Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi?, lit. "Alchemist of Steel" wink , commonly abbreviated as FMA or Hagaren, is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The story centers around a fictional universe in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques, resulting in different technological developments. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is based in the countries of Europe during the Industrial Revolution period as well as several experiences from the author's life.[1] The plot follows the adventures of two brothers, alchemists named Edward and Alphonse Elric, who want to recover parts of their bodies they lost in an attempt to bring their mother back to life.
The manga is serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine and was adapted into an animated television series and a movie sequel. The manga is still running in Japan, and nineteen bound volumes have been released so far, while sixteen have been released in the United States. The anime, on the other hand, is finished, and consists of fifty-one episodes and a full-length movie sequel, which have been released in English in all English-speaking DVD regions.[2] In addition, there are several spin-off novels, original video animations (OVAs), and video games.[2] Merchandising of Fullmetal Alchemist, such as collectible card games, action figures, soundtracks, and supplementary books, have also been released. Concert performances of the series have also been made in Japan during December 2004.
The franchise has seen high popularity in both Japan and North America.[3] As of March 2008, the Fullmetal Alchemist manga has sold over 30 million volumes in Japan.[4] The English release of the manga's first volume was the top-selling graphic novel during the year 2005.[5] The series' animated adaptation won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 2003.[6] In two TV Asahi web polls, the anime was voted #1 most popular anime of all time in Japan.[7][8] It was nominated in six of the eight categories for which it was eligible at the American Anime Awards in February 2007, winning awards in five of them.[9]
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
1.1 Differences in adaptations
2 Main characters
3 Production
4 Media
4.1 Manga
4.2 Anime
4.2.1 Soundtracks
4.3 Novels
4.4 Drama CDs
4.5 Trading card game
4.6 Art and guidebooks
4.7 Video games
4.8 Other merchandise
5 Reception
6 References
7 External links
[edit] Plot
Edward and Alphonse Elric are brothers living in the village of Resembool in the country of Amestris (アメストリス, Amesutorisu?). Their father, Hohenheim, left home when Edward and Alphonse were still very young. Years later, their mother, Trisha Elric, dies of a terminal illness. After their mother's death, Edward becomes determined to bring her back through the use of alchemy, an advanced science in which an object can be reformed into something completely different.[10] They learn of the Human Transmutation, a forbidden art in which one attempts to create a human who had died. However, this attempt failed, ultimately resulting in the loss of Edward's left leg and Alphonse's entire body.[11] In a desperate effort to save his brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm to affix his brother's soul to a suit of armor.[12] After that, Edward's left leg and right arm are fitted with two sets of automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb, created for him by his close family friends Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako.[13]
Edward sets out to become a State Alchemist (国家錬金術師, Kokka Renkinjutsushi?), which are alchemists employed by the State Military of Amestris. State Alchemists are identified by their Fuhrer-issued silver pocket watches and the unique titles assigned to them upon becoming a State Alchemist.[14] Becoming a state alchemist would enable Edward to use the extensive resources available to them to discover a way to restore what he and Alphonse had lost,[13] but it also turns him into a "weapon" of the military, who are famous for destroying almost all Ishval's population in a past Civil War.[15] The brothers eventually learn of the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary stone that is said to allow the holder to completely bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange,[16] and set off in search of it as a means to restore their bodies.[17] Along the way they discover that the Philosopher's Stone requires human lives to create it, and find others who seek it as well, doing almost whatever they can to get their hands on it.[18] They become attacked by the homunculi, a group of human-like creatures that carry pieces of the Philosopher's Stone inside themselves. They are named after the seven deadly sins and act as primary villains in the series.[19]
A man known simply as "Father" is the creator of all the homunculi and commands them from behind the curtains of the High Command of the country Amestris.[20] He was originally a small ball of shadows inside a round flask with the nickname of "homunculus" created with the blood of Hohenheim. He goads a king into performing Human Transmutation, resulting in the destruction of the country Xerxes. As a gift for helping him, Father made Hohenheim immortal by rebuilding his body with half the souls of the population of Xerxes; he used the other half to create a body for himself in the likeness of Hohenheim.[21] It is suspected that Father plans to use Amestris as a gigantic transmutation circle to create a Philosopher's Stone, but the homunculus Envy hints that, although close, this is not the whole truth.[22]
[edit] Differences in adaptations
The stories of the manga and anime separate soon after the encounter with the homuculus Greed during the episodes 32–35, and weave vastly different tales. Father does not exist in the anime. His counterpart is a woman called Dante, a former lover of Hohenheim. Centuries ago, the two were masterful alchemists and perfected methods for making the Philosopher's Stone and a form of immortality in which they use others' bodies until they age. Hohenheim eventually fell in love with another and left Dante, taking with him the perfected Philosopher's Stone formula. Although Dante is still able to jump from body to body to cheat death over the centuries, she is able to spend less and less time in each body as it decays faster with each jump, and each jump causes the stone she possesses to lose its power over time. She uses the Homunculi to spur Edward and Alphonse, along with other Alchemists as desperate as they are, into creating another complete Philosopher's Stone for her.[23]
Having heard of Scar's creation of the Philosopher's Stone, Edward saves the people from Lior from being sacrificed during the the creation of the stone, which is infuesed into Alphonse's metal body, making him the main focus of Dante's efforts ultimately leading to his being kidnapped.[24][25] During the fights against the homunculi, Edward is killed by Envy, Alphonse uses the power of the Philosopher's Stone to heal Edward's body and to reattach his soul. After being revived, Edward risks his own life to bring back his brother in exchange. As a result, Edward ends up on the other side of the gate of alchemy, which turns out to be the Earth, while Alphonse recovers his original body. Determined to return with Alphonse, Edward becomes involved in rocketry research in the country of Transylvania, with the intention to use that technology to try and get back to his home world.[26]
[edit] Main characters
Main article: List of Fullmetal Alchemist characters
Edward Elric (エドワード・エルリック, Edowādo Erurikku?), commonly nicknamed "Ed", is the main protagonist of the series. Edward is famous for being the youngest State Alchemist of the country winning the title of "Fullmetal Alchemist". Edward is of short stature, and typically reacts in an exaggerated manner to any remarks about his height. After losing his right arm and left leg as a result of a failed human transmutation and the binding of Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor, he received automail prosthetics.[27] He starts searching for the Philosopher's Stone in order to recover the body of his younger brother as well as his missing limbs.[17] In the anime, Edward is voiced by Romi Paku in Japanese and Vic Mignogna in the English dub.
Alphonse Elric (アルフォンス・エルリック, Arufonsu Erurikku?), often nicknamed "Al," is Edward's younger brother and Fullmetal Alchemist's secondary protagonist. For most of the series, his soul is trapped in a large suit of armor as a result of performing Human Transmutation,[27] causing other characters throughout the series to confuse Al with the "Fullmetal" Alchemist. Alphonse is the calmer of the two, and can be seen as a foil to Edward's character. He starts the search for the Philosopher's Stone with his brother hoping to recover their bodies.[17] Alphonse is voiced by Rie Kugimiya in Japanese and Aaron Dismuke is his English voice actor.
Roy Mustang (ロイ・ムスタング, Roi Musutangu?) is a State Alchemist known as the "Flame Alchemist" due to his ability to create fire with his gloves.[28] He is Edward's direct superior officer in the military, but has his own goal, mainly to become the Führer, leader of the military. During the series, his friend Maes Hughes is killed after discovering the secret of the Ishval Civil War resulting in the start of his search of Hughes's murderer.[29] Roy is voiced by Tōru Ōkawa in Japanese, while by Travis Willingham in English.
Winry Rockbell (ウィンリィ・ロックベル, Winrī Rokkuberu?) is a mechanical expert who is a childhood friend of the Elrics. She, along with her grandmother Pinako, built Edward's automail, and she also helps maintain the automail when it gets broken.[30] Her parents were called into service as doctors during the Ishvalan Civil War and were killed while treating the injured. In the manga, they are killed by the Ishvalan Scar;[31] in the anime, they are killed by the State Alchemist Roy Mustang.[32] Winry is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in Japanese and Caitlin Glass in the English dub.
Scar (スカー, Sukā?) is one of the few surviving Ishvalans. His real name is never revealed, but he is referred to as "Scar" because of the X-shaped scar on his face. Scar's right arm, which is tattooed with a rare transmutation circle, was given to him by his brother shortly before he died.[33] Scar believes himself to be an instrument of God, and kills State Alchemists using his alchemical skills, despite the fact that he believes alchemy is an abomination against the natural world.[34] Scar is voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu in Japanese and Dameon Clarke in English.
[edit] Production
In an interview, Hiromu Arakawa said that she became attracted by the idea of using alchemy in the manga after reading about the Philosopher's stone. She liked it so much that she started reading books of alchemy, which she found very complicated due to the fact that some books contradicted others. She was attracted more by the philosophical aspects than the practical aspects.[1] For the Equivalent Exchange concept, she was inspired by the work of her parents who had a farm in Hokkaidō and always had to give all their effort in order to earn the money to eat.[35]
Several social problems were integrated into the story by Arakawa after talking to people who had suffered them, such as refugees, war veterans and former yakuza, or simply by watching news about those issues. Several plot elements expand on these themes, such as Pinako Rockbell caring for the Elric brothers after the death of their mother, and the brothers helping people all over the country, to gain an understanding of the meaning of family.[1]
When creating the fictional world of Fullmetal Alchemist, Arakawa was inspired after reading about Europe during the Industrial Revolution period; she was amazed by how different the people from different countries were, in terms of their culture, architecture and clothes. As she said, she was especially interested in England during that period and "added to it her own original flavor to make it into a fantasy world.[1]
When the manga started being serialized, Arakawa had in mind how the story would end. However, as the plot continued, she felt some characters were growing up and so she decided to change some scenes. Therefore, some sketches of the faces of the characters were improvised. Arakawa made comedy central in the manga because she thinks the manga is made for entertainment, so she tried not to focus on sad scenes.[35]
During the development of the anime, Arakawa let the anime staff work by themselves and also requested that it should have a different ending from the one in the manga. She said that she would not like to repeat the same ending in both media, as well as to make the manga longer to work more in the development of the characters. When watching the ending of the anime, she was amazed about how different the Homunculi were from the manga and enjoyed how the staff speculated about the origins of the villains.[1]
[edit] Media
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