A Retake on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
A few weeks back I started rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood with my Dad when I come back home on the weekends. I forget how many times I rewatched the series, but this was one of those times where I didn't skip much of the episodes and rewatched almost everything. From doing this, I managed to notice some details of the characters that I didn't notice before, and these were quite pleasant findings.
[Warning: Contains Spoilers]
I noticed how there were characters who gave up their needs/desires for others', and this happened quite often on the side of the characters from Xing. The one who impressed me the most from this rewatch was surprisingly May who didn't exactly catch my interest at the first time. I thought of her previously as a young girl who did things her own way (e.g: going back to Central with Envy when she was supposed to go back to Xing), but now I see many cases in where she even sacrificed her very purpose of coming to Central, for the sake of the lives of others (when Riza was seriously injured), and also going against what she felt for the wish of other people (when Alphonse told her to create a transmutation path to exchange his soul), which made me happy that in the end, she ends up being an important character in the series cause it is implied that she ends up with Al.
I get quite encouraged from these sort of characters because they bring out the practicality of the "dying to self" term and shows how it can be done. From there also you see that May in the end didn't lose anything even when she didn't obtain the means of why she went there for, but she did certainly achieved the reason, because Ling said that he'd protect her clan, and that was most important. Ling and Lan Fan as well, did help others at the expense of themselves. Lan Fan lost her arm in the process, and even Ling was willing to give up the Philosopher's Stone (aka his access to be emperor) for the Elric brothers.
Another thing I noticed was also what kind of a man Roy was, and how likable his character is, hahaha. Initially I liked Riza more than him, but now I think I like him more, but my support for the couple surpasses that. I saw how well they matched, and how they showed what it meant to complement your partner's weaknesses, and vice versa. It was encouraging to watch them supporting one another like that (e.g. Riza being a sniper, was able to tell Roy the coordinates of the enemy when he lost his eyesight).
Through all these, once again it is proven that Fullmetal Alchemist is a good show. While it sort of waned a little bit when the immortal army started coming, and at certain parts it can get sort of gory and gross, many things can be learned from it. (But I think I may not rewatch it sometime soon, because only now I realised how bloody it is, and I'm convicted to stay away from these sort of things...)
The first FMA series being the very introduction to anime for me when I was 8 or 9 (Sailormoon does not count), holds this story by Arakawa Hiromu, close to my heart. This story that centres heavily around familial relationships and friendships, and of two brothers who went onto this journey because they wanted to see their mother again, which is also why I find the final sequences of the last OP, touching and well done, because it reminded the audience of how these events came about in the first place.
P.S. The siblinghood between Alex Armstrong and Olivier were rather cute. It was nice to see how it seemed like the latter, a few episodes before the end, started loving her brother a bit more and relying on him.
[Warning: Contains Spoilers]
I noticed how there were characters who gave up their needs/desires for others', and this happened quite often on the side of the characters from Xing. The one who impressed me the most from this rewatch was surprisingly May who didn't exactly catch my interest at the first time. I thought of her previously as a young girl who did things her own way (e.g: going back to Central with Envy when she was supposed to go back to Xing), but now I see many cases in where she even sacrificed her very purpose of coming to Central, for the sake of the lives of others (when Riza was seriously injured), and also going against what she felt for the wish of other people (when Alphonse told her to create a transmutation path to exchange his soul), which made me happy that in the end, she ends up being an important character in the series cause it is implied that she ends up with Al.
I get quite encouraged from these sort of characters because they bring out the practicality of the "dying to self" term and shows how it can be done. From there also you see that May in the end didn't lose anything even when she didn't obtain the means of why she went there for, but she did certainly achieved the reason, because Ling said that he'd protect her clan, and that was most important. Ling and Lan Fan as well, did help others at the expense of themselves. Lan Fan lost her arm in the process, and even Ling was willing to give up the Philosopher's Stone (aka his access to be emperor) for the Elric brothers.
Another thing I noticed was also what kind of a man Roy was, and how likable his character is, hahaha. Initially I liked Riza more than him, but now I think I like him more, but my support for the couple surpasses that. I saw how well they matched, and how they showed what it meant to complement your partner's weaknesses, and vice versa. It was encouraging to watch them supporting one another like that (e.g. Riza being a sniper, was able to tell Roy the coordinates of the enemy when he lost his eyesight).
Through all these, once again it is proven that Fullmetal Alchemist is a good show. While it sort of waned a little bit when the immortal army started coming, and at certain parts it can get sort of gory and gross, many things can be learned from it. (But I think I may not rewatch it sometime soon, because only now I realised how bloody it is, and I'm convicted to stay away from these sort of things...)
The first FMA series being the very introduction to anime for me when I was 8 or 9 (Sailormoon does not count), holds this story by Arakawa Hiromu, close to my heart. This story that centres heavily around familial relationships and friendships, and of two brothers who went onto this journey because they wanted to see their mother again, which is also why I find the final sequences of the last OP, touching and well done, because it reminded the audience of how these events came about in the first place.
P.S. The siblinghood between Alex Armstrong and Olivier were rather cute. It was nice to see how it seemed like the latter, a few episodes before the end, started loving her brother a bit more and relying on him.