They know what they did was wrong, and they know that what they have to do to achieve their goals is also somewhat wrong, so there is a feeling of melancholy that follows them in their story as they start to sympathize with those who do wrong things for what they believe are the right reasons. Ed and Al's adventure stems not out of a desire to save the world, but of a need to gain something precious that was lost - because of their own actions.
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After all, the background for the main story is full of tragedy and atrocities that inform the rest of the show's story. Instead, the characters struggle to get over their flaws, make mistakes, and we get to see their point of view, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions.ĭespite being a shonen show aimed at teenagers, and a sense of humor that brings to mind that of The Last Airbender (goofy visual gags, obvious comic relief characters, and the occasional detour for a hilarious side-mission with the supporting cast), Fullmetal Alchemist maintains a reflective, somber tone throughout its run. More importantly, the show doesn't force characters to become good in order to draw a clear message. A bad guy isn't just a bad guy, just as no good guy is a saint. The show makes it a point to have Ed and Al see a bit of themselves in everyone, even the villains, and question both their own sense of morality and whether their righteous quest is all that righteous. Discovering the role the military played in the Ishval Civil War drastically changes Ed and Al's beliefs, as they are pulled into a more morally gray world that forces them to re-evaluate their conceptions of good and evil.Įven the villains are given complex and tragic backstories that inform their goals, while also being allowed to question their own motives. Even if they are presented as likable, the soldiers with whom Ed serves are given serious flaws that they struggle with, and the show doesn't shy away from giving these flaws severe consequences for the relationships between characters.
The show is constantly questioning the actions of the characters. Indeed, in a rare move for a shonen series, Fullmetal Alchemist introduces a world that is far from black-and-white. Rather than being some larger-than-life threat to the world, the villains are directly linked to the brothers' journey, serving as a powerful and painful reminder to those who try to play God. Even the villains serve a larger purpose to help the heroes grow. Every relationship is brought back to how it affects the two siblings, from friend and family connections, to teacher-student bonds, to brothers-in-arms, Ed and Al change and grow because of how these relationships make them realize something about themselves. Rather than keep building its supporting cast and their interconnected stories, the show always focuses on how Ed and Al look at the world. The world's most powerful nation is Amestris, a military-state that uses alchemists as superpowered soldiers to suppress revolts from religious minorities, all while a secret and pseudo-immortal organization is stirring up conspiracies.
The main source of power and industrial progress is alchemy, an art that combines the principals of science with the power of magic. The story takes place in 1911, in a world not unlike our own, except for one key difference. The anime famously got the blessing from the original author to adapy the early chapters of the manga and split off into becoming a bold, ambitious, and largely original work aimed at general audiences rather than those with prior knowledge of the manga. This, of course, refers to Fullmetal Alchemist, Studio BONES' 2003 adaptation of the popular manga of the same name. But in some rare cases, an anime adaptation can split off from its source material and tell a story that is so ambitious and different from the source that it can be seen as an original work, while challenging the notion that the book is always better.
Once you catch up to the source material, there is no easy way to wait out for more of the story to be released without losing the audience or losing sight of the story. (Welcome to Ani-time Ani-where, a regular column dedicated to helping the uninitiated understand and appreciate the world of anime.)Īdapting manga into anime can be very tricky.
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