Melissa Mao

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Melissa Mao is a fictional character from the light novel, manga, and anime series Full Metal Panic!. Her voice was provided by Michiko Neya in the original anime and by Allison Keith in the English dub.

[edit] Overview

Serving as the SRT's second-in-command next to Gail McAllen, she serves in Mithril under the call sign Uruz-2. Her expertise in electronic warfare is valued by the Pacific Battle Group "Tuatha de Danaan". Her rank was Sergeant Major, but by the novel Continuing on My Own she has been promoted to Second Lieutenant, making her a commissioned officer. She is 25 years old.

Melissa is very prominent in use of an Arm Slave, however she lacks exact control. She tends to use fast and furious methods in her firearm use. She usually doesn't pilot an Arm Slave that much anymore but she can still pilot excellently although her capabilities are nowhere near Sousuke Sagara's and Kurz Weber's.

Melissa is a ruthless insulter and an extremely heavy drinker. She is shown once having many cigarettes and a minimum of 20 beer cans sprawled out on Tessa's coffee table. She is extremely rude, preferring to use heavy language when talking to someone angering her or someone she can't stand. Shown in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu! during the episode where Sousuke is training Rugby players, he is using extremely heavy language based on the training manual Melissa gave him - language inspired and quoted from R. Lee Ermey's lines in Full Metal Jacket; appropriate, given that Mao was a Marine Corps drill instructor.

[edit] History

Born to Chinese-American parents on May 11 in New York City, New York in 1976, she was brought up under strict Chinese traditions that included her supposed arranged marriage. When she realized it, she left home and immediately joined up with the US Marines.^[1] After several years of service, she was eventually given a dishonorable discharge.

Scouted by MITHRIL, she was given the codename Uruz-2 by Gail McAllen and was given the command of her own team until two of her comrades were permanently injured while on active duty. Because of this, she was forced to head to MITHRIL's secret training camp in the forests of Berutarube^[2] in order to select her new replacements. Melissa was initially intrigued by Kurz Weber despite his poor marksmanship, but was promptly taken off the list of potential candidates after Melissa experienced firsthand Kurz's womanizing attempts. Sosuke Sagara was not even considered one of Melissa's potential candidates, due to his low test scores and seemingly overall mediocreness. It was only by chance that Melissa noticed him during an AS simulation test. It was there that Sosuke skillfully piloted an RK-92 Savage and defeated an M6 operated by a top scoring recruit.

After the Berugan president had called MITHRIL personnel in Berutarube to rescue his kidnapped daughter, Maria, and eliminate a communist rebel cell, she was left with Sousuke, Kurz and Jimmer after a first strike attempt had netted the capture of most of the MITHRIL instructors and recruits.

Realizing that Sousuke and Kurz were hiding their skills from her, she forced them to come clean and ordered them to battle with the guerillas, overpowering their ASs and forcing the rebels to surrender. She eventually decided to let Sousuke and Kurz enter her squad as the new members. Afterwards, she was sent into Tokyo with the rest of her squad to guard Kaname Chidori. Nearing the end of the first series, she was wounded by Gauron during AS combat at a US chemical weapons disarmament facility on Berildaobu Island, Republic of Perio. Although she was mostly incapacitated, she managed to assist Kurz in killing Guen Bien Bo by tossing surgical scalpels into him, a skill that she did not show until the anime came near the end.

Melissa is a friend to Tessa and as such, has access to her office. She is a known alcohol and cigarette user.

[edit] References