きょう、Fullmetal Alchemist の レビューおかきます。
I finished this series (63 episodes) in a few days, simply because it is so good that I cannot stop watching until the end.
What it's about: The plot is built on the journey of two brothers who have lost part or whole of their bodies when they attempted to bring their deceased mother back to life using alchemy, or れんきんじゅつ (i.e. the technique that convert materials from one form to another, providing its composition/content is not altered). Along the way, they get more and more heavily involved in investigating the true truths about the Philosophy Stone, one that is said to be able to revive the dead. (Interestingly, in Harry Potter book I, Voldermort was also looking for this stone so that he could return to his original life form). They also learn many lessons from those around them, and realize that their aim is no longer just to regain their bodies, but to help prevent a huge conspiracy against the nation as well. おもしろいですね。
Why I like this series:
1) I am very fascinated by how the main character, Edward Eric (エドワードエルリック), was constructed. Unlike the practice of many currently famous manga, e.g. なると or Bleach, in which the main character somehow always obtains the supreme power as the show progresses and seems to have no weakness at all time. In fact, throughout the series, the Fullmetal Alchemist many times lose his battle, and he does not seem to improve much technically as time goes on. However, his real strength is his naive, yet unable to be altered, ideals that originally seem impractical, but always lead him to better outcome. For example, there are several occasions in which he had the chance to help his brother get back his body, but after considering the immoral means to which the chance was given to him, he refuses that scarce chance. Just as someone said at some point in the show, "by living those naive ideals, the kid chose the harder path for his life. Not everyone has the courage to do that."
2) The series did make me think a lot about many real-world problems, e.g. why we have wars, why national borders exist, should all humans on earth exist as a unifying whole, or should we separate ourselves by artificially created objects such as nations or religions. Moral dilemmas are frequently put into the show. The episode that struck me the most was one in which a State Alchemist (someone who is good at alchemy enough to earn the national title) was under pressure from the Central government to produce a Chimera that could talk. Being afraid of losing his State Alchemist title, he figured an easy way out: instead of producing a talking chimera, it's easier to turn a talking human into a chimera instead; and he did exactly so, turning his own daughter into a speaking chimera. While this whole story seems crazy and very unrealistic, it made me think a lot about science ethics. How can we be sure that we in this real world are not doing the some thing similarly cruel?
3) The music: Like しんげきのきょじん, this show has kick-ass opening themes and ending themes.
4) The European setting: The country in the series resembles Germany in many ways (and perhaps the militaristic government itself is an analogy to the Nazi). I just in generally like Japanese series that have setting in Europe (e.g. くろしつじ, or "Black Butler"), often for reasons I can't explain.
It has been a while since I last saw an anime series that is so beautiful and thought-provoking. 私はこのえいがはとてもすきです。This series probably will stay as my favorite for a long time :)
ありがとう。
