A long awaited return of an old favorite is quite enough to make me smile but this episode makes it clear that this will not be the same happy go lucky FMP of the past. The light hearted shenanigans of the old series are pretty much gone now with Kaname coming to grips with several things that she has been ignoring to this point. That her status as whispered puts everyone around her in danger, that her normal life has officially ended and that the boy that she smacked on the head with a paper fan is in fact a killer. This new direction could be a turn off for some but I personally welcome it, even though it wasn’t clearly planned to be as such, it’s like FMP matured with the audience that watched it so long ago thus it decided to push for a more mature tone. Seeing Kaname get freaked out over Sousuke ignoring injured pedestrians and even smiling over enemy soldiers getting mowed down with gunfire felt like something a long time coming. Because Sousuke’s military nature was always played for laughs and she got desensitized to it but now that she’s right in the thick of it she truly understands that for all his eccentricity, Sousuke truly has killed a lot of people, some of which being innocent people.
Naturally I will have to bring up that rather awkward chase scene. Xebec so far has been doing a pretty good job, not KyoAni level but they do at least seem to be aiming for that level of quality. Naturally compromises have to be made like the CGI mecha but I personally don’t mind that as the mecha have looked pretty good for the most part. I understand that this series is likely a demanding one as far as action goes and this will be action heavy season yet. But that chase scene was just…terrible looking. Like on the level of PS2 gameplay. The cars felt floaty and the background was full CGI that didn’t feel convincing in the slightest. It’s my hope they fix this for the Blu-Ray release because the scene itself was fine, great even. But it just didn’t look right as all, nearly on the level of the CGI Bears of Golden Kamuy.
Tessa also has her moments here as the series goes to lengths to show us that she is the leader of Mythril for a reason. I will say the means of doing so was rather contrived, namely through a random soldier suddenly proposing mutiny against her and Tessa conventently showing up to put him in his place. Indeed it was a forced circumstance but nonetheless it achieved the goal of making Tessa look good. Basically with her declaring that she would kill any traitor without hesitation personally and reminding them that this isn’t some Tessa fan club but a military organisation. You can argue her methods are extreme and the threat was an empty one at best but it still is a badass moment for Tessa. She even reenacted the “Say my name” scene from Breaking Bad…about eight years before Breaking Bad did it. Huh…wonder if this is were they got the idea…likely not. So shit has hit the fan for Mythril and now it looks like even Sousukes classmates may come to know the truth about him. With the fun and games behind us, where will FMP go?
