| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set |  | |
Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set
The complete series for the first time in a box set - includes the Full Metal Panic OVA! It’s tough to keep your grades up without having to take off at a moment’s notice to save the world. But for Sousuke Sagara, undercover high school student and member of the mercenary group Mithril, life in Tokyo seemed the same as always. But underneath the promising exterior spin the wheels of a conspiracy that threaten to destroy the peace. A new threat has arisen: Amalgam. An unknown element with advanced mech technology, this mysterious organization has been running things from behind the scenes. As dissension spreads throughout the ranks of Mithril, Sousuke faces his own internal struggle. Spread thin between schoolwork and war, the powers that be have decided to lighten his load… beginning with Kaname! Life and death hang in the balance as the clash between good and evil scale new heights. When the smoke clears, Sousuke’s path will be the one that he forges for himself.
Manufacturer: Funimation
Price Range: $30.99 - $59.98
 Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set
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| User Reviews |  | A note on Idiocy
rating: 5
If you love the origional series, you'll love this.
I already have the whole series on 4 separate dvds (via Hong kong ages ago).....& this is where the idiocy comes in:
I assumed more were comming out (like many other great series..GITS for example) to make up a 26 episode series again....I was indeed wrong. The Second Raid comprises of ONLY 13 episodes (no more have been produced).
Why oh why....I need more!!!
Anyhoos...as to this box set I am tempted to give it as a present...trouble is I really like it! The sliding box dvd set is very nice & it takes a second to realise how you open up the other to discs...quite 'trick'. It also comes with nice detailed booklets or 'Mithril Report'..s.
So if you like the first series this is a good buy (nicer than the individual DVD's)...Just remember it is 13 episodes ..not more.
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Suitable sequel to FMP
rating: 4
This is quite a remarkable follow up to the first season of Full Metal Panic - it takes the tone of the first season and brings it up a notch - meaning that the action is a little more intense, the story is a bit more complicated, the relationships are more strained, and the fan service is a little more...well... obvious. Everything that I would expect from a sequel. The animation is fluid and easy on the eye, the new characters are interesting and engaging while our old friends from the first season all make their appearances.
My only complaint (if you can call it that) is that because the story is more complex (with various story lines continuously interweaving throughout all the episodes much more than in the first series) there was much more to explain and explore and not enough time in all the episodes to develop all the new characters and storyline as I would have liked. This does not detract from the enjoyment of watching and it doesn't necessarily detract from the story itself either - but it definitely leaves you desperately waiting for a 3rd season to answer a lot of your unanswered questions.
The set itself is simple - the DVDs are kept together in a slim box set case. I don't recall any amazing DVD inserts and the DVD extras are not really anything to get excited about - but for my purposes (which is just to watch enjoyable complete anime series on DVD) this is a perfect fit and I would not have purchased a different set.
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FANTASTIC!
rating: 5
A GREAT SHOW. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. BUY THIS ONE WITHOUT HESITATION. WELL WORTH THE MONEY & TIME.
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The Third Success
rating: 5
After finishing watching The Second Raid (TSR) around 20 minutes ago, I was left with a feeling of fulfilment anime rarely ever gives me these days. As an action series it's hard to fault: The action was enjoyable to watch, helped by the high production values, and it had a strong cast of characters that painted over the story simplicity. It did everything it needed to do right and ticked all my boxes, meeting my overly critical standards.
This wasn't the case with the original FMP series, though. Back when I watched that I was left a bit underwhelmed by an experience I'd expected to be a lot more enjoyable than it turned out to be. The constant switching between school comedy episodes and anti-terrorism/mecha action stories let it down, interrupting the flow and making it difficult to get into the serious episodes. And, with the quality of the serious story arcs and comedy varying from decent to very good, the quality of the content wasn't enough save a series suffering from an identity crisis. I gave it 7/10.
Thankfully, someone with a brain obviously decided it would be a better idea to separate the serious and comedy elements into two series, removing the problems caused by the conflicting genres. The comedy side of things got its very own series first in the way Fumoffu and, as you'd expect, lots of school insanity involving Sagara and Kaname followed. It worked out far better without any robot goings on getting in the way, helped by the comedy scenes being far more funny than most of those shown in the original series. I gave it 8/10, but I would've probably scored it higher if not for my sense of humour failure.
TSR, which came out after Fumoffu, did the reverse and focused on the anti-terrorism side. I wasn't really sure what to expect after ending up disappointed with the more serious sections of the original series, not even the high ratings making me confident. I only got around to watching it after I saw and won an auction for the art box + entire series on eBay.co.uk, the motivation not having been there when I had finished Fumoffu many months earlier. But, when I did finally get around to watching it, I found myself struggling to find faults, and even the faults I found were only relatively minor things such as the use of abbreviations without any explanations being given.
As you'd expect with TSR being an action series, the story wasn't memorable: The threat of civil war appears, Mythril send out Arm Slaves to intervene, the threat of war is averted and the cycle starts anew. Mixed in is an organization called Amalgam that creates wars to test out weapons and profit from doing so. None of it is hard to understand or what I'd consider to be memorable.
So, what made TSR better than most other action series? The characters. Since most watchers would've viewed the previous series before getting into this, most of the character introductions and basic development wasn't necessary, leaving more than enough time for the new characters to get introduced and allowing for the already established characters to get additional development. Talking of new additions, the new characters were pretty good, the insane new villain Gates and a pair of sexy Chinese twins being the best of the lot.
Unsurprisingly, The Sagara/Kaname relationship received the most time and, as a result, was the strongest non-action point of the series. I came to like/love/want to sex Kaname far more by the end, the determination and emotions shown by her raising my opinion of her even higher than it was prior to watching. Sagara, on the other hand, was more hit and miss: I hated him for a lengthy period of TSR for being a coward, but I did end up warming up to him towards the end; when the interaction between the two resumed. The one consistent thought that ran through my mind when watching Sagara was that without Kaname around him he's neither likeable nor very interesting...
Overall, I can't help but rate TSR highly. It successfully pleased someone hard to please, meaning it's a show that I'm sure the majority of anime fans out there that haven't got around to watching it yet would love to bits. Looking for a short and high quality action/mecha series? If so, this is for you.
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A Great Sequel To The First Full Metal Panic Series
rating: 5
This series seems to get better and better as it goes The full Metal Panic was one of the first box sets I got so of course I had to get this one as well. These 13 episodes begin a few months after the first season and has Sousuke Sagara(Voiced By Chris Patton/Tomokazu Seki)still fighting with the Mecha Arm Slave Arbalest in civil war strifes and other hot spots around the world as well as attending High school in Japan to protect Kaname Chidori(Voiced By Luci Christian/Satsuki Yukino)who is one of the 'Whispered'. Now a new threat comes along to stir up a new conflict with North and South China as well as a unknown agenda one which is to capture the Arbalest. What I also truly liked was you see Sousuke's growing feelings for Kaname as he has to struggle with both his own feelings as well as his duties to Mithril. One of the few scenes that stick out for me was when Sousuke who needs a haircut can't seem to trust the stylist enough to allow him to cut Sousuke's hair and nearly attacks him in the salon while his trust in Kaname is so deep he actually falls asleep while she cuts his hair showing how great his trust in her is. The one downside I had to this series set was it was only 13 episodes to short for my liking so I truly hope another season is coming out soon because I know I will definitely be getting that one. The extras are mostly trailers and textless intro/ending songs though they also have the producers video of how they went to Hong Kong as well as a few other video commentaries. The video is widescreen and very sharp and clear the audio is also excellent both the Japanese/English Voice Actors did a superb job with this series. So if you're just starting your mecha anime collection this is one of the top 5 you must get...
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Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set
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