Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 07
フルメタル・パニック！Invisible Victory episode 07

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Michel Lemon finds himself freed from jail and met by a man named Bardet, who has his things. Meanwhile, Sousuke drives Nami to the arranged spot for the underground match and is stunned to see she’s updated the software on the Savage AS. They stop at the spot, along with the crew with the AS in a second truck. The corrupt police chief arrives with four vehicles and a lot of men. They have Sousuke head to a nearby ruin, but won’t allow Nami and crew to go, meaning they can’t provide assistance.

The chief and half the men leave for the battle site and observation building, which is protected from battling AS units purposefully targeting it. Sousuke tests the weapon he’s given, but soon learns that his opponent is in an M-9 AS unit, nearly identical to what Sousuke used. Kurama is in the observation lounge with the police chief and again warns the officer not to underestimate Sousuke. As such, the chief has Nami brought to him while her crew are taken to a pig farm to be executed and fed to the pigs. At the farm, the cops get assassinated before they can execute Nami’s men. Lemon shows up, saying he’s really not a photographer.

Meanwhile, Sousuke is barely holding out against the superior M-9. As such, he leads the other unit into his trap, causing the stone building they enter to collapse on both. The M-9 cannot recover due to being purely electric, but the Savage with its diesel power frees itself and “kills” the M-9. Sousuke discovers the pilot was a former Mithril pilot who was captured and joined Amalgam rather than die. Sousuke lets the man live and tells him that even if he’s the only one left, he has something precious to retrieve from Amalgam.

Thoughts/Review:

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 07 turned out to have a couple of interesting surprises for me. That made the episode a bit more enjoyable as a result.

Letting Sousuke Live

The first surprise was the fact that Kurama allowed Sousuke to not only live, but to participate in the underground match. Kurama was the one who scolded Leonard about not taking care of Sousuke when he had the chance. I figured Kurama would have ordered Sousuke killed before the match, thus removing a problem. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, Kurama lets the match continue, all the while issuing warnings to not underestimate Sousuke. I suppose since Amalgam is apparently profiting from these underground matches, Kurama had no choice but to let it continue. I suppose that he hoped the M-9 would be enough to overcome Sousuke’s abilities. If the chief hadn’t taken Nami hostage, I wonder what Kurama would have done.

Whispered

For the second surprise, Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 07 gives us the first indication that Nami might be a Whispered.  She seems to have the same skills Kaname had when it comes to updating an AS’s software at rapid speed. Like Kaname, Nami has no formal training to be able to do this. So I don’t think that Sousuke’s thought that Nami could be a Whispered is wrong. I think she is a Whispered.

Then again, I’ve decided that maybe Sousuke is also a Whispered. Why? Without taking away from his incredible, earned battle skills, lets look at some things. He mastered AS units as a child soldier. Sousuke seems to have a premonition when danger is near.  He can rapidly assess a situation and come up with a winning strategy. All of this can be said to just be battle experience.

That aside, it was his glancing over to Nami’s laptop (while driving) and instantly know that her work was not only correct, but some of the best he’s ever seen. As far as I know, Sousuke hasn’t been trained in being a developer. He even punted that work to Kaname months earlier. But now, a glance can tell him that her work is great.

Further, Sousuke had the same kind of premonition vision about Nami that Kaname had about him. That strongly suggests he has Whispered abilities.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Time to wrap up my review of Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 07.

• When people ask me why I hate “localization” rather than proper adaptation (accurate but readable/understandable), this is an episode I can point to. When Bardet arrives, I’m pretty sure he addresses Lemon as “Taichou, ” which is “captain.” The official subtitles translated this as “man,” no doubt deciding that it was better to make things a surprise later. 🙄
• Also, isn’t it “hilarious” how official subtitles will strip out that “filthy, slant-eyed honorific crap,” but by George, let a French honorific show up, and that’s going to appear in the subtitles. Good thing I know French, even though I don’t know French. 🙄
• Rants aside, who is Lemon really working for? Is he a remnant of Mithril? Oh yeah, he was the third surprise of the episode.
• I wonder if the former Mithril pilot Sousuke defeated will end up joining Sousuke. I hope so. Actually, I hope he’s the one to comes in and starts attacking the police to save Sousuke and Nami.

In the end, Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 07 was a very interesting and enjoyable episode. I’m looking forward to seeing where things go.