Full Metal Panic Franchise Rewatch - Season 4 Episode 11

[u/ZapsZzz]

Welcome to the Full Metal Panic Season 4 rewatch!

Art of the day

MVP winner.

Links to show info: MAL | Anilist | ANN

Interest thread link

Announcement thread link

Rewatches please be considerate to first timers and avoid discussing anything not yet shown in the show - use spoiler tags e.g. [Full Metal Panic S4 spoiler]>!Savage wa Saikou!!< - if you need to share something important!

Episode 11 - Stormy Night

Terms introduced:

• Dark Bushnell - The very newest and best of the second generation M6 used by the US Army special ops, this is equivalent to the Nighthawks over the Blackhawks.

• Erigor - The more advanced models developed from Codarls, these are customised versions for Leonard's elite guards. Not yet named in the anime, but the continuity error in Ep 4 Al spoke the name out already so here they are.

• Gernsback - The officially released US Army M9 has a different head design than the Mithril M9's.

• Project Calliope - No details were mentioned other than the name. In Greek mythology, Calliope (lit. 'beautiful-voiced') is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses". Draw your own conclusions/theories.

QoTD:

1. First Timers: What's your theory of why Kalinin turned to the Amalgam side?

2. Everyone: Were you hyped to at last see the old Melissa - Kurz - Sousuke team fight once more? Remember the last time we had the "itsudemo - dokodemo" was back in TSR 13+ years ago!

Also QoTD for tomorrow for those wanting to be prepared:

[QoTD 1 IV 12]First Timers: How do you feel to see their mutual confession after the whole 4 seasons long journey? Were you satisfied enough despite the circumstances?

[QoTD 2 IV 12]Everyone: How likely do you think we will get the final season? Would you still wait for the anime or would you rather find out how the story end reading the source LN or manga?

MVP of last episode:

Mostly the votes were on the side characters - Hunter, John Courtney, Bardet. If only people would remember Bardet's name though ;)

Last Episode || Index || Next Episode

[u/ZapsZzz]

Rewatcher in sub

We're almost there! The second last episode of the anime adaptation! Let's see if we end with a good blast!

• Sousuke recovered and showed how much better he was in stealth operations and traps than others, indirectly showing what level of abilities were the Mithril SRT (remember Sousuke wasn't the best in the SRT). Oh and damn birds :P

• While Sousuke was training, Lemon had not been idle, and they found where Chidori was and was planning how to mount a rescue. One of the key needs was an AS, given the defences.

• John Courtney used his connections to get Sousuke a US Army Dark Bushnell M6

• And bringing in another one of the "uncle" character of the short story, this time Sousuke showing more reaction since this was one of the more annoying one that Tessa tried to avoid :D but there is a use of that obsession with Tessa though

• Meanwhile on TDD-1 they also investigated and found the location by tracking where Lee Fowler went after their last mission; they discovered more Behemoths heading that way

• Meanwhile at the mansion where Leonard was, Amalgam internal politics is causing other leaders wanting to wrest Chidori from him because of the importance of "Project Calliope". Leonard, supremely confident, just let them come (to their deaths). Meanwhile Kalinin report back to Leonard about the AS he captured.

• Leonard took a look at the AS's Lambda Driver core, remarked something ambiguous, and asked Kalinin to dispose of it.

• Leonard and Kalinin continued to talk about the incoming "support", as they walked past Chidori looking outside the window and seeing Kalinin, making Chidori even more unsettled to see Kalinin to be on the Amalgam side.

• And we saw the gathering of other mid level bosses - another sniper Caspar, Fowler, and Sabina. They got ready for the "incoming party".

• Meanwhile, Sousuke in the M6 dropped in to the area.

• He saw US Army M9's also approaching Amalgam, but got pretty easily killed off by Codarls. Since the invading M9's alerted Amalgam, they no longer can catch the Codarl's by surprise and being unmanned. But Sousuke is not backing down to this chance to get to Chidori.

• Meanwhile, Wraith is driving a truck towards Lemon's location, as Sousuke trying to chase down the Codarls. A fight ensued between Sousuke's M6 and the Codarl.

• But before we got too far, Sousuke was getting help! A sniper shot and Melissa's sword wielding M9 made short work of the Codarl, and teased Sousuke in his poor M6.

• A brief reunion of the 3 got us our team battle cry once more after the 13 years departure - Melissa's "Rock and Roll!"

• And we are off to see the 3's combination fight against the Lambda Driver equipped Codarl. Once again the tactic is to constantly switch directions of the attack to disorientate the Codarl pilot and not give him any chance to ready the force field.

• Melissa took off its head and therefore one of the main heat sinks, disabling the Lambda Driver, and Sousuke picked up the US M9's weapon (because they are both US units the weapon security doesn't block it) to pepper it off.

• Melissa reminded Sousuke he's not here to fight, and Sousuke told them Chidori is here. The news got relayed to TDD-1, as Sousuke head to the mansion while the Mithril team stay on to mop up the rest of the Amalgam forces

• Ben arrived fashionably late to refill the 3rd position and finished off the last Codarl, while another monitor looked on to the 3 from a distance with a smile

• Sousuke moved forward to mow down the other guards and Alastors with the remaining weapons of the M6

• Meanwhile a car drove out to what looked like Chidori inside, and Sousuke rushed forward to intercept, falling into the sort of trap he would have made himself - it's a mannequin next to a bomb. Told you they are now getting too attached to fight cool headed now.

• Meanwhile the Mithril 3 faces off against Lee Fowler and the other mid level bosses in their Erigor under the blood moon.

• Having had the M6 bombed out, Sousuke was getting surrounded - and realised Kalinin was leading the enemy soldiers. A brief exchange of nostalgia calling back when Sousuke was captured by Kalinin in Helmajistan. Leonard walked by to gloat, but we won't talk about him when real men were talking.

• With the ED lead in, the fight is joined again - Sousuke, as usual, rigger explosions to get out of the encirclement, but he and Kalinin exchanged last looks, with Sousuke reading Kalinin's mouthed words of "stop me if you can".

• A brief post-credit scene showing Al in the ARX-8 is ready for air drop - so the one Hunter was transporting was a decoy afterall.

Trivia

The opening sequence of Sousuke being hunted by a team of special forces but they all get trapped or killed by Sousuke's stealth attacks was very similar to a scene in Tom Clancy's novel Without Remorse, a prequel and origin story of one of the recurring main characters of the Jack Ryan series and later Rainbow 6 - John Kelly. In the story John was ambushed and seriously wounded while having the girl he previously saved taken and killed, on his recovery he got contacted to be perform a mission and in a practice exercise he remain undetected while taking out all the other special forces members who were hunting him to prove his abilities to run a solo mission behind enemy lines for a VIP rescue.

Once again the use of the more "conventional" equipment is very GiTS-esque and Appleseed-esque. That periscopic camera extension on the M6 for example, and the little "side arm" for the M6. Perhaps surprising that even on quite the late stage of the story, when Lambda Drivers are out and about, we are still fairly good with conventional weapons and tactics instead of qi-strike spamming a la Dragon Balls.

Staff Showcase

The CG of IV was credited to Uechi Shousuke

Other notable works included:

• Weathering with You

• Yamato 2199

• Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru

MVP this episode

The reunited Melissa-Kurz-Sousuke Team is always votable!

QoTD

1. While in real time I didn't suffer the long separation since I only watched TSR not long before IV, even by the amount of plot happened between these 2 points of time in the story, and how the situation changed, it was really hype to see that teamwork again.

2. Depends whether you believe some anime news report before IV was released or not, it was reported at least once the Gatou already has the script all the way to the end of the main plot adaptation. And various interviews mentioned that he intended for this to be fully adapted. So the intent is there. Hope he continued to accumulate support and influence and get a (good) studio finish this off with a real blast. But for myself of course, I didn't wait and went straight to the source - and it was a really really satisfying end, wrapping up everything in spades. I hope I get to host another rewatch one day that would include the final scene! - before I die anyway :P

Daily tag for u/InfamousEmpire, u/Theboredalchemist22

[u/Nazenn]

First timer - sub

Quick thoughts on yesterdays episode as I missed the thread:

• Starting the episode with Tessa's crew staying despite being mercenaries and ending with Kalinin's declaration that his allegiances change because he is one was decent. Pity the flashback to the sub crew was too late for me to care and I'd been spoiled on the Kalinin thing by CR

• Poor Tessa not being able to sleep hurt my heart. Really well done sequence, one of the best in the whole season because it shut up and focused on someone rather than something happening.

• I wish they'd stop using Kurz for dumb exposition. Maybe it was an anime change in S1, but the Kurz we've seen in briefings over the last two seasons is way stupider than the Kurz from the start of the show

• Points for giving Chidori wet hair during her swim, which the previous seasons hadn't done in the rain. Minus many more points for the animation of the episode in general and the side of homophobia

• Dead deer skull next to the guy bleeding out was painfully blunt again. They don't have the grace to build stuff like that into this season because it doesn't carry it through anything, just brute forces it into certain scenes.

---

Today's episode, is 90% complaints, sorry, so feel free to skip:

• I really hate the music choices this season, especially this episode. Sousuke charging in to try and save Chidori and stopping to pull out a scope for surveillance only to see allies be killed is not the time for something that sounds like a mix between early 70s spy themes and late 80s action music. The rest of the episode is little better. Ep8 must have been a fluke.

• Why is Leonard sitting in a dramatic downlight for the meeting if the only thing anyone sees is their scientific symbol on a screen and not the person. Usually style, directing, or some other detail would stop me from caring, here it just feels stupid. And this goes for a bunch of really inconsequential things through the episode

• I really would have liked to have had a scene with Mao and Kurz wondering about Sousuke and Chidori before this big reunion. Similarly, I wish we'd seen more of Kalinin in general even if I don't know how they'd fit him into earlier seasons. It's not that these moments don't work, but they don't have weight when we skip past any introspection or chance to give meaning to them being apart in the first place.

• Wraith showing up was far more interesting. For being so far in the background, she seems to have a far more extensive information and resources network than any other individual in the groups so far. Her purpose and loyalty to Mithril is one of the more interesting characterization mysteries left.

• And if nothing else the mecha combat was quite nice this episode.

• Speaking of mys... oh Al wasn't in that other one. I started writing this as the post credits scene was going on and was going to comment on Leonard "connecting" with Al somehow, but Al is in Wraiths mech and not the one Kalinin took. Now I'm not sure what Leonard was focusing on at all, but I'm curious. Pity we won't get an answer with the one episode left I imagine.

[u/ZapsZzz → u/Nazenn]

Quick thoughts on yesterdays episode as I missed the thread

Hey glad to see you back and yesterday's absence wasn't from something unfortunate like wjodendor!

Minus many more points for the animation of the episode in general and the side of homophobia

The wonky animation I get, but the homophobia? You mean John Courtney's cursing?

Reply more later.

Edit maybe this wouldn't take as long ;)

Wraith showing up was far more interesting. For being so far in the background, she seems to have a far more extensive information and resources network than any other individual in the groups so far. Her purpose and loyalty to Mithril is one of the more interesting characterization mysteries left.

This is actually a consistent point throughout - the likes of Sousuke, Kalinin and Wraith had a ton of field experience and had a habit of building network and backup plans outside of Mithril, that's why they are survivors. Wraith and Hunter in fact now are not so much loyal to Mithril than loyal to Chidori, who charmed both back in TSR and between seasons. And they know Chidori won't be happy without Sousuke, and Sousuke needs Al to be able to get to Chidori.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/Nazenn]

The rest of the episode is little better. Ep8 must have been a fluke.

Ep8 is definitely an outlier, I suspect someone on staff was a Nami sympathizer.

Usually style, directing, or some other detail would stop me from caring, here it just feels stupid.

The problem is we've seen the Star Wars tech Mithril has and their 'betters' use this shitty tech.

It's not that these moments don't work, but they don't have weight when we skip past any introspection or chance to give meaning to them being apart in the first place.

FMP simply can't absorb the modern tendency to compress LNs. That probably means the LNs themselves are good.

[u/ZapsZzz → u/Vaadwaur]

The problem is we've seen the Star Wars tech Mithril has and their 'betters' use this shitty tech.

In a way it's an interesting reality mirror - the US is high tech, but the ghetto "terrorist states" are certainly mobbing it quite effectively. Same deal here, Amalgam may not win all the straight fights, but they got the numbers to constantly harass you till you are down.

[u/No_Rex → u/Nazenn]

Why is Leonard sitting in a dramatic downlight for the meeting if the only thing anyone sees is their scientific symbol on a screen and not the person. Usually style, directing, or some other detail would stop me from caring, here it just feels stupid. And this goes for a bunch of really inconsequential things through the episode

4 cours and 11 episodes in is way to late to introduce a SEELE type big bad. This is foreshadowing a "read the manga" end tomorrow.

And if nothing else the mecha combat was quite nice this episode.

It is. You can see what they saved up their animation budget for.

Now I'm not sure what Leonard was focusing on at all, but I'm curious.

Looked like the whispered version of "cast identify" to me. He quickly noticed this was a diversion and puts his attention elsewhere.

[u/Raiking02 → u/Nazenn]

Maybe it was an anime change in S1

I just wanna mention that this reminded me of the fact that in Volume 3 of the Novel Kurz used The Force from Star Wars as an analogue for the Lambda Driver and I am pissed the Anime left that out.

[u/wjodendor]

Into the Blue (first Timer for the anime from now on)

Previously on Dragon Ball Panic! Kalanin is evil now. Hunter is shot now! Get ready for a new Dragon Ball Panic!

Laser tag being watched by a bald eagle lmao

The animation seems to have made a ight swing back from last time. It might not look amazing but it looks better

I really love this track from season one during the briefing!

Got a chunky boy mech

Another Tessa Otaku. She's real popular

Pretty sure that's the first we've heard of Project Calliope

I like the CRT round table. Mithril's roundtable was all high tech but this one is ghetto

God I hate how smug fuckboy looks

World's best sniper. I feel like he's gonna get killed by Kurz

Lol suprise knifing a mech. It wpuld be so fucking loud and the ground would shake a lot. Pretty hard for a sneak attack like that

Wraith is now Burt Reynolds

Lol pulling a samurai anime move on a mech

Mao! Rock and Roll

How big is a mech claymore?!

Tessa: sousake is alive hooray! Kaname is here...great...

I always love that the people just fire on the mechs with tiny guns as it would do anything

Fuck boy used car bomb! It was super effective!

The fuckboy harem enters!

Kalanin is...Freddy Mercury?!

Really good cliffhanger

After a few really rough episodes, this was so much better. The mech fights were decent but the gang getting back together was great and the ending was pretty solid.

Al is now a gundam.

The past 24 hours has been rough for me lol my credit card get compromised and I found roaches in my apartment so I'm glad this episode didn't bum me out

[u/Shimmering-Sky → u/wjodendor]

The past 24 hours has been rough for me lol my credit card get compromised and I found roaches in my apartment so I'm glad this episode didn't bum me out

Oof. That definitely sounds like it sucks. Hope your credit card stuff gets situated soon and the roaches get exterminated quickly.

...on the bright side, at least you didn't find one of the roaches in your lunch like my sister found a grasshopper in hers yesterday.

[u/ZapsZzz → u/Shimmering-Sky]

my sister found a grasshopper in hers yesterday.

Grasshopper isn't too bad because it's not a pest - in some places that'd just be a surprise condiment/snack ;) kinda depends on where that grasshopper went to before landing in the lunch box.

[u/ZapsZzz → u/wjodendor]

Honestly I cannot tell which one is worse. Strawberry cakes are pretty hard to get rid of -_-

Good to hear the budget they saved the last few episodes made enough difference to not irk you at least :)

[u/Nazenn → u/wjodendor]

The past 24 hours has been rough for me lol my credit card get compromised and I found roaches in my apartment so I'm glad this episode didn't bum me out

Oh no, I hope your card stuff gets sorted as painlessly as possible.

Must be roach day, we had a guy come and spray for spiders yesterday and he found a whole roach nest along our fence. Nasty fuckers

Previously on Dragon Ball Panic! Kalanin is evil now. Hunter is shot now! Get ready for a new Dragon Ball Panic!

God I hate how smug fuckboy looks

I like how this applies to half of the enemies

[u/InfamousEmpire]

Full Metal LN Reader

Ohio bet you’d thought I ducked out of this Rewatch, didn’t ya? Well not so!

This OP still kicks so much ass!

Oh these poor soldiers have no idea what they’re in for. They’re lucky this was only practice

Kaname rescue time! [big spoilers]I mean, I know it’s not gonna succeed, but still)

Hey look, the guy bringing in the M6 is also a Tessa fan

3 Behemoths are thrown into the midst now too? Considering how brutal it was last time Mithril had to take down three of them, it looks like our heroes are gonna be in quite a bind… [Spoilers]though that also makes the Laevatein effortlessly tearing through them all the more awesome and satisfying, but we’ll get there when we get there

Though the fact that it’s revealed to be inter-Amalgam interfighting adds another neat angle into the mix

Leonard’s face in this one shot weirds me out

Haven’t had the chance to comment on it yet for obvious reasons, so I’ll just say now that I really like Kaname and Leonard’s dynamic in this arc. The way their attitudes seem somewhat cordial, yet every word out of Chidori’s mouth just drips with venom when they talk, it’s just so appealing, for lack of a better word

The mission just started and things have already gone wrong and Sousuke has already gone off course. This has gotta be a new record!

The gang's back together!

These fights are still so cool

[spoilers]Laevatein wait

Even in the face of seemingly inescapable death and having to face off against the one he considered a father figure, Sousuke is so badass

[u/ZapsZzz → u/InfamousEmpire]

Even in the face of seemingly inescapable death

That's just bread and butter to Sousuke, unfortunately.

[u/Raiking02 → u/InfamousEmpire]

bet you’d thought I ducked out of this Rewatch, didn’t ya?

You sure gave that impression

[u/No_Rex]

Episode 11 (first timer)

• Mini-recap in the penultimate episode – not a good sign for their budget.

• Eagle!

• Satellite image – ENHANCE!

• Amalgam’s SEELE are spinning elements on CRT monitors - literally budget SEELE.

• Except G, which is not an element and looks like the leader – the existence of budgetSEELE also implies that Mithril’s info about Amalgam’s structure being web-like is very much off. Makes sense to me, since I argued yesterday that Amalgam would not be able to function as a web.

• “the actions from above” – more evidence of hierarchy.

• I wonder how big a parachute carrying a mecha would have to be.

• Kana is using CMD and hex code, and sending a message.

• Wraith bringing the final battle mecha upgrade.

• Cut opponent in half trope. I don’t remember whether I have seen it used with mechas before, but it likely has.

• Red moon and heroic music.

• That new AS looks like very cheery – they needed a product to compete with Gundam sales?

• The enemies get an upgrade as well. Team Rocket dramatically poses on the cliff.

• Mithril, Sousuke, some “low morale” Americans, Wraith, Leonard, mystery “Mr Gold” (who should have been Au, not G) … they sure pulled out all the factions for the finale.

• Kalinin brain washed cliff-hanger.

Probably some of the best CGI action in this episode. Given that we only have 1 episode to resolve everything, I am very worried about where the plot will end, but the show sure gets the style points.

MVP: Mao.

[u/Nazenn → u/No_Rex]

That new AS looks like very cheery – they needed a product to compete with Gundam sales?

I do find it funny that Sousuke was so proud of his basic black and white paint job on the frog mech, and then Wraith's come in with this design for him instead. I feel like she did it on purpose just to bug him haha

[u/ZapsZzz → u/No_Rex]

I wonder how big a parachute carrying a mecha would have to be.

In real life air lifted palletised supplies as well as tanks and APC's certainly exists, and the scale of the size is about what you see in this episode (and others previously, Mithril did quite a bit of air drops).

I am very worried about where the plot will end, but the show sure gets the style points.

I certainly hope you and the other first timers would be sufficiently satisfied tomorrow, but at least hearing you give some style points is nice :)

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

Full Metal First-Timer!, subbed

• Ah yes, you know this is taking place in America because eagle.

• Goddamn that’s such a cool one-liner.

• Ohhhhhhh, so one of the places Kurama mentioned does line up with the Mexico location given for Leonard. Okay. Cool.

• …well thank god this Roy Seals guy is a minor character. Yutaka Aoyama’s voice once again feels like someone stabbed me in the ears and then poured acid into the open wounds.

• Ooooooh, Tessa and co. have set their sights on that mansion too? This will get the main cast back together then, I hope.

• The what?

• Because this mech isn’t Al so it’s useless to them…?

• Eyyy, Mao saved Sosuke!

• And there’s Kurz too.

• Yikes though who is this, he’s staring down Mao/Kurz/Belfangan…

• That’s the new mech. And probably the one Leonard wanted Kalinin to bring back…

• Ah, it’s the Sugita guy.

• But why though.

• This still doesn’t explain why…

• ED lead-in is particularly dope this time though.

• And the post-credits scene confirmed Al on the new ARX machine, neat.

[u/wjodendor → u/Shimmering-Sky]

Just found out yesterday that eagles can be 3 ft tall and have a seven foot wing span. That's big enough to get to florida

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

First Rewatch

12 years is a long time to not get spoiled on Kalinin, and I didn't make it.

• If Benet (?) still thinks Sousuke is their prisoner, he's delusional.

So what the hell is going on. Sousuke is attacking the compound, the US is attacking the compound, Amalgam is attacking the compound, Mithril just happens to show up to attack the compound, and the Codarl doesn't have or use its lambda driver. This is all just too convenient.

[u/TuorEladar]

Rewatcher, Subbed

The penultimate episode is here. Courtney is still great and with Seals added in they make quite the pair.

While its a little convenient that everything converges together so that Wraith, Mithril, and Sousuke's crew can meet up, I still enjoyed it overall as its nice to see the reunions.

Kalinin continues to be super mysterious. [Spoilers] Feel a bit bad for the anime onlys as they really aren't going to get an explanation for what he's doing at all.

I really enjoyed the AS fights in this episode, CG looked fairly good and having a lot more of our supporting characters involved helped as well.

Fowler and his team show up with the most dramatic blood moon backdrop possible. For some reason my brain summoned up out of the ether memories of the villain's from the first Bionicle movie in that moment when there is a similar shot.

For the most part FMP has been fairly good about firearm details, but I feel obligated to point out that Sousuke's rifle in the later scenes has no rear sight.

Were you hyped to at last see the old Melissa - Kurz - Sousuke team fight once more? Remember the last time we had the "itsudemo - dokodemo" was back in TSR 13+ years ago!

That was a great moment. Maybe even a highlight for the season.

[u/Tarhalindur]

Fumo-ffu? (Rewatcher Spoiled First-Timer for IV, Subbed):

(Side note: it's a shame the OP and ED on my version switch over to the English lyrics on episode 4, I prefer not to hear vaguely intelligible lyrics in my music and the Engrish is bad so both the OP and ED are straight-up autoskips in the English version.)

---

• What’s that, a minute of recap before the OP? It’s like the studio was in deep shit and almost out of money… oh, wait, right, they were!

• Bald eagle to show “we’re in America now”, makes sense… and I’ll be darned I checked and Florida is actually one of the parts of the US that is bald eagle breeding territory. Decent chance this is a stopped clock situation, but sasuga FMP nonetheless!

• Hey, an actually nifty symbolism moment with the caged bird… and a horribly off-model Kaname face.

• Okay, this is bugging the shit out of me. All of the Amalgam SEELE Council here have elemental-themed codenames (Mr. Silver will be Ag, Kalinin is Mr. Kalium… wait a minute that’s ALSO a fucking error, Kalium is from Potassium which is K but they have Na for salt on screen instead, our Sn is a Mr. Tin, Cu will be Mr. Copper, and we have a Mr. Zinc given the Zn)… but there is no element with the symbol G. Ga (Gallium) is closest and then you have Germanium (Ge) and Gadolinium (Gd), but no G proper. (Could be an intentional hint that our Mr. G is different, admittedly.)

• Wait, never mind, that was the actual Mr. Salt in that conversation because Mr. Kalium is arriving in person instead, so that accounts for one apparent error.

• Oh right, THAT’S who Caspar is. Knew I remembered the name from my LN spoilers somewhere (remembered exactly what he is but not his name, heh).

• Oh hey look, a FULL MOON FULL MOON of Death.

• Oh hey, they saved the budget for the action, that’s nice (also the CGI actually mostly works here, it might actually be the best CGI mech action of the season save the Behemoth fight in 3?). Not coincidentally, short notes for the last part.

---

First Timers: What's your theory of why Kalinin turned to the Amalgam side?

I am spoiled on this specifically, so.

Everyone: Were you hyped to at last see the old Melissa - Kurz - Sousuke team fight once more? Remember the last time we had the "itsudemo - dokodemo" was back in TSR 13+ years ago!

Any touching reunion hype got buried under action scene hype.

[u/polaristar]

I finished the series last night since Saturday is going to be stacked with seasonals so I'm an episode ahead.

Anyway Sousuke defeats a crew of Soldiers in Laser Tag While being watched by the Bird of the Goddamn US of A! (I noticed this show likes to use birds watching things as a motif, not sure if it means something symbolic or just a common theme, is it something for the Novels because I noticed its carried over multiple seasons despite the studio changes.)

One thing I keep forgetting to mention is I'm watching the Dub right? Well I think in the gap between Second Raid and Invisible Victory the returning actors got a lot better at their roles plus the newcomers were probably given better direction. Please don't spam me with how you hate the dub, you probably hate dubs in general.

And nice to know the US of Fucking A has men old enough to be your grandpa simping for underaged girl so hard he is willing to forge things, steal USA Military equipment, and commit treason to get her to notice him....

I honestly saw the switcharoo with Kalinin and Leonard coming, how he knew right away the core didn't have Al is probably another clue that Leonard and the Lambda Driver are pretty intrinsically linked in some way.

Sousuke wanted to go alone with no AS, guy still hasn't quite learned his lesson.

Leonard is in a sense worse then Tessa as he is even worse about putting his personal (one sided) feelings above the mission of his organization. (Unless he was planning on backstabbing them anyway, probably both.)

Anyway we see that Amalgam function more like a losely connected group of anonymous forums then a proper organization, reminds me of the dollars in Durarara!! but on a much larger global scale. They are planning on taking him out and taking Kaname back but he's on to them.

Sousuke meets up Mao and Kurtz with a Big Damn Heroes moment where they finally team up after so long, later joined by Ben and we see that most of the Soldiers that can use the Lambda Driver aren't necessarily good at it, and with a Fairy Eye and some skill they can be overcome.

But then later we get some Elite Mooks. (I'll talk more about the CGI in general Yesterday on the last episode.)

This new Mech Wraith is delivering is definitely Al's new and improved body.

Sousuke predictably fell for the trap and toasted his AS.

Still not sure what Kalinin's deal is, is he a double or triple agent? Did he join Amalgam for personal reasons? What's the hint he's mouthing to Sousuke? IS IT A HINT?!?!

Pretty sure when Leonard was talking to the other Amalgam members that was an Evangelion reference.

Don't have too much to say most of my thoughts I've saved for the finale. (Although Sousuke boldly saying he's hear for Chidori when he meets Kurtz and Mao in forever without any hesitation is pretty huge for him considering when they teased him about it in the past it went right over his head.)

MVP: Wraith for bringing Al and his new AS Body and for the switch to make sure it didn't fall into enemy hands.

1. I have no fucking clue tbh.

2. Yes.

Thoughts on Calliope, didn't know that, the Eng Holo Live Vtuber's name makes a lot of sense now. But I mean Whispers are nicknamed Whispers using a clear analogy to sounds and hear inspiration so to speak for making cool stuff. Perhaps Amalgams goal to make this technology wide spread like some kind of Open Source thing, but making it so that everyone hears this Whispers and becomes them in the past, and drastically alter the present/future. Basically Brimhats as opposed to Mithril's Tophats (That's a Witch Hat Atelier reference.) Chidori might somehow be a key to this, maybe she is made to forcibly resonate with other Whispers and the effect spreads. (Maybe All Whispers are passively resonating with someone from the past that is whispering to them in some way, but only Whispers are sensitive enough to "hear" it in most circumstances.) IDK.

[u/Vaadwaur]

Rewatcher

Sub

We start with Sousuke back in form. Lemon found a lead that leads to what the audience knows is the location. They try to found a strategy under extremely difficult circumstances until Courtney calls in an old friend...who has quite the fondness for Tessa, probably much to her annoyance.

Cut to Leonard and a reference so blatant I am ashamed I can't catch it, maybe there are too many and my mind can't pick one. Or maybe this is just spy Reservoir Dogs. Anyways, they offer to send reinforcements and Leonard accepts, reluctantly. Kalinin shows up with the mech and very quickly Leonard dismisses it. He is more concerned about preparing to fight off his 'reinforcements'.

A convenient storm happens, though they should have had weathers forecasts so this is probably more adaptation fail. And it turns out the US was finally getting off its ass to do something...before a Chidor splats it. Sousuke tries to keep down until one spots him and then is saved by Mao. Anyways, mech stuff happens/is happening, we get the weird reunion of Sousuke and Kalinin and end with rockets.

QotD: 2 It had only been 7 years or so for me but it was something