Fullmetal Alchemist Retrospective | A Series Made Fullmetal

well it's been a long time coming but it's finally here my video on Full Metal Alchemist and hey this isn't Full Metal Alchemist what's this video game nonsense doing here nobody cares about that seriously though the DMC 5 video is coming I already have a script started you just gotta give me a minute speaking of characters with metallic right arms though it's impossible to think of an anime series more iconic or highly regarded than Full Metal Alchemist anyone even slightly interested in anime or manga is extremely familiar with FMA just by osmosis alone to the point that it's ranked number one on my anime list in fact for many this series was the gateway drug into anime itself and all the schoolyard bullying that followed personally finding Full Metal Alchemist late Friday nights on YTV was when what anime was really clicked no longer was it only about evolving monsters or muscular men shooting laser beams now was something that could handle extremely adults morally great themes like that I caught a me of science and religion in the world and the value of a human soul which along with Death Note came at the perfect time when I was getting into my edgy teenager fates and since then I went over no other series more I've really watched FMA Brotherhood all the way through at the very least once every year since 2009 on top of multiple rewatch is of the original 2003 series and the manga itself and we're just gonna ignore certain live-action films that tried to shoehorn in about five different storylines into ninety minutes though something I've always found interesting about the series is that both the 2003 anime and Brotherhood are so highly regarded where in most situations that likely wouldn't be the case it would be one or the other there are still the occasional monkey knife fights that occur on the topic but most agree that both are amazing series despite their differences in fact it's those differences that make them such a unique pair so rather than throat yet another attempt to deconstruct them figure out which is definitively better I thought it would be more worthwhile examining the two animes as two sides of the same coin and try to understand how to vastly different adaptations came to be generation-defining so it's time to clap our hands together and trespass into God's domain in order to learn what it really means to have a heart made fullmetal welcome to my full metal alchemist retrospective now since this is full metal alchemist we're talking about I think it would be appropriate to start in media res style before working our way backwards so let's begin by simply examining the series as a larger whole before we get to looking at individual pieces to start something that's always been at the core full metal alchemist whether it's the manga the O three anime or Brotherhood is its cast between the two Elric brothers who were on a journey of self-discovery and to recover their bodies after attempting to resurrect their mother to the morally complicated issue and scar out to avenge his lost homeland to the northern wall of briggs olivia armstrong FMA has an amazingly diverse cast of characters that all stand out in their own ways and have vastly different morals and goals that work into the story take my two personal favorite characters from the series major Louis Armstrong and Creed link from brotherhood major Armstrong being involved in the military is personally tortured for the atrocities he was forced to commit an ich fall and feels like a coward for having fled the war rather than fighting against the injustice going on which then fuels his desire to help the innocent of the country despite his own position within the military frequently getting in the way of that boomba is usual demeanor though you never would get that as most of his appearances are covered in sparkles and bodybuilding poses that would make Vince McMahon blush there are definitely stronger arcs better involved in the larger story as Armstrong acts mostly as a source of comedic relief but it's harder to enjoy a goofy hyper-emotional beefcake that still has some deeper nuance going on then on the flip side there is greed Lane who acts as a pseudo antagonist turned hero through the latter half the story existing as two characters sharing one body which itself creates an interesting character dynamic with how they relate to others as well as each other both act as Outsiders looking to achieve their own selfish goals in the face of a larger problem forcing them to reconsider what they truly value only to find what they were looking for wasn't that simple which is a recurring theme found throughout FMA plus the rampage in central near the end of the series is just plain cathartic to watch not only is each character of the series given their own personal arcs and goals to work towards but what keeps it interesting is how they then have to bounce off each other's ethical outlook on the world in a massive web of intrigue and how that might end up changing them looking back here's later it's impossible to know that this series has created some of the most iconic characters in the medium along with having top-tier waifu material with of course the exception being the Elric's teacher Izumi Curtis who already has a man a hundred times finer than you and it wasn't my mistake that FMA has arguably the strongest female cast in the shown in genre either as its author Hiromu Arakawa one of the rare female Shonen authors in the early 2000s made a concerted effort into including well-rounded women into her story as she grew up on a dairy farm surrounded by strong ladies and wanted to incorporate characters like that from the rock Bell family automail mechanics to the ninjas of the shang dynasty to the badass women of the military though despite being defined as a shown in series considering it's aimed towards a younger male demographic at least in regards to where it was initially published in many ways full metal alchemist feels atypical to the genre both from its story structure and character archetypes FMA regularly pushes the boundaries to a more on tone especially do three enemy which is noticeably more somber and harsh in comparison even watching it from a casual perspective it's hard not to take notice of this sheer amount of mature themes being juggled throw both the series that feel quite uncommon to your average shown in feelings of loss and coming to terms with it the effects and after-effects of war the dangers of militaristic states class struggle science versus religion revenge Redemption the philosophy of nature the pursuit of truth and knowledge the morality of science metaphysical ideas about identity and of course the value of a human soul how much five bucks deal it's because of all these overlapping concepts and motifs that even years after the series finished publication there's still an abundance of YouTube videos online articles and even academic papers dedicated to analyzing any number of the themes or Marquand juries that are brought up throughout both of the series which speaks a lot to the thought that I recall put into developing such a world and its characters that it could touch so many people in different ways which also isn't something that happened purely by accident when developing the world of Full Metal Alchemist our comma wanted to get a broad since the world around her as a way to give a more engaging and nuanced perspective to her story leading to her talking to people from a variety of different lifestyles such as former Yakuza war refugees and most notably the I knew people of a Kaido Japan showed out to the golden kamilly fans in the room being raised in the Hokkaido region Arakawa was extremely familiar with the Ainu people indigenous to the region and the decades of discrimination they went through due to policies enacted by the Japanese government as a way to forcibly take their land from them which would then act as the basis for scars history the nation of ishbal and the war of extermination that would play a key role in FM a story and it's morally layered political issues however despite its grim subject matter a noticeable reason why Full Metal Alchemist can't really be classified as a mature series aka senin in comparison to say berserk or ghost in the shell' is conveys those complex and nuanced themes in ways that are palatable for younger audiences which is why it's always made for a great bridge for moving into more adult-themed series or as a gateway antenna made for older audiences our cover makes a point of blending in the poignant tragedies of the series with moments of cheesy comedy to break it up and lighten the tension and while it can't create a bit of tonal dissonance at times it's what makes Full Metal Alchemist so easily digestible as well as the fact that this balance of darker subject matter with bursts of levity is fundamental to our Kawas personal style as you can see that going all the way back to some of her earliest work and this is where we take a step back a bit and look to understand how our acaba to creating what would become such an iconic series because just like with alchemy we have to know what something is fundamentally before we look at how it can be changed so back in the mid 90s after leaving the family farm in pursuit of becoming a mangaka and big-city Tokyo Arakawa was doing a lot of freelance jobs within the industry working as a writing assistant at Enix his new monthly manga magazine monthly shown in gangin and doing four panel comics for the gaming magazine gay missed along with creating fan doujins with her friends on the side she maintained doing this type of freelance work up until 1999 when she published her first manga one-shot stray dog a story about a broody mercenary venturing around with a young human dog hybrid partner a species of chimera that bonds to its owner for life and are often referred to as dogs of the military due to their creation being for the sake of militaristic purposes are you starting to see some patterns beginning to form here from there stray dog went on to winning the 21st century Shonen ganga nord which also came with a publishing contract at Enix and Shonen gangin following Arakawa's new job she then wrote Totsuka kita now you know Enix ooh a parody manga of the Enix company and her time there which I for the life of me can't find any proof of existing and feel like it's one giant joke being played on me while I attempt to research this topic and demons have shanghaied a short-lived manga that released four chapters between the year 2000 and 2006 about a futuristic shanghai that's frequently played by demons and the towers corporation regularly hired to deal with them I bring this all up because when looking at both stray dog and demons of Shanghai you see specific character archetypes and designs starting to form what would come later on there's a certain style being gradually built here mixing genuine emotion and depth with a bit of slapstick humor along with some amazing and diverse design work with its characters and that leads us to Arakawa defining work supposedly and this is only going from a couple sources that I absolutely couldn't confirm so take it with a grain of salt it was during her time working at Enix that our recover realized if she kept the company's games in mind it would be easier for her amount gonna get published in their magazine and since the Philosopher's Stone was a recurring item of the Dragon Quest games that Enix was known for she chose to use that as the basis for her next work which in Eveleigh led her to researching into the real-life history of alchemy and from there a much larger basis started to form many of the core ideas and even characters of film alchemists came from this research into alchemy such as the concept of monkey light to Swiss Alchemist and father of toxicology Theophrastus von Hohenheim being an inspiration for the main characters father though while there was a plethora of interesting theories involved in the study and history of alchemy our Akama found a lot of the practices contradicted each other as she read into them which likely inspired their current theme of questioning the true purpose of alchemy and its philosophical value that would be found in the later series I see the later series because in comparison to say Ichiro Oda who always had a story of one piece in mind as a larger series Full Metal Alchemist was at first only meant to be a single issue one shot which was never actually published until July 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the completed manga giving it a read the prototype shows many familiar elements of the full series the two Elric brothers traveling across the land doing a deeds jokes about adds height and military corruption and regions that are desperate for resources critique government power structures and those that can abuse them strip down the prototypes and amalgamation of the Lior and usual arcs having the structure of the L works time in the mining town along with some of the story beats with faller Canelo and the recount meant of the brothers failed human transmutation but well the story ends on a note of there being further adventures to follow once the one-off antagonist is taken care of there was no concrete plans for a chapter two however after seeing the storyboards for the one-shot our house editor saw the potential full metal alchemist had and request deferred to instead turn it into a serial which was a lot for Arakawa as she'd never written a long-form story before and giving the new artists like her their own series was a rarity in the manga industry there was an explanation for that though that goes beyond the potential FMA showed you see at the time in 2001 Shonen gengen didn't quite have any major issue sellers in their lineup in the same way their direct competitors like shounen jump did seemingly having the best luck with manga adaptations of Enix his game series like Dragon Quest this problem was only then exacerbated when much of the editorial staff from Enix then moved on to create their own company taking with them many of its best artists to start a new magazine so Enix was hurting for new talent at the time and Arakawa style fit the fantasy tone the magazine was going for so after our okawa spent a couple more weeks on figuring out the details to the longer story and how would end as she wanted a concrete place to work towards the first chapter of Full Metal Alchemist was published in Gaghan monthly on July 12 2001 and quickly found an audience in the magazine going back to the earlier chapters years later the beginning mark of FMA is one of these strongest starts to a manga as it establishes everything the reader needs to know going forward and what they can expect within its first few chapters taking the earlier one-shot and we're finding it into an even more polished version everything starts nice and simple as it eases you into it all with these smaller self-contained stories of the aurochs journey but quickly hooks you in as the military intrigue of the series begins to escalate and new parties start to come into the picture many of the reveals may be common knowledge now - even those with a passing interest basically being the equivalent of the I am your father moment from Star Wars but as the manga progresses there's a lot of interesting twists that occur throughout that keep you invested while always feeling like the surprises come as organic to the characters going with our colors writing philosophy that a great manga writer is someone who can find the perfect balance between complying with the readers expectations and betraying set expectations throughout the early volumes there's a great rhythm to how it constantly gives out information without ever feeling like it's bogging you down with it or attempting to trick you which is saying something considering how much actually does happen throughout the course the manga within the first 20 chapters the series covers a takedown of a religious figure a money town uprising a train hijacking a bad science experiment a serial murderer a laboratory conspiracy a death from within the military a childbirth and a trip to the teachers office to get yelled at and that's all together with the character development and intrigue that's sprinkled a long way on the topic of not what you'd expect it's also worth noting Emma's unique inclusion in Shonen gangin a manga magazine commonly known for publishing more high fantasy type series especially in the early 2000s in the technical sense full malach miss does fit within the broader genre of fantasy but it immediately stands out for its interpretation of it while other fantasies shown in series often treat magic as an unexplained force or use of vague language when addressing it FMA takes a uniquely scientific approach to its fantasy setting and its systems with most characters viewing everything is something to be logically understood placing it within a post-industrial revolution European esque setting all the sciences that flourished during that era such as chemistry biology physics medical sciences and engineering are all myths together as the core tenants to the way alchemy and other systems within the world work alchemy allows users to manipulate nature to how they see fit whether it's changing something shape or chemical Constitution but it all requires a scientific knowledge of how it works for alchemists to use it and needs the correct resources to implement it using the law of equivalent exchange that's at the core of the series something can't be made out of nothing or into something with different elemental attributes even scars deconstruction alchemy through his right arm requires him to know exactly what it is he's deconstructing of course there are deliberately vague areas within this system - that are used as a way to drive the thematic understanding of the narrative namely with the idea of the door and what's behind it but I would never say that it obstructs the overall quality of the story or the way alchemy plays into it on that note something else that made full monogamist stand out when it was first released was it's surprisingly strong sense of character design again using each road as an example who takes one detail of a character and will take it to an extreme as a way to make them all distinct in a cartoonish way our couple for the most part keeps two more simple realistic designs distinguishing her characters around subtle nuances to their body types outfits and color schemes facial details like wrinkles and specific proportions like muscle definition and jaw lines are worked into pronounced individual characteristics as a way to differentiate them from another and establish the type of character they are making it nearly impossible to confuse any one character for another now this might sound like basic character design stuff but it's impressive when you consider how half the cast is part of the military so there isn't even that much diversity amongst the designs of the outfits yet all the military staff are immediately recognizable at a glance honestly the only real complaint I can give for the early couple of years the manga are that it can be a bit inconsistent with its paneling don't misunderstand me when action is occurring or it's trying to get a specific moment across it's amazing as arakawa can put a lot of detail into an illustration but frequently scenes can be quite dialogue heavy resulting in a lot of sequences where characters stand around chatting with a little flair to it making the paneling from page to page a tad dull visually especially when it comes to how devoid of detail backgrounds can be this is understandable as FMA is a story focused manga and the surrounding environment is rarely a point of interest but when you compare it to hirohiko Araki JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or kendo Mira's berserk it does feel like it's lacking in this regard though considering the time and effort our co-op put into the manga over the course of nine years I'm pretty sure some backgrounds being a bit blank can be forgiven my reaching critique notwithstanding the manga full metal alchemist stood out for its fun characters scientific based magic and unique style of story and was an unsurprisingly quick success because of it it was such a fast success in fact that after only being published for a little over a year on a monthly release schedule an anime adaptation was already being arranged between Enix and the Mainichi Broadcasting System with Studio bones set to create it and that brings us to the first anime adaptation of Full Metal Alchemist often referred to as FMA 2003 now while Studio bones is considered among the upper echelon of studios by today's standards in 2003 it was still fairly new however due to bones being a largely made up of staff who worked on Cowboy Bebop the few series it did to gain - a lot of recognition for their level of quality such as with 2002's rahxephon and 2003 Wolf's reign so picking them for adapting something like Full Metal Alchemist was a good decision although while there was excitement from the studio about adapting manga as much of the staff were already FMA fans there was the issue of it being nowhere near finished having only approximately 5 volumes worth of the series out by the start of production now enemies starting before the manga was finished wasn't anything new and Arakawa had planned the ending of the story from the very beginning but it was still gonna be a while before she worked up to that point with her monthly release schedule and the anime was only scheduled to be on air for about a year not giving nearly enough time to wrap up the story in the way she wanted along with the fact she thought it would be boring to repeat the same ending twice if she had to follow the adaptation so instead she gave her consent to series directors Shoji mizushima and series writer show.i okawa to adapt the 5 volumes of the manga that already written as well as giving story details for some of the things that would follow and then take the series in its own direction as they saw fit which while being creatively freeing was still gonna be a challenge and not just because it was gonna anger the manga diehards because it was scheduled to air during the evening in Japan rather than later at night like in the West this version of FMA had to ride a fine line of appealing to a larger age demographic which led to some notable changes during the adaptation and arguably improved moments from the source material starting at the beginning the already strong foundation was given more time to flesh out characters Mies uses introduced much earlier than before during the train hijacking story and reincorporated the birth in Russia Valley moment with his wife as a way to build up his character and family those making the potency of his death all the more tragic the Tucker family also got significantly more screen time while the Elric's work towards becoming state alchemists just to add some extra oomph to the gut punch that is their respective conclusion and adding in one of the most heart-wrenching visuals truly dig the knife in' even bury the chopper gets a backstory that's integrated into Ed's early days as a state Alchemist acting as a grim reminder that the Elex were still children in a world of adults which is still one of the most intense episodes of the series and also highlights the major shift in tone with this adaptation the limitation of the writer is only having approximately seven volumes to work off of is why that main cast the series doesn't expand much past those introduced up until the double-o section the story but it does make a lot more use out of the ones it has which in a way ended up dictating the approach the story took in comparison the mangas larger scale and scope with a massive cast that spans across multiple countries via three anime was more comparable to series of the era like Trigon or Cowboy Bebop focusing on the episodic adventure of the two brothers as they travel across the land using smaller stories of them helping the people they find to help develop their characters and understanding of the world before we're shifting to the interpersonal relationships of the more condensed cast this isn't to say that the manga didn't have a lot intimate moments or that the animate didn't have a good sense of scope but they definitely had vastly different directions to their story and characters in those regards as weird as it is to say considering they are the main characters of the manga the 2003 anime makes the Eric brothers relationship the major focal point of the story and spends less time on the larger extended cast by comparison this approach builds on the philosophical nature of the source material and how it's all framed from the eyes of children as opposed to the brew grudging adults that have come to accept the world as it is making the story more of an emotional character study of the two brothers in this setting throughout this adaptation we followed the Elric's as they delve further and further into a morally great world they aren't familiar with as they struggle with their use of alchemy as a means of getting their bodies back and what that might quire especially once it's revealed what it takes to make a Philosopher's Stone the combat potential Valken II is downplayed in favor of using it as a framing device for telling a coming-of-age story about loss and sacrifice as the horrors of science create a parallel to karmic balance whereby the characters that attempt to manipulate the world to their own benefits can go through the most turmoil or how some characters might not get what they asked for only to gain from the experience somehow in a way they might not have seen once they have come to accept it the intention of the villains also represent this change in scope and tone as their origins and true objectives had not been made clear by the start of the animes production these were the characters that the anime writer had a lot of liberties to play around with using what had been shown up until the fifth Laboratory as a general framework and then taking it in its own direction the new main antagonist Dante and her group of homunculus don't have plans to destroy him estrus from the inside for the sake of capturing God but instead continuously use their influence to manipulate people into creating Philosopher's Stone by causing large-scale tragedies like the ich fallen war and then tempting desperate alchemists by perpetuating the myth among the people making it rather fitting that their symbol is a serpent eating its own tail Dontae yourself doesn't even want the stone for any kind of grand scheme she simply wants it in order to prolong her own life and to try to reunite with Hohenheim representing the more selfish nature of Alken and yet another reflection of the L works own desires this changed the villains plans ended up having an effect on the homunculi - resulting in them having a much bigger role in the story both in having personal motivations between wishing to kill those that created them and wishing to become truly human as they were now born out of failed human transportations and thematically integrating into the arcs of individual characters involving grief and moving on from it the trauma of Azumi curtis and her husband's lost child with wrath mustang having to fight fuhrer King Bradley the one who ordered the attacks on issue all he had to carry out lust is the embodiment of the woman's scar and his brother loved and envies hatred of Hohenheim for leaving and sloth taking on the image of Trish Elric representing ed announced feelings toward their parents and what they've done just like how their weakness is the physical remains of whoever was being resurrected that created them because it reminds them that they aren't supposed to exist the homunculus version also act as a reminder to the living of their personal sins and that those that were lost will never come back further reinforcing one of the biggest themes of the story though due to the stylistic changes for them most of the homunculus ID from gluttony end up being average sized characters with soft features dark clothing and dark hair which means their overall designs start to overlap a bit and become less memorable as a result aside from Greed's cool fur vest and prides wrestling singlet speaking of when comparing them to the original designs and how they look in the later anime the overall art style with characters in fm8 2003 is noticeably softer and rounder with the characters who have strong angular features being tweaked the most I mean look at what they did a sloth but the one who got the biggest makeover during the transition was easily scar as his edges were sandblasted off both physically and narrative Lee his character isn't as gruff and immediately bloodthirsty as in the manga as he doesn't even understand his purpose during his introduction possibly to make him more sympathetic from the start as his new character arc heavily involves his unrequited feelings for his brother's fiancee fitting his new cute anime boys thetic and his complicated relationship with his late sibling which might have been harder to sell with his original design and intensity over the course the story this score wrestles with his use of alchemy to avenge his people questioning if that's the right thing to do and try and understand why his brother burned him with this power in the first place in the end he ultimately sacrifices himself to save the young girl were accepting by giving up that same arm finally coming to terms with his dead brother and what he did all while taking out a sizeable portion the military along with him as one final act of defiance where another version of scar ends with him accepting both forms of alchemy and uses it to save the country that ruined his homeland as a way of redeeming himself the 2003 anime shows what would have happened if he went in the opposite direction choosing to continue his fight against the soldiers in order to protect his people and understanding that sacrificing himself for others would be the only way he could ever find a Redemption and solace at this point interestingly this soften redesigned to the character goes in direct contrast with the changes to his enemies in the story comparatively the military in its relation to the people in the 2003 anime is made much more prominent than the original source material and I already feel like I'm stepping into a potential minefield even talking about this because there isn't a mass cabal among the higher stuff the military aiming for immortality only having King Bradley as the corrupt leader pushing everything for Dante's malicious purposes then there were soldiers within that are simply demonstrated to be awful people that allow unjust Wars to occur because of the man in charge allows it like Colonel Archer for example who goes so far as to become a killer cyborg as a means of being useful to the army which as a side note is really stretching how far automail believably works in the series and is just flat-out badly designed I appreciate the intent but it's quite distracting this focus on the military is demonstrated most with the treatment of the issue ends any people of lore which is turned up to 11 in places and feels like it's intentionally paralleling certain real-life events that were occurring at the time of this animes release when it comes to the wave ishbalan massacre was portrayed the o3 anime didn't plotz punches and frames everyone is equally responsible or at the very least complacent for the actions of the military as a whole with the clearest indication of that being the change from scar as the killer winner his parents to Mustang who simply a soldier doing as he was ordered I mean the series already had a character with the title of Fuehrer enacting a war of extermination but with the anime ending with the military returning power back to the government during the epilogue after Bradley's death it feels a bit on the nose the series doesn't purely vilify the entire military as it makes a point of empathizing Mustangs unit but it doesn't shy away from putting all the characters into situations where they have to question if being dogs in the military is right either which is definitely a shift in the adaptation I appreciate some might not like the fact that Mustang was changed to be the one who killed the rock Belles because they're a character they love and it makes it more challenging to do so but I think that ends up giving a great deal of weight to his desire becoming Fuehrer in order to change the system from the inside as you really see how much that burdens him as a character though while they are a big factor it wasn't just the changes of the story that ended up shaping FM A's first adaptation the musical score composed by Metro Oshima played a significant role in the series too being used in the background as a way to emphasize a large variety of emotions and feelings throughout it whether it's the brass heavy tracks that are used to establish the mind of the military to Dante's theme that sounds as if it's a woman lamenting over a lost love to the Philosopher's Stone theme that's meant to fit the era of dread and mystery surrounding the object there are of course cheerier scores for the light-hearted scenes but most pieces throughout the soundtrack have a low tempo almost melancholic tone to them to underscore the dramatic styling of the series and are often what makes many of the scenes what they are having an operatic nature at times due to all the orchestral instruments and choir singing mean used honestly even 15 years out I struggle to think of many anime scores that do a better job at fitting with the direction Antonis series going for then there's the animation and composition in retrospect Full Metal Alchemist arguably made studio bones what it is today and you can see glimpses that and some of its openings but because it was an earlier work for them when they were still being established it's a bit rough around the edges animation wise certain scenes are lacking the impact they need there's a lot of still frame animation and the coloring can be a bit harsh all of which largely has to do with both having to spread a budget across 51 episodes the longest series the studio had ever done at the time and the time frame when it was created you see FMA was produced during Japanese animations large-scale migration to digital paint over hand-piped cells which was a famously rough transition as it was a new technology in the industry that wasn't as well understood in studios were still learning how to implement it properly that's why the coloring can be overly bright in places as the shading and detailing - it was still being worked out this isn't to say the series looks terrible across the board though because by early 2000s digit paint standards it still looks great and its use of lighting cinematography and shot composition is still next level even by today's standards but it definitely has aged over the years in some places aside from the animation the only uniquely major flaw that 2003 anime has is the non ending it came - which has always been a divisive topic for fans of the series as the anime progressively moved further and further from the source materials original set up the more it started to go in odd grim directions like bringing shout tucker back as a twisted chimera attempting to bring back his daughter but it was continuing to keep to the tone and themes it had been building up along the way and audiences during its release were excited to see where was all going namely if the brothers were going to get their bodies back though as it reached its final few episodes there was a noticeable turn with a head sacrificing his body for Alphonse and learning that the other side of the mysterious gay was in fact the real world pre-world War two and all those that died in that era or what power alchemic reactions oh okay it does sort of work in regards to the themes of sacrifice and equivalent exchange but it's an odd direction to go to drive that point across especially considering how the series ends on such of a conclusion following this revelation and just to be clear there are no issues with the bittersweet endings some of the greatest anime of all time have some downer resolutions and with how the o3 anime progressed it totally fits to have an ending that's not easy to swallow leaving you with something to think about however the conclusion it comes to is so ambiguous and open-ended that it can leave you feeling like you're missing something narrative Lee considering the stories built around the brothers developing relationship as they both grow up it's thematically fitting that the brothers are now able to let their past go and walk on their own after such a journey but the fact al forgot everything that happened and the two will continue to search for each other kind of misses its own point it just feels like there's no genuine resolution for it all which is a bit of a disappointing note to end on for such an ambitious adaptation it's just missing some form of finality to it something to wrap up some loose plot threads that were left or maybe what we got was fine in the end while there are people who genuinely enjoyed it for what it is and it's okay to be wrong we all make mistakes the final couple episodes were just not satisfying for what most wanted to see out of these characters especially in the face of a later series and the way it executed its conclusion though despite its divisive ending and a lackluster follow-up film that I'm not going to touch with a ten-foot pole it's worth noting that when it first came out the 2003 fullmetal alchemist was an undeniably huge success for years both in the east and west it created a story full of genuinely great moments doesn't pull its punches with its ethical questions and does arguably the best job and portraying the L works relationship together as brother for many this was one of the definitive anime to experience what the medium could be and it was because of the success that in August 2008 another film L optimist anime was announced this time purely following the original source material with the first episode airing in April 2009 which of course leads us to Brotherhood Full Metal Alchemist Full Metal Alchemist so while some today might look at the 2003 anime and scoff as Brotherhood is clearly the definitive experience in 2009 following up the first adaptation was going to be a task because in these six year interim between the two the first Full Metal Alchemist anime became a cultural milestone with much of the stuff on Brotherhood being people that grew up watching it so expectations for the project were quite high at the time of the production the manga was at approximately the eighty-five chapter mark and nearing its conclusion and not wanting to pull the future Georgia or Martin our Kyle worked exceedingly hard to make sure that both endings came out in sync with each other so there was a lot of excitement to see how this series that had gone on for nearly ten years was going to conclude and how this anime would adapt at all unfortunately where the o3 anime had a genuinely strong beginning Brotherhood ends up tripping a little bit at the start as many character introductions and even characterization moments are rushed through or passed over entirely due to being created with the mentality that everyone had already seen the previous series and once to get into the content that was never touched but this results in a few problems which is no clear established than by the first episode an anime exclusive story that rapid fires all the major characters and ideas at you as quickly as possible assuming you know them already or that you'll pick them up as the series progresses I imagine this was all done as a way to hook people in with an epic start off and established that Brotherhood was a new series with its own style but it causes some pacing issues along with the following episodes brotherhood ends up blowing through the first 20 chapters of the manga in about 11 episodes and speed rolling through some iconic moments in the process maze uses death and the tragedy of Nina Tucker lose some impact due to the lack of screen time they get the Lior stories placed after the first episode and the backstory of Elric's making a lot of the reveals that act as an introduction of those details kind of redundant and the bell on the train and the usual mine are skipped over entirely missing some key characterization and world moments with Yogi only getting a passing mention before he shows up later on in the series where they have to quickly recap what was skipped over not gonna lie though the thirties Arab black-and-white movie that replaces it is almost worth it these changes become less and less prevalent though once the series gets into the storylines that the first animate didn't get to with pretty much everything following the fight with Greed's sticking fairly close to the manga and this is also where the quit pacing issues start to ease up quite a bit and the overall story starts to stand on its own merits keeping Arcos own quirky style Brotherhood uses a light-hearted approach to tell a complex fight for the fate of a country with multiple factions battling for their own self-interest at first it starts with the L works journey to find a way to get their bodies back and the people the military they meet along the way but that gradually starts to expand and scale as the series continues and more characters get introduced like the jiggies nobles looking for their own source of immortality and the brig soldiers who are duty-bound to protect the northern border a masters as a setting is further developed as it is the main thing in danger by the end of the series and characters begin to scatter across it allowing for multiple storylines to co-exist at the same time while maintaining a tight sense aggression toward the end goal where the O three enemies zeroes in on the brothers and their relationship further hood despite the name gives the extended cast more narrative weight as everyone contributes to the ongoing plot in some way culminating in a cast of fifty involved in a massive military coup in fact the title Brotherhood might be less about the Elric specifically and more about the major theme of the series being about cohesion where different ideologies perspectives and goals gradually come together in a united force against a larger problem take Skaar as a key example and brotherhood Skaar has the same starting point as in the 2003 adaptation except true to the manga version miles and whinnery end up playing a significant factor into his art major miles is another ashfall and within the military that wants to fix the system from within by acting as a model example show Skaar that there are nonviolent options for his people to make for us and when reinforces him to face the fact that he isn't the only one who has lost people and is only continuing this cycle of hatred through his actions despite being the one to kill her parents when Ria's even put in a situation where she has to trust Skaar with her life which is also when his Redemption arc starts to pick up as that interaction is when it settles in that rage and hatred isn't the right path to go down something that later comes back around when he has to stop Mustang from potentially going down that same path well some view Brotherhood as a more plot driven story where the characters are driven by the ongoing plot rather than the other way around like the first anime I think that neglects the fact that how these characters react events is what makes MMA's cast and stories so engaging what's gonna happen now that Ling's a homunculus house Mustang gonna deal with his unit being effectively disbanded and held hostage where Darius and Heinkel gonna take ed now that they've turned on Kimberly and the army and probably the biggest question pretty general grumman learn how to crossdress so well despite being a massive story going in multiple directions with a huge cast Brotherhood is able to keep everything together while never spinning its wheels or losing track for it's going in its 64 episode run time between the two adaptations further hood as the benefit of being cohesively stronger than the first as it is all written by one person rather than being started by the original author and then completed by another though that doesn't mean that there isn't weird inconsistencies like why father and the monkey lie just let an al roam free after revealing themselves despite them being valuable sacrifices that could ruin their plan now I know arrogant villains are kind of a standard in anime but this just seems negligent considering father's influence and power though you can see why they wouldn't consider this an issue father in his home uncle I are the major reason why Brotherhood is so much grander in scale as they have larger goals in mind and have a significantly farther reach that feels almost insurmountable having taken control of the entire military thus giving them the ability to frequently put up roadblocks with each move the heroes make that arrogance is thematically important too as the dwarf in the flasks goal of becoming perfect by rejecting any form of humanity and becoming God acts is a great counter thesis to the our brother's pursuit of returning back to their normal bodies without meaning to sacrifice anyone as well as their father's view on humans need for community which is another important note as opposed to the you lover's quarrel between him and Dante Hohenheim z' relationship with father is instead built around his early life as a slave and as the sole survivors of xerxes after the dwarf crates the first Philosopher's Stone which honestly makes for more interesting dynamic Brotherhood's Hohenheim is generally better fleshed out as a character as he gets more time dedicated to him and his unique backstory struggling with his immortal life while internally trying to come to terms with the thousands of souls used to fuel it and how he can possibly stop father from doing the same thing to Mistress even if it means becoming a deadbeat father to the family he wanted for centuries and this is where I have to make a slight tangent as I have to mention that Brotherhood has one of the best executions of a recap show in anything don't at me where it's framed around Hohenheim fighting with his complicated history and feeling towards humans after existing for 400 years as a philosopher's stone using clips from the series thus far to back up the conflicting arguments he's dealing with internally this doesn't mean every series needs a recap episode but if you're going to do one there are definitely worse ways of doing it then there's father Sam uncle I instead of being reflections of a character's past sins Brotherhood's monkey lie are extensions of father's character being sins purged from his body in the pursuit of becoming perfect but while the homunculus lust get more fleshed out stories in the o3 anime the homunculi and Brotherhood aren't completely static or uninteresting as antagonists either but are simply framed as less morally sympathetic acting as extensions of father's wishes and emotions like envy enjoying wreaking havoc due to their hatred and jealousy of humans or sloth as a massive lumbering monster that finds even the act of dying to be a Payne in fact King Bradley whose wrath instead of pride in Brotherhood gets more development as an antagonist in this light as his backstory is a groom leader from childhood and his views on what being a leader of a country requires makes for a really imposing villain while creating a nice parallel to Ling's views as a prince but similar to the O 3 version much of Brotherhood's mood and direction is driven by its technicals as much as its story Brotherhood coming after the rise of studio bones in the mainstream meant that more money could be put towards its production especially since it was a pseudo sequel to an already successful series and while I could talk about the slightly D saturated color palette that's meant to replicate Arakawa zone style or the beautiful oil paint aesthetics that they went with for the backgrounds where they got to flex this most is with the action sequences well the animation can shift and go off model at times during the high paced fights proper shot composition choreography and the way characters are animated makes every fight sequence and Brotherhood stand out with each character having a different weight and feeling to the way they move especially with the more physically involve characters like Rath and Ling who do a lot of precise high-speed attacks because of the mixture of alchemy hanhan combat and basic weaponry there's a nice flow and creativity to the way fights are animated that you don't get in your average battle shown in with probably the best demonstration of this being the fight between scar and wrath using heavy outlining and shading ink smearing and dynamic camera angles to convey the speed and intensity of this fight to the death really getting across both how desperate scar situation is is he's constantly throwing makeshift walls and pillars up and how fierce Raths attacks are as he slices through them in order to keep up with the focus on excitement in action Brotherhood's overall music style also had to have a faster pace to it as well composed by Acura sends you there's less of the lower tempo operatic style of the soundtrack and instead uses a wide variety of orchestral tracks to fit different scenes with a faster pace to them like visioning symphony that stands out as being distinctively Eastern sounding to fit with the Eugenie's character there still be massive operatic swells for the emotional scenes and the bombastic crashes during moments of high tension that makes it sound similar to the o3 soundtrack but as an overall work Brotherhood's music definitely pushes towards an almost hopeful tone as a way to fit the general mood of the series so well I'd say that the o3s music has a consistently stronger emotional impact for its story where it feels like it blends perfectly into it the way the music plays into the action and drama of brotherhood is while regularly revisit certain scenes like the way the ending song let it out kicks in during when worries break down after finding out about scar or the use of hologram for the final epilogue sequence which I guess segues nicely into talking about the ending in an almost inverse of the o3 anime while it trips up at the starts brotherhood ends amazingly strong essentially by giving a lot of the fans everything they could have wanted over the third act of the story many characters have their arcs culminate during their battle in central and as all the pieces start to fall into place after more than 60 episodes it all concludes with a 20-person fight against father as everyone tries to exhaust his philosopher's stone in a beautifully animated fight sequence following the final climactic showdown with father where he receives a Joe Joe style punch vest and is then compressed into nothingness l then finally gets his body back after ed treats his ability to transmute for him learning the lesson that father never did that not everything can be solved without me as life and humanity are inherently flawed and surviving through that life is the point of the human experience after all this the story that ends with the L works designed to continue their journey in the hopes of learning more about the world beyond their original scope as a way to better it interestingly the way Brotherhood ends almost perfectly mirrors the way the 2003 anime ends but does it in a way that's satisfying to see unfold rather than leaving you scratching your head with no clear resolution and I think that's one of the reasons why Brotherhood's become many people's preferred series of the two though just like how some genuinely enjoy the first animes ending some don't like the way Brotherhood concludes believing it's too saccharine and as I said before it's okay to be wrong Brotherhood certainly gives more happy easy answers to everything keeping an optimistic outlook towards its ethical questions by comparison of the first adaptation and ends with a massive happily ever after for everyone but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing Arakawa initially wrote this series to be entertaining first and foremost with all the metaphorical and philosophical themes coming secondary to that and with that in mind Brotherhood and the manga accomplish that aim spectacularly creating a beautifully done finale that concludes a story that was being told over the course of nine years which not every series is able to land considering the amount of characters going on in Brotherhood it's actually extremely impressive how many of them get their moment both in the finale and the epilogue with pretty much no one forgotten and no plot thread or ship left lingering leaving you with this nice warm feeling inside as you see all these characters you've grown to care about find some form of resolution as I said at the beginning of this whole rant I've probably watched Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood more times than I could possibly count which is why this video has been such a frustrating daunting task to do as it can be extremely difficult to express what makes something so special to you while still maintaining a critical outlook on it honestly with the amount of things to say about it I could have went another hour but where I would say that Brotherhood is my absolute favorite and I have very few genuine complaints about it I wouldn't say it's objectively better than either the manga or the first anime at the end of the day Full Metal Alchemist is an interesting case study of how adaptations can be executed in different ways but still keep to the general spirit of the original personally I think the now decade-old argument among FMA fans about which series is better kind of misses the point a bit well I have a personal preference for Brotherhood for select reasons the 2003 anime definitely has strengths and is worth just as much of a watch and I would say the same defends of the o3 version about Brotherhood both have strengths and weaknesses that the other accounts for the first Full Metal Alchemist anime is a sombre character study which in a lot of ways feels like a very experimental experience as it reaches its conclusion especially considering the time period it was made in on the flip side Brotherhood is this ran scale action pack shown in series that's designed to be quicker paced and leave you feeling quite satisfied truth be told I honestly didn't appreciate the 2003 anime as much as I do now until I went back multiple times in preparation for this video and realized that comparing the two is almost like comparing a great high quality steak to an amazing cheese game in the end it's a pointless endeavor trying to say which is objectively better as they're designed to cater to different tastes and had different intentions and it's honestly best to consume them both as a package deal for the complete experience rather than attempting to separate them as to which is the definitive one as that can only serve to bring them both down maybe you might personally enjoy the more serious 2003 anime maybe you might enjoy the broader experience of Brotherhood but both are still great series in their own right and speak volumes to the core material that Arakawa created along with the many people involved in this series ongoing production over the years and that is how you make a series full metal [Music]

Channel: Foxcade

Views: 471,684

Rating: 4.9382358 out of 5

Keywords: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Fullmetal Alchemist 2003, FMA 2003, Hiromu Arakawa, Shonen Gangan, Manga, Anime, Conqueror of Shamballa, Foxcade, Studio Bones, Enix, Retrospective, Analysis, Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Armstrong, Mustang, Greed, Lust, Winry, Hohenheim, Father, Dante, FMA, Brotherhood

Id: yR9VmvzHGow

Length: 55min 1sec (3301 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2019