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chuckro Alchemy: the science of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-powerful art. It is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the law of equivalent exchange; the basis of all alchemy. In accordance to this law, there is a taboo among alchemists. Human transmutation is strictly forbidden. For what could equal the value of a human soul?
We watched the 2003 anime a number of years ago. This one follows the full plot of the manga, as opposed to that one, which diverged when it overtook it. Of the overlapping material, the pacing isn't as good as the first anime—they rush through a bunch of the early events, cramming them into single episodes and missing character beats. There's a lot of relying on “tell” rather than “show” and they tell us the same thing (the sin of human transmutation) over and over again. I feel like once they get to the point where this diverges from the original anime—the destruction of Greed by Father and the other homunculi—also leads into the introduction of characters and new plot arcs that will clearly take us far afield of the original divergent ending. Also, the pacing gets much better.
Armstrong hits fast and hard with his various running gags. For some reason, Ed's complaints about being called small don't really tickle me, but every mention of Armstrong's magically-disappearing shirt does. Armstrong is delightful comic relief the whole way through, even when he’s having disastrous family drama or he’s covered in blood from fighting a homunculus. “Where did his shirt go?” indeed.
(I noticed the first scene between Ed and Winry when he’s taller than her. The characters don’t comment on it, but their romantic tension takes a turn for the mature around that point. There’s a term paper in that.)
It was irritating that, especially later in the series, most alchemy grew rather homogeneous: Make things out of rocks to hit people. The first anime was better about giving each alchemist their own special trick; here you’ve got “medical” alchemy/alcahestry which most people can’t manage, and Roy’s flame alchemy. And that’s pretty much it after the couple of noteworthy state alchemists die in the first few episodes.
Hohenheim isn't actually at fault for all of this. He was there when it started and benefited from the first round of devastation, but he wasn't the instigator and he didn't intend to hurt anyone. Which is probably why he gets a pleasant and peaceful ending—in the end, he was an idiot, but he tried really hard to make up for that.
The fact that they didn't kill lion-dude when he and Al fought Pride and Kimblee was our indicator that the cast was going to survive. Before that, it wasn’t clear if they were going to go kill-em-all dark or more optimistic, and I’m happy with where they went. In the end, only three named “good guys” die after the divergence. The show really takes a turn away from horror and towards heroic fantasy as it goes on.
When Roy finally takes on Envy, and the rest of the cast stops him short of killing worm-Envy, they were actually being more cruel by letting him think through his situation, rather than just handing him to Scar to disintegrate. Not saying Envy didn't deserve it, but I feel like letting someone go through psychological torture rather than just killing them outright isn't actually the moral high ground.
I was certain there would be another major step in Father's plans, given that they time-skipped to just before the Promised Day with almost a third of the series left to go. I was wrong—they managed to drag out 36 hours into all but one of the remaining episodes. I did, however, call that Father would succeed in sucking lots of people into his philosopher’s stone and then they’d get freed—the heroes have to win, but you can’t cut off a plan like that before it actually goes into effect.
Random theories I appreciate:
• After defeating Pride, Ed absorbed some remnants of his philosopher’s stone core (which didn’t fly out or disintegrate, that we saw), which was how he grew old with Windy and their kids despite using part of his own life to heal his wounds after the battle with Kimblee. This also explains why the nearly-defeated Father, in searching for a philosopher’s stone, lunges for Ed despite Greed being right there.
• The reason Al talks to his body instead of the white-outline “Truth” is because Truth is wearing that body, just like it wears Ed’s arm and leg. Truth reflects whoever it’s speaking to.
• Father / the original homunculus was an attempt to create a new Truth, similar to the way Father created Gluttony as an attempt to make a Gate. Creating your own god goes about as well as it always does, of course. Insert nuclear bomb metaphor here.
• Father’s ability to turn off Alchemy and the mentioned “corruption” of it was because he had set himself up as a go-between / power filter between Amestrian alchemists and the tectonic activity they were drawing excess energy from. Once Scar’s counter-circle went into effect, alchemy should have become easier / more powerful, because Father wasn’t siphoning off some of the drawn power for his own purposes.
Overall: I really enjoyed this. It’s different from the first anime but also very good, and in ten years or so I’ll consider letting my son watch it.
We watched the 2003 anime a number of years ago. This one follows the full plot of the manga, as opposed to that one, which diverged when it overtook it. Of the overlapping material, the pacing isn't as good as the first anime—they rush through a bunch of the early events, cramming them into single episodes and missing character beats. There's a lot of relying on “tell” rather than “show” and they tell us the same thing (the sin of human transmutation) over and over again. I feel like once they get to the point where this diverges from the original anime—the destruction of Greed by Father and the other homunculi—also leads into the introduction of characters and new plot arcs that will clearly take us far afield of the original divergent ending. Also, the pacing gets much better.
Armstrong hits fast and hard with his various running gags. For some reason, Ed's complaints about being called small don't really tickle me, but every mention of Armstrong's magically-disappearing shirt does. Armstrong is delightful comic relief the whole way through, even when he’s having disastrous family drama or he’s covered in blood from fighting a homunculus. “Where did his shirt go?” indeed.
(I noticed the first scene between Ed and Winry when he’s taller than her. The characters don’t comment on it, but their romantic tension takes a turn for the mature around that point. There’s a term paper in that.)
It was irritating that, especially later in the series, most alchemy grew rather homogeneous: Make things out of rocks to hit people. The first anime was better about giving each alchemist their own special trick; here you’ve got “medical” alchemy/alcahestry which most people can’t manage, and Roy’s flame alchemy. And that’s pretty much it after the couple of noteworthy state alchemists die in the first few episodes.
Hohenheim isn't actually at fault for all of this. He was there when it started and benefited from the first round of devastation, but he wasn't the instigator and he didn't intend to hurt anyone. Which is probably why he gets a pleasant and peaceful ending—in the end, he was an idiot, but he tried really hard to make up for that.
The fact that they didn't kill lion-dude when he and Al fought Pride and Kimblee was our indicator that the cast was going to survive. Before that, it wasn’t clear if they were going to go kill-em-all dark or more optimistic, and I’m happy with where they went. In the end, only three named “good guys” die after the divergence. The show really takes a turn away from horror and towards heroic fantasy as it goes on.
When Roy finally takes on Envy, and the rest of the cast stops him short of killing worm-Envy, they were actually being more cruel by letting him think through his situation, rather than just handing him to Scar to disintegrate. Not saying Envy didn't deserve it, but I feel like letting someone go through psychological torture rather than just killing them outright isn't actually the moral high ground.
I was certain there would be another major step in Father's plans, given that they time-skipped to just before the Promised Day with almost a third of the series left to go. I was wrong—they managed to drag out 36 hours into all but one of the remaining episodes. I did, however, call that Father would succeed in sucking lots of people into his philosopher’s stone and then they’d get freed—the heroes have to win, but you can’t cut off a plan like that before it actually goes into effect.
Random theories I appreciate:
• After defeating Pride, Ed absorbed some remnants of his philosopher’s stone core (which didn’t fly out or disintegrate, that we saw), which was how he grew old with Windy and their kids despite using part of his own life to heal his wounds after the battle with Kimblee. This also explains why the nearly-defeated Father, in searching for a philosopher’s stone, lunges for Ed despite Greed being right there.
• The reason Al talks to his body instead of the white-outline “Truth” is because Truth is wearing that body, just like it wears Ed’s arm and leg. Truth reflects whoever it’s speaking to.
• Father / the original homunculus was an attempt to create a new Truth, similar to the way Father created Gluttony as an attempt to make a Gate. Creating your own god goes about as well as it always does, of course. Insert nuclear bomb metaphor here.
• Father’s ability to turn off Alchemy and the mentioned “corruption” of it was because he had set himself up as a go-between / power filter between Amestrian alchemists and the tectonic activity they were drawing excess energy from. Once Scar’s counter-circle went into effect, alchemy should have become easier / more powerful, because Father wasn’t siphoning off some of the drawn power for his own purposes.
Overall: I really enjoyed this. It’s different from the first anime but also very good, and in ten years or so I’ll consider letting my son watch it.
