is a companion series, while also being the second season to Full Metal Panic! by Gonzo and takes place between the first season and the third The Second Raid. Markedly different in tone to the first series, Fumoffu emphasizes the high school romantic comedy aspects of Full Metal Panic! with often crude humor and focuses on the romantic tension between Sousuke Sagara and Kaname Chidori. It frequently parodies itself and anime stereotypes. None of the mecha combat or political intrigue, which characterized much of the original Full Metal Panic!, can be seen in the series. The only reference to the mecha aspect of Full Metal Panic! is the Bonta-kun, which is one of the most prominent parodies in the anime. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu was directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto and produced by Kyoto Animation, which replaced Gonzo as the series producer and became the first anime television show from this studio. The English version was produced by ADV Films. The original broadcast in Japan aired from August 25 to November 18, 2003. 12 half-hour episodes were created, but only 11 were broadcast on Japanese television. The missing episode was not broadcast because its plot dealt with kidnapping and was similar to a series of kidnappings that happened in real-life Japan shortly before the planned broadcast. However, the missing stories are featured on all DVD and Blu-ray releases. To coincide with seasonal change, the last three episodes feature character animations in an autumn setting, as opposed to a summer setting in the rest of the series. At Anime USA 2009, Funimation Entertainment announced that it acquired the rights to the first and second series. DVD and Blu-ray sets were re-released on October 5, 2010 and the series made its North American television debut on November 15, 2010, on the Funimation Channel. The fictional Jindai (陣代) High School, which Kaname and Sousuke are students of, is based on the real life Jindai (神代) High School in Chōfu, Tokyo. Plot In contrast to the original series, there is little plot continuity between episodes and most of them can stand alone, needing very little recap, if any. The only break from this pattern is a handful of two-part stories which are told over two episodes. Most of the stories in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu are adaptations of plots from the original Full Metal Panic! short stories written by Shoji Gatoh and published in the