Saturday, October 22, 2016

Full Metal Panic! IV Anime Coming Fall 2017 + Speculation

Full Metal Panic! IV (Working Title)

A new Full Metal Panic! Anime TV-Series was just announced at Bunko Daikanshasai 2016. The Anime project has the working title Full Metal Panic! IV and will be a continuation to The Second Raid. It will be released in the Fall season of 2017, less than a year from now. The studio handling the animation will be Xebec (Fafner in the Azure). The main staff is as follows:

Series Composition/Script: Shoji Gatoh (Creator of Full Metal Panic!)
Character Design/Chief Animation Director: Osamu Horiuchi (Full Metal Panic!, Fumoffu, TSR)
Producer: Atsushi Itou (Full Metal Panic!, Fumoffu, TSR)
Director: Katsuichi Nakayama (Astraea Testament, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo)

Studio Xebec Will Do The Animations For FMP!IV 

For more staff details check out this link. I don't know if Toshihiko Sahashi will be back to compose the soundtrack but his music was playing throughout the whole panel. So that's a good sign I guess. The Anime also has a CG Director (Shōsuke Uechi) though it wasn't made clear to which extend CG will be used. For now it seems like the Mechas might still be done in 2D while other objects like the TDD-1 submarine will likely be CG again.

New Concept Art Of The ARX-7 

Though not explicitly stated, it seems like the new Anime will skip the Dancing Very Merry Christmas story arc from the light novels. That one will be done as an audio drama (for now). The main japanese Anime voice cast will be back to do both.

Dancing Very Merry Christmas - Audio Drama 

Shoji Gatoh is also gonna write a new Full Metal Panic! light novel called Bonus Ops. Nothing much was said about when it would take place and if it's gonna be just one book or a series of light novels. In fact nothing was said about it as the teaser image was only for a few seconds towards the end of the presentation. But there's gonna be more light novels! :D

Full Metal Panic! Bonus Ops

Oh and there's gonna be more toys. For starters a Metal Build ARX7.

Metal Build ARX-7

SPECULATION:

By now we know quite a few things about the new Full Metal Panic! Anime. I think it's possible to fill in the gaps. So that's what i'm gonna do. You may come back in a year to laugh at this but i would be surprised if i'm that far off.

So first of all it's gonna be a 2 cours television series, meaning it's gonna have between 24 and 26 episodes. They will adapt the light novel story arc starting with the seventh book Continuing On My Own and finishing with the twelfth Always, Stand by Me: Part 2. Basically FMP Sigma. They MIGHT skip Burning One Man Force (the part with Nami) but i'm rather sure it's gonna be there. Mainly due to Gatohs involvement. If the audio Drama is any sign then prove that our worst fears have come true. Dancing Very Merry Christmas will not be adapted into Anime. At least not right away. I'm pretty sure though that if FMP!IV sells well in Japan we're gonna get it as 3-4 part OVA or even as Part of Fumoffu 2. They won't do a movie as that is very expensive and a far too big gamble for FMP. 

The average FMP light novel can be adapted within 4-5 Anime episodes. You may say that it took them 24 episodes to animate the first 3 light novels but remember that episodes 8, 13-17 and 19 were filler episodes with about another episode worth of fillers within the first 7 episodes. So this leaves us with about 5 episodes for each light novel. However, the One Night Stand novel was adapted in only 4 (episodes 9-12). Looking at The Second Raid, only 9 episodes of the 13 were based on the 2 light novels, making it about 4 episodes for each book. I know i'm cutting corners here. But it is possible to adapt each book in about 4 episodes. Especially with Gatoh handling the scripts. He's going to change some stuff but most likely for the better. 4*6=24. Add two more episodes on top and this could leave us with a very fast paced 2 cours series. I'm talking Gurren Lagann fast paced here. With not a single filler episode.

Now if they decide to make it one cours (12-13 episodes) the whole project is doomed. It's not gonna work without cutting some of the best parts. But Shoji Gatoh would never agree to this. FMP is his baby and he want's to give you the ending he envisioned. Not some quickly slapped together mess. You have to see that the guy is asking a lot of favors from friends in the industry. We once heard that Amagi Brilliant Park was solely created so that Gatoh could finance another Full Metal Panic! Anime. He has been talking about this new Anime season for the past 10 years, always assuring fans that he's working on it and that it's coming. It's gonna be 2 cours. And unless some miracle happens it's also gonna be the last Full Metal Panic! Anime we're gonna get. Because Full Metal Panic! does not sell exceptionally well in Japan. The light novels may do but not the Anime. IV is going to be the last one. But that's why we're here. An end to the story. And that's what Shoji Gatoh is working for.

I hope i didn't go too far with this. I'm 100% sure that this is how it's gonna happen but i'd like to get surprised for the better. In less than a year we will know for sure. To me this is the most exciting time since the end of Sigma. I'm sure we'll talk more about this in the near future. So ... see you next time!

8 comments:

  1. Thank you for the information of the new season. I hope you are right and we get to see 24-26 episode season.

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  2. Thanks for the coverage. DVMC is my favorite novel, so I would really like to see it animated at some point. I have dreamed about the possibility of a movie or OVA released over Christmas one of these years, and while it doesn't look very likely at this point I'll keep on hoping. In any case, I'm super pumped for more FMP!! It's been a long time coming...

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  3. Thanks for the information:D... Im already getting my hopes up.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. lets all show our support for Shoji and the FMP franchise by buying the physical discs when it finally comes out :)

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  6. Yep... Let's support this and then maybe just maybe there is some possibility for more future content

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  7. Is it not possible that DVMC will come in later as Kaname having a flashback like in Sigma?

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