Finished the new season of
Full Metal Panic! last night after rewatching the entire franchise. Gotta say, I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed the ride, even after all these years. And I have to give it mad props for getting even me mildly excited for the mecha action scenes.
While
Invisible Victory managed to entertain me, I'm inclined to call it the weakest installment in the
FMP series. Some observations in no particular order:
This season sure gave us a romantic 'bomb' right off the bat. I mean, Sousuke asking Kaname to hold hands? Sounds like there was some serious off-screen character development. Not that I mind, being a fan of the genre and all :>. And then there was Kaname's decision right at the end that also got me cheering for her (although her change of heart was a bit abrupt/hamfisted).
The 1st story arc of
Invisible Victory was weird in that it was more reminiscent of a season finale rather than a start. I mean, the stakes were sky-high on both fronts (Sousuke's and Tessa's). However, I like how it led to a time skip (which I can't deny I have a thing for, in general) and to a very interesting premise for the 2nd arc.
The CGI visuals for the mechs were so-so in my opinion. No one can deny that it made their movements infinitely more fluent. At the same time, it made them look more... mechanical, I guess. Which should be fitting in the narrower sense of the word

, but it's a mixed bag overall. Either way, I don't hold it against the series to go this route.
As for the English dub, all the major roles were reprised by the original actors, which is great. I did notice that Marduquez (spelling?) and Al were voiced by other people. But then there's the new Urzu 1, who was played by the same VA as before, but sounded like he had a weird speech impediment

... no idea what that was about.
Is it just me, or did Sousuke throw out way too many hollow or outright useless one-liners? This isn't something I've ever noticed in any other anime, but here, it ended up annoying me a little after a while. Single-sentence monolog: "I can't beat him in straight-up combat" - yeah, we kinda noticed that when the enemy AS was revealed to be a vastly superior model. And when he was chasing you around the battlefield like a hunted rabbit.
On a bright note, I loved Tessa's plan at the beginning of the 3rd arc

. She had me completely fooled. That was brilliant (and shows how good of an actor she apparently is).
So, the first
FMP season to end on a cliffhanger... At least the final screen hinted at a continuation. Let's hope it's not an empty promise.