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Why We Love Fullmetal Alchemist

Mar 16, 2024
humanity cannot gain anything without first giving something in return to obtain something of equal value must be lost, that is the first law of equivalent exchange of alchemy in those days we really believed that to be the only truth in the world, Full Metal Alchemist is a series that I, and I'm sure many others, really like, is one of my most formative experiences with anime and manga, and while I've never denied it on my channel before, it should come as no surprise that it's the crowned champion of my coveted favorite. The title of the story of all time, nothing has drawn me in and made me remember it more than FMA and I think a lot of people feel the same whether it's their true favorite or not, but Fullmetal is moving forward in years, now it's first.
why we love fullmetal alchemist
The anime adaptation was almost 20 years ago and the manga ended a little over 11 years ago. Its second television adaptation, critically acclaimed and much

love

d, ended the same year the manga did, despite its still pretty visuals. impressive, it's also becoming more classic than modern in a world with more streaming services than you can shake a stick at and a plethora of seasonal anime coming out left and right, it can be a little difficult to convince people to come back and take a look at what we were before. Fogies would call for the gist and to tell you the truth, I don't really want to explain why you should watch a slash read fma type video in this scenario, so I probably wouldn't be the best person to go to for that kind of proselytizing.
why we love fullmetal alchemist

More Interesting Facts About,

why we love fullmetal alchemist...

I wanted to approach this from another angle, explaining why and how, despite its finite shelf life, FMA has managed to resonate time and time again and find a consistent place at the anime discussion table where many of its contemporaries fail to find. a seat in what Is that exactly what inspires the kind of popularity necessary to not only have a successful manga, but also two successful television shows within the same decade, not to mention the countless video games, spin-off eggs, and a few theatrical films of different quality? exactly what I want to talk about here today, this is not so much a recommendation or a review and believe me, this is not going to turn into one of those opinion pieces about which anime I think is objectively better or some nonsense like that.
why we love fullmetal alchemist
This is a study, let's call it an attempt to dive into everything this franchise has to offer from the moment it originally arrived on Western shores, its lasting impact on anime fandom, and why its nuances and themes hit us so hard. 20 years later. We'll also examine the tonal differences between the adaptations and how the same essential opening framework of Hiromu Arakawa's original manga could inspire two very similarly structured stories with subtle and poignant differences in how they view a myriad of different themes. This one will have a lot to talk about. and while I will try to make this game as entertaining as possible for those who haven't seen any iteration of this series, I will deny that this video is going to spoil this series and I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it to you. to spoil you with any version of fma if you've never seen it before, in fact, if you've never seen it before, i envy you because i would kill to find something that made me feel the same way that fma did the first time, but that being said, You have already been warned so if you still decide to stay I will do my best to entertain you anyway but you should know what you are getting into and without further ado my name is Marcy and that is why I

love

Fullmetal Alchemist for those who joined us after this introduction and who are not familiar with FMA but decided to stay anyway, as always.
why we love fullmetal alchemist
I guess a brief history lesson is in order. Fullmetal Alchemist began as a manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa starting in July 2001 in monthly shonen gangan and ending in June 2010 with a total of 27 volumes worldwide. It is basically steampunk and takes many aesthetic cues from revolutionary industrial Europe. The time is the 20th century, but in this universe alchemy is a practiced science that is basically like genius magic: it operates under a principle commonly known as equivalent exchange where something can be transmuted from something with the same properties and mass, which which means you can't just create a cool diamond sword out of dirt you need the actual materials needed to put it together.
The central protagonists are the older brother, Edward Elric, a brash brash with intelligence and alchemical talent who can become agitated and excited quite easily, and his younger brother, Alphonse Elric, who is more of a gentle soul who primarily serves. As a fundamental force to prevent his older brother from getting into more trouble than he already has in the world of FMA, the only prohibited act of alchemy is attempting to transmute a living human being, since even with the materials necessary to compose a human form, the value of a human soul is almost insurmountable as naive children, ed and everyone assume that they have enough talent as

alchemist

s to resurrect their dead mother, but in trying to do so, of course, it goes horribly wrong, ed loses a leg and alphonse his whole body in the process.
In a quick attempt to save his brother's life, Ed also sacrifices an arm to attach Alphonse's soul to a nearby suit of armor, leaving him alive, but a heavy giant husk that cannot eat sleep or feel the touch of anything, the creature they end up as. together she is not even his mother and in her place a barely living abomination of a creature that barely resembles a human edward receives metal prosthetics called automail from the neighboring belt of rock pinaco and his granddaughter winry and sets out with determination to restore both of their bodies to their original states and correct their mistakes in the process.
To do this, the brothers search for a mystical artifact from alchemical legend known as the Philosopher's Stone, which is said to grant the user unlimited transmutation capacity, enough to even surpass the laws of equivalence. With this we already have a really attractive premise and we already feel enough empathy for the brothers themselves to want to see them succeed, considering that the trajectory of the story will directly coincide with their efforts to achieve it. This works wonders to get viewers engaged properly. away, however, where the story goes from here really depends on the medium you're dealing with.
Yes, if you've come here knowing that there are two anime adaptations for this series but you're not sure exactly why, then this is the part where I have to explain that the manga as stated above ran from 2001 to 2010 with 27 volumes. and 108 chapters the first animated adaptation of the series came from bone studio in 2003 with an anime titled simply of course full metal

alchemist

the series began airing in October 2003 for a total of 51 episodes that concluded in October 2004. Given that the manga would not end for six years from this point, you can imagine that the manga's plot is not faithfully represented here and, in fact, you would be correct in the first half of the 2003 anime loosely adapting the first seven volumes of the manga, however, that doesn't mean the changes only become obvious at this point.
The structural changes are numerous at the beginning and add a lot of original content to basically set the tone for the Elric brothers' encounter types. They will find themselves in the questions they will have to deal with, and will also set a precedent for the kind of early career Edward has as a state alchemist, an alchemist who basically earns money for research with the government and is free to pursue his interests. of particular research in In exchange for being superior military weapons that can be called upon for armed conflicts, the most important changes in the relevant details of the plot begin to appear in the anime around the material contained in volume 3 of the manga and I remind you which ended up being a 27th volume series, so the amount of material the anime staff had to work with when deciding to create their own complete, original story was, to put it bluntly, that they didn't have a popular property in their hands and a demand for television, but the material simply wasn't plentiful enough to keep it going unless they marked it into annual seasons, something much rarer at the time than it is now, or what it really is.
What they ended up doing, which was deciding to make the world and the story entirely their own, taking it in a completely different direction than the original author would eventually create an original film titled Conqueror of Shambhala that acts as an extended conclusion to this original anime story. released in 2005 and just four years later we got Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Brotherhood is a subtitle that Western people came up with because the way it really distinguishes itself from the original anime in Japan is that okay, get this, then the original anime just It was called hagene no n kinjutsushi just like the manga is and it basically means steel alchemist in its literal translation, but

fullmetal

.
Alchemist was always the official English title even in its Japanese releases, as it features English text next to the Japanese series title all the time to make clear to people the fact that the new anime was not actually the series. 2003, they titled it Hagene no. den kenjutsushi full metal alchemist which for us English speakers would basically be full metal alchemist full metal alchemist which yeah, that's a little silly, but to be clear, I'm going to be a little pedantic about the fact that I think the brotherhood is a lame subtitle, so to distinguish between the two animes while talking about them, I will refer to the original adaptation as fma 2003 and the second as fma 2009 respectively, since one could assume that fma 2009 is rather a direct and faithful adaptation by hiromo o Akawa's original manga has no original stories except the first episode and basically sticks to his creative vision of the story up to where the manga ends in 2009, it is extremely beloved and often touted as the definitive fma which of course, the blood of those boils. who actually prefer the 2003 version and this has resulted in a lot of endless vilification by staunch defenders of either adaptation determined to prove to the opposing side that the other version is a dog, no need to fight here, someone could get hurt, you know, I think this is really stupid, to be honest, both versions of the story have their individual merits and while people are certainly entitled to their opinion, the snobbery on both sides of the line here is completely unnecessary.
Who cares if someone prefers the version? Don't be happy. We all like Fullmetal Alchemist here, why don't you? And speaking of liking Fullmetal Alchemist, it might be time to explore the appeal of the original manga and a bit of its history before delving into the individual anime adaptations and their themes and how they are handled. The author is one Hiromu Arakawa, born on May 8, 1973 in Hokkaido Japan was born and raised on a dairy farm with four brothers and has been drawing since she was little. She was always curious about the path of a manga artist. After graduating from high school, she created dojinshi with her friends and ended up moving away. his rural surroundings to Tokyo in the summer of 1999 he worked as an assistant to Hiroyuki Eto author of Mahajan Guru Guru at Square Enix and published a one shot titled Stray Dog in Gangan magazine the same year in July 2001 Arakawa finally published the first chapter of

fullmetal

alchemist in the same magazine with her new series silver spoon starting in 2011 until 2019 also draws the manga adaptation of yoshikitanaka as the heroic legend of arseline, suffice it to say that fma prepared her for a quite esteemed career, but of course, fma It will always be remembered as his masterpiece, so let's open it up, what immediately strikes me about Arakawa's artistic ability is his ability to contrast his art. almost something round and friendly at a casual glance and this makes fma quite easy on the eyes for the most part, this of course is brilliantly juxtaposed with more immaculately detailed device settings or situations, often in a striking or Even terrifying, take for example the amount of detail that goes into something like Ed's automail, especially when it's shattered in his fight against Scar.
This panel is gorgeous, but not only is it visually appealing, it also does a very good job of portraying the weight of the moment and its emotion. Arakawa isn't the strongest manga composer I've ever seen, while her panel work is absolutely serviceable, there aren't many strong contenders for extremely creative panel work that I would say catches my attention like others have. , but its strength undoubtedly lies in it. ability to convey emotions both in a scene and within a character and considering that, while packed with action, fma tantalizingly takes us through repeated moral dilemmas and harsh circumstances that are meant to make us think about such things, it is importantMaking sure the reader is able to emotionally connect with what's happening, the expressions are a big part of this and while they're not impeccably detailed, Aragawa has a way of depicting the face in such a way that it feels like you have the perfect amount of specific emotional nuances, as long as you really get a sense of how these characters feel just by looking at them and talking about the perfect amount.
Another strong point of the manga is that almost nothing feels wasted. What I mean by this is that there are many series where the plot drags on for so long that sometimes it starts to get quite cumbersome, leading you to ask something like why is this here, what is the point of this scene and I can't find many, if any, examples of that in fame, to be clear here, although I am making a distinction between something necessary for a story and what might be considered necessary for the plot because, believe it or not , they are different things that focus only on the plot can make a series feel dry, repetitive, or just plain disorienting.
Reading a good plot can only be as strong as the author's writing, meanwhile there can be many incidental details that contribute to the overall cumulative picture of the characters or world setting of a story that help and aid the plot in ways constructive ones that make it feel more complete and that's what I mean by fma here, it doesn't waste your time if it shows you something that's important, whether for plot reasons or emotional reasons, because emotion is a big driving force of The series in general, you might have guessed from the above plot synopsis, but FMA is quite tragic in many places and can be equally horrible and heartbreaking at the same time.
This is a story no matter the form. you see it as having a lot to say about human cruelty, war, death, and the nature of being human in the first place, although the tone is somewhat buoyed by its occasional comedy and a cast of endearing, multifaceted characters, each with his own loyalties. goals, beliefs and agendas, this lightness never compromises the weight of the subject, making it feel very grounded, in a way like trying to make little jokes with your friends to distract yourself from the world burning around you, but hey, it can be a little easy to get lost. in the weeds here, when we start talking about thematic appeal, and because contrast in this regard will play a big role in how I talk about their respective TV adaptations, this is probably as good a time as any to start To talk about them, I will talk mainly. of the 2003 series at first due to its chronological release, but I'll talk more about 2009 and consequently the manga's history as we move forward.
I will indicate many topics for a specific series using images from any of them appropriately. so the aspect ratio of the footage will be a good way to tell them apart, as long as I'm not talking about the conqueror of shambhala, although if I'm talking very specifically about something that I think only belongs to one or the other, I'll be able to make it clearer in my In actual words, the 2003 anime is how most English-speaking anime fans first heard the name Fullmetal Alchemist. It was directed by Seiji Mizushima and licensed for English distribution and dubbing by Funimation Entertainment in 2004, debuting in Adult Swim on November 6 of that year.
In the early 2000s, anime wasn't that big in the United States. United as it is now, and every bit of content we received was ultimately on the table at some point, whether you were sneaking in to watch adults swim after your bedtime. or grouping a show's backlog into 5 parts per episode and 240p quality on old school YouTube, the fact is that the entertainment pool in this niche was, to put it bluntly, that young children and Teenagers got their fix mostly through things like Pokémon. and Dragon Ball Z and those looking for home video releases of a more mature nature would probably stumble across something a little more thoughtful or even psychedelic like Akira Evangelion or Serial Experiments Lane for us nervous teenagers who wanted to think a little more and care along with our action , the arrival of Fullmetal Alchemist was like an answer to our prayers.
It had a fantastical, immersive world similar to Dragon Ball's death-defying martial arts, but in a slightly more grounded way and its story while still packed with action, still features very thoughtful protagonists exploring complex moral dilemmas and circumstances. extremely dark and when I say dark, oh boy I mean dark, both iterations of this series obviously have a lot of nightmare and tragedy feel to them, but 2003 delights. in the kind of emotional futility that can only make you experience when you drop something horrible right on your doorstep and watch your stomach churn in real time, this can obviously be seen in the story's military conflict themes, which Of course it is an important topic in both. stories but nevertheless it is incredibly important here Edward works for the Amestres State Army to continue his alchemical research but the army is quite armored and they love to be interrogated by anyone and they are incredibly uniform and always tout their strength and their leader are called like yes, okay, so they are basically fascists, but far be it from me to allow you to mistakenly go away with the impression that our heroes are too far from that and constantly disapprove of the actions of the military and even intervene with them on multiple occasions, never following the rules, but always according to their own code;
However, history wants to talk about that kind of seemingly banal and almost innocuous cruelty that is even given voice in large-scale military conflicts. particularly in the fashion variety, but also in themselves, you see, it can be a difficult thing to consider, but the fact is that, regardless of the intensity of a horrible act committed by a person or group of people, regardless of the size , there is rarely a concentrated form of evil in the way we might think of evil as an all-encompassing bad guy that perpetuates cruelty and destruction simply for its own sake, it is basically a fantasy, it is a substitute for variety of Saturday morning cartoons that I don't really have the privilege of encountering in real life, of course there are still plenty of people who do cartoonishly bad things, but the point is not that their actions are good, but that They generally think their actions are good, ie.
No one wakes up in the morning and thinks that I am going to do so much evil that I will make as many people suffer as possible. Everyone thinks they are the protagonists of their own story and when you combine that with political tensions, rhetoric and propaganda. It becomes frighteningly obvious why some of the most horrible things in all of history were perpetuated by the type of people who might seem completely normal to the casual observer. FMA is fully aware of this and plays hardball with the state alchemists and their role. in the Ishvalan Civil War, a conflict that erupted when, after a prolonged period of political tension between the alchemical citizens of Ishvalen and the alchemically and militarily controlled state, an Amestrian soldier shoots a child of Ichvallen, leading to to a large-scale uprising that ultimately ended with the Führer ordering all of Ishvallen's citizens to be exterminated.
Some of the friendly, familiar faces we follow within the military ranks throughout the series were involved with ishval and the contrast becomes extremely dire once we find out exactly what they have been. Tortured about whether they were simply following orders or were deceived about the reasons for the war itself, the fact is that they did some unspeakably evil things. I'll tell you what I don't understand. Did you expect something different? They act like you. I'm surprised you didn't choose this direct look at the people you kill, don't take your eyes off them for even a second and never forget them because I promise you they won't forget you or the nagging question of what to do with them or what What type of people should be seen is left up in the air the rest of the time we spend with them.
The murky morality is a sticking point in this story, as you can imagine very few characters, if any, are portrayed. as completely binary heroes or villains and everyone always seems to have some kind of personal regret or sin that they are trying to atone for, either directly or through their new paths in life, like Ed, who is simply trying to get back what he foolishly lost. after. his madness instead of trying to repeat his mistakes with his mother or someone like Roy Mustang, who basically participated in a genocide as a naive and loyal soldier who now seeks to overthrow the regime that convinced him that it was even remotely okay, the military personnel before mentioned constantly struggles with corruption in their own ranks and the type of horrors they have been required to participate in, and we are constantly shown the difference between loyal, impervious, remorseless bootlickers and the type of officers so scarred by blood in their hands attempting to destroy the entire system from within and drastically alter its course to prevent something similar from happening again, yet even these people are routinely punished and given credit for their participation in the many personal tragedies that tear apart The people affected by them and we are never really expected to look the other way when it comes to their craziness, they contain likable personality traits and qualities like any person you might meet in the real world, but ultimately their backgrounds are not can be erased and this not only emphasizes how easily the average person can be drawn into false promises, nationalism and harmful rhetoric to become capable of previously inconceivable violence, but also the kind of complicated nature that accompanies people involved in war and to what extent people would hold them personally responsible for any number of things.
Since this series aired in the early 2000s in America in particular, I don't think I need to tell you why this specifically touches so bluntly on a topic that was on a lot of people's minds, while FMA leans quite heavily on in his Second World War. Portraying the horror of war, the fact that a teacher has quite imperialist leanings and started a large scale conflict in which countless innocent people were killed based almost exclusively on false pretenses for personal gain. Well, yeah, okay, I'm sure you understand. period also sorry yeah this is going to get a little political I mean war crimes are a pretty big and prominent theme in this series so I hope people know that's inevitable but you never know , with anime fans will really complain about you.
We're making things political when the show you're talking about is incredibly political and, oh yeah, FMA is, let's say, a little bit political, although to be fair, a lot of its political themes focus more broadly on its more abstract themes and emotional too. It's not that the political aspects themselves are the only main focus of the story, although they do inform and shape much of what the story does and says. In fact, I'd say that 2003 takes a slightly more pessimistic view of war than its counterpart anyway with the distinct feeling of melancholy and inevitability that languishes when these themes arise, this also applies to the way the series tends to portraying violence, with the 2009 edition remaining steadfast and determined basically throughout the entire series to never kill anyone, while the 2003 edition is driven to his first murder by greed as an attempt to steal it for the road ahead, which leads him to ponder if this is also something that was inevitable in the process of growing up.
Actually, it's almost funny how my views have changed to be. more optimistic and collective over the years, how I can see myself vibrating much more with the perspective of the 2003 series when I was approximately the age at which I began to participate in it, which of course does not imply that the postulations, observations or 2003's perspectives are inherently more immature than their counterparts or that one is objectively more intelligent about the world than the other, but I think this brings to light an often overlooked contrast between the works that I think is worth exploring. Full Metal Alchemist Full Metal Alchemist the biggest difference in the overall thematic goal.
I think it can be narrowed down to a few key players in the actual story, so let's start small and work our way to the top. Someone like Scar, for example, Scar is a survivor of the Ishvalen War and has a deep-seated hatred towards state alchemists. who massacred his people and begins his journey in history as someone who goesout there murdering them in checklist form to avenge their people in the process of this; however, he often harms or negatively impacts people unrelated to his revenge and even if he didn't, obviously murder is murder regardless of the motive, so his revenge will only spur more revenge and continue a cycle of yadda yadda violence. , here you have the basic image now, where will this character go from here? exactly right 2003 scar and his Surprisingly, Bishonen's face turns a little mischievous as he recognizes that the pain he causes people will only continue to perpetuate more violence, but failing too much in the process to be a redeemable scar helps the people of Lyor to fight against their own military. oppression and plans to acquire the power necessary to destroy the Istrian government by attracting a group of soldiers and creating a philosopher's stone with them in a similar manner to how his own people were exterminated solely for creating a stone when begged not to. this from alphonse scar shows the determination to do it for what he believes is the greater good, having already accepted the idea that god will have turned his back on him as he is now anyway and that if he is irredeemable then this is all he can do to help through some shenanigans, he eventually ends up doing the transmutation, but not to gain power, but to save the life of an endangered Al, who in turn has to deal with the idea of ​​having been saved, but at the cost of becoming a walking cavern of human souls, in a sense it almost feels as if Scar's death here is supposed to be somehow redemptive, as if this were the only option that could have redeemed someone like him.
Scar in a sense, in contrast to 2009. scar on his incredibly twisted muscles in his muscles actually accepts his place as an ishval outcast in society, but in turn continues to fight for his liberation and justice through advocacy and changing the system itself again. He no longer murders for no reason out of revenge. learned his lesson about how cyclical violence can be when revenge is all that's on someone's mind, but he also doesn't cross the boundaries of anyone he's already hurt and admits that no explanation he gives for the suffering he created It might be good enough, although it cannot be considered without defects.
The 2009 scar seems to have found some sort of redemption in most people's eyes, but by much less sacrificial means, instead of paying the price for his murders in his own life, he pays back to society by making the best he can to improve it and again help shape a system that avoids creating situations like the war that traumatized him in The first place, while it may seem idealistic, the divide that I think is starting to become evident here is that 2009 and Consequently, the manga see war as something capable of ending even if only theoretically, while the 2003 series almost seems to see war as something totally unstoppable, only navigable. but it's not eternally avoidable, this of course is further driven by the film Conqueror of Shambhala, which actually places ed directly in the real world of pre-WWII Germany and actively witnesses the actions taken by you know who.
The movie was strange, it was really strange and it felt even tacky to intertwine a magical mystical alchemy plot about a dragon and parallel universes with real historical events and real people belonging to the Nazis on the other side of the door. Being the era of World War II, our world was a bit strange in general. I know a lot of people liked this idea back in 2003, but it's very distracting and really took me out of the later episodes, which were otherwise pretty good, but oh well. Other than that, both series seem to view the idea of ​​government reform pretty similarly, though in any case I think it's pretty fantastic to expect war criminals to reliably prosecute themselves, even if they really feel super guilty. and responsible for the war crimes they committed, but to be fair, this aspect is only addressed very briefly in both series because when the government is reforming, we are basically at the end of an extremely dense and philosophy-filled story, so The process of this reform is more of our responsibility to imagine from there, since we will not actually see it first-hand, what we see first-hand throughout the series; however, it is the central antagonists that shape his trajectory in the conflicts I have seen many.
People debate the quality of either series based solely on these two groups and I think that's kind of interesting and fun because while they certainly have their differences, I would be inclined to say that they are much more similar in nature than one would think. You might think. The main villains anyway, the homunculi are a different story, but we'll soon be addressing them as well for our main antagonists in 2003. We have Dante, a cocky ex-lover of the brother's father who has manipulated the homunculi for hundreds of years. years to continually craft the philosopher's stones needed to steal younger bodies and live eternally in 2009, we have the father, the first homunculus created by the brother's father in the ancient city of Xerxes, who longs to acquire the power of God and truth , as it originates from the Out of Man's Curiosity, he creates the homunculi personally in an attempt to perfect himself by concentrating his vices into powerful inhuman auxiliaries who do his bidding but also reflect those ugly sides of him in their entirety.
A common criticism imposed on the father by more inclined people. towards Dante is that he is shallow and his motivations are a little more than taking over the world like a big cartoon supervillain and I can definitely see where this impression comes from but I think it's a little misleading not to mention that I think Dante's motivations They're equally shallow, but I don't think they make her a bad character because in both cases, ultimately, this is the point where both characters' arrogance leads them in separate but similar directions and modes of thought, and I'd like to Analyze them both individually and a little more deeply here, starting with Dante, Dante is human, but the error of her arrogance is to think she is above or removable from humanity; she sees herself as someone who lives outside of normal society, as someone who despises it the most.
Probably due to the fact that she has lived several lives and seen similar conflicts repeat themselves, this kind of compound experience and knowledge makes her feel special, as if she is the only one who understands the true nature of humanity and pities them for how sad they are. and stupid they are. Therefore, she allows you to see them as nothing more than a means to an end. So, of course, he has no moral qualms about sacrificing hundreds, if not thousands, of people to make a philosopher's stone, but he also never wants to lose anything in the process, so he selfishly incites the homunculi to manipulate other alchemists. to get his hands dirty, instead he then swoops in and steals it using it to transfer his soul into a newer, younger host body to continue prolonging, unfortunately for Dante.
It is clear that her soul is rotting from the amount she has transferred and that she can no longer support herself and her host bodies are withering faster and faster. This speaks to a sort of underlying theme of 2003 itself, which is the ideal that the immortal soul does not exist, posits that once something is dead it cannot return and that trying to escape death is a futile effort because it is a inevitability that encompasses everything and carries us all. The reason human transmutation carries such severe punishment is because the act of attempting it. recovering or transmuting the soul of someone who is already dead is impossible and it is arrogance that allows them to think of it as something they could even handle.
Human transmutation is itself a disruption of the natural cycle of life and death and is therefore highly punishable even for someone. As Dante, who is convinced that she lives above humanity and is the only one who can live forever, cannot continue transferring into new bodies if her soul is rotting, this is almost karmic retribution emphasizing that Dante is not as important as she believes that despite acting as if she lives outside of normal society, that she is no less a part of the human world than anyone else and that her ultimate punishment is delivered in the form of having her transmutation thwarted by a loving act of self-sacrifice in saving ed and herself. being consumed by gluttony subsequently, the villain of the manga in 2009, the father is not human, but was created with human blood.
He is, in the truest sense, the first homunculus, but because he was created by human knowledge, he also seeks to achieve all in truth. In the manner of a philosopher, he manipulates countless lives so that they are sacrificed for the sake of achieving knowledge that he compares with truth itself and, therefore, with God, in trying to seek the power of God, he casts his human vices outside. himself in an attempt to make himself perfect. moving further and further away from the conception of what makes one human in the first place, although it is ultimately ignoring humanity's inherent power to reinvent itself and change that leads to its downfall by having reduced individual lives and stones. philosophers who made for nothing more than a statistical energy to be consumed, when in reality they were still individual souls with individual wills who pushed against their own towards the end their fundamental misunderstanding of the human experience as something that needs to be set aside for the good of the truth in reality blinds him to the very nature of the truth itself, which ends in his scolding and punishment by god, who lectures him on why more is his arrogance in believing that he is the only person worthy of being above humanity and reach true knowledge when there are As many truths as there are people are reflected in the way the truth reflects back to them each individual silhouette when they visit Gate ed Al and his many friends they have made along the way span many backgrounds different beliefs and perspectives that all came together to make the impossible possible by compensating for each one's own weaknesses in this sense, the father has only isolated himself from other people making him be alone, but not because of any inherent strength of character, but simply because your own arrogance and ignorance that you stole. your power from others you rejected your human origins and chose to covet the power of what you call god you never grew beyond your days in the jar did you really think you would become superior to humans by eliminating your seven wishes?
Laugh, both villains exhibit different origins of motives, but both long for the kind of eternal strength and knowledge that shedding their humanity gives them, at least in their minds, but fma is a story very much focused in both iterations on the uniquely human nature of people. Taken together, the fact that we are so complex, so complicated but still so beautiful, we have the option to deconstruct and reconstruct ourselves in meaningful and differentiating ways is in itself something that makes our connections and bonds so important when it's about shaping and changing the world. Larger scale reform is not achieved through the hands of a single person and no person is an island but we are all connected and can achieve great things with a collective and unified power one is all and all are one and all that in contrast Both series' villains somehow pervert that all-encompassing humanity, by selfishly seeking to break that natural cycle of life and gain control over it, willing to step over anyone and anything to achieve that purely interested in his own selfish ends without being connected to anyone and father by being single-mindedly obsessed with the one truth, something that does not and cannot really exist, and to deny that nuance of that collective experience is to completely avoid one's own humanity and ignorantly retreat into the comfort and the false superiority of isolation, both villains. in some way they also take advantage of the vulnerable needs of others in different ways, but all in some way representative of their own humanity being exploited, this further encourages them to think about humanity in a very easily manipulated way, a product of variables. that can be precisely adjusted. to produce different desired results on a more intimate scale, this can be seen in examples such as that of tucker in 2003, who has become a horrible chimera tasked with working in the fifth laboratory to perform grotesque human experiments that benefit Dante's mission but with the promise hanging over him. of possibly creating a doll-like replica of the daughter he selfishly sacrificed earlier, while on a broader scale this could apply to the entire military state of Amestres, relentless in its drive to expand its territory and more than willing to commit atrocities overlapping to do it.
Often, theyThey themselves are already on the verge of it before any of the antagonists give them a little nudge to get the gears turning. In both cases in the series, this results in the creation of a philosopher's stone that forms the basis of his motive for war, similar to how other real characters do. Living nations will create a false precedent for conflict when in reality its motive is almost purely material. It is then highlighted that a philosopher's stone is made up of human life reducing it to pure energy and depleting it as a resource, something like workers driven by the state into worse and worse conditions, exploiting their work and ultimately reduced to an object In the eyes of those who were supposed to be their benefactors, the public's support and ignorance are gained by rhetorical or philosophical buzzwords, survival of the fittest or the like, invocations of some kind of human nature that allow them to turn off their brains and ignoring what's going on and how it's really not that natural when you think about it, this brings us back to the principle of equivalent exchange which is supposed to be the central principle of alchemy, but ultimately becomes a kind of ideological catch-all about how the world works within the state of Istria.
This ignores the fact that it doesn't really apply to everything and in many cases is flat out the opposite of the truth: it's a good way to materially dismiss the complaints of those people who have it worse than you by simply saying that everyone gets the same. that they put, but that is to ignore the many examples of people who do not resist scrutiny and who transmute themselves into philosophers' stones, for example, what do they do? They get the same in return They exhaust themselves until their souls basically run out like batteries Sounds more like torture than equivalence Do you honestly believe that your single life is equivalent to the remaining multitude of your followers Your height has gone to your head the life of any individual human being is only worth a life that is nothing more and nothing less, it is this self-awareness of the inherent imbalance created by these beliefs, buzzwords and wild cards, that forms a sort of really solid picture of what exactly they are. the antagonistic forces in fma. because and they reflect so many real-life problems we face that it's easy to attack them in stark contrast to our much more grounded, flawed but human main characters, the brothers who have transgressed the cycle of life like ignorant children now staring at the sky . an increasing cynical and cyclical exploitation of people who consciously make their mistakes over and over again and try to trick other people into agreeing with it and there is power in trying to stop that and in the process materially improve people's lives .
There is power in valuing our shared human experience. and every ugly or beautiful part of that, of course, as I said, the conclusions of this understanding are somewhat different in tone between both series. 2003 seems to follow more the principle of the second law of thermodynamics or entropy than the idea that you basically always lose more than you gain as a consequence fma 2003 is more of a narrative about finding a means of acceptance and forging your own path towards happiness despite what life inevitably ends up taking from you, that even if you suffer, go through difficulties or even wars.
If you are alive you will always have the opportunity to find something worth living for. In contrast, 2009 and the manga have begun to propose hints of a new theory at the end of the series, the true equivalence is receiving, returning, and then adding. Something about you too We have been treated so well so many people have cared about both of us and now because of all this compassion we feel that it is our turn to return the happiness that has been given to us, isn't that how alchemists do it? believe in an equivalent exchange, no, it is equivalent if you take 10 and then return 10, but if you take 10 and then add something of yourself, you return 11.
This also challenges the binary view of equivalence by insisting that we act cooperatively to achieve our goals. Rather than simply out of self-interest, he denies the basis that everything in the world must be purely transactional and instead believes more in humanity's inherent ability to do good, which is itself a way of thinking. very culturally Japanese. You see, we Americans are more predisposed. think of humanity as inherently cruel or selfish or violent or whatever, seeking redemption through knowledge and action, while the Japanese tend to view humans by default as more purely good creatures, obscured in our nature by whatever outside influence we are subject to, thus dictating the degree to which we end up becoming a cruel person, in fact the motive in this sense plays a key role in many backstories in fma, which in turn informs the type. of transformation of the self that these people have gone through even though it all started in a good state this Then it could explain the true callousness of the homunculi as the manga describes them in the canyons of 2009, since they essentially embody these darknesses, never having begun without blemish and therefore being subject to the whim of their own selfishness, they work determinedly for their own goals because in lacking the spark of humanity and not wanting it in the first place, they operate purely out of self-interest. and they never have the human need to care and be cared for by other people, of course, this is also what makes the homunculi of 2003 so interesting to I see that instead of embodied vices, they are actually the result of all the transmutations failed human beings driven by philosopher's stones, are essentially inhuman husks, many of whom long to complete themselves by becoming human and also assert their own individual will to escape the confines of who they were created to be and who they want to be, this in a sense also underlies to the arrogance of those who would break the natural cycle of life to bring them into creation only to later regret their decision and take that life from them. a creature that never asked to be born as they were in the first place, particularly the scene where Eden Al fights the sloth that was created by her mother, really stands out to me in this regard, as she admits that a part of her is She feels capable of loving the boys, but it is this feeling that unites her to the woman she was based on and her hope is to sever that bond by being able to kill them, something her mother would never do, although I wonder what would happen if there were more of seven of them at the same time, since they are literally not incarnations of the seven deadly sins, their naming scheme would be ruined if just one more dumb alchemist in the world decided to try to bring his dentist back to life or something, maybe he chooses from the list of seven sins as a class system, as if you were a homunculus, you would be dragged into this strange sewer cult in your childish abomination state and fed bloody candy and told to choose your allegiance as you.
Come to think of it, you're kind of a Dark Souls character, there's a lot of imagery in FMA that reminds me of Dark Souls or Bloodborne, okay, I'm getting off topic, it's this intricate web of conspiracy, heart, and conviction of humanity that makes any of the plots fma stands very clearly on its own despite its different points of view because its central heart hits many of the same points, even if it doesn't handle them in the same way, this nuance makes the narration is very grounded and real, as if we were also on This journey of discovery and reconciliation with the brothers came to understand the world in our own unique way along with them and I think this touched something deep for many people who grew up because this may have been the first time some of us really thought.
About these things I watched FMA 2003 when I was about 10 or 11 and you can bet that these themes had never pierced my periphery until then and I think that will surely strike a chord with someone when they first consider it. These reflections make you consider your own humanity in a much more tangible way and in perspective of your own environment. It was the first time that while I was having fun watching an anime it also made me feel like I was starting to understand some deeper philosophical value. of the human experience, the thing that didn't make me feel that way was the conqueror of Shambhala, although frankly when I was a kid I didn't understand it, I thought it was quite boring, now I understand it, but wow, that's sloppy, I really just don't.
It doesn't add much substance to the 2003 TV finale and what it does add is often so heavy-handed and clumsily handled that it simply ruins the experience, the villain in particular just exploiting meaningless tropes about dehumanization and war without really meaningfully reflecting those points. In fact, as much as she just voices them as some kind of cartoon Nazi, which is apparently like 80 of this movie, it was left on the cutting room floor due to lack of time and production restraint, so I can definitely see where maybe some of the better ideas could have been developed further in, say, a 13-episode anime season that Shamballa was originally featured in, but this was 2005 and 2009 was only four years away, so suffice to say that Bones wasn't really interested in investing more money into an original anime continuation of a manga that might end in a few years, his focus was more on preparing for the production of said faithful adaptation of the manga and while I think It's a shame Shambhala didn't see a fully formed vision more closely.
As for what the director was going for, I'm also not sure I would have preferred it to come out if it meant we never got a second anime because to me, a more well-rounded Half Alchemist is almost always a good thing, this is almost always where it should be as well. I'll probably dive into the production side of things where anime is considered because, wow, both series are beautifully animated by Bones, who did some of the best work in the business for the 2009 action sequences in particular, especially given the sheer volume of them, 2003 is, of course. older and a little more rigid in its movement, but overall it still contains extremely solid direction and some pretty standout sequences throughout its 51 episodes in particular, I think the different aesthetic of each series also highlights their own thematic similarities, but the differences from 2003 often look more subdued or washed out color palettes, ed's coat is less bright red and more crimson or oxblood, in contrast, 2009 is a bit more rounded and similar to the aesthetic of the latest manga arakawa, which often attracts attention with very sharp and strong color decisions that work to create a sense of contrast similar to that which manga artwork does at its best.
However, I think the direction suffers a little when it first takes off and even more so in conversation scenes, many of them are very unique. - at one with the panels of the original manga and this can often lead to scenes feeling a little static or lifeless, especially in the first few episodes, but this is obviously mitigated more as it progresses, particularly with the choreography of creative action that increasingly comes into play throughout. In fact, I'd unfortunately have to say that the 2009 series gets off to a weaker start compared to its 2003 counterpart, but I'd say that for understandable reasons, as this was less than a decade after the last TV adaptation, Bones was right. assuming that most people had already seen and had a pretty good memory of the original 2003 series, so the first 14 to 15 odd episodes from 2009 are more or less up to date with the source material of the manga that they couldn't adapt the first time. leads to the overall pacing and presentation of the first darker cell generally feeling a little rushed and comparatively lackluster because of that, although once you get over that hurdle it improves dramatically, unfortunately I couldn't recommend that you simply watch the relevant material in 2003 .and then change because at that point 2003 had already woven so many small but crucial plot differences specific to its own story that the change would ultimately confuse you too much to probably continue following, so for the ultimate cumulative experience, basically I only recommend to people. watch fma like all us old fans did 2003 first 2009 second both completely shambhala optionally between them you will be able to appreciate the different tone and story of each while being informed enough to follow when 2009 gets a bit shorthand or you could just read the manga, which I recommend you do, even if you've seen both animes, the experience is ultimately much more coherent than either adaptation in terms of presenting Arakawa's vision from start to finish and there are plenty of little details that may interest you.
I would miss anywhere else, especially things like the special epilogue chapter, if you only read the manga,although you would miss out on some really excellent sound work. The scores for both series are impressive works, each deserving their place in anime gold history. stars attached to their names, 2003's score is often more somber and melancholic, with one of its most iconic tracks, bratsha, being almost synonymous with the franchise to this day, while 2009 also has a powerful presence with Its instrumentation, grandiloquent and complete, like military ensembles that further emphasize the humble ascent downward with more introspective pieces like Edward's theme at the end of the day, I believe that all these reasons and many others are what explain why FMA has resisted so much. time beyond its original conception its stories its themes and its postulations are also singularly timeless its fantastic world mixed with our own history, reminiscent of both the familiar and the extravagant, transmutes the best of escapist fantasy but also bleak reality into a perfect blend of action, intrigue, levity, introspection, pain, trauma, heart and hope, whether it be the hope of overcoming the worst thing the world has ever happened to us or the determination to change that world for the better through our connections with others.
The Fullmetal Alchemist understands what it means to be human, and ultimately that being human is what connects us all, it is never enough to simply cross your arms. to stand aside and mock others for their participation in society, it is not our job to become a self-proclaimed logician who seeks to undermine any truth that we consider irrelevant in a cold factual sense, for us who live in this world, it is our job to participate in value values ​​the people who live in it with us so that we can all get off the philosopher's seats and live as thoughtful, imperfect, beautiful humans in all the ways that make us ourselves at the end of the manga fma ed take back what he and they have all lost by sacrificing their own door to truth, their position as an alchemist and, therefore, philosopher of the world, humbling themselves before the truth when it asks them if they would really prefer to lower themselves to the level of a normal human being.
He responds that he was never more than that in the first place and that no cold pursuit of knowledge, no statistics or facts, formulas or theories could overcome the most important thing of all his connections with other people who love him and responds that he is right. and that's why I love Fullmetal Alchemist. I think that's why a lot of people love Fullmetal Alchemist. He entertained us, but he also made us think that many of us, for the first time in our youth, were taught about the cruelty of the world around us. and the cynicism that often drives it, but also of the ways we can survive it and even improve it with help, taught us that as long as we never stopped thinking, as long as we never accepted a single truth and took it for granted that we would always be better off. than a stubborn sycophant who praises himself in his ivory tower, we can make a difference, we can help people and it is these considerations and explorations of these very human ideals that FMA made navigable through the use of its attractive history. uniquely charming world and characters Fullmetal Alchemist is my favorite story ever told and 20 years later I don't think that's going to change anytime soon Hello everyone, thank you for watching my video on Fullmetal Alchemist.
I've wanted to talk about it for a long time. a long time, so I'm glad I was finally able to do it. If you like my videos, consider leaving a comment or subscribing as it really endears me to the ever-abrasive YouTube algorithm that hates when I'm idle. I also have a patreon that you can support if you want to continue supporting the creation of my videos and want to make my living situation a little more tolerable and with all that being said, thank you very much for watching everyone, see you in the next peace .

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