Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 10
フルメタル・パニック！Invisible Victory episode 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lemon and his surviving men defeat all but one of the Amalgam troops, who managed to enter the building housing Sousuke. However, Sousuke had a trap waiting so that the oxygen canister spewing O2 would cause the Amalgam troop to catch fire when he shot his weapon. Sousuke executes the man, then tells Lemon that due to his connection with the A.I. Al, Amalgam is after him. As such, Lemon and company flee Polynesia and head to Florida, where an old Vietnam vet named Lieutenant Colonel Courtney has a training camp set up.

Meanwhile, Tessa praises her people, even though they didn’t get Lee Fowler. She feels they were able to send a message to both Amalgam and their allies. In the meantime, she’s determined to capture her brother Leonard and use him to plant a virus within the Amalgam organization, thus bringing it down. After the briefing, Tessa goes to her quarters, but is unable to sleep or eat as she remembers those who have died in this fight.

In Mexico, Kaname is depressed. She asks Leonard how long they are going to be there, since she knows she’s supposed to marry him. She goes for a walk and settles in a flower garden. Night comes and she overhears a conversation between Fowler and Sabina, letting her know that Sousuke is alive, and likely coming for her. However, the thought that getting others hurt or killed because of her depresses Kaname. She goes for a long swim in her underwear, then after a brief chat with Sabina, comes to realize something she can do.

Elsewhere in Florida at Lieutenant Colonel Courtney’s training camp, Sousuke is running with a heavy backpack while Lemon’s remaining agents get in some target practice at the range. Lemon question’s whether Sousuke should be doing this, but the old officer encourages harder training from Sousuke. Courtney is not impressed with Lemon’s “take it easy” attitude, citing Sousuke’s “f***ing guts!” However, when Courtney orders one of Lemon’s men to attack Sousuke, Sousuke passes out.

Meanwhile, Galvin Hunter leaves Wraith and Mira in an 18-wheel truck, transporting a mecha. They are stopped by Amalgam forces, including an AS unit. Galvin is forced to open the truck, where the Amalgam troops report to Kalium, who arrives in a cloaked helicopter. Galvin recognizes him as Lt. Commander Kalinin. Galvin gets angry at the betrayal, which eventually leads to Kalinin shooting him. Galvin refuses to help Kalinin, even though it means he’ll die. Kalinin and the Amalgam forces leave, taking the container on the truck.

Thoughts/Review:

Wow. The surprises continue with Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 10 as we see what happened with Kalinin.

Object Sousuke

When Amalgam sent a force after Sousuke in Polynesia, I thought it might be just Leonard removing a rival and thus clearing the path to eventually conquer Kaname body and soul. However, I was completely wrong here. As we learned, Sabina planned the assassination of Sousuke to be rid of trouble before it started.

Interestingly, Sousuke seems to believe that Amalgam is coming after him because of his former A.I. partner, Al. As we learned, Amalgam became aware of what Galvin, Wraith, and Mira were up to, even if they didn’t know all their names. So now it is just when will Sousuke connect with his former partner.

A Decoy Plan?

It is clear that Galvin did not expect to see Kalinin (more on that in a bit), but I think that he, Wraith, and Mira did expect to be intercepted by Amalgam. The way the episode played out, it seemed like the writers were indicating that the real ARX-8 was left with Wraith and Mira while Galvin was the decoy.

Obviously, they are hoping to meet up with Sousuke and give him the ARX-8, complete with a working Al on board. But I doubt they know where Sousuke is. It is possible they are in contact with Tessa’s group and are planning an eventual reunion there. It wouldn’t take that long for the Tuatha de Danaan to go from San Francisco to Alaska.

However, it looks like Galvin is a goner after Kalinin shot him. 🙁

Turncoat

One of the biggest shockers in this episode was not only seeing Kalinin alive, but seeing that he’d joined Amalgam. Well, we’d already had a foreshadowing of that of sorts with the former Mithril AS pilot Sousuke fought. And then it made sense to me. Mithril is a mercenary organization. So as Kalinin said, in this mercenary business, changing sides happens frequently. After all, most mercenaries are loyal to the paycheck, not an ideal. And Kalinin had been a Soviet army officer, so his allegiance already switched once.

There’s a part of me that thinks, “This has to be all for play, right?” But there’s the other part of me that thinks that Kalinin was convinced to join Amalgam. As I think about it, for Amalgam to have so easily defeated Mithril, they probably had to have help from the inside. Maybe Kalinin was always with Amalgam, though Sabine’s distrust of him seems to suggest otherwise.

We’ll see where this goes. I just can’t help but think that it would be a more massive twist if Kalinin isn’t acting as a double agent for Mithril.

F-ing Guts!

I feel that Lieutenant Colonel Courtney is a nod to Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket. For those who’ve not watched that movie (and you are missing a classic, especially if you’ve ever served in the military before), Sgt. Hartman is the Marine Corps Senior Drill Instructor for new recruits during the Vietnam War. The f-bomb passed his lips quite a few times during the first half of the movie, which covers basic training.

So not only did Lieutenant Colonel Courtney constantly drop an f-bomb in the Japanese audio, but he specifically said that Sousuke had f-ing guts. I think that’s taken from Full Metal Jacket, where Sgt. Hartman promotes “Private Joker” to squad leader for not changing his statement about the Virgin Mary.

Private Joker is silly and he’s ignorant, but he’s got guts, and guts is enough!

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Once again, I’m way behind, so I had better wrap up my review of Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 10. (I had meant to finish this days ago.)

• We learned some interesting things about Amalgam’s command structure. Sounds like Hydra — cut off one head, another replaces it.
• I feel really bad for Tessa. She’s 16 if I recall correctly (maybe she’s 17 by now, I’m not sure). Either way, she has a ton of responsibility for someone so young. No wonder she has a hard time eating or sleeping.
• I wonder what Kaname is going to do, now that she knows Sousuke is coming for her.

In the end, Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory 10 ended up being a very good episode. It seems like there should be more story than we have episodes left. But considering the anime has already cut a lot of story, I suppose the story will be cut and crammed into the remaining episode slot as needed.