Product Details

• Actors: Luci Christian, Tiffany Grant, Chris Patton
• Directors: Don Rush
• Format: Animated, Color, Widescreen, Subtitled
• Language: Japanese, English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Funimation
• DVD Release Date: October 5, 2010
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003SPDS8U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,145 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #51 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Anime & Manga

Editorial Reviews

Sousuke’s locked, loaded, and ready to attack – which would be awesome if he was going into battle. But he’s just going to high school, and all the qualities that make him a good soldier make him an amazingly awkward classmate. Poor Kaname knows that better than anyone, since Sousuke’s her undercover bodyguard. The guy’s supposed to protect Tessa too. But how “top secret” can he really be when he’s sneaking around in a teddy bear suit, blowing up lockers, striking out with every girl in sight, and taking a mech to the hot springs? Sure, Sousuke’s methods are a little intense, but high school’s tough. Collateral damage is to be expected, right?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY, a release (mostly) free from video problems, October 13, 2010

By 

Stephen M. Lerch (Elkton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU - The Complete Series [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

For those wondering about the show, my review will be quick. Sousuke is a teenage soldier/mercenary for a clandestine secret organization called Mithril. His job? Protect Chidori Kaname at all costs. Chidori is a "whispered;" someone with innate knowledge of high tech weaponry and defense tech. Of course, she doesn't actually KNOW she knows.

While the original series, Full Metal Panic! The Complete series [Blu-ray] has a small amount of comedy mixed in with the action, suspense and love drama, Fumoffu sheds all but the comedy and love drama from the picture. Fumoffu is light hearted and fun. In terms of series, the original series I would say is the most even in terms of balancing the comedy and action/violence. Fumoffu falls into the comedy side of the balance, meaning there is no balance. Then you have the final series released to date, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set [Blu-ray]. Fumoffu and TSR are almost diametrically opposed. If you placed Fumoffu on the comedy end of the balance, you would place TSR squarely in the serious/violent end of the balance.

If you're looking for comedy, this is a good series to buy. If you're looking for action/violence, go for the follow up series, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set [Blu-ray].

Now as for the discs themselves:

Video:

Wow. Anyone that's seen the ADV release and can compare side by side can attest to the fact that FUNimation has done an amazing job with Fumoffu. You see, when ADV released the series, they used the masters they were provided; composite masters. This means that if you watch Fumoffu from ADV you will see a lot of video issues, from dot crawl to cross coloration. The Blu Ray release? GONE are these video artifacts. Evidently FUNimation went back to the original production house and requested/demanded (I don't know which) component masters, which means proper color separation and an elimination of composite video problems that plagued the original release.

Is it perfect? No. The original release was for broadcast TV and it included a 24 fps opening/ending animation sequence so there may be some noticeable skips in the op/ed animation. I, however, DID NOT notice it. Also, with the way it was encoded you sometimes, if you pause the video, can capture a scene that bleeds into another. I'm watching on the PS3 and a 52" DLP TV and in motion, rather than in pausing and scanning frame by frame, you don't notice anything wrong.

While not perfect, it is SO much better than the original DVD release that even if you own the original DVD release it is definitely worth the upgrade. You just have to take into consideration if the video on the DVD is bad enough, for you, to warrant double dipping here. For me, it was a no brainer. Even with minor video issues on the Blu Ray, the video quality is MILES better than the original DVD release and most likely this is the best release we are likely to get in Region A/Region 1

Audio:

Dolby TruHD for both the Japanese and English mixes. For the English release, ADV dubbed it in 5.1, remixing the original stereo Japanese elements for this mix. As with most of the remixes from stereo to multichannel, the results are spotty to good at best. The mix isn't horrible but the directionality is minimal. Of course, when you consider there really isn't a ton of explosive action in the series, multichannel audio may have/may be over kill. However, it still sounds good. Clear and problem free.

The Japanese stereo mix is also Dolby TruHD, however it is only a two channel stereo mix. This is as it was originally aired in Japan and has NOT been remixed even for the Japanese DVD/Blu Ray re-releases. The audio sounds very good and there are no problems with the Japanese mix either.

Packaging:

Well, I'll miss the series box and all the cover art that was included with the original release. The cover here is nice and in order to include as much cover art as possible, FUNimation has included a cardboard slip cover just as they did with the other two FMP releases. The nice part is that the artwork on the cardboard sleeve is different than that on the Blu Ray case cover, which is actually nice considering the more "budget" release audience they are targeting here.

The artwork on the discs is pretty nondescript and lame, but in keeping with the FMP feel. It's has a mechanical look to it and the only difference between disc 1 and disc 2 is the label for "disc 01" and "disc 02." Otherwise they are identical.

Extras:

Gone are the video character artwork extras from the original DVD release. For some this won't matter and for others, it means that this collection is NOT complete.

However, you ARE now receiving the original Japanese TV Spots (commercials) for the series that were absent from the original release.

Also included are the clean opening and closing animations, which are also nice. The one thing I wish they would have included is the original Japanese opening/ending with the Japanese text left intact. Such is not the case though.

If you are a completionist, you will need to have the DVD and Blu Ray (or DVD re-release from FUNimation) for all of the extras. If you don't mind not having the character artwork video sequences, you'll be OK selling the DVD release and putting the money towards either this Blu Ray set or the FUNimation DVD re-release.



Over all this is a quality release for the budget conscious. Packaging is in line with the previous releases so it will fit right in with those sets on your shelf.

If you owned the original release and hated the video quality and think it is a series worth double dipping on, buy this release without question.

If you didn't notice the poor video quality or don't want uncompressed audio or didn't like the series too much, well, this release won't do much for you on Blu Ray either.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch Full Metal Panic and Full Metal Panic the Second Raid First., October 17, 2010

By 

Maka Alban - See all my reviews

This review is from: Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU - The Complete Series (DVD)

Full Metal Panic Fumoffu is a standalone comedy series created by Kyoto Animation. It does not follow any established manga plotline or pre set materials. It was created more as a love letter to the fans of Full Metal Panic who loved the absurd situations Sousuke got into when trying to protect Kaname Chidori, and at his time at Jindai High School.

The enjoyment of this series comes when you know Sousuke and the characters involved in Full Metal Panic, watching this without seeing the other 2 shows in my opinion is pointless as you may just find it a little. Well silly, you won't appreciate it if you watch this first.

Moving on.

Mostly based at Jindai High School these are short storys that show various random situations that Sousuke gets into when trying to keep Kaname safe from harm. The humor here comes from Sousukes tendency to over react and see everything as a threat.

With this Sousuke clashes with the more spirited characters in the show. From a crazy teacher to a Karate club to a crazy old man who Sousuke unknownly did something horrible too.

Being put into weird yet funny situations like coaching Rugby to fighting Yakuza in a giant Bonta Kun outfit, Sousuke never fails to amuse.

The normal life is a relative unknown to Sousuke. All he has ever known is war, conflict, things like that when he served as a guerilla soldier as a kid, and when joining Mithril and the TDD.

This in my eyes is where the series excels. Sousuke can be completely clueless, everyone around him and in his classes knows this, but he's learning. He's a good guy with a good heart.

Amazing Series. There's something to love in every episode.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This show was the reason my son started collecting Anime., January 14, 2011

By 

grandmamamama - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU - The Complete Series (DVD)

Although I am starting this review, my son will finish it.

What are the good points about this anime -- it makes fun of the entire Full others. Too bad there are not too many others quite like it. So far we have seen gigantic robots that lost their story plot rather quickly or something so full of nudity or barely clothed girls that it made it difficult at best to watch. NOT THIS SET THOUGH.

The main characters are ridiculus in a scary movie type of way. Just think of an ex-military guy going to high school without any idea about girls, fun, or anything else us normal people take for granted. In one episode the ex-military guy has rigged explosives to lockers because he knew someone had gotten inside it. Later he discovers that it was just a girl who wrote him a love letter and dropped it off in the vents of his locker.

Now if you can handle this type of humor than you will definitely like this show. I have never seen the original Full Metal Panic, but plan on purchasing it after seeing this show. Even if Full Metal Panic winds up being more dramatic than this set, I think it will be still be worth watching, because so far this has been the best anime I have seen.