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FULL METAL PANIC! (VOL. 1) FIGHTING BOY MEETS GIRL
TOKYPOP
AUTHOR: Shouji Gatou
ILLUSTRATIONS: Shikidouji
TRANSLATION: Duane Johnson
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Ben Arntz
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0243-9; paperback
308 pp., $7.99
Full Metal Panic! Fighting Boy Meets Girl (Vol. 1) is the novelization of the manga series, Full Metal Panic! A mixture of comedy, action, and science fiction, it’s Ian Fleming for ‘tweens.
Kaname Chidori has a bad feeling about Sousuke Sagara, the new boy at Jindai Municipal High School. Sousuke seems to be following her because every time Kaname turns around, he’s somewhere near. Sousuke seems uncomfortable in a high school setting and acts like a stiff military man, which he is. Sousuke is a member of Mithril, an elite military unit with no national allegiance. Calling itself “the world’s mightiest high-tech mercenary force,” Mithril has sent Sousuke and two of his comrades-in-arms, Melissa Mao and Kurz Weber, undercover to protect Kaname.
Why does Kaname need guarding? She’s one of the “Whispered,” a group of teens with the formulas and blueprints for Black Technology, cutting edge, even supernatural science, buried within their minds. Gauron, a criminal mercenary, is working for a secret organization that wants that Black Technology, and when he happens upon Kaname, he’ll do anything and kill anyone to kidnap the girl. But Sousuke will do anything to protect her.
THE LOWDOWN: Full Metal Panic! is a light espionage novel, dressed in the action, intrigue, sci-fi rags that often characterize tales of secret agents. Full Metal Panic! has an extra; it features “mecha” or “mech,” those fighting robots and giant armored suits so popular in anime and manga. The mech is the kick that keeps this novel from being an uninspired James Bond Jr. Still, there’s enough edge-of-the-seat action to keep even an adult rapidly turning the pages.
POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: “Light novel” is a perfect term for this kind of book – a novel for young readers that doesn’t aspire to being something like Harry Potter, juvenile fiction that is the work of a great writer. It’s effective ‘tween and Young Adult fiction aimed at boys that want explosive action and some occasional innuendo in their novels.
B
