A Mostly Fullmetal Alchemist Post
I haven't posted about FMA in awhile and I have just been thinking about the main themes of the series.
Well before I get into that a bit off topic it looks like Crunchy Roll will be streaming Hourou Musuko. I assumed it would be Funimation because of noitaminA. Although I like Funi's streaming options more I guess this is a better thing because now it will also be legally available in Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Portugal. Not everywhere but that is better than exclusive to North America like Funi's videos are.
Also the 2011 Hogan's Heroes Papa Bear Awards have started accepting nominations. I think this is going to be even harder for me than last year and I don't even want to think about the voting round. During the voting round I am going to try to catch up on certain stories because I do think I limited myself to certain authors and I want to expand myself a bit. But really I already read a lot of great stories this year and it will be hard to pick and choose.
I am also doing the certificates this year for the awards so I am excited about that. :)
Anyways back to the topic in hand. One of the many things I love about Fullmetal Alchemist is how it weaves its themes throughout the entire story. There is nothing really new here but I wanted to type this up anyways. I guess I just wanted to talk about FMA. :)
Family
This is of course a very important theme in FMA as it is the story of two brothers on a journey to get back what they lost.
However I think for me what makes FMA more special as it shows us that "family" can mean many things and goes far beyond the traditional sense.
Ed and Al are brothers and obviously family. But they also have a family with their neighbors Winry & Pinako Rockbell and with their teacher & her husband Izumi & Sig Curtis.
While there are many traditional families in FMA like the Hughes there are also nontraditional families like the Mustang Tachi or the Briggs soldiers. Other examples would be Ran Fan and her grandfather looking after Ling (which obviously goes beyond duty) & May and Xiao Mei (who literally found each other)
I think the important point of FMA is family is not necessarily just something you are born into.
Of course Arakawa does honor the traditional family as well and shows that even a broken family can come together in the end (Hohenheim and his two sons).
Revenge
Again revenge is an important theme in FMA and how killing out of hatred and seeking revenge just creates an endless cycle. This theme is best illustrated by the characters of Winry, Scar and Roy.
Characters in the end do not forgive or forget (as Winry so beautifully puts it) but move on.
I think of course the best way Arakawa illustrated the theme of revenge was in Roy Mustang. Having him go up against a character the readers all hated and probably wanted to see have his comuppance but in the end showing us this was wrong.
This is easier to show when we see the character is not completely evil (Scar) but not so easy when the character is complete scum (Envy). So I really like that Arakawa made the point that revenge is wrong no matter who the character is or what the character did wrong.
of course she shows the difference between killing for revenge and killing because you need to protect others.
The Strength of Many Vs the Strength of One
This to me is the most important theme of FMA. It is one that is seen in many stories but really I just don't think many stories pull this theme off well.
A lot of stories will say that the main hero needs his friends but when it comes down to it the hero still seems to be fighting the main villain alone (because they are the chosen one)
In FMA this is not the case and everyone really does fight together to bring down Father. I love how the adults fight beside the children too (I don't know why adults in most YA fantasy stories are so useless). I love how in early FMA, Maria & Denny slap Ed & Al for running off on their own and not trusting others. And I think one of the greatest ways Ed and Al grows is they start to rely on other characters besides just themselves, realizing they can't do it all on their own.
We realize the characters do not win because of some special movie, not because of some super power, or even because of alchemy. The humans win simply because they fight together. As says to Envy our strength is that even if we fall down we keep picking ourselves up and if we can't our friends will help us up (paraphrase).
Although I didn't think Brotherhood was perfect I loved the moment in the 4th opening when it starts out with just Ed & Al and they are slowly joined by more characters. It very simply and effectively illustrates this theme.
The final way this theme is woven into the story is Ed's decision on getting Al's body back and what he gives up and why. It's perfect and I love how so many FMA "fans" didn't get it (but well that's typical)
Equivalent Exchange
Teachings that have no pain have no meaning because mankind cannot gain anything without giving something in return.
Again I think a lot of people do not understand this and I blame the first anime. Equivalent exchange is of course the rule of alchemy: To create something you need equal parts of something else unless you have the philosopher stone (and since that is made up of you know what you aren't getting anything for free).
I think though in terms of life Arakawa was trying to say it is a nice way to live life not that life is always going to be a one to one exchange.
In a sense the characters succeeded because they worked for it. I see some fans of the series who wanted the ending to be "darker" wanted the characters to suffer more. But again I think that misses the point that they suffered for many years to get where they were. They didn't get anything for free, they earned it.
Of course sometimes in real life you don't always get what you want and this is a cynical outlook. I am not completely against a cynical story (after all I do love Film Noir) but there is certainly nothing unique about a dark/cynical story. FMA was always meant to be a hopeful tale. It's not about characters dwelling on the past. It's about characters moving forward. But more importantly no one got anything for free in FMA. In the end there was a lot of pain, suffering, and hard work to get where they are. And I think ultimately that is the meaning of those opening lines. Because of this pain/suffering that the characters went through the happy ending they earned has more meaning in the end.
Of course in the end both the first anime and the manga/Brotherhood show that equivalent exchange is not entirely true. The first anime uses the approach that sometimes you can get something for nothing and sometimes you work hard and get nothing at all.
In the manga Ed and Al try to overturn equivalent exchange by saying that if we receive 1 we will give 2. Again that is just the hopeful outlook of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. The idea of striving for equivalent exchange isn't wrong but as Ed and Al show us in the end it could even be better
I also love how Ed and Al visit everyone that helped them showing that they really do care about giving back.
Of course a lot of people on my FL already read and love FMA just as much as me. But if you haven't I couldn't recommend the series enough. It's a really beautiful take that has so much meaning behind it (and it is a whole lot of fun to read too).
Well before I get into that a bit off topic it looks like Crunchy Roll will be streaming Hourou Musuko. I assumed it would be Funimation because of noitaminA. Although I like Funi's streaming options more I guess this is a better thing because now it will also be legally available in Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Portugal. Not everywhere but that is better than exclusive to North America like Funi's videos are.
Also the 2011 Hogan's Heroes Papa Bear Awards have started accepting nominations. I think this is going to be even harder for me than last year and I don't even want to think about the voting round. During the voting round I am going to try to catch up on certain stories because I do think I limited myself to certain authors and I want to expand myself a bit. But really I already read a lot of great stories this year and it will be hard to pick and choose.
I am also doing the certificates this year for the awards so I am excited about that. :)
Anyways back to the topic in hand. One of the many things I love about Fullmetal Alchemist is how it weaves its themes throughout the entire story. There is nothing really new here but I wanted to type this up anyways. I guess I just wanted to talk about FMA. :)
Family
This is of course a very important theme in FMA as it is the story of two brothers on a journey to get back what they lost.
However I think for me what makes FMA more special as it shows us that "family" can mean many things and goes far beyond the traditional sense.
Ed and Al are brothers and obviously family. But they also have a family with their neighbors Winry & Pinako Rockbell and with their teacher & her husband Izumi & Sig Curtis.
While there are many traditional families in FMA like the Hughes there are also nontraditional families like the Mustang Tachi or the Briggs soldiers. Other examples would be Ran Fan and her grandfather looking after Ling (which obviously goes beyond duty) & May and Xiao Mei (who literally found each other)
I think the important point of FMA is family is not necessarily just something you are born into.
Of course Arakawa does honor the traditional family as well and shows that even a broken family can come together in the end (Hohenheim and his two sons).
Revenge
Again revenge is an important theme in FMA and how killing out of hatred and seeking revenge just creates an endless cycle. This theme is best illustrated by the characters of Winry, Scar and Roy.
Characters in the end do not forgive or forget (as Winry so beautifully puts it) but move on.
I think of course the best way Arakawa illustrated the theme of revenge was in Roy Mustang. Having him go up against a character the readers all hated and probably wanted to see have his comuppance but in the end showing us this was wrong.
This is easier to show when we see the character is not completely evil (Scar) but not so easy when the character is complete scum (Envy). So I really like that Arakawa made the point that revenge is wrong no matter who the character is or what the character did wrong.
of course she shows the difference between killing for revenge and killing because you need to protect others.
The Strength of Many Vs the Strength of One
This to me is the most important theme of FMA. It is one that is seen in many stories but really I just don't think many stories pull this theme off well.
A lot of stories will say that the main hero needs his friends but when it comes down to it the hero still seems to be fighting the main villain alone (because they are the chosen one)
In FMA this is not the case and everyone really does fight together to bring down Father. I love how the adults fight beside the children too (I don't know why adults in most YA fantasy stories are so useless). I love how in early FMA, Maria & Denny slap Ed & Al for running off on their own and not trusting others. And I think one of the greatest ways Ed and Al grows is they start to rely on other characters besides just themselves, realizing they can't do it all on their own.
We realize the characters do not win because of some special movie, not because of some super power, or even because of alchemy. The humans win simply because they fight together. As says to Envy our strength is that even if we fall down we keep picking ourselves up and if we can't our friends will help us up (paraphrase).
Although I didn't think Brotherhood was perfect I loved the moment in the 4th opening when it starts out with just Ed & Al and they are slowly joined by more characters. It very simply and effectively illustrates this theme.
The final way this theme is woven into the story is Ed's decision on getting Al's body back and what he gives up and why. It's perfect and I love how so many FMA "fans" didn't get it (but well that's typical)
Equivalent Exchange
Teachings that have no pain have no meaning because mankind cannot gain anything without giving something in return.
Again I think a lot of people do not understand this and I blame the first anime. Equivalent exchange is of course the rule of alchemy: To create something you need equal parts of something else unless you have the philosopher stone (and since that is made up of you know what you aren't getting anything for free).
I think though in terms of life Arakawa was trying to say it is a nice way to live life not that life is always going to be a one to one exchange.
In a sense the characters succeeded because they worked for it. I see some fans of the series who wanted the ending to be "darker" wanted the characters to suffer more. But again I think that misses the point that they suffered for many years to get where they were. They didn't get anything for free, they earned it.
Of course sometimes in real life you don't always get what you want and this is a cynical outlook. I am not completely against a cynical story (after all I do love Film Noir) but there is certainly nothing unique about a dark/cynical story. FMA was always meant to be a hopeful tale. It's not about characters dwelling on the past. It's about characters moving forward. But more importantly no one got anything for free in FMA. In the end there was a lot of pain, suffering, and hard work to get where they are. And I think ultimately that is the meaning of those opening lines. Because of this pain/suffering that the characters went through the happy ending they earned has more meaning in the end.
Of course in the end both the first anime and the manga/Brotherhood show that equivalent exchange is not entirely true. The first anime uses the approach that sometimes you can get something for nothing and sometimes you work hard and get nothing at all.
In the manga Ed and Al try to overturn equivalent exchange by saying that if we receive 1 we will give 2. Again that is just the hopeful outlook of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. The idea of striving for equivalent exchange isn't wrong but as Ed and Al show us in the end it could even be better
I also love how Ed and Al visit everyone that helped them showing that they really do care about giving back.
Of course a lot of people on my FL already read and love FMA just as much as me. But if you haven't I couldn't recommend the series enough. It's a really beautiful take that has so much meaning behind it (and it is a whole lot of fun to read too).