Guillotine

Okay… So this isn’t something new, but I wanted to talk about it seeing as how Anime Network OnDemand has begun running FMP: Fumoffu. For anyone who has seen this anime and has not read the Full Metal Panic: OVERLOAD! manga that it was based on really needs to check it out, and if you haven’t yet seen the anime… Good God what’s your problem??? Watch!!! It’s pure comedy gold.

The manga is not exactly like the anime, so it’s even more craziness for those who didn’t get enough of Fumoffu. More to say there are elements and scenes that were pulled from the manga to create the anime though for the most part the episodes are different. It’s quite fun to spot the bits that they used though. Several differences exist from the anime that one might wish to be aware of though… It has an abundance of chibi style characters rather than the more serious rendering of the anime, and the characters are a bit different. Souske and Kaname are the same, but the others… Well… Kyoko rather than being merely a sidekick becomes something like Wylie Coyote in that she takes the physical brunt of Souske’s mishaps, Kurz Weber is portrayed as Souske’s rival for Kaname’s affections and pops into the story at random, I think Mao only shows up once, and Tessa just pops into random frames throughout the stories as kind of an “extra”.

There are also several characters that never made it into the anime, but are pretty hilarious and maybe should have been included. Not to mention the adventures of Souske Dog (can’t believe that didn’t make the anime although they do make a quick reference to it in episode one). As I mentioned the chapters (or Bombs as they are called) are not the same as Fumoffu. They are for the most part different stories that they simply pulled out the bits they wanted for the anime, so don’t expect an episode for episode match with Fumoffu. If anything Overload is like Fumoffu squared… You’ll quickly realize that they really did hold back on the foolishness in the anime as amazing as that seems.

Here’s one thing to look out for… For anyone else who’s a fan of Kyoto Animation you know they love to pepper their anime with references. There is a reference to something in one of the volumes of Overload in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Episode 00 The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina) which you would never get or even realize was a reference unless you read Overload… I’ll give you a hint… “Mi-Mi-Mikuru Beeeeam.”

At any rate… Any Full Metal Panic fan should give these books a once over (or even 2 or 3 times). Now you might not find these at your local Books A Million as they are 7-8 years old, but you can get them at Amazon (at $10 a pop new… Kind of pricey but I’ll provide the link anyway). The best bet is to get them used if possible. I found them in a local used book store and paid $25 for the whole set, or you can most likely find them on ebay as well. The set is 5 volumes so it’s not going to take forever and a ton of debt to get the whole series, and to date the series is finished so new volumes are not very likely. So check it out and enjoy (if you liked the anime then I can’t see anyone not liking this).