Furu Anime Panikku

So, school has started for a week and there’s the dreaded thing knowing as travel time. I spend almost 2 hours to get to and to return from school, so the best thing to do with that time is to read some manga. I’ve only been seriously learning Japanese for slightly more than half a year (those lessons by the Polytechnic don’t count, they were a waste of time), so my speed of reading is really slow. What some people could have completed in a couple of days, I took slightly more than a week.

However, lamenting about how slow I’m reading isn’t the point here. Talking about Full Metal Panic Sigma is.

Some basic background information about FMP Sigma. As of now, there are 7 volumes, and it’s serialized in Dragon Age. The first volume begins with the storyline from the novel, Ending Day by Day (終わるデイ・バイ・デイ), which Full Metal Panic : The Second Raid begins from too. At the end of volume 7, the story is halfway into Burning One Man Force (燃えるワン・マン・フォース).

Personally, I’m relieved that the manga remains faithful to the novel’s storyline. Beside the main storyline, the manga also has a couple of chapters on some side stories. Remember the FMP OVA and the onsen trip in FMP Fumoffu? They’re included in the manga’s storyline too.

The pacing’s fine, with The Second Raid’s storyline summed up in 3 volumes, 1 volume with the side stories, 2 volumes covering Continuing On My Own (つづくオン・マイ・オウン), the destruction of Mithril, and the last volume for now covering Burning One Man Force. The conclusion for Burning One Man Force will probably appear in the 8th volume, which I’m guessing is releasing some time mid-2008.

One thing which I didn’t appreciate about the manga was how Dancing Very Merry Christmas (踊るベリー・メリー・クリスマス) was left out of the storyline. Although it’s not my favourite novel, with Continuing On My Own maintaining the top spot as of now, I was rather looking forward to it. I mean, who wouldn’t look forward to Tessa in the meido costume?

I hope that Dancing Very Merry Chirstmas will not be left out from the future season of FMP. And Kyoani ought to stop being Keyani and give us FMP fans some action!

Apart from the storyline, there’s the art which I simply adore. In my opinion, out of all the FMP mangas, Full Metal Panic I appreciate that the art style was kept as close as possible to the original character designs done by Shikidouji (四季童子) as I have a fancy for his artwork. I even bought his artbook, Colourful Wind without even thinking. That’s how much I like his art.

Now that I’m done with the manga, it’s time for me to continue on with the story by struggling with the novels. It’s a pity that Kinokuniya doesn’t seem to bring in Dragon Age, or I would be buy it on a monthly basis just to follow the chapters of Full Metal Panic Sigma. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait for volume 8’s release before I can get my next dosage of Burning One Man Force in it’s manga form. You’ll probably see me rushing down to Kinokuniya on the day the new volume ships in.