Full Metal Panic IV-2
Yea the car chase at the beginning looked like ass as it was way too ambitious even for the 3D team due to the urban setting. Weirdly enough, the car CGI looks like it came from a different studio or resource library compared to the military hardware such as the mechs, which by and large all look fantastic. The CG mechs in the OP for example look great. It's sort of a shame that they couldn't put in an equivalent amount of effort into the car models as they do the helicopters and jets but hopefully there won't be another extended car chase sequence in the remaining novels. This episode had way more of an emphasis on the special effects and in some ways was better animated than the first, despite the car CGI, but in general was more inconsistent.
The storyboarding and direction are probably the highlight of the show. Maybe it's because of the pacing but Nakayama does an excellent job of conveying the mindset of the characters. It's really visible to the audience about Kaname's growing discomfort not only with the violence around her but Sousuke's role in it. Sousuke didn't help matters by being unconcerned with the injured civilians and seeming glee about the death of the enemy soldiers. I think they've done an excellent job relaying Kaname's current mentality. This is one area where I think Nakayama may be better than Takemoto was, at least in reference to TSR. I'm really impressed with how on point the direction is, because I didn't really expect much out of Nakayama but so far he's done a notable job.
The highlight of the episode though was Tessa's speech. God damn. Was this in the books? This episode might be the closest point to where I can say I fully bought into her as a captain. She was about to ice that guy right in front of everybody. If that is a new scene, I wonder if that was inspired by Game of Thrones and Jon Snow.
Oh and in case you didn't know, Obari is really good at storyboarding OPs. And now you know.
