Comments on: War is life? Full Metal Panic’s view of war

By: Omonomono » Gundam 00 - Once More, with Feeling

Omonomono » Gundam 00 - Once More, with Feeling — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:26:00 +0000

[...] anime has to change to match. That’s just how life is today. Something like Full Metal Panic might work as a good example. However I think Gundam 00 does a better job because it goes a step further and actually subverts [...]

By: Escape Mechanism « The Animanachronism

Escape Mechanism « The Animanachronism — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:57:48 +0000

[...] war sucks, this doesn’t necessarily make the franchise as a whole pacifistic. Cameron, swiftly dissecting Full Metal Panic, not only suggested that said franchise reverses Gundam’s ‘being [...]

By: Ryan A

Ryan A — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:24:10 +0000

Well, cultural relativism fails anyway, and it’d be hard to make categorical imperatives for conflict, so yea utilitarianism, but it’s not solely about war, there could be no war at all but still conflict and/or intervention. Reasoning when to conflict requires evaluation of the morals of some party, but I’m not sure if utilitarianism deals with that. The current frameworks give us guidelines on morality, but I feel it’s not the same as guidelines of reactions to immoral parties.

By: Every time you make a typo, someone in Zeta Gundam gets smacked « We Remember Love

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:01:58 +0000

[...] The theme is commented on by The Animanachronism, Crusader, and Iniksbane. All three are very interesting reads with quite involving discussions, starting off from the [...]

By: iniksbane

iniksbane — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:21:42 +0000

@ The Animanachronism – I’m looking forward to seeing what you have to say.

I definitely agree FMP does a good job of pointing out the value of normality. On top of that I think it does it in a way that isn’t really heavy-handed or demeaning. A lot of Mecha war epics seem to use normality as a damsel in distress. While Kaname does get into a few of those situations, she’s also able to get out of a lot of them too, which makes it interesting.

By: The Animanachronism

The Animanachronism — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:22:40 +0000

A lot to think on here. Having read this, I’m trying to draft a post that picks up on some of these ideas.

In the meantime, it’s been a long time since I saw Full Metal Panic, but your reading fits everything I remember of its story rather well. I love the idea that warfare is Sousuke’s equivalent of the pastoral idyll / remembered homeland / whatever that mecha pilots sometimes want to return to. And if civilian life is the real/adult world that he has to adjust to, it makes sense that Kaname would force him to adjust his ideas about warfare.

I guess Full Metal Panic does a good job of pointing out the value of normality, normal people and normal behaviour.

By: iniksbane

iniksbane — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:02:46 +0000

@ Ryan A – That’s an interesting thought. I don’t suscribe to cultural relativism, so I would generally say there are utilitarian reasons for fighting war. I also tend to think libertarianism tends to fall down when you start looking at societies, so you’re left with either trying to make a categorical imperative or a utilitarian argument for the justness of a war.

On the other hand, I do think war in reality and war in fiction are really two different things. Where war in reality is a far more messy endevour that generally is only fully understood after it occurs, war in fiction tends to be a lot “cleaner” in its motivations.

@ghostlightning – I have to admit I haven’t watched the original Macross outside of Robotech. I’ve heard that it’s not that different from the Robotech version. It is on my list of series to buy at some point, I just haven’t gotten around to it. Granted, I have watched about half of Frontier and I really liked it, I just haven’t downloaded the other half.

Yeah, I just tend to have issues with Zeta, although I thought there were some parts of 0083 that were pretty good. Honestly, I’ve wanted to buy MS Team and War in the Pocket, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ve heard mixed reviews on Wing and Seed. I’ve also heard Destiny wasn’t good. Although a lot of people seem to like 00.

I definitely liked all of FMP. Although a lot of people complained about the first series, I tend to think the comedic elements and the dramatic elements tend to balance each other out and work well together, but some people don’t.

By: ghostlightning

ghostlightning — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:56:04 +0000

You mentioned Roy Foker and Rick Hunter. This isn’t really a big deal, but did you get to see the original SDF-Macross series, apart from the Robotech adaptation/repurposing?

Digression aside, as a recent fan of Gundam (after being a lifelong fan of Macross – I saw the original series in1984 as a 7 year old) I had many many many complaints at the onset. Like you, I failed to get excited about it the same way I get excited about other shows.

I’m currently re-watching a lot of the shows that I had dismissed, and I must say it’s quite a remarkable experience (I’m watching Zeta now).

Your point about the reverse Gundam story in FMP is very interesting, and may just interest me enough to watch FMP beyond the enjoyable Fumoffu series.

By: Ryan A

Ryan A — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:06:11 +0000

Good explanation, a point well taken. For the record, I so endorse FMP! as Gundam in reverse. lol fantastic.

Any fight (excluding sport), whether war, hand-to-hand, or verbal, needs a purpose, and hopefully a noble reason. While it’s hard to judge morals, sometimes fighting is the only way to combat generally immoral factions. I wish there were a moral framework specifically for combating the immoral, because it seems like such actions are themselves immoral in some shape or form.

We need another season of FMP!