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Arakawa Hiromu - Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 17-18 (Eng. trans.)
I had caught up on this back in 2007, but lately ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
rilina's been saying there is much awesomeness going on, so I went back and reread the entire series. I had watched the anime back in 2006; a year after that provided some distance when I read the manga, but not enough. I remember being almost hurt by some of the changes in the manga, even though the manga is the original.
Fast forward 2 years, and it's been so long since I've seen the anime that I'm finally able to read the manga as its own entity.
So far, my impressions from 2007 largely hold: the manga doesn't make me as worried for all the characters that the anime does, the manga has much better women, and the manga has much, much better worldbuilding. I love the anime, but really, it's not that hard to beat the anime for worldbuilding that makes sense. The alchemy in the manga series feels more forgiving, and I do actually think Al will end up with his body back (I'm hoping, on the other hand, that Ed stays with his automail).
However, even though I don't feel the same sense of danger for the characters, the larger-scale plot is much more threatening than that of the anime. And that's where I think Arakawa excels. She actually looks at issues of war and genocide and weapons of mass destruction, and although her treatment isn't always as radical as I want it to be, it's still refreshing to see manga in which non-Japanese POC exist and which talk about imperialism and colonialism.
Giant spoilers
It feels so weird reading "Oliver" instead of "Olivia"! I did check the katakana, and yup, it's pronounced "Olivier." She is still made of awesome, although I'm a little sad that she's been relocated to Central. On the other hand, I am looking forward to more snide comments about Roy Mustang and lots of cool politicking.
I also realized on rereading my older entries that I had completely missed what the tattoo on Hawkeye's back was. It's not nearly as sinister as I thought it was, and it makes all the comments about "I've got your back" between Hawkeye and Roy much more entertaining. And OMG! The reveal about Selim! That was excellent indeed. So far, I think he's the creepiest homunculus, even more so than Envy in his real shape.
I still have no idea what's going on with Hohenheim and Father, although my current theory is Sekrit Twins. Because really, that's all the manga is missing so far.
And although I vaguely remember it from before, the reveal about Amestris not only being a giant transmutation circle, but being founded solely to be a giant transmutation circle continues to be awesome. I remember looking at the map in the anime and thinking it was unnaturally circular in shape, and it turns out there was a reason for that!
I am not annoyed at the portrayal of racial tension between the Ishbalans and Amestrians, but I'm not entirely happy either. Don't get me wrong; I love having canonical POC in a Euro-inspired fantasy world. On the other hand, I keep thinking that almost all stories I read about racial tension have a killer/hater from the side being discriminated against and how those stories frequently use that character to do the "See, both sides do it!" And then they can go on to messages about forgiveness and healing and moving on. Here, it particularly annoyed me because the person who had to do the forgiveness wasn't Scar, but Winry. And of course it sucks to have your parents killed, but the entire narrative is weighted to make us feel sorry for Winry, so that when she says she doesn't forgive him but that she needs to move on, the effect is to minimize the damage on the Ishbalans. Ditto with mixed-race Miles who joins the Amestrian army in order to show them that Ishbalans are not that scary.
I fully believe things like that would happen, of course, but it all works to take away from the enormity of the Amestrians' attempted genocide of the Ishbalans, the fact that most of the Ishbalans are in refugee camps, and etc. It puts the focus on Amestrian acceptance of Ishbalans when I felt it should be on, well, reparations and apologies.
That said, I think Arakawa goes further than most mangaka would; I like very much that even though the initial reason for the war was faked, she never denies the responsibility that all the military members bear. I like that she takes characters we like—Hughes, Mustang, Hawkeye, Armstrong—and makes them into the villains. They're not as bad as Kimblee, obviously, but she also doesn't shy away from the fact that no matter how much they disliked what they did, they still were out there attempting to exterminate the Ishbalans.
I just wish there were more Ishbalan characters who weren't Scar.
I'm equally not-annoyed-but-not-entirely-happy with the Xing people we've seen. I was trying very hard not to notice, but I can't help picking up on the many times when Lin is drawn with lines for eyes. It does help that May and Lan Fan have the normal big manga eyes, but still somewhat nidgy for me. I'm hoping we'll see Lan Fan again, and although May could be an annoyingly cute girl, I actually like her a lot. She's cute! I cannot help it! And her idealizations of Ed and Al crack me up! I'm also kind of happy about the idea that Xing alchemy is actually the original alchemy that Amestrians have taken and basically perverted.
I also have some floating thoughts about disability and ablism in manga, from the frequency of sacrificing limbs and eye loss to ... something. I am not sure yet. I feel manga definitely has more people with disabilities than other things I read, but that those disabilities are also treated more as angsty backstory rather than disability. As in, you very rarely hear about how so-and-so who sacrificed his arm for such-and-such still has phantom pain at night or hates asking for help with particular things. On one hand, I think this could be a plus, as in they are not All About the Disability as PWD frequently are in YA problem novels. On the other, I'm wary about the use of disability as a metaphor for angsty backstory.
I find FMA interesting because although Ed and Al clearly do have angsty backstory connected with their disabilities, the manga also addresses things like Ed having to do rehab when he first got automail, or the teeth-grinding moment that always occurs when Winry reconnects his nerves after working on his arm. I also like that we see a range of people with automail, from angsty backstory automail to the people Winry outfits in Rush Valley. But yes, mostly questions and no conclusions from me.
Other completely random notes:
rilina's been saying there is much awesomeness going on, so I went back and reread the entire series. I had watched the anime back in 2006; a year after that provided some distance when I read the manga, but not enough. I remember being almost hurt by some of the changes in the manga, even though the manga is the original.Fast forward 2 years, and it's been so long since I've seen the anime that I'm finally able to read the manga as its own entity.
So far, my impressions from 2007 largely hold: the manga doesn't make me as worried for all the characters that the anime does, the manga has much better women, and the manga has much, much better worldbuilding. I love the anime, but really, it's not that hard to beat the anime for worldbuilding that makes sense. The alchemy in the manga series feels more forgiving, and I do actually think Al will end up with his body back (I'm hoping, on the other hand, that Ed stays with his automail).
However, even though I don't feel the same sense of danger for the characters, the larger-scale plot is much more threatening than that of the anime. And that's where I think Arakawa excels. She actually looks at issues of war and genocide and weapons of mass destruction, and although her treatment isn't always as radical as I want it to be, it's still refreshing to see manga in which non-Japanese POC exist and which talk about imperialism and colonialism.
Giant spoilers
It feels so weird reading "Oliver" instead of "Olivia"! I did check the katakana, and yup, it's pronounced "Olivier." She is still made of awesome, although I'm a little sad that she's been relocated to Central. On the other hand, I am looking forward to more snide comments about Roy Mustang and lots of cool politicking.
I also realized on rereading my older entries that I had completely missed what the tattoo on Hawkeye's back was. It's not nearly as sinister as I thought it was, and it makes all the comments about "I've got your back" between Hawkeye and Roy much more entertaining. And OMG! The reveal about Selim! That was excellent indeed. So far, I think he's the creepiest homunculus, even more so than Envy in his real shape.
I still have no idea what's going on with Hohenheim and Father, although my current theory is Sekrit Twins. Because really, that's all the manga is missing so far.
And although I vaguely remember it from before, the reveal about Amestris not only being a giant transmutation circle, but being founded solely to be a giant transmutation circle continues to be awesome. I remember looking at the map in the anime and thinking it was unnaturally circular in shape, and it turns out there was a reason for that!
I am not annoyed at the portrayal of racial tension between the Ishbalans and Amestrians, but I'm not entirely happy either. Don't get me wrong; I love having canonical POC in a Euro-inspired fantasy world. On the other hand, I keep thinking that almost all stories I read about racial tension have a killer/hater from the side being discriminated against and how those stories frequently use that character to do the "See, both sides do it!" And then they can go on to messages about forgiveness and healing and moving on. Here, it particularly annoyed me because the person who had to do the forgiveness wasn't Scar, but Winry. And of course it sucks to have your parents killed, but the entire narrative is weighted to make us feel sorry for Winry, so that when she says she doesn't forgive him but that she needs to move on, the effect is to minimize the damage on the Ishbalans. Ditto with mixed-race Miles who joins the Amestrian army in order to show them that Ishbalans are not that scary.
I fully believe things like that would happen, of course, but it all works to take away from the enormity of the Amestrians' attempted genocide of the Ishbalans, the fact that most of the Ishbalans are in refugee camps, and etc. It puts the focus on Amestrian acceptance of Ishbalans when I felt it should be on, well, reparations and apologies.
That said, I think Arakawa goes further than most mangaka would; I like very much that even though the initial reason for the war was faked, she never denies the responsibility that all the military members bear. I like that she takes characters we like—Hughes, Mustang, Hawkeye, Armstrong—and makes them into the villains. They're not as bad as Kimblee, obviously, but she also doesn't shy away from the fact that no matter how much they disliked what they did, they still were out there attempting to exterminate the Ishbalans.
I just wish there were more Ishbalan characters who weren't Scar.
I'm equally not-annoyed-but-not-entirely-happy with the Xing people we've seen. I was trying very hard not to notice, but I can't help picking up on the many times when Lin is drawn with lines for eyes. It does help that May and Lan Fan have the normal big manga eyes, but still somewhat nidgy for me. I'm hoping we'll see Lan Fan again, and although May could be an annoyingly cute girl, I actually like her a lot. She's cute! I cannot help it! And her idealizations of Ed and Al crack me up! I'm also kind of happy about the idea that Xing alchemy is actually the original alchemy that Amestrians have taken and basically perverted.
I also have some floating thoughts about disability and ablism in manga, from the frequency of sacrificing limbs and eye loss to ... something. I am not sure yet. I feel manga definitely has more people with disabilities than other things I read, but that those disabilities are also treated more as angsty backstory rather than disability. As in, you very rarely hear about how so-and-so who sacrificed his arm for such-and-such still has phantom pain at night or hates asking for help with particular things. On one hand, I think this could be a plus, as in they are not All About the Disability as PWD frequently are in YA problem novels. On the other, I'm wary about the use of disability as a metaphor for angsty backstory.
I find FMA interesting because although Ed and Al clearly do have angsty backstory connected with their disabilities, the manga also addresses things like Ed having to do rehab when he first got automail, or the teeth-grinding moment that always occurs when Winry reconnects his nerves after working on his arm. I also like that we see a range of people with automail, from angsty backstory automail to the people Winry outfits in Rush Valley. But yes, mostly questions and no conclusions from me.
Other completely random notes:
- I had completely forgotten how awesome Arakawa's various author notes and omake are! She's up there with Yuki Kaori and Mori Kaoru for me. (Although sadly, no eyes on a plate yet. That may be something only Yuki Kaori would do anyway.)
- I kind of wish the manga had Roy kill Winry's parents as well. It plays in much better with notions of complicity, whereas having Scar do it falls into the "The oppressed person is awful too!" for me.
- Now that Al's going off by himself to warn Winry, Scar, and co., I hope he gets to do some stuff by himself.
- I am not super-fond of Winry and Ed eventually being paired up, or Winry being used against them, but I love Winry working in Rush Valley and clearly having a life outside of the brothers.
- I continue to love Roy and co's telephone code talk and secret plans, although I'm really worried for them! It seems like everyone knows about them now, and Bradley's got them in a very bad position currently.
- I am desperately hoping Trisha has a Big Secret of her own. Otherwise, she is kind of boring and I have zero idea why anyone would have stayed with Hohenheim without some sort of Big Secret.
- That said, Hohenheim is temporarily off my "Who is eviler, Gendo or Hohenheim?" evil fathers list. I still think he sucks. Just... not as much as Ikari Gendo right now.