It happened unexpectedly when Boruto suddenly went on hiatus with little notice. Boruto was my Sunday morning habit until it wasn’t, and that absence really made a difference.
Something else occurred in April this year that brought this home to me. I was on a business trip in the Sea-Tac area of Washington State and had planned a few free days in downtown Seattle after the business part of my trip concluded.
After I checked into my hotel, I was startled to discover that Sakura-Con was being held that same weekend. I went to the convention center to register for the con’s last day, only to find that registration had closed an hour before.
Sakura-Con was on my radar for years as an anime fan. I’d always figured I’d go to it sometime. It’s not on the level of Anime Expo or even Otakon, but it’s at least at Fanime level as far as the numbers go. I’ve been so out of the loop on anime news that I didn’t even know that Sakura-Con was going to take place while I was in the Seattle area.
And that brings up another thought. I haven’t watched any new anime series in quite some time. I don’t care for isekai and unless some old favorite miraculously comes back from the dead like Bleach I find I’m not interested enough to try anything new.
It’s not a quality issue... I think. I think it’s a difference in the types of stories being produced these days.
My favorite anime series have been long-running shonen stories like Naruto, Bleach and Gintama, stories that go for hundreds of episodes where you can really get into the characters and the universe that they inhabit.
There isn’t anything that feels like that kind of story now in the anime world. There’s no brilliant Fullmetal Alchemist or cool Gundam 00 to watch anymore, to look forward to every week.
It could be that that particular kind of manga or anime story belonged to a certain era - and that era is now gone.
This young anime fan puts it perfectly.
Title: The DEATH of Long Running Anime
Creator: Blank Thoughts
Warning: Some salty language
I can’t fault art forms for evolving, and nothing in life stays the same. I do miss this kind of story though.
Ironically... I am attending an anime convention this weekend. I made the arrangements months ago. I don’t know what it will feel like to be at a post-pandemic full-on anime convention again. I’ll post my con report here when I return.
One of the things that hit me early on as an anime fan were the great opening and closing songs for anime series.
It was my introduction to J-pop music. Since then, through the years, I’ve had too many favorite opening/closing songs to count.
I read somewhere that the songs used for anime opening or closing numbers are actually popular hit songs in Japan. I don’t know if they are popular first and then get licensed for anime series, or if it’s the other way around – they become hits after people watch the anime.
In any event – the music used for anime opening/closing credit sequences is an added source of pleasure for me when I watch anime. The right song, along with a credit sequence that captures the series’ atmosphere, can put me in a mood that lingers long after I’ve finished watching the episodes.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Number 5:
Naruto Shippuuden – Opening 1
Song: Hero’s Come Back
Band: Nobody Knows
You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1hz_dnQWvs
Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden had a lot of great opening and closing songs. This one, “Hero’s Come Back,” was perfect for the start of Naruto Shippuuden, which takes place after a three-year time skip when Naruto is away from the village training with his ninja master Jiraiya.
The song and credit sequence truly set up the theme of a hero’s return. I remember watching the first episode of Shippuuden and being excited to see what the characters looked like now that they were teenagers and no longer children.
I especially like the confident look in Naruto’s eyes at the end as he strides forward to join Sakura and Kakashi. That look tells you everything about how much he matured when he was away.
Number 4:
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed – Ending 1
Song: “Anna ni Isshodattanoni”
Band: See-Saw
You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYcERWBQCXA
Gundam Seed remains my favorite Gundam series (though Gundam 00 is a pretty close second).
Most American fans list Wing as their entry point to the Gundam universe, but for me it was Seed. Seed was the first Gundam series I saw, and I watched it early on as an anime fan, so all the typical themes found in shonen mecha anime were unfamiliar to me: the violence, the harsh treatment of the young pilots, the horrors of war.
I recall being riveted... and at the same time aghast at how graphic many of the scenes were. At that time I still had the bias that anime was just another form of “animated entertainment” – which for me as an American meant Disney and kid’s stuff. Gundam Seed made my jaw drop many times and changed my mind about that pretty quickly.
I love the haunting tones of this song. They often started playing the opening notes of it during the final scene of each episode, and it was a great way to finish the episode while maintaining the melancholic mood.
Number 3:
Kuroko’s Basketball – Ending 3
Song: “Walk”
Band: Old Codex
You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBA48XcpcV8
J-pop music is sometimes compared to 1970s American bubblegum pop music – a comparison that seemingly condemns both as being something that’s inferior.
There’s absolutely a place in life for happy upbeat music. I always looked forward to hearing “Walk” at the end of Kuroko no Basuke’s second season episodes because it never failed to lift my mood. The driving rhythmic beat, the group harmonies in the chorus, the music playing over still shots of the characters that captured their unique personalities – “Walk” is just pure fun in music form.
Number 2:
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – Opening 2
Song: “Ash Like Snow”
Band: The Brilliant Green
You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d_for2jnQ0&list=PLXDqpIyz4Nl03V9d9ItqJbTOZl-yZeYh_
Something I realized when I became an anime fan was just how much awesome music there was in anime – not just the opening and closing songs, but the soundtrack and incidental music in each episode.
I’ve never made a study of J-pop, but then – I don’t have to. It’s music that does the only thing music is supposed to: it makes you feel things. It does that very well, and when it’s used effectively to complement the action on the screen, it adds another dimensional layer to the experience of watching anime.
“Ash Like Snow” is an example of a great rock song, period. If it had English lyrics instead of Japanese lyrics it would be a hit here in the west. Listening to it makes me realize there are countless J-pop songs like it that I’ll never hear because they’re not attached to any anime series, and that kind of makes me sad.
The song fits the Gundam meta theme of the futility of war, “ash like snow” invoking images of nuclear winter:
Ash like snow
It’s falling down from your sky
Ash like snow
Ash like snow
Ash like snow
Let me hear why I have to fight
... And finally, Number 1:
This was my favorite opening song for this series, and here it accompanies one of the best AMVs I’ve ever seen.
That’s my opinion... and the opinion of over twenty million others.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood remains number one on a lot of fans’ top ten lists even now, and for good reasons. If you’ve seen the anime—you know why.
Hiromu Arakawa’s manga story received a beautiful execution in anime form. When non-anime fans ask me what the best anime series is in my opinion—Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is still my answer, ten years after it came out.
As of today, this AMV has logged a staggering 20,067,325 views on You Tube. Cut together from the opening credit sequences, it’s a fan masterpiece, evoking feels and chills (especially the final shot).
If you’re an FMA:B fan, I hope it does for you what it does for me: bring alive the genius that is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood all over again.
Last week, when I mentioned Crunchyroll's streaming of Voices of a Distant Star, it made me think about which animes would be the best ones to show to anime newbies. I came up with two criteria:
1. The anime would have to make anyone who says "Oh, anime - that Japanese cartoon stuff?" - never be able to say that again;
and
2. The anime would have to invoke deep emotion, as the greatest filmed entertainment does (i.e., the best live-action movies and TV).
Until now, I probably would have considered myself still a relative newbie to anime and not able to fairly judge. But if the records of my anime watching that I keep on MyAnimeList are accurate, I have now watched a total of 145 anime series and feature films. So I think I finally have enough standing to do "best of" type lists. ;)
So in that respect, I thought about "gateway" animes, the animes you'd show someone to convince them that anime can be both great art and great entertainment, and I came up with one OVA, two series, one short OVA series and two feature films.
Voices of a Distant Star, pictured above, was Makoto Shinkai's first work. He wrote, directed, produced and did the animation in this solo tour de force OVA.
The premise: In 2047, Mikako and Noboru are junior high school students. Mikako, the girl, is chosen for a space expedition to fight mankind's alien enemies, while Noboru, the boy, goes on to enter high school. As the years pass, the two send messages to each other but due to Mikako's journey into deep space, the time it takes for her messages to reach Noboru begins to increase, to the point where it takes years.
It's a "gateway" anime for newbies because: At only 25 minutes long, this anime presents beautiful imagery, a compelling and believable love story and a fantastic science-fiction concept: that of time passing at different rates for the girl and boy. I like that it's the girl who goes to space - and the boy who stays behind on Earth. ;) And it evokes a surprising amount of emotion for such a short anime, and different emotions too - sadness, joy, contemplation, but most of all - a deep feeling of longing. It's simply stunning.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the anime adaptation of the completed manga series by Hiromu Arakawa, is one of the most thrilling anime series you will ever see.
The premise: In Amestris, a fictional European country in the early 20th century, two young brothers experiment with forbidden alchemy in an attempt to bring their mother back from the dead. The experiment goes horribly wrong and the older brother, Edward Elric, loses an arm and a leg and his younger brother Alphonse loses his entire body to "The Gate," a mysterious doorway leading to the "other side." The two seek to restore their bodies by finding a special "philosopher's stone," and become caught up in political and metaphysical mysteries hidden in Amestris' unexpectedly dark past.
It's a gateway anime because: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has everything: shonen adventure, beings with fantastical powers, compelling characters and a story that draws you in from the start and never lets you go. Despite the story going in seemingly many directions, by the end it all comes together. The climax is perfectly played out and the ending is completely satisfying on an emotional level. The story is too complex to discuss briefly and sound like you're making any sense ;) - but trust me, no one could watch this series and not be moved and deeply impressed.
Death Note is a brilliantly-told suspense tale, a cat-and-mouse story with a supernatural twist.
The premise: Light Yagami, a high school student, finds a notebook dropped by a shinigami that contains the power of life and death. By writing a person's name in this notebook while picturing their face, that person will die.
It's a gateway anime because: Death Note is a dark, cold story, one with an evil protagonist and a good antagonist (L, the detective) and moments of real horror. But it's enormously compelling due to the build-up of suspense, the what-will-happen-next that kept me watching episode after episode, unable to stop. At 37 episodes, the anime series is just the right length for the story it tells. The presentation is cool and contemporary, making it a good gateway anime for teens and young adults.
The movie Paprika is the most visually compelling and easily accessible of the late Satoshi Kon's works.
The premise: A research device called the "DC Mini" allows users to view people's dreams. Dr. Atsuko Chiba, a psychologist, uses the device to help patients by adopting a dream persona, a girl named "Paprika," who enters their dreams to assist them. One of her patients, a detective, has a recurring dream about a murder that he cannot solve. Before the device can be made available to the public, three prototypes are stolen...
It's a gateway anime because: It's a complex story telling the interwoven stories of both Dr. Chiba and the detective, with stylish imagery that makes it a visual feast. A perfect blend of fantasy, mystery, humor and unexpectedly at the end - a little romance - Paprika is a great way to introduce adults who aren't familiar with anime stories for adults to - well, anime stories for adults. ;)
I rented Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen (Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal) from Netflix a few years ago, not knowing anything about it except that I'd never seen any of the Rurouni Kenshin anime episodes before and I was in the mood for a samurai anime. What I saw was an anime I can never forget.
The premise: (This is the prequel to the Rurouni Kenshin anime series.) Ten years before the start of the series, when Kenshin is still known as the Hitokiri Battosai assassin, he kills a bodyguard named Akira Kiyosato. On the run, Kenshin meets Tomoe Yukishiro, unaware that she was Kiyosato's fiancee. A spy is suspected to be in their clan, the Choshu, and arrangements are made to hide Kenshin and Tomoe away in a remote village...
It's a gateway anime because: You can watch Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal without knowing a single thing about the Rurouni Kenshin storyline; it stands alone as a classic Japanese romance-tragedy. Unlike the manga and the anime series, which contain a lot of humor and are somewhat light in tone, Trust and Betrayal is deeply serious and transcendently beautiful. The four OVA episodes comprise, in essence, a two-hour movie. The maturity of the story and the presentation would appeal to any adult-age audience.
Finally, Sword of the Stranger, my favorite anime movie of recent years.
The premise: Kotaro, a young boy, is fleeing from the Ming Chinese, who are seeking him for an unknown reason. Along the way he meets "Nanashi," or "No-Name," a mysterious taciturn samurai who, despite his mild manner, possesses deadly skills. Nanashi reluctantly becomes Kotaro's bodyguard as the mystery of why Kotaro is a target is gradually revealed.
It's a gateway anime because: Breathtaking action sequences, an intriguing story and great performances make Sword of the Stranger an impressive and satisfying anime feature film. Nanashi is played by Japanese live-action actor Tomoya Nagase, who had never done voice acting (as opposed to live action acting) before, and he's wonderful. The child actor Yuuri Chinen also stands out as Kotaro. But it's the amazing action scenes that bring the film alive, including one moment toward the end that threatened to stop my heart (really). Any fan of action movies and good storytelling would appreciate this anime movie.
Warning: Complete spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the original Fullmetal Alchemist series, the movie Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa and the manga. Everything Fullmetal Alchemist, in other words. ;)
I wrote a post on the differences between the original FMA series and FMA: Brotherhood early on when Brotherhood first began (which you can read here). With the completion of FMA: Brotherhood and the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, here are a few rambling thoughts about the FMA universe - and the two very different anime series that it produced.
The Original Fullmetal Alchemist Anime Series
The original Fullmetal Alchemist anime series came about through an accident of birth. Apparently, only a few months into its serialization, the FMA manga story caused such excitement among the Japanese fans that the anime rights were bought up immediately. Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of the manga, gave the producers her blessing to develop the anime story on a different track than the manga.
This resulted in the first FMA anime series paralleling the manga story in some ways, and deviating greatly from it in other ways. As the manga storyline continued on its track, the anime series did its thing, and eventually came to an ending - of sorts - in 51 episodes.
In the original FMA series, Ed and Al were indisputably the main characters and the sole focus of the story. And they looked so vulnerable... the character design had Ed being younger and smaller, with a rounder face. In FMA: Brotherhood, Ed looks older and bigger, his face more angular and less "prettified," in keeping with Arakawa's manga vision of him.
The brothers' vulnerability went beyond just the character design in the original series. There was the sense that they were two young boys--children--surrounded by a world of darkness, with adults who seemed to be on their side like Col. Mustang, but about whom they could never really be sure...
The darkness included the shadowy visage of their absent father Hohenheim, with the eventual revelation that their father was the source of evil in the story.
The music in the original series was fantastic - I have the first three CDs from the series. The major recurring themes and even the incidental music is just hauntingly beautiful.
The original Fullmetal Alchemist series was one of the first anime series I watched. I think at that point I'd only seen Pokemon and maybe some Vandread and Street Fighter II dubbed episodes on the Starz network on TV. So you might be able to imagine my reaction upon seeing scenes like Ed losing his leg and arm in a sea of blood, and his mother emerging from the beyond as a sickening, monstrous half-alive thing. The visceral reactions of dread and chills these scenes raised in me (that I can feel again, sitting here typing this) are something I can never forget. My first realization that anime was a true art form came when I watched Fullmetal Alchemist.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa
The original series storyline came to a sort-of conclusion in the movie Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, at the end of which Ed and Al wind up on our side of the Gate and exiled from Amestris.
The Conqueror of Shamballa is a flawed film - I think even fans of the film would say as much (and I'm one of them). The story is too slow in its set-up and only really comes alive towards the end, with the imminent destruction of Amestris and the great scene when Roy Mustang arrives to save the day. ;) Even Ed and Al's reunion in Amestris is dampened down and anti-climactic - and of all the scenes that should've been played for a huge emotional impact(!). In short, The Conqueror of Shamballa was an oddity, though a mostly enjoyable one. What it wasn't, unfortunately - was a great ending to a great story.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the anime fulfillment of Arakawa's vision from beginning to end - the canon story of the manga.
Brotherhood is much more of an ensemble piece than the original series. In Brotherhood, the sense that Ed and Al are part of something bigger than themselves is apparent from early on. The scenes in the original series where the two boys seemed so isolated were recreated in Brotherhood to show Ed and Al being part of a larger picture. To me, unfortunately, this took away the emotional impact from the original series, where the brothers had only each other to rely on.
I really didn't like that Scar turned out to be the one who killed Winry's parents, and not Roy. In the original series, Roy's guilt over assassinating the Rockbells in the Ishbal War tied him more closely to Ed, Winry and Al, and gave his character more depth and dimension. In Brotherhood, to have it be Scar who did the act (and for no particular reason either) didn't add anything to the story or to the characters.
(On the other hand - I did like that Roy studied alchemy under Riza Hawkeye's father in Brotherhood. That made the bond between Roy and Riza deeper and more believable.)
Also, for me, the music of Brotherhood didn't come close to the quality of the music for the original series. Even the opening and ending themes... it wasn't until Brotherhood's 4th opening theme that I heard music that I even found memorable and actually liked:
The complaints above aside, I have to say... Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is fantastic - one of the best anime series I've ever seen.
Hiromu Arakawa's complete story, as fully realized in Brotherhood, is a story of sweeping scope - involving not only Ed and Al and Hohenheim, Col. Mustang, Izumi Curtis and the others from the first series, but ultimately all of Amestris in the war against the enemy.
The things I especially liked about Brotherhood were:
The Enemy
The Dwarf in the Flask is one of the best villains ever.
The original Homunculus - not only is he (it?) cunning, but as the power behind Pride and the other Homunculi, he is also genuinely frightening. In the end, what brings him down is what brings down most villains: the lust for power, particularly as untempered by any kind of regard for humanity.
Hohenheim
Hohenheim is a much more sympathetic character in Brotherhood than in the original series. Just the fact that he was a slave, and that he never sought to be transformed into a near-immortal being by the Dwarf makes you feel for him. Of course, he's still a putz for leaving Ed and Al when they were young ;) - but by the end of Brotherhood he obviously redeems himself and even makes a graceful exit at the graveside of Tricia Elric.
General Armstrong
Who wouldn't like this woman? She beats the crap out of her brother Alex Louis Armstrong to become the head of the Armstrong family and leads the crack forces of the Briggs fortress to triumph in Amestris's capital city - and she's dead sexy to boot.
Ling
Ling was fun and a nice addition to the Fullmetal Alchemist universe.
The Ticking Clock
Around the midpoint of Brotherhood comes a moment that is a stroke of brilliance, pacing-wise, when we see Alphonse's soulless body beyond the Gate, wasting away.
Unlike in the original series, Brotherhood gives us a ticking clock. Alphonse's body can't wait forever for its soul to rejoin it. This added a powerful sense of urgency to the last half of the series, as once you glimpse Al's emaciated body, you can't forget that he's waiting - and that he could die.
The Happy Ending
I watched Episode 64 in a ballroom at Anime Expo 2010 filled with screaming fans.
Seeing Al back in his human body was like a revelation. Every time Al smiled, or turned around, or just walked down the road with Ed, a ripple of energy went through the audience - almost a sigh. It was easy to forget that Al was lacking his body throughout the series, so engaging was his character in that huge suit of armor. But in the last episode, you almost want to reach out and touch him just to make sure he's really back. If the happy sniffles I heard in the dark around me were any indication, Alphonse regaining his body was the best thing of all about the ending of the story for the fans, even more than Ed hooking up with Winry. ;) At least that's how I saw it - when I could see through my own tears, that is.
Conclusion
There are things about the original FMA series that I missed in Brotherhood: the intense, singular focus on Ed and Al, the complicated relationship between Ed and Roy, Izumi's whole backstory, etc. And yet Brotherhood triumphs on so many levels that it has already eclipsed the original series for most fans.
I guess this strange situation of two anime series telling essentially the same story will always be left where it is - unresolved. On the MyAnimeList site, Fullmetal Alchemist is listed as being the "Alternative Version" of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood; and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is listed as being the "Alternative Version" of Fullmetal Alchemist. If this is where we must leave it, then let's appreciate both series for what they gave us: the story of two boys named Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric and a very long and adventure-filled journey home.
Anime Expo was a great experience for me this year. Here are a few notes and impressions of the con.
L.A. Live
I can recall when the old cliche about Los Angeles, "40 suburbs in search of a city," pretty much applied to the whole place. But with new centers of nightlife activity like L.A. Live above, one can believe that the City of Angels offers at least a few genuinely urban experiences today.
Nokia Plaza is composed of the state-of-the-art Nokia Theater, various restaurants, and finally this year - the brand-new J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live hotel. The buildings of L.A. Live are covered with an array of enormous video screens, and the trees are adorned with beautiful small blue lights. It looks like Blade Runner come to life, and being only two blocks from the L.A. Convention Center where AX was held, it provided the perfect futuristic Tokyo-style backdrop and gathering place for the anime fen.
You Know You Really Love This Movie When...
... You're about to leave the con for the evening on Day One, when you suddenly notice in the program guide that they're showing this movie in one of the screening rooms.
... And even though you actually own this movie on DVD at home, you find yourself literally running up the stairs to get to the screening room, because it's so much fun to watch this movie with an audience.
That's just how much I love Sword of the Stranger.
The Exhibit Hall and Artist's Alley
Although there were many dealers exhibiting this year, there's no question that there were fewer of them than last year. The space around the edges of the Exhibit Hall was... spacious. In other words, there weren't enough dealers to fill the hall to the edges.
The Artist's Alley was simply enormous this year - nearly a third of the entire Exhibit Hall. Someone told me that this was because some of the people that were dealers last year couldn't afford to pay the fee this year to be regular dealers - and so they were now "artists" in Artist's Alley. Uh, yikes.
Gundam Unicorn
The latest Gundam anime series has begun!
Apparently, there will be six one-hour episodes. Episode One played to a solidly-packed ballroom full of Gundam enthusiasts and curious others.
Gundam Unicorn is set in the original Gundam universe's timeline, and so the character design is deliberately somewhat dated-looking; a bit '80s-ish, but not annoyingly so. As is typical, Banagher, the main character, is a boy with some self-doubts, and the girl character Audrey is one of those determined and plucky types who rejects him at first. She loftily turns down his offer of help (after he's already rescued her once), sending him into a spiral of depression. (One suspects she's just trying to protect him... but we know that won't stop him. ;))
At one critical moment, Banagher is asked if he's ready to accept the challenge of fighting in the war that has just begun. Banagher replies that he's not sure, but that he just knows that he needs to make Audrey need him (causing a chorus of groans and cheers from the audience) - and that that's all that's important to him. I almost felt like yelling out, "Dude, you're the one who needs her - just admit it." Someone should write a book on the boy-girl relationships in Gundam...
There's always that fangasm moment of bliss in the opener of every Gundam series when the mecha gets revealed for the first time, and Gundam Unicorn is no exception. The slow pan from the mecha's feet all the way up its body, until the entire mecha from head to toe is revealed... complete with bombastic music played at a deafening volume (still barely heard over the screams of the fanboys, which were even louder)... it's corny and wonderful and just so... Gundam.
I'll be watching the rest of this series. ;)
The Last Episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
I'll be writing a post about FMA: Brotherhood soon, but just on the experience of watching the final episode in a room full of nearly-hyperventilating fans - it was something I was glad I didn't miss.
First, Romi Paku, Rie Kugimiya and Shinichiro Miki recorded a special video just for the screening, which was the U.S. premiere of the final episode. As they had just recorded the episode (and were in fact still sitting in the recording studio), it felt as fresh as if they were being shown live from Japan.
Next, they first played Episode 63 for those who hadn't seen it yet - and then rolled right into Episode 64. I won't spoil anything, but the final episode is as satisfying as you hoped it would be - plus a few surprises, too.
I was caught off-guard by the amount of emotion that came up for me, watching the final episode. The original Fullmetal Alchemist series was one of the first anime series that I fell in love with as a new anime fan. It's hard for me to admit, but in almost every way Brotherhood has topped the original. But again, I'll write more on that later...
I spent time with old friends and made new ones, cosplayed for the first time - for a few hours anyway ;) - and unexpectedly - had the best time I've ever had at an anime convention. It wasn't the same old, same old at AX for me this year; this one was special. I will definitely be back next year. :)
I am torn about the new anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
This new rendering of the Fullmetal Alchemist story has the same seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) for the main characters, the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric; the same producer as the original anime series, Bones; and the same high-quality production values as the original series.
I was and am a huge fan of the original anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist began production while the manga was still being written. The anime episodes caught up very quickly with the manga storyline, and the decision was made to take the anime storyline thereafter in a completely different direction from the manga. The new anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood starts once again at the beginning of the story, but this time it will follow the manga storyline after the point where the original anime series diverged from the manga. This divergence point will be reached at Episode 14 of the new series.
The issue I have is that – at least with these initial episodes where they’re repeating the first half of the original anime storyline – this retelling of the adventures of the Elric brothers lacks the depth of character development of the original anime series, as well as presenting with a lighter tone that seems inappropriate for the story.
I remember how I felt watching the original series. Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the first longer series (51 episodes) that I watched as a new anime fan. The darkness of the storyline, the tragedy of the boys’ mother’s death, their decision to commit the forbidden act of human transmutation, the unusual setting—Amestris, a kind of imaginary Germany/Austro-Hungarian Empire circa 1914—all combined to create a full, rich, dark story that simply demanded to be watched all the way to its concluding episodes. Ed and Al were vulnerable and so alone—surrounded by hidden enemies and befriended by a mentor, Col. Mustang, whom they were never sure they could fully trust.
By contrast – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has almost a breezy tone to it. The flashbacks to their mother’s death and their crime of human transmutation, and their starting adventures are retold in a kind of let’s-get-this-over-with fashion that sets exactly the wrong mood and tone for the story. It feels like Fullmetal Alchemist Lite – which I am certain is not what the producers intended.
Just one example: the scene in “The Ishbal Massacre,” Episode 15 of the original anime series, where Scar attacks Ed and Al. In the original series, when Scar destroys Ed’s mechanical arm, as Ed falls back - eyes unfocused in shock - we see the pieces of automail scatter through the air in slow motion, in an art image so iconic that it has been featured in publicity stills and in FMA calendars ever since:
As Scar approaches to deliver the death blow, Ed agrees to die so long as Scar promises not to kill Al, and further mocks Scar for his hypocrisy in killing others when he acknowledges that doing so won’t bring back his brother or the other massacred Ishbalans. Scar places his hand on Ed’s head to blow his brains out as Ed, facing death unflinchingly, glares up at him (you will recall that Ed is all of 15 years old at this point in the story).
Meanwhile, younger brother Al, lying helpless on the ground – his metal torso having been splintered apart by Scar – screams at Ed to run away and save himself. The voice actor (Rie Kugimiya) actually hyperventilates as she screams, and we can feel Al’s desperation over losing Ed. It is an absolutely chilling and unforgettable scene.
By contrast – in Brotherhood, Scar’s wounding of the brothers takes place as just part of a longer fight scene involving numerous others. And after Scar escapes, friends rush in to aid and comfort the two boys. The sense of Ed and Al being everything to one another and being alone in the world – and about to lose each other – is gone.
If I were new to the Fullmetal Alchemist universe and Brotherhood was my first exposure to the story and characters, I would wonder why everyone was such a fan and what all the fuss was about. The deep characterization and sense of gravitas present in the original anime are, so far, missing from the new version.
Of course, all this may change from Episode 14 onward, when Brotherhood begins to follow the different storyline of the manga and becomes its own original creature. But even if that occurs, I think the producers are trading heavily on the fan base’s patience and goodwill in their decision to treat the first 13 episodes in this manner. (And they had to have known there would be comparisons to the original.) I do have to add, though, that many fans of the manga are excited about Brotherhood, seeing it as being a long-awaited representation of their favorite version of the story.
A final point, and I almost hate to bring this up, but – the manga series is still ongoing, which means – conceivably – that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood may catch up to where the manga is at, and might well have to diverge from the manga storyline as did the original anime series Fullmetal Alchemist. Like an endless hall of mirrors, I cannot believe that this would lead to a third anime series based on the same story, and yet I suppose anything is possible.
