You know an anime is hot when it chronically graces the covers of anime magazines. Animage (Dec 2003, Mar 2004), Animedia (Dec 2003), Newtype Japan(Jan 2004, Mar 2004) and Newtype USA (Feb 2004) were some of the mags infected by FMA fever. I'm hot with this fever too. And it seems like I would be blogging FMA after all since it's going beyond the typical 24/26 eps. I'm not so sure I can endure the torment of waiting for that 1 ep every week. Sigh it's going to like Gundam SEED all over again... (I was always screaming at the end of every GS ep cos I know the next dosage comes only 7 days later.)
Now back to FMA. Woah. Fantastic storyline. It was very interesting to see how the many layers to the story are woven together and anchored by the 2 Elric brothers as the focal point in the grand scheme of things. The pace is excellent. There's always a constant trickle of answers or subtle hints to the many questions in the series. And when a major plot revelation is in view, it's always preceded by a good buildup to ensure the impact of the revelation is felt. The characters are also deep and interesting. The 2 Elric brothers did mature quite a bit during their journeys. I thot it was interesting that Al, being the younger brother, is the voice of wisdom and exhibited more maturity than Ed (though a little too trusting at times). Scar, Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes are not cardboard characters either. Esp for Roy and Maes whose true motivations are still unclear for me. I suspect Roy want to be the Fuhrer for reasons connected to the Ishiba massacre.
On another note, I wonder if FMA is Japanese animanga circle's response to the thorny issue of human cloning. Imagine having Scar's power in cloning terms, instead of rearranging atoms, he could just scramble someone's DNA code on touch, creating instantly "The Human Blob". Of course he could potentially cure cancer too. However, when it comes to such powerful discoveries/techniques, I have tremendous faith in mankind. You can be sure the human race will see its first BLOB bomb long b4 commercially viable cancer treatments are made available to masses. Now we know why Ishibala deemed alchemy evil.
Related posts:
- Fullmetal Alchemist 28-30
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Fullmetal Alchemist 26-27
