「ジャイアント・キリング」 (Jaianto Kiringu)
“Giant Killing”
Do you remember the first season of Full Metal Panic!? Do you remember the first episode? Boy, that was a very long time ago. Honestly, I don’t really have much memory for old shows — I could re-watch, but where is the time? — and a lot of the first season of FMP! gets overshadowed by Fumoffu! and The Second Raid, but I do remember the first scene, the pitch that FMP! made to new viewers. In which, a giant robot wrestles a helicopter. That was cool. As far as anime hooks go that was exactly what you wanted, just something spectacular and visceral that grabs the viewer’s attentions immediately. FMP! was saying: this is what this show is about, and it’s awesome. And indeed, one of the main draws of FMP! is still giant robots being awesome. But I feel that we haven’t really had much of that recently. In Invisible Victory with Mithril destroyed, Kaname kidnapped, and Sousuke in exile, it feels like FMP! has been a nothing but a downer. So this episode, with its mecha action, is something I think I really needed. It’s not enough to just have Sousuke beat on noobs, like he was doing at the tournament. No, go wrestle a helicopter. Remind us of the highs. Maybe Invisible Victory will never live up to nostalgia, but it better try its damnedest regardless.
Speaking of nostalgia, how about that Weber 2.0? Just like the original model Weber, it seems Lemon is not what he seems either. Then again, of course he wasn’t; there wouldn’t have been much purpose for him in the plot otherwise. In the grimdark era of INvisible Victory we have no room for purely comic relief character (the clowns all got shooed out in the first episodes, remember?) so that can’t possibly be Lemon’s shtick. It doesn’t help that he’s American; if there’s anything I’ve learnt from anime thrillers it’s that all Americans work for the CIA. That, or they’re being hunted by the CIA. All of them. No exceptions. Well, we don’t know if Lemon is actually American or actually CIA yet, but we can be sure he’s a secret agent of some kind. Just goes to show, the global tourism industry is kept afloat purely by spies. I don’t appreciate Lemon pretending to be a journalist, though. Sure, it’s an easy disguise — you have excuse to both travel and snoop around — but it makes life hard for real journalists. It’s already a common stereotypes in regimes without a free press that journalist must be state agents, we don’t need it to be further propagated. There were some Australian journalists who got into trouble in Egypt not too long ago, and that was just unnecessary trouble.
We’ve got bigger things to worry about, though, because once again it’s time for a damsel in distress! I don’t know how Amalgam figured out that Sousuke is weak to those, but they sure did nail it. I don’t like the trope that our invincible supersoldier’s weakness is always some woman, but that’s what we’re working with. Rationally speaking, there’s really no reason for Sousuke to reveal himself. In these hostage situations, what reason is there surrender your weapon? ou only lose your advantage. It’s not like Kurama is the sort of gentleman you can trust to just let the lady go. To be completely cold-blooded, if Kurama does shoot Nami he’ll also lose his leverage, so if anything Sousuke staying hidden is the strongest deterrent. But of course, it;s hard to stay cold-blooded in a situation like this, and Sousuke has his own trauma. Hang in there, mate.
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