Full Metal Panic!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Question: Are the visual novels translated/being translated by anyone?

I'm thinking I would be interested in reading them when I'm done with the series.

[Foggle]

VISUAL NOVELS

The FMP books are light novels (as in, actual books). All the story-based ones have been translated, and they're all awesome. I can upload them somewhere for you, if you want.

I shall refrain from writing a rant-essay explaining my distaste for visual novels... for now.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh, sorry. I heard someone describing them as such. Either way, I would probably like to read more of them.

When I'm done. 

[Foggle]

Heh, not really a big deal. I've got Volumes 6-12 saved on here, along with Side Arms 2; these books pick up directly where TSR leaves off. I will warn you, though... the translations for the latter half of Burning One Man Force all the way through the end of Approaching Nick Of Time are pretty damn rough.

[Foggle]

And for anyone who wants them, heeeeere they are!

http://www.mediafire.com/?83pyqa4qraxd3w8

[Foggle]

Status of fourth season according to Gatoh.

...Not looking good.

[Avaitor]

Don't have high hopes? Can do!

A shame, since I was really hoping for the best out of this series. I'm still wishing for them to pull through, but it sounds doubtful now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Its a real shame. Animating the material from the later half of the novels would make for some truly captivating anime material, even far surpassing what the currently existing seasons of FMP have to offer. However, apparently the fact that it goes into darker and more serious story-based material is a big "no-no" for almost anyone in the anime industry today since it doesn't have any material that they can play it safe with and it actually requires talented writers and animators to properly adapt (as in, its not a MOE, which is why its in development hell right now). Figures....

[Spark Of Spirit]

It looks like moe killed the anime.

Thanks a lot, moe fans.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Gotta love when cocky soldiers pull a Private Hudson and get themselves killed in the process. They could have listened to the guy who actually fought the psycho in the super powered mech before, but no, they charged ahead like idiots.

So yeah, I'm still digging this.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

By the sound of it your on the episodes where Sousuke visits Helmajistan with another team of mercenaries. Yeah....maybe if they actually listened to Sousuke they might have been alive by the end of the arc.

BTW, After finishing season 1, I recommend watching Fumoffu (which is the 2nd season anyways) before going onto TSR. I say this because even though its purely a comedy series it really makes the darker and more serious events of the 3rd season feel more impactful. Story-wise nothing from Fumoffu is relevant as it only adapts the comedic in-between short stories from the light novels, but it really is part of the bread and butter of what makes Full Metal Panic what it is (a combination of both comedy and intense action and drama).

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I'm nearing the end of the first season. I'm in the last arc now. Jesus, Gauron is one brutal MF.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Gauron is so bat-shit crazy that he strangely comes off as likeable in a very sadistic way, compared to other FMP villains. I think one problem I've had with this series is that they've never had a villain that could top Gauron, or even be that interesting. The real point of interest is how Sousuke develops his character in later parts of the story. The villains themselves are kind of boring after Gauron.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, the new book is out in Japan and general opinion from fans who can read Japanese is that this story seems way too shonen-ized for FMP (not in that its light-hearted, although it is, but in that the main character feels like he belongs in a shonen series). due to this many fans are split on the new main character, Tatsuya Ichinose, in that they either love or hate him (I guess it depends on whether they like or dislike shonen series in general). As for me, as much as I love a good shonen....NO! Just....no! It does not belong in FMP.

You do get to see Tessa and Mao from the original series make a return (and Mao actually has a pretty prominent role in the story), but other characters like Kurz, Sousuke, Kaname, and others are only referenced. Also, its worth mentioning that Ono-D (a minor student character who was one of Sousuke's best friends in the original series) makes a cameo appearance in this novel as a teacher at Jindai High School.

There are also 2 borderline loli character in this story, which is a major turn-off for just about every fan of the original series (from what I can tell they are both very minor characters, though, even though one of them is the main character's younger sister).

Keep in mind that this new novel is written by a completely different author. Gatoh did approve of him to write the new novel so you can't directly blame him for any of its stupidities but you can still blame him for letting someone so inexperienced do a spin-off of his series in the first place.

To be fair, I haven't read this novel myself so I can't say whether its good or bad, and none of the fans who have read it in Japanese downright hate it, but nobody really finds it to be something great or even comparable to the original series, either.

Also worth mentioning is that this new project is officially a series. Its not just a stand-alone novel, as this novel ended with a clear "to be continued" initiative, so there will be more of this, and depending on whether the new author listens carefully and responds adequately to fan feedback (from what I can tell the Japanese fans also don't like the addition of the pointless loli stuff and the humor being more perverted than it needs to be at times), this could either potentially be a good thing (in that the story improves for the better, much like how the original series did after a somewhat slow start), or it could lead to a horrible train-wreck of a spin-off series. Going by the fact that nothing serious happened in this novel in terms of something involving dark terrorist organizations or a new big main problem to solve as a central plot point, I sort of have to question why this novel was even written in the first-pace, let alone why its being made into a full-blown series. I mean, maybe central plot issue can come about later on, but what's the point of this first novel if it does nothing more than just establish the characters?

Overall, though, I was never keen on the idea of a spin-off, and so far it sounds kind of stupid to me, but it seems harmless enough to the FMP canon and it also still seems far from terrible, so I suppose I'll excuse it for now until I get a chance to read an English translation of it for myself.

[Foggle]

Official fanfiction, eh? Nothing wrong with that, though it rarely ends up well.

There are also 2 borderline loli character in this story

KyoAni will animate this before they even think about touching DVMC or COMO.