After a thirteen year gap, two recap episodes, we now have a ten episode season with a totally incomplete story. If this were any other franchise I’d be dropping it for good and never looking back and yet Full Metal Panic still makes me desperately want more of this story.
There comes a point where a franchise knows that its core audience isn’t going anywhere and so they realise they don’t need to worry about a big season finish or even attempting to tie up their story. It is dissatisfying to say the least and makes Invisible Victory more or less impossible to recommend to anyone except die-hard fans of this franchise given you can’t start the story without knowing the history of the characters and events and then it just leaves us all hanging.
This final episode is clearly setting up the next phase of the story, but we haven’t really done anything with the current phase. The best way to describe Invisible Victory is a bridge between the previous seasons’ events and whatever they are moving toward but we don’t know what that is.
Still, Sousuke gets to do a cool take down even from a hospital bed, we get Kaname sighing and then swimming in her underwear, Tessa also has a changing sequences because the anime couldn’t possibly ignore the fans of Tessa, and we get a Sousuke training sequence before they reveal who some villain is and the story just stops. Kind of something for every fan of the series in this episode and yet nothing for anyone because we don’t have an announced follow up yet and by itself this story went nowhere. I don’t think I’m going to do a series review of Invisible Victory at this point because basically it isn’t a full series and other than complaining about that and being all happy about seeing Sousuke and Kaname again, there isn’t a lot to say. You are either already a fan of this franchise or you never touched this season of it.
Linked Reviews:
- Episode 9: Perfect Timing
- Episode 8: Knowing How To Finish A Cliff-Hanger
- Episode 7: There’s Something Really Satisfying About Watching Sousuke Pull A Helicopter Out of the Sky
- Episode 6: There Is A Plan
- Episode 5: Restart
- Episode 4: The Early Failure
- Episode 3: Combining War and Battle with Teen Drama
- Episode 2: The Weight of The Drama Is Real
- Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory First Impressions
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
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I more or less predicted this before the season aired, because the prior season was so irritating. Fumoffu was the peak of the story, and its best work after the first arc. Its gotten more serious and less entertaining. It makes you appreciate Martian Successor Nadesico more, which has its ups and downs but always remembers its sense of humor. I’ve watched this show and only a few times did I smile at a joke, the rest of the time I feel like I was wasting my bandwidth.
I never liked the humour all that much. It balanced okay in season one, but I preferred season two when it took a more serious tone. This actually works really well as a story except for the whole part where they didn’t bother to finish it.
Fumoffu is for me kind of something I only watch an episode of in between other shows. It is kind of brain dead and I love the characters so spending time with them chilling around school and town works, but I’m not that into comedy so for me Fumoffu has always remained that weird filler thing that for some reason my friend really liked.
I wonder if you will eventually watch enough anime to get bored with the serious shows. That’s what happened to me. The parodies and moe shows and slice of life shows appeal most now, after decades of Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop shows, or the ugly surprises like Robotics;Notes and Steins;Gate. Many anime fans find their tastes change as they age and mature. I guess we’ll see in time.
My tastes have definitely changed already enjoying fighting shows significantly less and finding more dramatic shows (March Comes in Like a Lion being a good example) quite compelling. My teenage self wouldn’t have made it through the first episode of March. That said, I generally dislike things labelled as comedy preferring humour that is a bit more satirical and dry rather than slapstick or overt.
How do you feel about Your Lie In April? March Comes In Like A Lion is very similar. They’re both based on Nodame Cantabile, which is based on Honey and Clover, which is about the trauma which can drive artists to creativity or destruction or both.
I enjoyed Your Lie in April but not as much as some people who are truly in love with that particular anime. Though, it was definitely the performance aspect of that show I liked the most.
I really liked the variations on popular classical music, too. Better than the depressing story. Particularly since I’d pretty much seen it already in Nodame Cantabile and Honey and Clover. But the music was great. Nodame had several episodes with similar despairing and inspired interpretations, many of which were played by Glenn Gould, the famous pianist with an abusive father. That’s why the guy in April has all those scenes with his driven mother being so mean about his playing. Its a direct reference, which are all actually references to Mozart, who was driven by his own father and basically sold to the King of Austria.
Episode 11 and Episode 12 will air in Japan on July 18th. 😀
The production team also announced that they will wait for DVD/Blu-Ray sales before deciding to make the final 12 episodes of Invisible Victory. It’s not the end quite yet but I will still say that I found Episode 10 rather sloppy, both in terms of pacing and in terms of visuals.
Oh well, another 2 weeks before we reach the mid-way point, and perhaps the end of Invisible Victory.
I agree, episode 10 was pretty sloppy visually with a lot of moments where characters were looking a little worse than normal.
Glad to hear there’s a little more to go, but I somehow doubt two more episodes is going to help wrap this up. And if we’re waiting on sales we may as well accept this is the end because I don’t think this franchise has quite the following it used to have, and I certainly won’t be buying an unfinished follow up.
Yeah, they kinda shot themselves in the foot here didn’t they? I mean, who doesn’t want to buy a season that has severe issues and doesn’t end on anything?
The people that watched only on TV while it aired are also unlikely to buy it thanks to our lovely recap episodes and those people will assume that the series has just… ended. After all, there was no hint for it at the end of Episode 10, so it confused the entire fanbase.
I’m glad we got a sequel, I enjoyed every episode somewhat but I can’t deny that from a marketing perspective, they did everything in their power to make sure that people WON’T stick around for the DVD/Blu-Ray. Are fans going to buy it?
Depends on the price considering that one Blu-Ray can get you a volume of regular FMP.
I also really enjoyed what we did get here. The first four episodes with Sousuke and Kaname were adorable and then we got to see Sousuke going back to what he does best. It was great. But it isn’t complete and it isn’t enough, and yes the confusion around whether there are more episodes or not and when they will air or won’t… they really weren’t trying to hard to keep fans on board here.
Ug… why even bring it back then???
It would be fine if they’d announced a continuation but at this point this is all we have. It feels like D Gray Man Hallow all over again. Bring a show back after forever and then just leave us on another cliff-hanger.
Yeah, that’s the single worst 🙁
I have tried to find the series on dvd at animecon (yes I did not forget), but I unfortunately could not find it. Real shame, as it is something that I know I will enjoy. But it’s okay…I will find it at some point. Isn’t it crazy though how much we sometimes forgive things from a franchise? I have always wondered about that, but I guess, that’s also part of liking things 😊
I think it’s okay to do that as long as you don’t delude yourself into believing something you like is actually perfect. I really loved watching Invisible Victory but if any other series had pulled this (13 year gap, ten episodes with two recaps to stretch it to twelve, and no actual conclusion to the season) I’d be so angry. Oh well, now I have the excuse to pull out the original again and rewatch so I can review properly.
True enough 😊 Even when I am a fan of something, I do try and stay objective, and if something is really bad, than I am not going to say it’s good. But…you do tend to forgive things you might not forgive for other shows, so I know exactly what you mean. Haha…it’s sometimes great to have an excuse for something. I am going to revisit Stein’s Gate at some point this month…and see if my rewatch will make me change my mind for the series 😊
Steins;Gate is very hit and miss with fans. Those who love it, really love it, and then there’s everyone else. I personally find the dialogue hilarious and love how fast it is with multiple characters talking almost over top of the others at times. It makes reading subs almost impossible (probably why I love the dub of this one) but it feels like a genuine group of friends. Then the plot kicks in and I really had a great time with it.
Which is why I really want to give it a second chance. So many people loved it so much and I want to find out why I didn’t (at least not when I first gave it a watch and wrote my review for it). So I reckon this month might be a good one to get started on the rewatch, especially since the new series is also out and completed now 😊 And then I will write a second post for the series…which…is going to be a first in the history of my blog lol 😂
I hate to say it, but the new series isn’t completed. It has a second cour still to go (23 eps total if MAL got it right).
Oops…okay my bad. Well. Actually that’s okay. It gives me a bit more time for the rewatch of the original, before I take on the new series 😊