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Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Ep. 12: Burning Hong Kong

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Summary

The two Chinese governments announce that if a resolution to the rampaging Codarl isn’t found by 6 a.m., military intervention will occur. This means Clouseau’s team has only ninety minutes to find the Codarl. Leonard delivers Yu Lan’s corpse to Gates and asks if they found Yu Fan. Gate’s assistant is connected to Yu Lan’s cell phone in order to trace the incoming call from Yu Fan. When the latter hears Gate’s voice on the other end she surmises that her sister is dead. As Hunter tries to figure out the motives of the Codarl’s pilot he gets interrupted by someone trying to barge into his office. Sousuke asks a shop owner if there are any residents from Helmajistan, and the latter points him in the direction of an alley entrance. The man Sousuke finds there gives him a map leading to a fountain square. Sousuke finds a cell phone in a trash bin and answers a call from Yu Fan. She guides him to a waiting cab which silently drops him in front of a building. Yu Fan who is hiding in an alley tells Sousuke to enter the building behind him and go to the second floor, where Sousuke finds a completely crippled but smiling Gaulon. Gaulon explains that he just barely survived his Venom’s destruction by using the Lambda Driver to shield the cockpit. Sousuke points his gun and Gaulon and the latter tells him that there no need to rush because he’s dying anyway. Gaulon reveal that he ordered the twins to rampage and spread clues throughout the city to lure Sousuke and the Arbalest here. He notes that Sousuke is alone and wonders if he finally got fed up with working for Mithril.

Sousuke asks about Amalgam, and Gaulon is more than happy to spill the beans. Amalgam’s purpose is to test the latest weapons in real combat by participation regional conflicts. They’re backed by top ranked officials in many nations who purposely stir up cold wars in order to gather arms. The current situation however is entirely Gaulon’s doing. Yu Fan announces that she’s leaving and takes off in the Codarl. Gaulon says that he raised the twins to do his bidding, but they’ll probably die tonight if not by Mithril’s hands then by those of the crazy Gates. As Yu Fan takes on the army’s M6’s, Gates spots her and sorties with his Venom and a squad of Codarls. Sousuke asks if Amalgam has any Whispered in their employ and why they’re still after Chidori if the do. Gaulon answers that each Whispered has knowledge unique to him and the plane hijacking incident helped them prove that Chidori was a Whispered. Gaulon thinks that Sousuke’s gone soft, and recounts that five years ago when he was a mercenary camp instructor he stumbled upon a young Sousuke tossing a pile of dead bodies in a burning pit with completely no emotions on his face. Back on the Tuatha de Danaan, Tessa orders for the Arbalest to be equipped with a booster and put on standby. Mardukas strongly objects to this and reminds Tessa that Sousuke has aborted the mission. Tessa strongly reminds him that Sousuke achieved incredible accomplishments for Mithril and will do so again. She admits her love for him, and asks Mardukas to make his choice on whether to have faith in her judgment or not. A stunned Mardukas can only bow his head and repeat Tessa’s order. The entire conversation is heard by Clouseau’s team, who renew their determination to succeed. They open fire on Yu Fan, who dodges and disables one of the M9’s. Gaulon tells Sousuke that he’s become so weak and human he’s no longer worth killing. He drops the final straw by saying that he had Yu Lan kill Chidori because she was the biggest obstacle to Sousuke’s ferocious nature. As he piles on the taunting, Sousuke finally snaps and plugs Gaulon full of bullet holes. He regains his composure just in time to notice the ticking time bomb under the bed and jumps out the window as it explodes. He slams into the roof of a car and falls onto the street.

Commentary

The Xia twins’ master is finally revealed to be non other than Gaulon, who once again survived certain death thanks to the God-modding powers of the Lambda Driver and was driving the twins’ actions the whole time simply to draw out Sousuke. Though this time he’s reduced to little more than a talking head and Sousuke finally shuts him up for good. Not much else to this episode other than the start of the big arm slave fight which’ll probably turn into a three-way battle once Gates arrives on the scene.

Overall Rating
3.5/5

The Second Raid Info

Director:
Yasuhiro Takemoto

Writer:
Shoji Gatoh

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kanetake Ebikawa
Toshiaki Ihara

Character Designer:
Osamu Horiuchi

Musical Composer:
Toshihiko Sahashi

Format:
13 episodes, 1 OVA

Airdates:
Japan 07.13.2005 – 10.19.2005

Video Release (OVA):
Japan 05.26.2006
U.S. 05.01.2007

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