 |
| From https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/9c/3a/ 849c3a0d02206f7d6526c75b5f618485.jpg |
Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto
Screenplay: Shoji Gatoh and
Fumihiko Shimo
Based on the Light Novel series
by Shoji Gatoh illustrated by Shiki Douji
Voice Cast: Satsuki Yukino as
Kaname Chidori; Tomokazu Seki as Sousuke Sagara; Tomoko Kaneda as Bonta-kun;
Akiko Hiramatsu as Youko Wakana; Akio Ohtsuka as Andrei Kalinin; Ikue Kimura as
Kyouko Tokiwa; Jun Fukuyama as Issei Tsubaki; Mamiko Noto as Shinji Kazama;
Michiko Neya as Melissa Mao; Rie Tanaka as Ren Mikihara; Shinichiro Miki as
Kurz Weber; Tomomichi Nishimura as Richard Mardukas; Yukana as Teletha
"Tessa" Testarossa
Viewed in Japanese with English
Subtitles
[Disclaimer: Uncomfortably my revisiting and review of Fumoffu has coincided with the
unfortunate passing of its director Yasuhiro
Takemoto, and other staff at Kyoto
Animation, after the arson attack that took place in July 2019. The review
will be honest in terms of my opinion of the show, thankfully a very positive
one, but it is a sad incident to have to write the review around since a key
creator of Fumoffu was sadly one of
those who was killed.]
You'd presume Fumoffu would only work in knowledge of
its source, as a comedy side story to Shoji
Gatoh's Full Metal Panic!, the
tale of a young male solider Sousuke Sagara, born in war, sent to protect
Kaname Chidori, a schoolgirl with a subconscious superhuman knowledge of
machinery and technology; as a big franchise, followed by a proper sequel in
2005, and a return in 2017-18, these adaptations of Gatoh's light novels have their fan base. Fumoffu is interesting however in how, by itself, it's had a fan
base entirely by itself, with the fact that barring some characters introduced
in cameo later, the comedy spin-off which deals with the ordinary lives of
Sousuke and Chidori, without any mention of giant robots and conflict against
terrorist organisations part of the main series, works entirely by itself.
Instead, it takes a pleasure in the fact Sousuke, born in conflict all his
life, is hopelessly alienated from the ordinary civilian world and, having to
go to high school with Chidori in his off-time, he has no social skills to
speak off. The first half of the first episode shows that he has a bad
tendency, even with love letters, to detonate his school locker with explosives
when he thinks someone's tampered with it and placed a dangerous trap within,
so other concepts normal to high school melodrama are going to lead to a lot of
property damage and miscommunication.
Admittedly it's a lot more
difficult in the current day to find guns being fired in schools funny, but
initially the concept of someone in Sousuke Sagara who has literally been breed
for war stuck in ordinary society is hilarious, especially as (even if a lot
more darker and difficult humour now) it still plays off the fact that firing a
gun in the air to demand a plain roll from the cafeteria staff is socially
unacceptable from him. Chidori, as the traditional tsundere character, prone to
violent temper (only with good cause here) even if she does openly like him,
has a lot of justifiable reason as the female protagonist to look at him with
horror. Her objections to his behaviour, such as actually trapping women for a
dating challenge in a very later episode, which can even lead to her kicking
the shit out of him in slapstick violence is a troupe of anime since the dawn
of time but here there's both a sense that, yes, he does things that would
drive people insane, and that when it comes to their friendship, maybe even
more, she will gladly be there for him as a friend with kindness. It helps as
well, alongside the show from the get-go making the pair both sympathetic, that
her voice actress Satsuki Yukino is
exceptional alongside the animators who depicted her facial reactions to his
behaviour and worse case situations. Even the blitheness in how she puts up
with being kidnapped, more than once, has an incredibly higher weight than in
most anime comedy because there's an entire context, helped by the source
material, filtered in the characters even for this absurdist comedy.
It is hard to describe the show
as its almost completely episodic, early on two half stories within the usual
twenty plus minutes but also later including more full length stories, but from
there the show expands to include a cast including equally likable class mates
and curious figures like Issei Tsubaki, a martial arts fighter for a karate
class about to be kicked out their room, who in shy around women and near
sighted despite being an incredible fighter, or Atsunobu Hayashimizu, the president
of the Student Council whose stepped out
a Kunihiko Ikuhara production in his
elegance, alongside his equally elegant female assistant (and daughter of a
yakuza boss) Ren Mikihara, but is prone to moments of absurdity in more subtle
details like how he speaks pretentiously.
Early on, Fumoffu probably already has its best episodes. Actually, the best
segment is in the second story of episode two, in which Sousuke forgetting Chidori's
notes leads to a trip back to his house that includes some of the best comedic
timing, the best of Chidori's reactions in terms of the performance and
animation, sweet emotional drama which early on shows the pair love each other,
and a car against bicycle car chase with an almost deranged female traffic
cop...made now funnier, as the voice actress playing her is Hiramatsu Akiko, knowing she and her
female partner are meant to be the lead female cops of the You're Under Arrest franchise making a cameo, to which Akiko is a key voice actor one of those
lead characters.
But that doesn't say the show
doesn't lose a step after that. Episode two starts with the aforementioned
incident with the cafeteria where the gym teacher, who hates students working
for themselves, finds trying to get one over them isn't possible due to
Sousuke's habit of booby trapping objects. Episode 3, the first full story
episode Summer Illusion of Steel, has Chidori meet a young boy whose happiness
to meet someone also means sending his staff (all former mercenaries) after
Sousuke who presumes she was kidnapped. Episode five, introducing Issei, also
leads to the reveal that the school janitor is the most dangerous person in the
school despite his meekness, to the point that even Sousuke will be left
quivering like jelly at his inability to defeat him. Episode six includes two
"horror" stories, one which skirts tastelessness about a horse headed
man who forcibly combs women's hair against their will into pony tails, but
thankfully stays on the right side of funny1 alongside bringing back
the homicidal female cop.
 |
| From https://geekandsundry.com/wp-content/ uploads/2015/08/Fumoffu-cover.jpg |
There's Episode 7, which dangerously veers to the joke just being about a rugby team being so nice and polite to the point of being useless, which could just turn into a joke about them being emasculated and lesser men, but thankfully ends with incredible dark humour as, with Sousuke helping them by way of military training and R. Lee Ermey approved (bleeped) cursing, he gives them a blood thirst on the pitch that has probably corrupted their souls even if it means the team will continue. Episode four is also the introduction to the best running gag, and the explanation of where the subtitle "Fumoffu" comes from, the sound made whilst wearing the Bonta-kun, an amusement park mascot costume that Sousuke acquires as part of the second part story, Sousuke finding a way of turning it into actual combat appropriate equipment that returns constantly when he needs more than just guns.
Arguably the reason the show is
so highly regarded, managing to gain popularity over even the original Full Metal Panic, is just because it's
a comedy show which is of a high quality of work that few touch. No episode,
although I will talk of one, falls into any bad humour, with the moments which
may have come off as too dark, thankfully staying on the path of not becoming
offensive. Even the moment, when I first saw the series, I found offensive when
Chidori compares a rival rugby player to a type of gorilla nearly going extinct
due to a war in the African continent, thus causing a riot, isn't as bad as I
thought it was, even if it's probably the one curious moment in the whole
series which jars in pretty succicient and funny dialogue. Even the fact that
school students with weapons has become less easy to find humour in isn't as
much an issue when most of the humour eventually comes to the fact Sousuke is
utterly hopeless as a regular school student, most of the humour eventually
leading more to his habit of booby traps and that he can just be as dangerous
with a bean bag cannon. And the fact you can watch the show by itself and
immediately get a premise, of the child solider stuck in school, which is
consistently worked upon for humour means this is a lot more consistent and
focused than most shows of its ilk.
It's also exceptionally well made
in context of what the show is. Kyoto
Animation is highly regarded, but with the exception of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006)2,
an entirely different kettle of fish in its quirks that needs to be covered in
a few reviews to fully talk of, this is the only work of theirs I've lived with
in my anime watching. Returning to Fumoffu,
it's amazing effortless in how it is paced and consistent in its comedy when,
honestly, even anime comedy I have appreciated whether full or micro-series
length have usually been scattershot and/or not exactly ambitious. Subdued and
quiet, Fumoffu does pull for some
ridiculous gags, like the Bonta-kun eventually acquiring an army of itself in
an episode tribute to Kinji Fukasaku,
famous above all else for his contributions to the yakuza genre of cinema and
even made just around the same time as the legendary director passed. Even the
music feels like a higher quality - normally not a fan of J-pop in opening and
ending credits, the song for the opening is sweet and appropriate, whilst the
one for ending credits ("Kimi ni
fuku kaze" by Mikuni Shimokawa)
is arguably one of the best of its genre for me and suits the tone of the show PERFECTLY.
In terms of any flaws, there's
none barring a few jokes that don't land, such as that curious gorilla one
mentioned in a paragraph earlier. Beyond that, the issue for a show like this
is that, as is the case with anime comedy shows, those without an actual plot
progression can suffer from the fact the last episodes just end the series.
Thankfully Fumoffu does better where
even arguably the worst episode, A
Goddess Comes to Japan (Part 2: The Hot Spring), is still better than most
series' best episodes. The only two partner, the "Goddess" is Tessa
Testarossa, a character from Full Metal
Panic's main story who is a submarine commander and Sousuke's superior in
rank despite the fact she's a quiet and meek teenage girl, leading to other
cameos from cast from the main series as she wants to briefly live life as a
regular student with Sousuke. The first part is hilarious, as stuck between a
rock and a hard place, the sympathetic for Sousuke is felt in how even being
told to sod himself is metaphorically felt in his growing delirium of being
left to die on a battlefield with Tessa living in the same apartment and being
threatened to protect her with his life.
Part two, which is the
stereotypical hot springs episode, has unfortunately a gag about leering over
the female cast nude. It's weird because they're meant to be teenagers, and
because even if it wasn't a concern, the show suffers from the prurient paradox
of nonetheless censoring itself with strategically placed objects, done here
specifically with a rubber duck that it evokes a joke from the Michael Myers' Austin Powers films. It feels bad because, like a lot of anime, it's
a juvenile idea to want to have fanservice by showing the female characters
nude, but never actually showing any nudity even in the uncensored scene, which
is more problematic than if the show embraced sexuality with a gender positive
balance and just went for sexiness. (Again, they're teenagers, which does cause
a problem in itself though, but that's an entire issue too complex to unpack) Thankfully,
the episode pulls this to a great running joke where the men, being perverts
who want to spy on the women at the hot springs, didn't expect Sousuke to
literally put perilous traps including turrets in the way to stop them as a
gentleman should.
Thankfully, beyond this the bar
of quality is higher than most anime comedy. In fact the last episode tries its
hardest to get past probably the biggest issue that you have to deal with in
anime comedy, that their final episodes unless part of an ongoing plot as
mentioned are going to be anti-climatic. I blame (and praise) Excel Saga (1999) in my youth spoiling
me as it actually managed, (as one of the deliberately chaotic and shambolic
shows of its time), to lead to a climax in a post-apocalypse that was compelling.
Even a show I love like gdgd Fairies (2011-13)
arguably left its final season episode on an anti-climax, but got past it by
both how gleefully weird the show had become and because the final episode of
the first season was a great conclusion. Fumoffu
decides Sousuke accidentally acquiring a dangerous bio weapon and his entire
class being infected is the way to go, as dark as you get for humour but
managing to succeed for a climax. I won't reveal the twist but, for a show that
only occasionally goes for sex comedy, what is revealed is hilarious without
any sense of inappropriateness, as its equal opportunity, and ends the show
with the sound of voices baying for Sousuke's head.
Altogether, it's a great show,
and with it I admit sadness with that opinion as, tragically, director Yasuhiro Takemoto was killed in the
arson attack on Kyoto Animation in
July 2019, said to be one of the biggest crimes of its time in Japan for many
decades, which is more than likely going to make it a very disturbing incident
even for a Japanese citizen who never watches their country's animation let
alone the fact a lot of talented people passed as a result. Kyoto Animation in general have sounded
like the studio who quietly paved a path of goodwill for high quality work -
they took over for the second season of Full
Metal Panic, after Gonzo for the
first, and have the likes of the Free!
franchise under their belt. They were also adamant for far more gender equality
and paying their staff well, with a general sense, in all the good will sent
their way after the tragedy, that they were a studio held highly and fondly.
Certainly after revisiting Fumoffu, Takemoto's career is now ripe for me to
see, in respect for him as a director, as is Kyoto Animation's. I'd have to anyway, because they've been
responsible for some of the heaviest hitters in the anime ballpark, but more so
now in the pleasantry of Fumoffu's
virtues and as a respect (whatever my opinions) to circumnavigate the unnecessary
tragedy their company had to go through. Certainly it felt weird to watch Fumoffu in the spectre of the incident;
but what a perfect tribute to nullify that fact and think of the best of Kyoto instead?
======
1) Unfortunately, the fact he is
voiced by Vic Mignogna in the English
dub hasn't. For the unknown, this once very popular male voice actor has been accused
in 2018-19 of deeply unsavoury behaviour against women, including a female
voice actress, which has weighed down on him in a scandal. The episode skirts
the right side of funny in the Japanese dub, but I wouldn't be surprised if the
English dub version now has that unfortunate coincidence...
2) There's also Lucky Star (2007), also made by Fumoffu's director, who stepped in a
few episodes into the production to drastically change the tone, but that one
just sits there in the memories really needing a revisit.
 |
| From http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IcBUYO-422g/UNHy3RvnxaI/A AAAAAAAFi8/V23G1eQsO6A/s1600/Full+Metal+Panic+Fumoffu+Sousuke.png |
No comments:
Post a Comment