Full Metal PanicReviews

Full Metal Panic! Ep. 7: Boy Meets Girl

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Summary

The Arbalest is moving too fast for the Savages to track it. Sousuke takes out two with his monomolecular cutter, two more with his shot cannon and throws a tree at the fifth. Suddenly the Codarl appears and Sousuke and Gaulon start shooting at each other. Chidori asks who’s superior, and Weber replies that the Codarl has a hidden weapon which gives it the upper hand as it caused his rifle shot to explode in midair. Chidori says that it’s not a trick and that the Codarl has ‘it’, which means Sousuke will lose. Sousuke throws a log at Gaulon and they both shoot each other. Gaulon’s gun is destroyed, and Sousuke fires another shot. However, it gets blocked by a barrier. Gaulon shoots a telekinesis wave that knocks Sousuke away, and Weber recognizes it as the attack that destroyed his M9. Sousuke sees a flash and is surprised that the Arbalest is unharmed. The cockpit lights go red and Al informs Sousuke that the Lambda Driver initialization is complete. The Arbalest gets up and several exhaust vents open up. Weber can’t believe the Arbalest wasn’t destroyed and Chidori remarks that Sousuke doesn’t know how to use the Lambda Driver. She continues to babble incoherently. Enraged, she head butts a tree to clear her mind and asks for Weber’s radio. Gaulon pulls out a monomolecular cutter and Chidori contacts Sousuke and informs him that both Gaulon’s and his arm slaves are equipped with Lambda Drivers. She explains that the Lambda Driver physically manifests the pilot’s desire. The reason he wasn’t harmed was because he wished to protect himself. Gaulon fires another telekinesis shot, but Sousuke blocks it with a barrier to Gaulon’s surprise. Gaulon dashes towards him and Chidori tells him to concentrate on defeating his opponent. The anti-tank dagger attached to the Arbalest’s face plate unlatches and Sousuke uses it to block Gaulon’s. Gaulon realizes that the Arbalest has a Lambda Driver, and unleashes another wave, knocking Sousuke back. Sousuke sees his shot cannon, and Gaulon asks him how long does he plan on running. He blocks another shot cannon blast from Sousuke and tells him it’s useless since he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Chidori reminds him to concentrate, but he’s having trouble doing that. She tells him that if he loses she’ll be stripped, experimented on and tortured. This finally snaps Sousuke, and Chidori tells him to close his eyes and visualize his target. Gaulon dashes again towards Sousuke. Sousuke takes a deep breath and fires

Both attacks are being blocked by barriers. Sousuke shoves his shot cannon past the barrier to let the shot go through. It hits the Codarl and the Lambda Drivers overload, causing a big explosion and destroying the Codarl. Sousuke walks out and Chidori asks him if he’s ok, which he confirms. Sousuke runs towards the rendezvous point carrying Weber and Chidori in the Arbalest’s hands while Weber complains that this is a terrible way to transport injured people. Sousuke asks Chidori if she’s ok and she replies that she forgot everything she said earlier. They’re spotted by a Hind and fired upon. Sousuke tosses Chidori into the air and uses the free hand to throw an anti-tank dagger at the Hind, destroying it. Sousuke catches the falling Chidori and notices with dread that she fainted. At the coast, they’re surrounded by enemy Hinds and arm slaves. Mao radios in and tells Sousuke to keep running while she snipes the Savages. Sousuke jumps off a cliff and lands on the Tuatha de Danaan’s deck. Tessa orders a hasty retreat. In the hangar, Sousuke is standing in front of the Arbalest when Kalinin comes and asks about Gaulon. Sousuke replies that Gaulon is dead for good this time, and Kalinin regrets not being there. Sousuke asks about the Lambda Driver, saying that he’s never heard of such a device. Kalinin replies that none of the technology they’re using should normally even exist in this era, but they do because of the Black Technology, which Sousuke says comes from the Whispered like Chidori. Kalinin informs him that the intelligence division will spread false rumors about Chidori not turning out to be a Whispered after Gaulon’s men examined her, but notes that they need to take another precaution as insurance. Chidori wakes up in a hospital room and is told by Mao-dressed as a nurse(!)- that Sousuke’s safe and that she’s in Tokyo, having been out for two days and brought back by Mithril. Mao tells Chidori that she’s Sousuke’s comrade and that she should forget everything that happened in order to avoid trouble. She also thanks Chidori for saving Sousuke and Weber. Chidori asks about Sousuke and Mao says he’s on a new mission. Mao leaves and Chidori finds Sousuke’s photograph on the counter next to her. She starts to cry when her classmates burst into the room and Kyoko hugs her. They were thrown out of the transport planes at the airport and never saw the rescue team again. The teacher apologizes to Chidori for letting her get taken. Chidori exchanges remarks with another person until she realizes that it’s Sousuke who’s here to check up on her. She asks him what’s going on and he says that he’s her insurance for the time being. Back at school, the usual antics resume.

Commentary

And that’s the end of the show’s first arc. If there was any doubt that the previous episode was just made to artificially lengthen the arc, Gaulon’s sudden return certainly dispels it. He has no problems using the Lambda Driver multiple times when in the last fight against Weber one use shorted the Codarl out. Speaking of which, we’re finally given an explanation to the Lambda Driver’s functions. It all boils down to this: normal arm slaves don’t stand a chance and a scuffle between two Lambda Drivers becomes a battle of wills. I hope this doesn’t reduce the fights into mindless bouts of DBZ-style grunting and yelling. Overall, a pretty good episode. Also, there’s seems to be a continuity goof. Chidori passed out after being thrown but was fully awake when they reached the coast and then she wakes up in the hospital two days later, implying that she either passed out off-screen later or they forgot that she woke up. Another thing is that the knife on the Arbalest’s mouth plate seems to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It clearly wasn’t there in the last episode.

Overall Rating
4/5

Full Metal Panic! Info

Director:
Koichi Chigira

Writer(s):
Koichi Chigira
Fumihiko Shimo
Masashi Sogo
Tomihiko Ohkubo
Seiji Sogo
Koji Ueda
Hidefumi Kimura

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kanetake Ebikawa
Toshiaki Ihara

Character Designer:
Osamu Horiuchi

Musical Composer:
Toshihiko Sahashi

Format:
24 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 01.08.2002 – 06.18.2002

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