Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Full Metal Panic Volume 9 by Shouji Gatou and Retsu Tateo

Chidori and Sasuke are still aboard the Submarine when it is attacked and taken over by Gauron. Tessa and Chidori are in the control room, and Gauron holds Chidori at gunpoint to get Tessa to help him with the ship. knowing that while Tessa doesn't care about threats to herself, attacking the people under her protection cannot help but force her to go along.

However, Tessa and Chidori share Whispered abilities, which enables Tessa to contact Chidori's mind directly and direct her to find the second control room and start a program that will return control of the sub to Tessa. But Chidori is a single high-school age girl. How can she evade military men to find the control room and achieve her mission?

Meanwhile, Sosuke and Kurz have evaded the general evacuation order that trapped the rest of the sub's personnel in the missile bay. As Sosuke is tormented by his unkind words that made Chidori cry and the knowledge that she thinks he hates her now, they must go to her aid, and the aid of Tessa, trapped by Gauron and several traitor personnel on the sub. Can Sosuke find Chidori before she is throttled to death by a traitor who believes her responsible for the death of several of his comrades, and even if he can, can he, a man who never talks about his feelings, find the words to apologize to her and get her to believe him?

The book ends with a fight and tense showdown between Sosuke and Gauron in the Lambda armor and The Venom armor. But can Sosuke, who Gauron knew as a young boy called "Kashim", defeat the man who knows him almost too well?

This was a thrilling end to this particular series, which is actually more than one series written by different writers and featuring many artists. But this version of the series is by the original writer, Shouji Gatou. This volume is also the ultimate volume in the series, and wraps up the entire series. In short, Sosuke finally confesses that he doesn't hate Chidori, and that he wants to stay with her and be her bodyguard.

For someone who is practically autistic about their feelings, like Sosuke is, this represents a major step forward for him. Chidori, too, must face her feelings. Even though she knows Tessa has romantic feelings for Sosuke and had earlier told Tessa she wouldn't stand in the way of a romance between Tessa and Sosuke, in this volume she must admit to herself, that she loves Sosuke and wants to be with him as well. She might not actually go any way towards actually doing anything about a romance, but since she started the series thinking of Sosuke as a creepy and possibly demented stalker, this represents a huge step forward for her as well.

This continues to be one of my favorite manga series, being much more Shoujo (concerned with feelings and character) rather than Shonen (concerned with hardware and fighting), or in other words a girl's manga rather than a boy's manga. Even though Sosuke is a member of a military organization, and much of the story concerns the military organization's goals and plans, the strong romance subplot makes this more a story for girls or young men, who crave some romance with their plot.

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