Armies and Alchemists.
I've almost spent two months in the army and things have been quite hectic so I haven't had much time to write things down until now. I ended up in the Kainuu Brigade, more specifically the Forward Observation and Signal Battery of the Kainuu Artillery Regiment, and I have about four more months to go before I can return home (well, apart from weekend leaves, but you get the drift). I'm grateful that the captain didn't make me a non-commissioned officer because I really can't spend a whole year in the army while I still have my theses to write at the university.
Despite the first two army weeks being very confusing (one has to get used to a lot of stuff, including military discipline, various rules and learn new skills), things went surprisingly well, and I got to know many people in our room as well as in the overall battery. It was also surprising that I managed to learn quite a few things (handling and dismantling my gun, using soldier's equipment (which includes a lot of stuff) in combat situations as well as not getting anyone killed in the process. I've been an above average shooter with the rifle (especially when we've practiced and in combat situations) but sadly the shooting test didn't go as well as I had hoped. Thankfully that's only one part of the training so it won't matter that much in the end.
The roughest stuff in the army, apart from the chaotic schedule, has been physical training (particularly the long marches while you carry a heavy backpack and/or battle gear) but thankfully I've survived so far and I'm getting fit in the process. Even the camping days weren't so bad in the end because everyone was working together to pull it off, and we used humour a lot. I'm still not that good at setting up a tent (at least not quickly) but that's what teams are for: we do it all as one. Now that basic training (8 weeks) is behind us and special training (9 weeks) begins tomorrow, things start looking a bit more comfortable as I specialize in scribe duties. A scribe has a heavy responsibility but I'm sure I can pull it off.
After the first month or so I stopped being a private. Once I swore an oath (along with other privates; we had a huge parade in a large open space in the city of Kajaani) to protect my country, I officially became a gunner (basically anyone serving in the artillery regiment is called a gunner even if you don't ever operate a cannon and you just work as a medic, a scribe etc). Once I get the photos from the army, I'll see if I can upload some pics so that you can see the nice uniform we wear (all green, baby!). I guess it's true that if you don't quit during basic training, you won't quit anymore because things get a lot easier (or so I've been told) in special training now that you already know the basics of army life. We'll see what happens but I have high hopes that the final four months of my six month training will go as quickly as the past two months have.
I've spent my free time in the army playing the piano in the cantina. Surprisingly enough people really seemed to dig me playing "Terra's (Tina's) theme" from Final Fantasy 6) although they've often requested "My Heart Will Go On" and even enjoyed my Kingdom Hearts medleys. I also need to transcribe the awesome "The Army's Not the Army Anymore" song from the Donald Duck cartoon Donald Gets Drafted for piano someday so that I can play it to my team. ;)
I've also been reading various books (whenever I haven't been spending time with army buddies or playing the piano). So far I've concentrated on reading a few books by Artturi Leinonen and Arvi Järventaus whose stories so far have been entertaining and well-written (although so far I've enjoyed Leinonen's writing style more). Leinonen's Lakeuksien lukko (Lock of the Plains) in particular was surprisingly good although the ending kind of bugged me because it was a bit too abrupt for my taste.
It's been kind of sad that the 12 guys I got to know in our room during basic training have left and went to specialize in different duties now that special training begins. The new room I live in has new guys (well, I know many of them but not as well as the old mates I spent the past 8 months with) specializing in cooking and being scribes, so now I'll have to get used to seeing new faces and getting to know these people better. It'll be interesting to see if the "spirit" among us will be as good as it was with my previous roommates. Luckily there's Facebook so even if I might not see my old roommates as often, we can keep in touch via IMs and FB and share stories about all the crazy stuff going on in the army.
I finished watching the grand finale of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood a while ago. Now that both the manga and anime have reached their respective ends, I kind of feel at a loss. I've been following the manga for years by now, so seeing it end is somewhat bittersweet. Because of this, I think it'll be appropriate to post a quick retrospective of FMA and how I've experienced it.
I can still recall how I began watching the first FMA series (which also happened to be one of the first anime series I watched online) years ago and how I liked it. Interesting characters, beautiful music, fine animation, a gripping storyline... it was one of the first "adult" (or deep, whatever you want to call it) anime stories I encountered, and I was enthralled by its world. Because the first series finished while the manga itself was still halfway through, they had to change quite a few things, but all in all the storyline itself was still quite touching with nice bits of character development. Some blamed the reliance of angst compared to the manga, but I thought the drama was very appropriate. I mean, come on, the kids went through an extremely traumatic experience, ended up in the middle of a large-scale conspiracy and were forced to fight against the homunculi, terrible monstrosities, on both a physical and psychological level. The ending (and the subsequent followup movie) were... interesting and not as bad as some might say. I guess it's subjective, but I liked both.
Anyways, after finishing with the first FMA, I picked up the manga and noticed that in some ways it was superior and also inferior to the first FMA series. Weird, huh? Some characterization and plot issues were handled better in the manga whereas some issues were better in the first anime (the main issue being the sympathetic angle and more development on the homunculi in the first anime). I know purists hate the first series with a shrieking passion, but I thought it had many good sides. I accepted the manga and the first anime as separate yet similar entities and left it at that. In any case it was interesting to note the differences and also similarities between the series' plots.
By the time I found out that the studio was making a new, more faithful adaptation of the manga, I was worried. Because the first half of the first series had been faithful to the manga, would the new series (called FMA: Brotherhood) have to animate those scenes again? Also, would there even be a point creating another series because the first series had been quite good on its own? Wouldn't that be a waste of everyone's time? The manga purists would still bitch about the anime regardless of how faithful it would be and fans of the first series might also get angry for some weird reasons, so the whole effort seemed pointless.
When the first episode of the second series aired, I went in with as few expectations as possible. Having this new series in HD quality and widescreen and (arguably) better animation and new music seemed like an okay way to "revisit an old friend" and see how much s/he has changed over the years (whether for better or worse).
It quickly turned out that this series wasted no time setting up the plot. To its detriment the series actually condensed the manga's early chapters into almost summary-like episodes which I felt really hurt the narrative flow. Sure, they got through the major dramatic moments and character development and such, but it was obvious that they didn't want to waste time on reanimating scenes which the first series had already done well. I understand this type of "fast-forwarding" was necessary but it still felt like cheating because anyone unfamiliar with the story might get confused.
Thankfully this second series began slowing down about halfway through its 60+ episodes, and the narrative found its focus again. As it began adapting elements from the manga chapters which had been published after the end of the first series, it got back on the right track and gained momentum. However, for some reason the anime still decided to alter and/or omit a few things from the manga (nothing major, but some of the omissions would've been nice to see in animated form, particularly a few "skipped" bits from the final battle). Some of the changes were actually better than the manga, so in that regard I guess they kept up the "equivalent exchange" rule.
All in all both FMA series have been good, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and both with gorgeous animation and music. For anyone who has not experienced these series yet, I suggest watching the original FMA anime first and then tackling FMA: Brotherhood.
Finally a few nice clips:
Fifth and IMHO best opening of FMA: Brotherhood. Just admire the juxtaposition of images and music and the bittersweet feel of it all.
Possibly the most emotional ending in any FMA: Brotherhood episode. Also includes IMHO the best ending theme (fourth one, to be exact). This is the scene where Ed meets Al's body (it's a long story, really) and they have a brief but touching conversation.
A nice pre-opening credits sequence. Huge spoilers, obviously. While the clip above had scenes going while the end credits start rolling, this one keeps the suspense at the start of the episode and doesn't start playing the opening song (the one with lyrics, not the background score) until a rather nice thing happens (involving a baby). It also leads to another scene which is detailed below...
Alas poor villain. Huge spoilers, naturally. Wrath from this adaptation was, despite being a cold-blooded killer, still surprisingly sympathetic. He's probably one of the few exceptions where I like a person who's done awful things, and it's because I got to witness his tragic backstory and saw how he really loved his wife despite everything. He's badass, a despicable person and also extremely sympathetic. It probably doesn't sound logical, but trust me, he's a complex villain, and that's what I like about him. This whole clip is memorable and shows all of his three traits (badass, monster, sympathetic/tragic). His speech about his wife is very touching and an extremely satisfying "Take That" to Lan Fan, one of the heroines.
I'd like to write more but I'm running out of time for now. Once I get back from the combat training camp in two weeks, I should hopefully have enough time to write about other stuff that's been going on.
Yours,
Mikko
Despite the first two army weeks being very confusing (one has to get used to a lot of stuff, including military discipline, various rules and learn new skills), things went surprisingly well, and I got to know many people in our room as well as in the overall battery. It was also surprising that I managed to learn quite a few things (handling and dismantling my gun, using soldier's equipment (which includes a lot of stuff) in combat situations as well as not getting anyone killed in the process. I've been an above average shooter with the rifle (especially when we've practiced and in combat situations) but sadly the shooting test didn't go as well as I had hoped. Thankfully that's only one part of the training so it won't matter that much in the end.
The roughest stuff in the army, apart from the chaotic schedule, has been physical training (particularly the long marches while you carry a heavy backpack and/or battle gear) but thankfully I've survived so far and I'm getting fit in the process. Even the camping days weren't so bad in the end because everyone was working together to pull it off, and we used humour a lot. I'm still not that good at setting up a tent (at least not quickly) but that's what teams are for: we do it all as one. Now that basic training (8 weeks) is behind us and special training (9 weeks) begins tomorrow, things start looking a bit more comfortable as I specialize in scribe duties. A scribe has a heavy responsibility but I'm sure I can pull it off.
After the first month or so I stopped being a private. Once I swore an oath (along with other privates; we had a huge parade in a large open space in the city of Kajaani) to protect my country, I officially became a gunner (basically anyone serving in the artillery regiment is called a gunner even if you don't ever operate a cannon and you just work as a medic, a scribe etc). Once I get the photos from the army, I'll see if I can upload some pics so that you can see the nice uniform we wear (all green, baby!). I guess it's true that if you don't quit during basic training, you won't quit anymore because things get a lot easier (or so I've been told) in special training now that you already know the basics of army life. We'll see what happens but I have high hopes that the final four months of my six month training will go as quickly as the past two months have.
I've spent my free time in the army playing the piano in the cantina. Surprisingly enough people really seemed to dig me playing "Terra's (Tina's) theme" from Final Fantasy 6) although they've often requested "My Heart Will Go On" and even enjoyed my Kingdom Hearts medleys. I also need to transcribe the awesome "The Army's Not the Army Anymore" song from the Donald Duck cartoon Donald Gets Drafted for piano someday so that I can play it to my team. ;)
I've also been reading various books (whenever I haven't been spending time with army buddies or playing the piano). So far I've concentrated on reading a few books by Artturi Leinonen and Arvi Järventaus whose stories so far have been entertaining and well-written (although so far I've enjoyed Leinonen's writing style more). Leinonen's Lakeuksien lukko (Lock of the Plains) in particular was surprisingly good although the ending kind of bugged me because it was a bit too abrupt for my taste.
It's been kind of sad that the 12 guys I got to know in our room during basic training have left and went to specialize in different duties now that special training begins. The new room I live in has new guys (well, I know many of them but not as well as the old mates I spent the past 8 months with) specializing in cooking and being scribes, so now I'll have to get used to seeing new faces and getting to know these people better. It'll be interesting to see if the "spirit" among us will be as good as it was with my previous roommates. Luckily there's Facebook so even if I might not see my old roommates as often, we can keep in touch via IMs and FB and share stories about all the crazy stuff going on in the army.
I finished watching the grand finale of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood a while ago. Now that both the manga and anime have reached their respective ends, I kind of feel at a loss. I've been following the manga for years by now, so seeing it end is somewhat bittersweet. Because of this, I think it'll be appropriate to post a quick retrospective of FMA and how I've experienced it.
I can still recall how I began watching the first FMA series (which also happened to be one of the first anime series I watched online) years ago and how I liked it. Interesting characters, beautiful music, fine animation, a gripping storyline... it was one of the first "adult" (or deep, whatever you want to call it) anime stories I encountered, and I was enthralled by its world. Because the first series finished while the manga itself was still halfway through, they had to change quite a few things, but all in all the storyline itself was still quite touching with nice bits of character development. Some blamed the reliance of angst compared to the manga, but I thought the drama was very appropriate. I mean, come on, the kids went through an extremely traumatic experience, ended up in the middle of a large-scale conspiracy and were forced to fight against the homunculi, terrible monstrosities, on both a physical and psychological level. The ending (and the subsequent followup movie) were... interesting and not as bad as some might say. I guess it's subjective, but I liked both.
Anyways, after finishing with the first FMA, I picked up the manga and noticed that in some ways it was superior and also inferior to the first FMA series. Weird, huh? Some characterization and plot issues were handled better in the manga whereas some issues were better in the first anime (the main issue being the sympathetic angle and more development on the homunculi in the first anime). I know purists hate the first series with a shrieking passion, but I thought it had many good sides. I accepted the manga and the first anime as separate yet similar entities and left it at that. In any case it was interesting to note the differences and also similarities between the series' plots.
By the time I found out that the studio was making a new, more faithful adaptation of the manga, I was worried. Because the first half of the first series had been faithful to the manga, would the new series (called FMA: Brotherhood) have to animate those scenes again? Also, would there even be a point creating another series because the first series had been quite good on its own? Wouldn't that be a waste of everyone's time? The manga purists would still bitch about the anime regardless of how faithful it would be and fans of the first series might also get angry for some weird reasons, so the whole effort seemed pointless.
When the first episode of the second series aired, I went in with as few expectations as possible. Having this new series in HD quality and widescreen and (arguably) better animation and new music seemed like an okay way to "revisit an old friend" and see how much s/he has changed over the years (whether for better or worse).
It quickly turned out that this series wasted no time setting up the plot. To its detriment the series actually condensed the manga's early chapters into almost summary-like episodes which I felt really hurt the narrative flow. Sure, they got through the major dramatic moments and character development and such, but it was obvious that they didn't want to waste time on reanimating scenes which the first series had already done well. I understand this type of "fast-forwarding" was necessary but it still felt like cheating because anyone unfamiliar with the story might get confused.
Thankfully this second series began slowing down about halfway through its 60+ episodes, and the narrative found its focus again. As it began adapting elements from the manga chapters which had been published after the end of the first series, it got back on the right track and gained momentum. However, for some reason the anime still decided to alter and/or omit a few things from the manga (nothing major, but some of the omissions would've been nice to see in animated form, particularly a few "skipped" bits from the final battle). Some of the changes were actually better than the manga, so in that regard I guess they kept up the "equivalent exchange" rule.
All in all both FMA series have been good, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and both with gorgeous animation and music. For anyone who has not experienced these series yet, I suggest watching the original FMA anime first and then tackling FMA: Brotherhood.
Finally a few nice clips:
Fifth and IMHO best opening of FMA: Brotherhood. Just admire the juxtaposition of images and music and the bittersweet feel of it all.
Possibly the most emotional ending in any FMA: Brotherhood episode. Also includes IMHO the best ending theme (fourth one, to be exact). This is the scene where Ed meets Al's body (it's a long story, really) and they have a brief but touching conversation.
A nice pre-opening credits sequence. Huge spoilers, obviously. While the clip above had scenes going while the end credits start rolling, this one keeps the suspense at the start of the episode and doesn't start playing the opening song (the one with lyrics, not the background score) until a rather nice thing happens (involving a baby). It also leads to another scene which is detailed below...
Alas poor villain. Huge spoilers, naturally. Wrath from this adaptation was, despite being a cold-blooded killer, still surprisingly sympathetic. He's probably one of the few exceptions where I like a person who's done awful things, and it's because I got to witness his tragic backstory and saw how he really loved his wife despite everything. He's badass, a despicable person and also extremely sympathetic. It probably doesn't sound logical, but trust me, he's a complex villain, and that's what I like about him. This whole clip is memorable and shows all of his three traits (badass, monster, sympathetic/tragic). His speech about his wife is very touching and an extremely satisfying "Take That" to Lan Fan, one of the heroines.
I'd like to write more but I'm running out of time for now. Once I get back from the combat training camp in two weeks, I should hopefully have enough time to write about other stuff that's been going on.
Yours,
Mikko