▪	RELEASED BY:		TOKYOPOP
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		SHOUJI GATOU / SHIKIDOUJI
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		308
		▪	RATING:		NR
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		09/11/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		10/03/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

Kaname is your typical girl if a bit bossy. The new transfer student, Sousuke seems like a nut that she can’t resist harping on. He’s a weird war geek, talks about tanks and speaks in a crisp manner as if he‘s a soldier – actually he is and he’s at the high school for one reason: Kaname. It seems she’s been targeted by some shady military agencies. The organization Mithril is intent on protecting the young woman from danger, but even with Sousuke, the danger finds her. A simple field trip turns into hostage taking all so that an evil mercenary can get his hands on her. Why? The words “Whispered” and “Black Technology” are overheard. But now Sousuke must use everything he’s ever learned from growing up in battlefields all his life to save the life of the one girl who may have awakened his heart.

The novel that inspired a hit manga and anime series is a marvelous story that blends romantic comedy, drama, action and sci-fi adventure all in one book. Lightly salted with fun art of the characters, the story is a fast and immersing enjoyable read. Prologue aside, the story starts off with Sousuke transferring into Kaname’s school. There’s a series of hilarious events that occur as the soldier Sousuke tries to adjust to the foreignness of a peaceful existence in a Japanese high school. He often mistakes many mundane things as threats or targets and acts in a military manner to “neutralize” them. There’s one particularly funny sequence when Kaname orders him to help her sneak some paper out of the photocopy room and he goes all out tackling it like a covert ops mission – much to Kaname’s shock and outrage. Her figuring out who he really is creates a large part of the fun in the first book.

Things turn serious though when the ruthless Gauron, working for the KGB, takes her hostage for experimentation. There’s a terrible mad scientist type that Kaname is at the mercy of and Sousuke is racing to find her. However he has ties to Gauron, ones that will make this fight far more personal. It is during this time when the two escape and are on the run, that the seriousness unfolds in the story and so too the romance. The inner loneliness both individuals secretly suffer with comes to light and their attachment to each other as well. For mecha fans there is even a touch of that too as the Arm Slaves battle it out, and that’s when we begin to get a clue as to what the Whispered are and why Kaname has been targeted.

IN SUMMARY:
This is the book that inspired the hit manga and anime series. Full Metal Panic is an immensely enjoyable story with fast and engaging story telling and a wild mix of comedy, action, drama, romance and sci-fi.