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Like mechs and hate terrorists? Full Metal Panic is for you.

Meet Sousuke Sagara: high school student and member of an anti-terrorism group, Mithril. In this third round of Full Metal Panic! Sousuke is, once again, an undercover high school student secretly acting as bodyguard to Kaname. This series takes place approximately three months after the end of the first Full Metal Panic! series (and after Fumoffu). It is loosely based on the novel End of Day by Day (it is something of a follow up).

Mithril fights terrorists – it’s what they do. But in this second go round, terrorists have the upper hand by way of a new organization, called Amalgam. They have advanced weapons technology that can, among other things, shoot down the cloaked helicopters that Mithril depends on. This is a blow to Mithril, and to Sousuke (who, in the opening episode, nearly gets wiped out because of it).

There is a lot of good, wholesome mech fighting here (to be expected, as it is one of the things Full Metal Panic! does with great gusto and zeal). The mech fights are fantastic – some of the best of the mech genre as a whole. The relationship between Sousuke and Kaname is advanced, and leaves us wanting more. Best of all is the depth of the plot. Although a person can easily dive in on Second Raid without having seen anything else from Full Metal Panic, each episode relies heavily on the last, making for wonderful continuity.

Second raid has more of the stuff given to us by the first series, and less of the light, fluff from the Fumoffu stories. This DVD set is utterly amazing, and so packed with dead cool extras way above and beyond what most anime releases have prepared us for.  Included in the box set is the OVA that focuses on Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa, who is adorable and instantly likable. Also here is a bonus episode.

There is a seven part featurette on location scouting in Hong Kong (seven parts is a little more than is needed, but it’s still not bad), audio commentaries on absolutely all of the thirteen episodes, and four art booklets that are chock-full of information, art work and god knows what else. They’re really incredible – more booklet than I have ever seen in any DVD release ever.

This set is everything I could wish for – beautiful, packed with extras, a great story. All in all, it is a spectacular buy.

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