few scenes, and is frequently active supporting the low registers of the score. The Japanese 2.0 soundtrack is less exciting, but displays some decent stereo imaging.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menus are animated with music, with a neat introductory transition. They are easy to use.

Reversible Cover

    The cover slick can be removed from the case and reversed. The inside image has completely different cover art (this time featuring Sousuke in school uniform with a pistol), and the front cover and spine are in Japanese. It has episode summaries instead of an overall blurb.

Clean Opening (1:30)

    The opening theme, in letterboxed form, without credits.

Clean Closing (1:31)

    The closing sequence without credits. This is amusing, because it only has visuals on the left side of screen — the right is left black for the scrolling credits.

Production Sketches (1:43)

    This is not a gallery — it is a free-running montage of images with music.

Japanese Piracy Warning (1:03)

    Two warnings about the legitimate use of this DVD; one features Teletha (the captain of the submarine), while the other is probably Kyoko. Both are rather entertaining.

ADV Previews (5:31)

    As seems common for ADV Previews, this is a series of trailers shown one after another:

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 version of this disc was released mid-2003. As far as I can tell, it is identical to our disc (even to the artwork), except that they get a poster that we don't.

    The R1 is reported as having a very good transfer, too.

    I'm calling this one as a draw between the Region 1 and the Region 4. I'm happy to buy the R4.

Summary

    The second volume of a cool anime series that I'm really enjoying, on a rather good DVD.

    The video quality is very good, even with the aliasing.

    The audio quality is excellent, particularly the English 5.1 soundtrack.

    The extras are limited, but still better than nothing.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Friday, January 23, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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