Dragon Magazine. The creators of Full Metal Panic! planned to give the new series title Full Metal Panic? - with the exclamation mark exchanged for a question mark. However, they quickly realized that such a minor alternation was insufficient to properly differentiate between the new series and the original. For that reason, it was decided that the fictional word "Fumoffu" would be used. "Fumoffu" is the sound made by Bonta-kun, the series' fictional mascot, which resembles a human-sized, yellow teddy bear, seemingly parodying Gonta-kun from the educational show Dekirukana. It is a personal armor suit, designed by Sousuke for the purpose of providing aid in tactical situations. Even though only capable of moving with human running speed and limited by its size, the suit is essentially a miniature Arm Slave. However, due to the suit's main computer's malfunction, all syllables uttered by the pilot are changed to either Fu, Mo, Ffu, or Ru. The suit's Operating System immediately crashes if the pilot tries to deactivate the voice changer. For that reason, Kaname has to translate what Sousuke wants to say using a headset radio, which is a frequent cause of humor in the series. Media Anime The first DVD of the series was released in Japan on November 27, 2003. The initial release consisted of 4 discs and was slightly different for Region 2 (Europe and Japan) and Region 1 (North America). Since then, the DVDs were repackaged several times and a number of subsequent releases exist to date. In addition, the series was released on Blu-ray in 2008 in Japan. However, it did not feature English subtitles and after enabling English audio, Japanese subtitles were forced on the screen. The US distribution rights for the series were bought by Funimation in late 2009. DVD and Blu-ray sets were re-released on October 5, 2010. Soundtrack Music for the series was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi, while opening and closing songs were performed by Mikuni Shimokawa. Complete soundtrack, which features full versions of both songs along with instrumental themes, was released by Pony Canyon Records on a single CD in 2003. Reception Bryce Coulter of Mania gave the series a B+ rating. He noted the series could be watched by those unfamiliar with the main series as almost no references were made that required watching the first season. Comparison The season vastly contrasts with the rest of the series. Coulter opines that