Fullmetal Alchemist

[lettered]

Today I started watching Fullmetal Alchemist. I have no idea what it's about, but recently saw likeadeuce mention it, and thought, "Hey, I always meant to watch that." I did a little research re: FMA vs FMA:Brotherhood, and decided to watch Brotherhood. As I understand it, FMA was begun before the manga was completed, and Brotherhood was begun after and follows the manga more closely. I really should actually read the manga, but I'm better at reading just-text or watching things than I am at comics and manga, and I felt like watching would probably be a lower investment of time and money (in case I don't get into it).

Anyway, I feel like many manga are written with A Plan and a vision for the characters. Meanwhile, anime based on unfinished manga are often cashing in on really popular manga. As my_daroga points out, this does mean that there are some anime that have a fanwork feel, but when it's a commercialized work that's being produced to make money off of something popular, I'm more leery of the content. Also, there's just a lot of filler stuff in anime based on unfinished manga. I'd rather have the full experience of the manga in anime form, so I picked Brotherhood.

Most of the research I did said Brotherhood is better anyway, though one person I talked to said she likes FMA better. She did admit that that might be because she watched FMA first. Also, she said that Brotherhood is darker. While I don't like dark for dark's sake, I really like things that take tough concepts seriously, so that's why I picked Brotherhood.

Near the beginning I told my_daroga that I was excited about watching this, because stultiloquentia really liked it. I told her that the last thing I watched because of stultiloquentia was Avatar: the Last Airbender. Partway into the first ep of FMA:B, my_daroga said, "Maybe stultiloquentia just really likes elemental-based powers." I'm trying to figure out whether this is the case . . .

I'm also hoping to post about this show ep-by-ep, because I always love reading those for shows that I love. I have no idea whether I'll love this, but I do know a bunch of cool people who love it, so here's hoping? Please, please, please don't spoil me for future eps. I really have no idea what the series is about or what will happen.


So, here's what I know about FMA:

1) Cool people, such as stultiloquentia, like it.
2) There's a guy called Roy Mustang
3) There's a girl called Risa? Riza? Something. She's cool.
4) Everyone ships Risa? Riza? with someone but I don't remember who.
5) It's about young people with Great Power? Or something. I think likeadeuce said something like that recently.
6) There's alchemy? And I didn't find this out until I was researching which version to watch. You'd think the title would give it away but really for some reason I thought there were a lot of guns and not a lot of magic in it idk.

I'm honestly not clear on anything else.

Okay, so here are my thoughts after Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood episode 1:

Forgive any misspellings, or if I have names wrong. I'm trying not to look at any wikis, so I don't get spoiled.

Much like Neon Genesis: Evangelion, I have no idea what this world is or what is happening. But from what I can gather, there's a nation with a capitol city and in the city there's a capitol building, and the nation is run by Fuhrer Something-innocuous-that-begins-with-a-B. He has an army or squadron or something like that of state alchemists, who can control certain elements. The state alchemists are the "dogs" of the army. They're not well respected? I'm not sure who said that.

So Roy Mustang gets put in charge of something. And his name is Roy Mustang, which is hilarious, and I always thought it was hilarious, even before I started watching this show. And he's a fire alchemist. The absolute best part of this episode, bar none, was when the girl-soldier said that Mustang was useless on a rainy day. This was the only part where I a) felt like I knew what people were talking about, b) laughed aloud. my_daroga said, "I hoped she was going to be cool!" And I was like, "I know nothing about this woman!" Because I was afraid she was the Risa/Riza/someone character everyone thinks is cool, and I didn't want to be spoiled. But then my_daroga said, "I don't either! I just saw her in passing and hoped she would be cool!" So if this is cool girl neither of us know anything about her. But she's a girl soldier person so I'm intrigued.

(Speaking of girl soldiers, at one point during watching this my_daroga mentioned we need to finish watching Rose of Versailles. This is true. Oscarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

Okay, and then there's this baddie, McDougal, who's a water alchemist. And he breaks into this prison to get the Crimson Alchemist's help, but the Crimson Alchemist is just like hahhahaha no. I don't really remember why. I assume the Crimson Alchemist will have a bigger role. He's snarky and has a cool mouth, so I assume he's A Sexy Villain, except there was also a tag with a girl Sexy Villain, who seems like she may be the main baddie? Who knows. She was cool, though, and creepy.

Speaking of creepy, the credits. I love credits in anime. They're so often really overdramatic and emotive, and these were so, so good. Plus there were people getting pulled apart like ribbons. It helped reinforced the idea that the show was going to be dark, which was interesting considering that so much of this ep was trying to be comedic.

So anyway, McDougal or whoever, the waterbender I mean water alchemist, causes some trouble and then there's Edward Elric and his kid brother. Edward Elric is apparently the titular "fullmetal alchemist", and so far he's pretty uninteresting. Alphonse was way more interesting. I assumed he had some kind of story for why he was in the metal armor, and I thought it was because he was a girl. But as it turns out he doesn't have a body and his soul is bound to the armor, which is quite interesting. It was really creepy when they did the flashback to Edward performing human alchemy (so, is that what really happened?) and he didn't have a leg or whatever. Anyway McDougal said that Alphonse's soul is bound to the armor, and then he pointed out Edward's missing arm, and said this was a result of human alchemy. I assume there will be more backstory there.

Edward being over-the-top annoyed at being called "little" is annoying. The most interesting scene involving him was when he and Alphonse are talking about they're "real" bodies--does this mean Edward belongs in another body, or is he just referring to his arm? Unclear.

They have to stay with Colonel (Major? Something?) Hayes (Hayne? can't remember) and his family. They had a tiny girl child who was there for the purposes of amusement. Where were the Alrics before this?

Anyway, McDougal-the-water-alchemist says he's fighting for the good of the nation, yadda yadda. This is only interesting in light of the fact that the leader of this nation is called Fuhrer, which isn't such a good title. McDougal says he's trying to take down the capitol for the good of the people, so I assume there will be some political machinations at work. Whether McDougal will be proven right or whether he and Crimson guy and Lady Person with her Sidekick Gluttony are really the good guys remains to be seen, but it was interesting that it was the Fuhrer who took down McDougal in the end. It suggests that the Fuhrer is more than just a figurehead.

When they first mentioned the Crimson Alchemist, my_daroga said, "Does this mean he alchemies . . . crimson things?" And I said, "Well, there's blood." We decided that this could get interesting, but meanwhile we were stuck with this waterbender who was very Dragonball Z, and some big guy (a major?) with a 'stache, who said he was a Strongarm Alchemist, and I have no idea what that means. But anyway, just like in Dragonball Z, everyone announced their powers and what they were going to do and how many levels they were going to gain (figuratively) and that was boring.

And then, Water Alchemist dude started bending blood and that was not boring. That was very dark and violent and wtf, and I was all, "I don't know what to do with this!"

I was conflicted because until that point, this show was very silly. Even when it shouldn't have been silly, all of the little "sweat!" and "tears!" and "thought bubble!" anime conventions were quite over the top, and not at all like the very-classy (-yet-sometimes-still-silly!) anime I was used to. A:tLA and Touch (an 80s anime about baseball) have some of these conventions, but you can look over them. In this episode, I couldn't really, until all the sudden we were doing blood-bending and someone was dying, at which point I became conflicted and confused.

So far, I'm interested in the world-building. I'm interested in the violent and serious aspects. I'm interested in the villains and the politics. I'm not really interested in Mustang or Edward, but I'm moderately interested in Alphonse and girl!soldier. We'll see where this goes.

Again, please, no spoilers.

Comments

[likeadeuce]

Well, I will not tell you a thing, including the names of characters you didn't catch (even the icon I am using is from episode 1). The only thing I will say is that this ep is, in my opinion, a not-good episode that shouldn't be taken as a representative of what's to come. Basically, it's one of the few things in Brotherhood that has no equivalent in the manga and from what I can tell was thrown together as an intro to the series. But imho, it isn't a good intro and just makes things MORE confusing.

I am amused that Roy and Risa/Riza are the only characters you knew going in, since Ed is the protagonist in name and screentime. Also amused that you didn't realize it was about alchemy because, seriously, who expects manga titles to be LITERAL? (I'm not kidding there; I was surprised there were actual alchemists, too, and the Fullmetal part of the title really makes no sense at all.)

So Roy Mustang gets put in charge of something. And his name is Roy Mustang, which is hilarious, and I always thought it was hilarious, even before I started watching this show.

Roy Mustang's porn name is Roy Mustang. Because how do you improve on 'Roy Mustang?' (Though I have given him the aliases 'Rick Hotspur' and 'Rex Charger' at various times in fic).

More seriously, I'm glad that a new wave of people seems to be discovering this canon, as it's pretty close to my heart. And if we get to meet up at Geek Girl Con, I can babble about it in person!

[lettered]

I should have mentioned that while this ep didn't grip me especially, I never expect that out of the first ep of anything. It's too bad, but most American tv shows need at least until the second season for me to get invested; most anime need at least 8-12 eps. I'm totally willing to give this one a great big chance.

I was surprised and amused that Riza or whoever and her epic romance with someone else, maybe Roy Mustang, was not actually the point of this anime. I really did have no idea that it was about someone I hadn't heard of before. At all.

And yeah, actual alchemy really surprised me, because it's true about anime titles. I still don't even know what Neon Genesis Evangelion even means. Though I suppose Rose of Versailles is pretty self explanatory.

Rick Hotspur is HILARIOUS.

Hopefully by GGC I'll have finished so we can talk all about it! And thank you for bewaring spoilers. ...I assume your icon means girl!solider!cool!girl's coming back ;o)

[likeadeuce]

I was surprised and amused that Riza or whoever and her epic romance with someone else, maybe Roy Mustang, was not actually the point of this anime.

Ha ha ha, I haven't played 'Guess what this fandom is about based on the things you've heard people say about it' for a while, but this is an epic entry in that tradition.

girl!soldier!cool!girl. Hee hee. I'll call he GSCG until you figure out her name. And she gets a lot of the best lines.

[lettered]

Maybe it's a little like finding out the Stiles is not the main character, and neither is Derek, and that in fact they don't even really interact all that much on the show.

I love fandom.

[likeadeuce]

There was an episode of Teen Wolf the other day when Stiles & Derek did have a major-ish interaction and I had a moment of disconnect because "I thought that never actually happened. I thought fandom made that up!"

I remember the time I found out that Gwen was the main character of Torchwood, rather than a minor annoying character who stole Jack from Ianto, and in fact that stealing Jack from Ianto was not a thing that ever even happened. Though I'm less generous about how that misperception came about.

[lettered]

I remember the time I found out that Gwen was the main character of Torchwood, rather than a minor annoying character who stole Jack from Ianto, and in fact that stealing Jack from Ianto was not a thing that ever even happened. Though I'm less generous about how that misperception came about.

HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAH. I actually dislike that show, but having watched the show without ever having really seen much of the fandom, this is hilarious. And really, really sad.

I bet people who haven't watched The Avengers think it's about Coulson and Hawkeye and maybe some other people.

[likeadeuce]

I bet people who haven't watched The Avengers think it's about Coulson and Hawkeye and maybe some other people.

They might be disappointed Darcy isn't in it!

[lettered]

hahahahhaa. right.

[staranise]

Although I think Brotherhood is better, the original FMA gives a much more gentle and intriguing introduction to these people and setting. Brotherhood kind of says, "Well, obviously you've seen the first anime, so let's pack everything we share with that series into the first 15 episodes and jet off to the new stuff!" It's bad start-up for a new fan.

But the first Brotherhood opening sequence is my favourite out of any of them ever.

[likeadeuce]

It's bad start-up for a new fan.

I don't think it's AS bad once you get past the first episode. But I do miss the train job!

[gonergone]

Yes, the train! That's one of my favorite episodes, and I love FMA. I love Brotherhood, too, but it's more of a complicated love.

[lettered]

I already don't remember the opening sequence. But I'm okay with trudging through hours and hours of tv to get to the good stuff. I should have mentioned in my write-up that I have produced no judgment on the show overall, even though the first ep was sort of silly and a little boring.

If I end up liking it I'll probably go back and do FMA, but another reason I started with this one is I'm a lot cooler with bad beginnings and wonderful middles than I am with great beginnings and slow, sucky middles. Though I should probably say that I never really care about endings. When I really like something the end almost never does justice to the whole.

[amalthia]

Are you watching the dubbed or subtitled version?? I ended up seeing the subbed version of both series. What I found interesting and awesome is they got the same voice actors from FMA to come back for Brotherhood.

I thought FMA did a better job of introducing the characters and their story and I loved the story. Brotherhood is similar to FMA for the first 8 episodes and then it veers off to all new territory that I did not expect and really loved.

I can't say which one I liked better because I got different things from both shows but I will say my husband and I could not stop watching once we reached a certain point for Brotherhood. It was so good. I'm now tempted to re-watch. :)

I hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

[lettered]

Dubbed. I meant to mention that. It's what they have on Netflix, and that's disappointing, because I far prefer subtitles. America does not do as well as Japan with voice acting imo.

[kate_nepveu]

The subs are online (free) at YouTube--or possibly only the first four and one random one from the middle are, even though it says it's a 64-episode playlist, WTF, gah.

[lettered]

Thank you! I found out that Netflix actually has subtitles, but they're a very difficult color to make out from the background sometimes. I'll check out YouTube--even if it's only a few, I'd rather watch it with optimal voice acting and colors.

[amalthia]

I'm hoping that someday Netflix will add the subtitled versions of their anime. I've been tempted to watch some shows but can't stand the voice acting. The weird part is other American made cartoons do okay with the voice actors, like Young Justice, Avatar the Last Airbender, the Justice League, and etc...for some reason the dubbing just falls short. (at least in my opinion)

[lettered]

Netflix does have subs of FMA:BH! I was wrong! But the subtitles are kind of hard to read.

I think America is this way because they think dubbing something is less important. I mean, with an American cartoon, you have a team of people dedicated to the creation of the product. With a Japanese cartoon imported to America, what you have is a team of people who just want to market it to an American audience. My suspicion is that since the cartoon is already made, they just hire whoever they can to get it out there to American audiences.

My housemate my_daroga has also mentioned the status of a lot of Japanese voice actors vs American ones. This may be partly because animation is more mainstream in Japan, but housemate pointed out that some people have become celebrities in Japan on the merit of their voice-acting, whereas in America, some celebrities voice act, but that's not how they get famous. As I understand it, voice-acting is just more respected in Japan, so it seems like there's more time and effort involved and more quality control. I do think that American cartoons are getting better re: voice-acting, but compared to Japanese a lot of American cartoons still make me cringe.

(Speaking of Avatar, Zuko's voice was HORRIBLE to me for quite some time. Now I LOVE it and wouldn't have him any other way, but it really took me a long time to get over the idea that it was bad voice-acting, and on into the idea that Zuko's kind of a dork and takes himself way too seriously, which is why his voice sounds like that.)

[amalthia]

Omg this is awesome news! I kind of wanted to rewatch FMA but didn't feel like transferring all the episodes to our TV hard drive. I had no idea that subtitles were added to anime. I saw that there were two subtitle options for FMA Brotherhood. Did you try both to see if one may have been easier to read?

Your roommate's suggestion as to why the voice actors are better in Japan makes a lot of sense!

It took me a few episodes to become used to Katara and Zuko's voice and now I can't imagine anyone else as the voice actors. I'm so sad that Netflix took off Avatar the Last Airbender.

[astridv]

The first episode still has a lot of over the top silly moments, and also doesn't follow the manga closely either. It gets so much better after a few eps! For me it was episode 4 that cinched it. That's when you can really see where the story is going, imo. The story will be epic.

[lettered]

This is what I have heard! I'm looking forward to it.

[kate_nepveu]

Heh. I am re-watching _FMA:B_, but it's a rewatch so it's entirely NOT appropriate for your purposes. I'm doing it to coincide with a first-time watch elsewhere, though, which might interest you.

I was surprised by just how bad this first episode is. I think they felt pressure to do something different than the first anime, but really, the opening that anime & that manga has is good for a reason, because it was _designed_ to be an opening, and it all works so much better. Because of this, I found episodes 1-3 to be somewhat rocky in terms of exposition and pacing; episode 4 was where I thought it hit its stride again.

I love this show a lot and look forward to your posts!

[lettered]

I saw that! You're actually one of the people that reminded me I wanted to watch this series, and I read some of your non-spoilery stuff, and that was partly what made me want to go with Brotherhood. I forgot that you had linked to Mark Watches, and that he was watching it. I love reading his write-ups sometimes, though I think I'm not going to read them while watching this, just in case. I've always wanted to write reactions while watching a new show, but I never know if it's actually going to be worth it--but I've heard so many people say good things about this one that I decided to take it slow, and really think about each ep.

[kate_nepveu]

The manga it is based on is, uh, 27 or 28 volumes, too lazy to walk upstairs, and this adaptation is moving at a pretty brisk clip, so I wouldn't be surprised if taking it a bit slow is useful because of the sheer density of stuff. On the other hand, that sheer density can lead to "OMG GIVE ME ALL THE PLOT" reactions, so . . .

[lettered]

"OMG GIVE ME ALL THE PLOT" reactions

I have this reaction so much that I'm really interested in trying to pace myself and give myself time to think between episodes. I . . . have been known to watch three seasons of TV in three days, and while that is enjoyable, when it's really good I always wished I'd given myself longer to enjoy it the first time through.

[(Anonymous)]

I would like to compare the manga, first anime, and second anime to each other WITHOUT saying anything about plot or characters or anything at all specific--just to explain why each is different from the other. However, if you don't want to read this full comment just in case, I understand--after all, though I promise that there's nothing spoilery you can't really know that without reading it, and there might be something I miss, so. . . . Here it goes:

The manga is the best version of Fullmetal Alchemist. From start to finish it goes pretty strong--not that it's perfect, but it's good.

The first anime begins by following the manga, and it also starts out pretty strong. However, the manga wasn't completed when the first anime was created, and the show started diverging greatly after about ten or so episodes (I can't remember the exact number--though it was probably more like twenty).

On the other hand, the second anime, Brotherhood, doesn't follow the manga in the beginning--after all, the first anime already did that. So the first episode is simply introductory, and for the next few episodes things are moved through quicker, or simply differently. I didn't really like Brotherhood 'til episode five or ten, though I know much of that is because I was comparing it to the first anime/manga, and it's hard for me to judge it on its own merit.

So, to sum up: the first anime follows the manga pretty closely in the beginning and then greatly diverges, while the second anime only kind of follows the manga in the beginning and then moves closer and closer 'til they're pretty much the same.