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Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory Anime Premieres in Spring 2018

Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2017 is sponsored by Aniplex and Yen Press.

Funimation, Full Metal Panic! light novel author Shoji Gatoh, and illustrator Shikidouji announced at the "Full Metal Panic! 15th Anniversary Panel" at Anime Expo on Friday that the Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory television anime series will premiere in spring 2018. The panel also showed a promotional video for the new anime. The promotional video indicated that the light novel villain Kurama and Amalgam soldier Lee Fowler will debut in the anime. Additionally, Mao will be promoted to Lieutenant with a new uniform, and several new mecha — including the anime appearance of Cyclone — will also appear.

The anime was originally slated to premiere this fall, but the anime's official website and Fujimi Shobo's website both removed the fall listing earlier this year.

Katsuichi Nakayama (series director for planetarian, assistant director for Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, Bodacious Space Pirates The Movie: Abyss of Hyperspace) is directing the series at studio XEBEC. Full Metal Panic! original novel author Shoji Gatoh is handling the series composition and writing all the scripts. Osamu Horiuchi (Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid) is the character designer and chief animation director, and Aya Yamamoto (animation director for My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO!) is the sub-character designer. Additionally, Takeshi Yoshioka (chief animation director for Classroom Crisis, Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid-) is the small arms designer and animation director, Kanetake Ebikawa (Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid) and Toshiaki Ihara (Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid) are the mechanical designers, Takayuki Yanase (Ghost in the Shell Arise, Gundam 00 mechanical designer) is the set designer, and Masanori Nishii (Star Blazers 2199) is the mechanical director. Additional staff members include:

Prop Designer and Mechanical Animation Director: Takuya Matsumura
Mechanical Animation Director: Yū Katō
CG Director: Shōsuke Uechi
Color Key: Chiaki Kitabayashi (XEBEC)
Special Effects: Shin Inoie

Full Metal Panic! centers around a mercenary group called Mithril on a parallel Earth in which the Cold War did not end in 1991.

The original Full Metal Panic! light novel series debuted in 1998, and Fujimi Shobo published the series' 12th and final novel in the main series in 2010. The novels have more than 11 million copies in print. Tokyopop published the first five volumes before the company shut down its North American branch in 2011.

The franchise inspired the 24-episode Full Metal Panic! TV anime series in 2002, the 12-episode Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu TV anime in 2003, and the 13-episode Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid TV anime series in 2005. Additionally, the light novels inspired the Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid video anime episode in 2006. Gonzo animated the 2002 anime series, and Kyoto Animation animated the two sequel series and the video anime.

Funimation has released all three TV anime series and the video anime on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, and ADV Films released the first two anime series on DVD before Funimation relicensed the series. Kadokawa released all three television series and the video anime on Blu-ray Disc in Japan with an English dub in 2013 to celebrate the franchise's 15th anniversary.

The original novel series has also inspired several manga spinoff series, as well as several light novel spinoffs (including Another) and short story collections. Naoto Ōkuro published the Full Metal Panic! Another spinoff novel series from August 2011 to February 2015. Shikidouji illustrated both the original Full Metal Panic! series and Full Metal Panic! Another.