Treadmill Reviews: Fullmetal Alchemist

Walking on a treadmill, if you've never done it before, is actually quite boring. We happen to have one in my house, and it's become one of the few ways I can get exercise reliably, but the only way I can stand to use it is if I sit a laptop on the top tray and watch TV shows. And of course, when I watch something interesting, I want to tell you guys about it.

The show that I've been watching these last few weeks is the newest anime adaptation of a very popular Japanese manga, Fullmetal Alchemist. I read the books years back when I was in high school, and I didn't mind going through the story again in anime format because I already knew that the entire thing was and would be incredible.

It's important to mention that there are actually two anime adaptations. The first was made while the manga chapters were still being released weekly, and as anime adaptations tend to do, it caught up to the manga pretty quickly. Instead of taking a break, the anime producers decided to branch off of the manga, creating an entirely new (and kinda weird) story with the same characters/setting. As the manga got closer to the ending, they announced that another anime series would be produced, this one following the manga chapters closely and telling the original story.

Fullmetal Alchemist is an action/adventure science fantasy set in the fictitious nation of Amestris, reminiscent of Europe during the Industrial Revolution. It follows the journey of young brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric as they search for the Philosopher's Stone, a powerful alchemical ingredient which they intend to use to regenerate the parts of their bodies lost during a failed attempt to bring their late mother back to life.

Edward, in red, whose missing leg and arm is replaced with an armored prosthetic,
and Alphonse, whose soul was bond to a suit of armor after his body vanished.

At least, that's what the story's about at first. That's what I find to be so great about this particular story; the further we get into it, the more we learn and the bigger the picture becomes. I'm a huge fan of this approach to storytelling, and Fullmetal Alchemist takes it a step further by placing this incredible, evolving plotline inside what one would think was your average, mainstream action/fantasy.

In my opinion, the ending to Fullmetal Alchemist is explosive. Not in the 'everything explodes in your face' kind of way; I mean that the ending is a keg of gunpowder, and everything leading up to it is a spark on a fuse getting closer and closer, and though you may think you know what's going on, you never really know how fantastic the resulting explosion will be until you see it. I really don't know of any other way to describe it, and I I can only think of a few other stories that compare.

This is actually a scene from the beginning, as Ed and Al try to bring their mother back,
kick-starting their journey and eventually their inclusion to the larger story at hand.

That all being said, there are two things that mildly irked me as I watched the show these last couple of weeks. The first, seen in both the anime and the manga is the fact that everyone seems to have the ability to draw a perfect circle easily (circles being fundamental to the performance of Alchemy). Maybe all the alchemists had to train for years to be able to do this, but they never mentioned this in the story, and it seems more likely that it would have just been too much of a hassle to have the characters drawn lopsided ovals.

The second thing, specific to the anime, is the fact that the opening and closing theme music always made me feel sad, even though they changed the actual music every ten episodes or so. I don't mind sad music every now and then, but I rarely go looking for it. Fullmetal Alchemist isn't really a 'sad' show at all, but there are a few downcast moments within the story for the theme music to remind me of, and I generally just skipped over those opening and closing sequences.

I take it as a good sign, however, that there are only two things about this show that bug me. There's quite a huge cast of characters to remember, from the Elric brothers to the members of the national military and even a handful of foreigners, and everyone seems to have his or her own goal or motivation, but never did the plot jumble together or get confusing, and everything always seemed to come together to create a full story.

On a humorous note, it was while reading Fullmetal Alchemist for the first time that I decided to start pronouncing 'Colonel' the way I do (As 'col-o-nel' instead of 'kernel'). Among our main cast, the primary character in the military is Colonel Roy Mustang, and after reading the name over and over in the books, I realized it was easier to just stop forcing myself to ignore the spelling when I pronounced it. Now, the pronunciation 'kernel' just sounds funny in my mouth, and makes me think of a high-ranking piece of corn (I'm sure that joke's been made before).

Colonel Mustang kicking butt during the last battle, with Lieutenant
Hawkeye's help (I've actually decided that she's my favorite character).

Colonel Mustang's character is actually really interesting, however. I realized while watching the anime adaptation that, had the story not been named after the older Elric brother (Edward, called the 'Fullmetal Alchemist' by the state military), and had it taken a broader point of view instead of focusing on the brothers, Colonel Mustang would have come out as the main 'hero' character. I've always thought about how interesting it would be to tell a story from the side character's point of view, and I was shocked when I realized that's exactly what Fullmetal Alchemist had done (more or less; you could make the argument that the Elric brothers really are the 'heroes' in the end, but I'm still voting for Mustang).

After reading Fullmetal Alchemist for the first time, I fell in love with the story, and everything in it that made it great. Watching the adaptation and experiencing the story again gave me that much deeper an appreciation for all of the elements that had to combine together to create such a powerful piece. Fullmetal Alchemist is one of those stories that makes me sad to realize that many people wont ever see it, either because they're prejudice against the manga/anime mediums or because they'll just never have the chance or time to pick it up, and I want to do my part to make people realize what they're missing out on. It was pure genius, designing and marketing Fullmetal Alchemist as a piece of mainstream fiction, ensuring that the widest audience possible was exposed, but this brilliant story would never have hit so many people's hearts the way it did if that had been the only genius behind it.

I think we fit everyone in....