Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid The Complete Series is a Blu-ray set that includes two Blu-ray discs, which include all 13 episodes of the series. The language options available on this release are the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and an English dub.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid The Complete Series
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray
Release Date: September 10, 2019

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid picks up six months after the events of the original Full Metal Panic! anime. Sousuke Sagara is still attending high school and serving as a bodyguard for Kaname Chidori, but he’s finding himself being pulled out of school more and more to tackle other missions for Mithril, the anti-terrorist private military organization that Sousuke is a part of. This also means that he’s not able to guard Kaname as much as he was previously.

A new organization known as “Amalgam” appears, and a crazy man named Gates is the new enemy. Two of his underlings are a set of female twins named Xia Yu Lan and Yu Fan Lan, and it turns out their sensei is someone that was originally introduced in the first Full Metal Panic! anime. The series also introduces the audience to Leonard Testarossa, the brother of Mithril’s Teresa “Tessa” Testarossa.

As this series progresses, we see both Kaname and Sousuke struggling with the relationship that they have, and this really comes to a head when Sousuke is told that his mission has changed and he will no longer be guarding Kaname.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid is more on the serious side compared with the original Full Metal Panic! anime but does contain some light-hearted moments to serve as comic relief. This series has more violence compared to the first series, and there’s also some nudity here that wasn’t seen in the first series.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid is a good follow-up series to Full Metal Panic!, even with the noticeable shift in tone between the two series.

The Blu-ray video for this set has 1080p High Definition 16:9 (HD Native), and the audio includes Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 5.1. I had no complaints about either the video or the audio on this release.

There were several features included on the second Blu-ray disc. First is “Episode 0” of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. It’s about five minutes in length, and at first, it seems to simply be providing some background for what the audience sees in the first scene of the first episode of the series. But then, it suddenly starts showing random clips of the series, and ends with preview text for the series. Unfortunately, this felt rather choppy, and I didn’t think it was a terribly effective preview clip for the series.

There was also an OVA episode included for Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. This OVA focuses on Tessa Testarossa. It takes place on a peaceful day aboard the Tuatha De Dannan and is told from Tessa’s point of view. This is definitely set after the events of the final episode of the television series, and it was kind of amusing.

The big bonus feature included in this set is the location scouting clips (there are seven in all) that run for about two and a half hours. These were originally done for the seven individual Japanese releases of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. That being said, these were never meant to be marathoned back-to-back, which is how they appear on this release. There are voice overs on this footage from Shoji Gatoh, the creator of the light novels, and Yasuhiro Takemoto (the director of the anime). Hearing Takemoto’s voice overs and seeing him on the screen really hurt my heart, knowing that he is no longer alive after the Kyoto Animation Fire of 2019. Seeing him and hearing him while he was alive showed just how much more life he really should have lived and how much more he could have given to the anime industry with his talents. But I would recommend not trying to watch all seven parts of this feature back to back, because it can get a little dry after a while. They have interesting things to say in the commentary, but it’s just a lot to digest.

The release also includes a textless opening and a textless closing, as well as trailers for other releases from FUNimation Entertainment.

If you are a fan of Full Metal Panic! franchise and don’t have the Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid in your anime home video library yet (but already have the first season in your possession), this release would be worth getting in order to have these 13 episodes to complement the 24 from the first season.

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