100% Blind Fullmetal Alchemist Review: SHOCKING Beginnings (Part 1)

Fullmetal Alchemist is freaking sneaky okay oh let's do some light-headed adventure for the first four chapters and then are my emotions a joke to you this chapter has left a void in my soul and the only thing that can feel it is more of this incredible story but I'm getting a little ahead of myself so let's take a step back when I grew up I spent a lot of time watching Dragon Ball and not a lot of time watching anything else and over the last three years I've tried to fix that by covering some of the most respected crazy traumatic and popular manga in circulation today however I've not yet come across anything quite like this before Fullmetal Alchemist is a story that sent its completion in 2010 has been widely praised as perfect and in addition to you guys asking for it every single day for the last three years straight this story has also featured as the number one anime on many high-profile lists across the web which means for the next three videos I will be for the very first time trying to figure out if it's deserving of this praise reading and sharing my first impressions of hiromu arakawa's sneaky and deeply upsetting supposed Masterpiece Full Metal Alchemist take a seat everyone this should be fun all right so like I said the first five chapters of the story took me completely by surprise and just for transparency I'm going to be writing sections of this as I read them I have no idea what happens after chapter five yet but I figured I'd let you all know what I thought about the first five chapters because it was a really interesting beaten switch to me and by interesting I mean sick and twisted but I digress this manga has the strongest first page I've ever read it illustrates the singular event that kick-starts this entire story all the while interweaving the core message of it in just one page and four panels arikawa tells a story of catastrophe realization Despair and Consequence the likes of which I've never seen so concisely conveyed before I've read a lot of manga on this channel some truly great pieces of Storytelling however when I tell you all that this is the single strongest first page I've read I want to emphasize that fact as true for example I got chills when I read this line for humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something up in return Beyond this the first four chapters are largely centered around Standalone stories that we as readers believe to be unrelated to one another at this point in time they involve our two main characters Edward Elric and his younger brother alfons as they travel in search of something called the Philosopher's Stone to right the wrongs of their past the first chapter contends with the antics of one self-appointed religious figure known as father carnella one who claims he can raise the dead to which Edward says don't like the sound of that now that's subtle but it's a really nice piece of exposition expressed through character expression it suggests Edward's negative experience with such a venture and it just really makes me want to lean in and learn more about this world I think what I love about this manga also is that for these first four chapters or so it tries to hide the horror of this world for the most part behind humorous at work and some truly great storytelling but at the end of the day the true nature of this story always manages to seep through the cracks in chapter 1 a young woman called Rose wishes for father cornello to resurrect her deceased boyfriend it's very heavy subject matter certainly not what I expected from a first chapter but what follows again alludes to something more harrowing in Edward and Al's pasts one that could explain their physical state presently furthermore there's some god-like comparisons used here also but not in the way that you'd expect the comparison is made between Edward and Icarus who famously failed at his mission despite his greatest and most ambitious efforts to reach the heavens above furthermore this story contained in chapter one is sort of perfect in its placing much like the townsfolk we the readers don't know of alchemy and how it's used and once we see what Fuller Canelo can do we accept that there must be some legitimacy to his claims of divinity and what bonds us with Edward and Alphonse from the get-go is their lifting of the cloak on this con man and his hoax on this town there are of course other stories like the mining one in chapter 3 which paints this world in 30 Shades of Gray the government being the antagonist in this instance it seems that everyone in this world is fair game if their motives are misplaced which honestly just makes things that much more interesting to me but no matter what I keep returning to the conclusion of chapter 2. it's explained to us that Equivalent Exchange is the rule with which this story abides by that in order to gain one thing something of equal value must be offered up in return I mentioned this because the one rule of this world sort of defines these two boys in their Journey Ed and Al or more specifically Edward the character arikawa writes spectacularly well foreign [Music] to show you what I mean there are two quotes I want to examine and the first is from this exchange between Rose and Edward now disillusioned following cornello's exposure she's emotionally unable to let her boyfriend go having held on to hope for so long only to be let down at the very end what Edward says to her in response to this begging can't come off as cold but speaks to the harsh reality of this world and the reality he's lived within alongside his brother all this time saying that she has to figure out what her next step is alone to stand up and walk and unlike them Edward and Al she has at least strong legs to take her to where she needs to go suggesting that Edward believes she got off easier than he did the second quote I want to draw attention to is a blink and you miss it quip in chapter 4 while on the train Edward says to Al that you can't move forward if you keep regretting the past this line is played for Laughs quite obviously in this scene but even in the comedy of this manga resides the DNA of these characters because this philosophy speaks to the type of person a Edward is he's quick to certain provocations Hands-On and resourceful someone who thinks he always has an answer and when things go wrong he moves on with conviction trying to do his best to make amends moving forward for without that mindset he'll forever get nothing done and fixate on the past these four chapters are quite lighthearted in Parts but again are permeated by seemingly innocuous levels of Darkness that is until we get to chapter 5. yeah okay we get the picture this episode is with a capital f where all the other chapters had darkness in their background with this it's the very literal subject matter when the two boys arrive from their eventful trip their focus is squarely on bio Alchemy or more specifically to seek it out to which they are pointed in the direction of one show talker he's introduced as the sewing life Alchemist for having at one point two years ago created a chimera a fusion of two or more creatures that could talk and that isn't even remotely the most screwed up thing in this chapter not by a long shot and I think that's sort of the idea the purpose of these first five chapters are to establish the main Duo reveal how moral they are and in the background allude to something far more severe and dark I'm not even kind of exaggerating that when it was revealed that show Tucker sacrificed his wife his dog and his daughter for the sake of his work this manga evoked a fear deep within me the likes of which I never even got from berserk and I think it has to do with what these five chapters do best establish a precedent and then boom contrast the near misses become extremely tense and the deaths will they hit much harder too so it's right around here we leave the tutorial area of the story and everything really starts to open up to us we learn about the politics and the history of a group known as the ishpalans we learn more about gluttony envy and lust and what's more is we get to see some really clever animation it's not flashy or anything but when Scar shatters Edward's arm Ed moves to crawl backwards but Falls because he's missing his arm it's a very small detail but it's one that I appreciate greatly it's great character acting but back on the topic of context and setting generally speaking this isn't so much a story with clear-cut sides we've been bonded to many in the military like Mustang Armstrong and Hawkeye among others but we can also sympathize with what's going on with the ish behind formerly known as Scar and moreover the trio of glut lost an Envy seemed to be against him too but yeah that's all I got for now time to go back to reading five hours later all right I'm after reading a bunch more and there's a mystery of foot everyone and we meet a girl called Winery that has such a cool design with with her jumpsuit and then a really nice guy dies my head hurts alright let's get into it things might seem complex right now but it kind of isn't which is interesting because this story doesn't really pack itself full with information at least not in any obvious way and I think that's perhaps the most clever thing about this story that I've observed so far from this point on there's a lot of mystery surrounding a supposedly evil plot and its connection to the Philosopher's Stone that Ed and Al are searching for and with all of that on my dinner plate I never felt too full or overwhelmed by the exposition when I was reading one piece week to week I would be writing up like 20 Page documents of notes taking account of everything that I thought would be relevant and worth addressing in a video while also slamming like six to nine volumes every four days in a sweat one piece it's intense it's not for the faith of heart only those with the strength and will to become the pirate king that is put with Fullmetal Alchemist I feel so much more relaxed this is is one long continuous story and arakawa is interested in telling it at her own pace and honestly it's phenomenal she has such a Keen Eye for picking out certain intimate moments and creates space for us to bathe in them for a little while longer than other stories I've read through have given me and this creates so much more natural investment for me as a reader because I once so desperately for these characters that I am now invested in to get their Happy Endings where Dragon Ball will be way too busy shoving in some fight scene or in the case of One Piece would be way too busy shoving in as much story as possible it's a good thing please don't kill me one piece Community Full Metal Alchemist I am happy to say has a wonderful balance of the two and has struck a very satisfying approach for me I think but enough generalities I alluded to a mystery element within this story the Philosopher's Stone and its supposed connection with the plot lost and Co are carrying out on their way to win Reef for repairs Edina now stopped to talk to One Dr Marco whose research is directly tied to what Ed and Al are desperately looking for this is where the mystery is turned up to a 11. he uses a philosopher's stone and is known all around the area as a guy that can just heal people with Miracles so to speak but the conflict here is that Dr Marco doesn't give Ed anything other than a riddle to solve and that is to find the truth that lies within the truth what the hell does that does that mean Edina are now faced with solving this mystery this riddle that leads to the next step in this web of confusion and someone is hiding something but what is it suddenly this story has gone full-blown mystery Noir and I am all here for it it's such a rare atmosphere for our Shonen manga to try and employ so successfully anyways that riddle meant that the government I think were using prisoners as sacrifices to create more philosopher stones for what reason I still don't know but this is how far we are Al and Ed go to investigate but are cut off before they can discover anything by Two Souls well okay technically three Souls but they're all trapped in two suits of armor they both beat their attackers and just as Ed's dude is about to Spill the Beans [Music] this story is screwed up despite his meddling despite his looking for the truth for some reason they let Edward live why what's this significance what's happening okay jokes aside I do have a theory but you're gonna have to wait a teeny bit longer Full Metal Alchemist when I first saw this Hues guy I was primed to hate him I was entrenched in my big brain mode of constantly trying to suss out and analyze the who the secret bad guy might be this series definitely has one somewhere and Hughes was too nice he loved his family perhaps too much that could be motive right well it turns out he's actually awesome and one of the coolest characters in the series he gave winry a place to stay when she was repairing Ed's arm after the lab 5 fight and he even manages to deliver one of the most tense scenes in the series [Music] this is another moment where Full Metal Alchemist turns the drama up to 10 and we are all drawn in reading through this segment of the manga I was immediately convinced of Hugh's innocence and was on his side one million percent knowing full well that things were likely going to go south for the character he found some key information that blows this whole case wide open and that's the problem but he escapes like a mad lad losing a lot of blood but in the depths of pain and at the brink of death he takes every precaution he can to send the relevant information but he can't get through it's tragic and not even the best part of this Fallout Colonel Mustang and he had this straight guy funny guy Dynamic thus far and with Mustang putting up with hughes's Antics for the sake of Peace but when we were at the funeral and we see Mustang reflect on this it's clear to see what Hughes meant to him specifically and how badly this impacts him which means moving forward he's determined to come to grips with how he died and more importantly why he died and once he gets to the crime scene watching his detective abilities on show was fascinating it's so easy to write these kinds of deductions like a super genius tying inconsequential pieces of information together in nonsensical Fashions but arakawa does so here in a clever but grounded way Mustang observed that Hughes chose to call from an outside line because he must have had reason to perhaps their ranks are compromised or involved this is a perfectly reasonable deduction for him to make furthermore once Armstrong arrives in the scene Mustang reads in between the lines of what he says to him inferring he has a gag order from someone higher up than even he and understood from his wording that there are two murderers on the loose I love mystery surrounding the government the Philosopher's Stone and how the ishmaelens play into it not to mention Edward and Al it's fascinating and in making us want to figure this out it also makes us focus on the World building all back home [Music] I'm gonna be real not much happens in rust valley in terms of plot progression but a lot takes place in terms of World building and context for the narrative seeing this place where all the main soldiers go to after the war to get themselves some nice looking Prosthetics is both interesting and unsettling with even the inhabitants saying as much with a new character called Panini's legs acting as the launching point that transport is up this mountain to find the dude to train Winery in the ways of making better automail and of course childbirth functionally this place acts as a sobering reminder of the world that they live in all the while offering up Winery her little hyperbolic Time Chamber Arc and when she emerges from this place she will no doubt make something awesome for Edward [Music] I think a large part of the story's appeal comes from a tormented World being seen through the innocent and well-meaning eyes and actions of two young children these two Edward Alphonse are our only anchors to this world and we make sense of it with the help of these two and after traveling so far to get answers to seek out training so that they may be better equipped to continue their Journey it made me stop to think for a moment the following portion of story concerned itself and deals with the context surrounding the events that took place on that day that they lost everything it's tragic heartbreaking and every other similar adjective but at the end of the day this is a story about Equivalent Exchange will the hardship the two boys inevitably have to go through be enough in exchange for achieving their ultimate goal it isn't uncommon for Shonen stories to concern themselves with the protagonists pushing towards some unreachable goal in fact it's sort of a staple of the genre and many other films for that matter the indomitable Spirit of these characters as they Take On The World so to speak whether it be Luffy's journey to become the pirate king or Goku surpassing his limits to overcome some great evil the theme of fighting against impossible odds is one that's become integral for many of these stories however what I believe sets this one apart is that the goal is something which is described as quite literally impossible its impossibility is a staple of the world its rules and the greater narrative it's what sets the goal apart from most others I've read about because where there was hope in one piece in Dragon Ball here it seems to be the case that there is none and the tone of the narrative seems to reflect that unlike Goku who just needs to try Hider or Luffy who needs to keep searching and adventuring for the one piece that we are all told time and again exists by the way when it comes to Edward and his brother there isn't a clear path forward and every sign points to this being impossible which means there's no obvious Journey Instead This goal is shrouded in mystery with us as viewers and indeed these characters uncertain as to whether even the direction they're pushing in will get them closer to where they ultimately want to be or if it's simply more wasted time normally an approach like this would leave an audience in want or at the very least confused generally speaking we know how Goku overcomes the next threat training and practice similar observations and expectations can be made for the likes of Luffy however with Edward and Al there's no expectation Beyond just not giving up in the face of literal impossibilities and brilliantly what's communicated through such a framework is an impressive and deeply relatable set of circumstances for me it's a fascinating take on the genre and one that grants this tale an air of darkness and misery that permeates through the pages I've read but not in a way that's so overwhelming it detracts from the experience and as a result at this point in my adult life where problems with no obvious solution present themselves more often than not watching these two tirelessly search in the face of unwavering impossibility with Earnest and optimism was both incredibly inspirational and tragic the anime adaptations while this series like the vast majority of reviews on this channel focuses on the original Source material the manga in this case it would be completely irresponsible of me to ignore the two anime adaptations this Series has received particularly when one of them has topped every single fan voted best anime list for over a decade and frankly it's very easy to see why both are so beloved regardless of which version you pick you're going to find yourself drowning in to see a phenomenally well-directed and animated scenes these are exemplary Productions and it's the quality on its floor rather than its ceiling that I think is one of the number one reasons it sustained itself in people's memories for so long they are firing on all cylinders in ways few Studios can sustain particularly across over four cores of consistent production and it's how this was achieved as perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of both series's Productions and I am of course referring to it's Outsourcing the thought of Outsourcing tends to conjure up thoughts of melting Productions and poor animation quality or it's seen as a cheap Corner coding alternative to in-house creation and while it's easy to see why that's the case particularly in the modern era of anime Productions Outsourcing is not inherently a Bad Thing take Dragon Ball Z for example almost all of his episodes are outsourced to Studios outside of toei even those widely considered some of the strongest of the series the reason for this is simply due to how anime episodes are made multiple episodes are in production at once with teams dedicated to each of them and they rotate through episodes to keep the production flowing when you have a show with a huge number of episodes there's only so much staff at a time that can be able to be dedicated to them and so Outsourcing becomes a necessity to one allow the production to exist in the first place and two to allow bigger episodes to have more time for their completion 2003's Fullmetal Alchemist anime had 21 of its 51 episodes outsourced that's almost two full seasons of anime in brotherhood's 64 episode run 25 of those were entirely outsourced too Studio names like PA Works Goga Kobo Telecom and A1 pictures are just a few who worked on these shows and I'm sure some of you Savvy fans will notice some of these support Studios have since gone on to produce high quality shows all on their own it shouldn't be a surprise then that much like the Dragon Ball example I used earlier some of its best episodes came from those external Studios and then when you throw in studio bones's top tier staff on top of that for those that may not be aware given how much bones has become a household name in their own right these days the studio was actually formed from sunrise's strongest production team by its producer masahiko Minami as a result it still maintains strong ties to Mecca animators to this very day and while Fullmetal Alchemist doesn't exactly have much in the way of mechs there's a work ethic and craftsmanship that carries over regardless its wide array of talented animation directors will not only correct faces from model accuracy but often go above and beyond to elevate the scene as a whole and really it all comes together to explain just how these shows maintain an absurd level of Polish during even its lowest moments on the 2003 side of things the series is led by director seiji mizushima who is a lovingly nicknamed fatty by his staff and is the person the director was based off of in the shirubako anime I don't think that's a nickname that's looked on all too kindly these days but by all accounts he was a real joy to work under and the team had a great deal of respect form in spite of that nickname but for the most part his directorial experience was Mecca related but he led the Shaman King anime in 2001 and while that series certainly doesn't shy away from its Mech influences I think the ability to also capture that fun Shonen energy made him the perfect fit for a series like Full Metal Alchemist for the Brotherhood adaptation Fullmetal Alchemist found itself directed by an animator turned director who much likes so many of bones's Staff also had intense ties to Mecha anime he's someone who's being quite vocal about his love of hayo miyazaki's work also citing Kiki's Delivery servers as one of the reasons he got into anime in the first place it's an influence you can very clearly see in his debut show Kuro Phantom memory it's just chock full of solid layouts with a real emphasis on the fundamentals of Animation however that show was only two cores long and that meant he was able to have a real Hands-On approach to directing using his strong drawing skills to really Elevate the production itself contrast brotherhood's 64 episodes were more than double the length of phantom memories and so that approach was simply never going to work instead he had to lean heavily on the individual directors and storyboard artists on board the production delegating duties like that can be scary and sometimes leads to jarring disparity in quality across episodes but thankfully he was blessed with a very strong directorial team within bones itself and a lot of that Outsourcing sure helped alleviate the pressure too in the behind the scenes sections of any other video now would be an incredible time to talk about the character designers for each show but I think with both series sporting seriously impressive design work either way it's an element that's wholly down to preference on the whole really 2003's designs came from yoshiyuki Ito who's arguably a bit of a legend in this department he's done some spectacular designs for the likes of Space Dandy hiso-masso and there's a really distinct flavor to his work that seeps into his Full Metal Alchemist designs too they sport a far sharper edged in the manga's artwork and really lean into the idea of an adaptation rather than a perfect copy on the flip side brotherhoods came from Hiroki Kano whose design background really only extends to razza phone and The UU Hakusho movie in spite of this his work here is remarkably competent too with a staunch adherenced arakawa's rounder and looser style it looks great and really helps to sell the idea that Brotherhood exists to represent the manga as a whole while 2003 veered off in its own Direction by necessity however where both series really shine are their individual animators the key players the major stars and I think to do them Justice they require their own space for a thorough exploration of what they offer each series I'll be sure to include their section in future videos regarding this topic but in the meantime I think it's important to cover an aspect of the anime that is arguably as defining as its visuals to music [Music] similar to the visual production side of the anime it's hard to go wrong with music for either anime adaptation of this story both excelling their respective approaches and bring with them tracks and motifs that have since become deeply beloved by nearly all who watched the shows but what I find interesting between both of them is that they do have different approaches fundamentally I mean and I think those differences really highlight the differences in general direction both shows took in their adaptations the original series score was composed by michiru Oshima and when I first watched it I was honestly surprised by how grounded and earthy the whole thing felt both scores are certainly rooted in a sense of emotion and wonder but oshima's Focus really seemed to be on the down to earth aspect of the story most of the tracks feature a lot of instrumentation that feels familiar to us as viewers strings horns drums the whole nine yards whereas with Brotherhood score composed by Akira senju it was immediately clear to me how different the two composers envisioned this story and its world senju has gone on record in interviews saying he per purposely didn't watch or listen to the 2003 series before composing Brotherhood but rather read the Manga and tried to imagine up what the world would sound like and where Oshima heard a grounded story set in a fantastic World senju clearly heard a story of fantasy tragedy and hope brotherhood's score focuses deeply on its emotional beats and a sense of fantasy and wonder pianos string sections and a choral arrangements are everywhere in this score there's a very grandiose nature to it all it reminds me of something like Lord of the Rings where its music and Direction made each moment feel like the audience was lucky to be witnessing history in the making for these fantastic worlds and yet there's something that just keeps bringing me back to oshima's 2003 approach to the show no don't get me wrong the Brotherhood soundtrack is packed to the brim with absolutely wonderful works of Music helping the adaptation Elevate its emotional beats higher than ever before but I personally feel really drawn to the more grounded approach of the original Show's score as I read through the manga the story and its world really did feel like upbeat characters with with Fantastical powers that feel secondary to the conviction and heart in the face of seemingly Relentless negativity and impossible odds so the direction of Leaning into the character-driven element rather than the Fantastical resonated with me personally it's a direction I don't think a lot of composers went tasked with writing for a story as crazy as Fullmetal Alchemist would take it very much reminds me of John Williams's score for Star Wars where you also had this extremely Fantastical universe and events but instead had the music focus on the Earthly minutia of the characters hell there's even a fair bit of Star Wars trademark flugelhorn in Fullmetal Alchemist 2. foreign the grounded atmosphere of this otherwise Fantastical story is what draws me in so feverishly in a world that's written to be filled with so many wondrous things it stands to arakawa that I myself am more than anything else enthralled by the story surrounding the two main characters and I think there's very good reason for that once Ed and Al arrive at izumi's place for training it becomes clear that this section is going to deal with predominantly one thing flashbacks and it's interesting to sit and read through or painted a bleak picture of a mother dying of a sickness we never see her have we see resentment for a father that's never there and two very young kids looking to move mountains to save the only family they have it's heartbreaking and we haven't even seen the unnatural torturous heartbreak yet having returned from their training with Izumi we see the fabled event that's been alluded to from the very first page the transmutation circle that almost cost them both everything and this section is remarkably simple looking in the manga having come away from story is like berserk which depict Dark Fantasy horror better than anyone else part of me was a little underwhelmed with how this looked in the manga but in hindsight I'm glad that once again the emphasis was on the characters and their dialogue getting a view of what happens in this Transcendent state with Ed is a really cool idea and I feel like it's littered with hints for the future and the Mystery of this series but honestly the most traumatic part is what follows it's the aftermath Ed's realization his sacrifice what creature he ends up creating and attempting to create his own mother it's utterly horrifying and the following reinforces the reasoning behind why winry and Granny are so close to these two young boys now I want to talk more about Al and Ed at the end of this video because I think they're Dynamic with this world is the key to this series but right now I'd like to make a prediction okay it's Theory time in the immediate chapter after these events we get the boy's first interaction with the government and it's with Ron Mustang Ron Mustang Ron Mustang that's insulting that's okay but interestingly due to some mistakes made on a government recruitment document he arrives in town to pick up the Elric Brothers thinking that they were both in their 30s but I think this is way too coincidental and this story is way too tightly written for something like that to just be coincidence following this event Ed is seen as someone special and seeing as we haven't seen his father in the picture at all I'm going to guess that he's behind this decision maybe as a way of protecting his kids or perhaps more likely to take advantage of their current circumstances as students of Izumi and now having tried to transmute life itself if either of these are true then that would mean that their father needs to be someone high up in the government or military someone who has access to these documents this also explains his consistent absence I mean it can't be Mustang he's too young it can't be used he's too dead it could be I'm strong the hair color matches and he cares for them quite a lot and it could be president Bradley too but we don't really know much about this fellow beyond that he has a network of intelligence and wants the boys out of the current investigation which tracks with this with that said it could still all just be coincidence the writing for this flashback isn't perfect I mean this is all framed if you remember as a flashback a story Ed and Al are recanting to Izumi upon her request but in this we see conversations like that with Mustang or Winery that they weren't privy to so how could they see these people's perspective how did you know about the parts you weren't there for I don't know personally but what I do know is that Bradley seems to be following Edward around like a Love Struck teen lately which brings me to my favorite part of this story so far thank you okay Bradley is a bad guy damn it I predicted this a while ago and My Hope was to end this video with this being my prediction now everyone's gonna think I read ahead and just wrote something like oh yeah this dude's totally a bad guy I definitely didn't read I had to spoil myself so no I'm not lying I knew it I predicted it please believe me the following section is the most compelling or at the least most action-packed part of the story so far that I've read it's got Revelation tension and filled with promises for the future Alphonse Elric is tasked with rejogging his own memory concerning the events or visions he saw that very night he lost physically everything according to Ed himself he saw something that brought him closer to the answer they needed but when it came to Al he's forgotten everything and thus is the goal of this next section the way arakawa goes about it is by creating a complicated spider's web of mixed motivations we're introduced to the latest and best sin greed who along with his lackeys kidnap Al so that he can reveal to them his secret to immortality greed is an infectious personality yogish and boisterous he fears little and never stops talking he's exactly the sort of character that makes for a fantastic scene partner for the likes of Al who seldom speaks in comparison on the other side of this we have Izumi and her husband who offers so much comedy my sides were hurting just reading through it I'm a big fan of the protective but gritty Persona Izumi exudes to but the real interest doesn't take shape until Ed who up until this point had been seeing to his Alchemy assessment finds himself followed by Bradley back home where he realizes that Al is in trouble kidnapped [Music] Edward in this big brother role is awesome to see and what's hilarious is that greed who was up until this point the most unstable personality once he meets Ed he realizes what he's up against this is a kid who isn't going to make a deal with such a dicey figure the fight is compelling and greed is terrifying it makes me wonder if all the sins are capable of showing their true forms like this but I think the most impactful part of all of this that people will remember and be in awe of is the reveal of Bradley he is a competent fighter yes oh my God yes he's terrifying but it's what happens in the sewer and the meeting he has later on with the other sins that really speaks to the terror of this situation the military is compromised from the very top he is led by this old man hooked up to a bunch of pipes maybe this is Edward and Al's dad now I don't know just throwing it out there it's a complete shot in the dark but all I do know is that Bradley was the one that named Edward the Full Metal Alchemist and with that being his official title and the name of this series it makes me wonder if there's any significance to that name at all only time tell I think and so bringing this video to a close I find myself in an unfamiliar position as a reviewer looking at this for the very first time specifically because this story isn't at all like what I expected it to be and while I have only read about one-third of this story presently I feel like I am starting to understand the dynamic of Alphonse and Edwards so much more clearly now and what was once an interesting Duo to lead this tale has helped me better appreciate what arakawa is trying to say with them in a profound way a cursory glance at this story might lead you to believe that Edward is the most important character in the story and that his brother alifons is a sweet but ultimately secondary player in this story acting only as a motivating force to push his older more active brother into action and while I fell prey to that very thinking initially now I'm embarrassed to have thought that ever was the case for it's the dynamic these two share in accordance with the antagonist of this world that effectively make up what Fullmetal Alchemist is trying to say as a story and I think what makes this story as emotionally resonant As It ultimately is but what do I mean there is a lot of philosophy in this story however for the purposes of this one point and prediction I'd like to make I want to focus on three Central points of view starting off with Edward from the very first page it's clear what the events that Define Edward are in chapter 6 he's haunted by horrific dreams brought on by his Guild surrounding the incident right before their first run-in with scar he talks about how doubtful he is in the feasibility of getting his brother his body back when I first saw Ed meet Dr Marco I saw this as a Starcon contrast between two very different individuals Dr Marco someone who's haunted by the past sins of the government and Military such that he Harbors deep root of resentment projecting them onto Edward who I thought was convincingly not allowing his past to Define him and instead push forward the first time we see Edward in the manga is at the single most traumatic moment in his life before cutting to him pushing forward in a light-hearted fair it demonstrates exactly who he is as a character tortured yes but also tenacious and convicted working with his trauma in a productive way and I thought that was it for a very long time until Ed visits his mom's grave because he's Restless he wants to spend every single moment pushing towards his goal making progress on a journey that seems hopeless all the while Al who has lost the most out of the two is much more inclined to insist that they rest and enjoy the day Edward has an outwardly good attitude towards leaving negativity in the past but he seems to always be focusing on it using it as a fuel with the most pressing cost to him being his sacrifice of the today the here and now there's an interesting quote from Granny panaco on Edward Elric and his nature in this chapter too it says I wondered where in that little body all that strength was coming from and because he's so strong I worry that when he does finally find an obstacle he can't overcome would he be able to get back on his feet by pairing this Exposition with the small outing Edward design to his mother's grave it gives this chapter a very heavy and emotional atmosphere rooted in the mistakes of the past and how they inform our futures not just through Edward's tireless pursuit of answers to his greatest problem but even with regards to the ishpalan war that took winry's parents and Granny pinako's family while those events took so much from them it very much defines how they live now granting Prosthetics is a successful business thanks to the war's aftermath and similarly that horrific past even now defines both Edward and alphonse's lives as they know it exemplified almost immediately after once Ed gets his arm back for the very first time he runs to repair his brother without hesitation everything he does all of this study all of the torment and struggle is not just for himself it's for his brother and that's what he cares about so let's talk about Alphonse Alphonse while having the most to gain from this mission is the one who interestingly is more grounded in the here and now while he still wishes to regain his mortal body he does so for totally different reasons to why Edward pushes in such a direction he wants the body not to make up some difference and to get even with the universe but to instead better enjoy the here and now there are massive ethical and physical struggles over the morality of extending a person's Natural Life towards immortality in this story this is visually demonstrated through the horrific chimeras as well as all the actions of the sins themselves in the case of Alphonse he has everything the antagonist of this story want he has an immortal existence on this plane and that's exactly what makes him dislike his current existence so much because without being able to feel pain taste good food or feel the rain in his skin or the wind in his hair it's all just a muted experience A Life That's practically meaningless and you might think that Edward is closer to Al's outlook on life than and the antagonist of the story but I would argue differently unlike Alphonse Edward is the one to blame for the bulk of what tragedy unfolded he led the charge and as a result of that met a series of crippling consequences along the way both literally and figuratively in order to write these wrongs he sees himself having committed he doesn't allow his feelings to compromise his forward progression however in the same way the villains of the story have their focus squarely on the future they want for themselves Edward's mind is consumed with guilt over his past and nowhere is this more evident than in Rush Valley where we learn of his State Alchemist pocket watch where on the inside of it is etched a specific date the 3rd of October a date he promised himself he would never lose focus of for those same reasons he destroyed his family home he is so consumed by the guilt of that event and the consequences he wrote on his own family that he has dedicated every waking moment to perfecting and investigating this mysterious power system in the hopes that one day it will reveal to him something that will allow him to move on with the rest of his life free of guilt impossible as it seems to be so in a way he is as good and as talented as he is not just because he's a genius but because he's obsessed and perhaps that's why he denies that compliment every single time it's offered to him Alphonse has the immortality that everyone is after and yet he hates it while Ed is living in the past and others are worried about their Futures this is a story not just about Equivalent Exchange but about life itself what you need to give up on or not give up in order to lead a fulfilling life and ironically and tragically Alphonse who's always telling Ed to slow down and enjoy the moment to rest and to have fun he seems to be the only one who truly understands what life is all about and that a great life needs to be one that ends at some point and even if we want to take a step back and think about things more abstractly from Ed Alphonse or any other character in this story perhaps the lesson is that we can't create full appreciation for something unless we lose it first in exchange [Music] next week we're going to be going on to part two of this series I hope to see you all there and thank you all so much for watching [Music] me [Music]

Channel: Totally Not Mark

Views: 429,497

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Id: FucVkybYH2A

Length: 41min 39sec (2499 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023