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Metal Panic: The Second Raid is the next series in the FMP
franchise and returns from the comedic Fumoffu to a more
action based series. There are very few instances of humor,
and over all the series has a more serious tone to it. Never
the less, fans of the series are bound to eat it up and
even some people who don't know they could be fans will
jump on board for this great series.
In
this foray, which is supposed to take place three months
after the events of the original Anime series, many foreboding
and nasty things begin and end. We have the return of Gauron
(doesn't really appear until much later in the series).
We have a set of deadly twins in Xia Yu Fan and Xia Yu Lan
debut along with another new bad guy, the eccentric and
rather psychotic Gates. Heck, we even have Tessa's brother,
Leonard, make an appearance! Leonard seems to have a questionable
agenda of his own using his organization, Amalgam as his
tool. Amalgam is setup similarly to Mithril in that they
use Black Technology, though their aims seem to be on the
sinister side, very much the opposite of Mithril.
The
biggest dilemma in the series however, comes when Sagara
is REASSIGNED! That's right, after he and Kaname form a
rather deep bond and he's grown accustomed (as best he can)
to school life and protecting Kaname, Sagara is forced to
a new position, decided upon by none other than Kaname's
rival in love, Tessa. Of course he is reassigned because
it is believed only he and the rest of his teammates can
handle the Amalgam situation. Mithril also seems to believe
(mistakenly) that anyone can watch over Kaname; it doesn't
have to be Sagara.
This
separation gets Kaname into some trouble as she takes matters
into her own hands, trying to weed out her protector and
the reassignment manages to depress Sagara, which affects
his performance in the field in a major way as he begins
to question his orders and what it is he is actually doing
with Mithril. This leads one to infer who it is that Sagara
really wants to "be with" in the romantic fashion,
as we've never seen his performance suffer this much from
a personal issue.
The
ending of this series seems to close off, rather nicely,
the question of who it is that Sagara ultimately wishes
to be with… until you watch through the credits and
see what could be construed as his making a completely different
choice! Well, sort of anyway. Or at least that's the way
the recipient construes it. There is nothing like the tension
of the romantic triangle to keep viewers salivating for
more!
One
thing that may bother some viewers is because this is a
much more serious series than even the original; there are
scenes of some graphic violence included. It isn't anything
outrageous but is a departure in that there is definitely
bloodshed in the series. |
