I've always read it as at least a little bit a comment on the Iraq war, but what's it's deal? It's the only anime I can think of that climaxes with a military coup, and its cool that mustang wants to put people on trial for war crimes, but then he gets in power and doesn't do it.
It's also just got a whole plotline about racism, but it feels slightly off? Like minorities are okay if they save your life.
It’s also just got a whole plotline about racism, but it feels slightly off? Like minorities are okay if they save your life.
Just gonna use this as an opportunity to rant about the PEAK LIB moment where one of those oppressed minorities talks about working for the same genocidal, imperialist military that destroyed his ancestral land because he wants to enact "change from within". All while he talks down to another member of this group for resorting to extreme measures.
That's right. Those partisans should have just called for "MORE 👏 JEWISH 👏 EINSATZGRUPPEN 👏 TROOPERS" instead.
Uncritical support imo. The only remotely dubious thing Scar does is try to kill Ed, and really that's just because killing child soldiers isn't great. Everything else he does is totally justified. He only kills people involved with the genocide, and then also Tucker who's the only character to canonically end up in hell.
Nina was a mercy kill
He's indiscriminate, but Ed and Tucker are the only ones we see him go after who weren't part of the genocide. And Marcoh would disagree with you about brutalizing him being bad.
He doesn't do much to Marcoh. He threatens him some, but after Marcoh gives Scar the big flashback to Ishval and agrees to work with him Scar is mostly civil, iirc. Going after Ed is definitely fucked up, and you're completely right about his character arc, I was mostly just making the point that the only thing we see him do that's worse than a little morally dubious is go after Ed.
I think if you're a Liberal, it's extremely hard to write a story about how you defeat Fascism because of your ideological blinders. Fascism is an evil that results from a master plan, and when you defeat Hitler, you win and can now reform your way to an equitable society instead of organizing a new one.
I think if you’re a Liberal, it’s extremely hard to write a story about how you defeat Fascism because of your ideological blinders.
Not only that, but i'm more and more convinced that when most authors represent societies falling prey to fascism, it's mostly due to moral failing of the people in charge, who are very clearly evil and have a plan, not because of systemic issues, which makes for a satisfying ending when you defeat the bad guy(s) and everything will come out roses afterwards.
Matt Christman said something to that effect the other day and I thought it was brilliant. "liberalism cannot fail, it can only be failed"
liberalism cannot fail, it can only be failed
what ep ws that?
572, maybe 571. I tend to catch up and listen to a couple of eps in one go.
Isn’t the govenrment literally fantasy nazis or something?
Please don’t well actually me I don’t know anime the only one I’ve seen is funky jazz spaceship show
The people of Xerxes were known for blonde hair and golden eyes, Amistrians had blonde hair and blue eyes, although most of them have black hair.
The government is indeed pretty fascist. It’s a state military dictatorship headed by Führer Bradley. It appears to be a meritocracy based in individual prowess at alchemy, which fits in nicely with the power fantasy of fascist societies. I think there could have been a very pointed critique here given that the brothers are furiously opposed to the state despite participating in it. But the political intrigue angle on the corruption and the kind of hard magic stuff muddled that
I did not understand that distinction. Most of the high level positions are taken up by high ranking state alchemists correct?
Exactly, and State Alchemists are not even that well regarded by the regular troops either. The overall perception seems to be that it's an easy way to get an early leg up in the military career. I don't remember who said it, but someone said wrt to Ed "this snot-faced child has the rank of a Major?" Other named majors in the series include Hughes and Miles (ishvalan guy), who have had several years of experience and are shown to be pretty competent at their jobs. So, the thought that a nobody who didn't even go through bootcamp can skip to an officer's rank by being good at drawing circles must not be great for morale.
Wrt to Armstrong, he got court martialed because he deserted during the Ishvalan genocide, so it's very likely he got demoted to captain or something, and had to re-climb the ranks to Major.
About that connection
spoiler
They go through a portal and end up in the natzi thule society for an adventure. The alchemy power is using the souls of holocaust victims from our world as a fuel source
The first anime finished before the manga did and so the showrunners tried to wrap it up and went with the FMA setting having the real world as a parallel Earth.
Then the movie conclusion takes place a few years later in the lead up to world war 2. Ed gets stuck in real world Germany and befriends the parallel universe version of his brother.
There are references to the ishval people being Romani on earth, with lust's human version showing up somewhere. The last bits are hazy, but Ed runs afoul of the Thule Society and prevents the nazis from winning world war 2 with alchemy.
After they took the reins from the author, it just felt like they were trying to be edgy. They subject a character to sexual violence for example.
WTF…and this is considered one of the more grounded anime’s right?
Jesus I will never be able to get into them.
Half of anime is wacky insane stuff and the other half is high school students participating in a club after school
I've noticed anime series often tend to appear allegorical at first and then either veer into superficiality (which isn't a bad thing in of itself) or fail to deliver anything other than tired pop philosophy platitudes that don't ruffle any feathers.
FMA in particular seems to fall into the first category. for a while it looked like it was setting amestris up to be some kind of nazi analogy but it turns out demonic forces are pulling the strings and the evil doesn't actually dwell within; the system though not perfect is mostly good. maybe it's just a nice story about brothers fighting with magic.
its like if the illuminati was behind the nazis but it turns out the illuminati was just one really ancient magic person who invented feudalism with WWII being his master plan
I mean, his clique involves like 90% of the upper members of the military. Of course the state is going to change.
that means the roster will change, not the job titles and functions, their point was the state could function as it had just with other people in charge, so it didn't NEED father to function
I’ve noticed anime series often tend to appear allegorical at first and then either veer into superficiality (which isn’t a bad thing in of itself) or fail to deliver anything other than tired pop philosophy platitudes that don’t ruffle any feathers.
You have to consider anime are mostly manga and light novels adaptations and the choice very heavily influenced by popularity and you guessed it popularity among certain demographics is incredibly simple to define.
How do you write something with a deep message about our world that isn't just "Japan society sucks, you suck because you are all apathetic cowards that don't want to organize or care about politics, also you have incredibly deep rooted problems with authority and conforming with the status quo, [add another 20 criticisms here]"?
You can't write that without being cancelled, parody and cynicism is fine and there are many examples of it, but actual political messaging is never going to get through the filters. Really remember that manga specificaly have to go through a filter, before you even get published you have to go to the magazines and basicaly pitch your series with a first draft(forgot the proper name).
Basicaly while I am sure many Japanese know all the problems but there is a huge barrier to voicing a message that reaches a large audience.
And the whole light novel/doujinshi side of things is basically a lottery and most people would rather gamble on what is likely a winning choice(i.e write a popular genre).
How do you write something with a deep message about our world that isn’t just “Japan society sucks, you suck because you are all apathetic cowards that don’t want to organize or care about politics, also you have incredibly deep rooted problems with authority and conforming with the status quo, [add another 20 criticisms here]”?
Hideaki Anno has been saying similar stuff about his fans for decades now, yet most people are still saying
:so-true: cool robots and sexualized 14 year olds!
Same for Tomino's stuff [though at least he didn't really engage in sexualization of his characters].
Oshii mostly avoided this fate though, by being very mask off when he gets around to being political.
How do you write something with a deep message about our world that isn’t just “Japan society sucks, you suck because you are all apathetic cowards that don’t want to organize or care about politics, also you have incredibly deep rooted problems with authority and conforming with the status quo, [add another 20 criticisms here]”?
I agree with most of your post but this looks to me like a failure of imagination. the human condition is vast and can be explored without attacking the audience.
One aspect I enjoyed was the presentation of a Fascist society from within that society. I think Triumph of the Will has so thoroughly made Fascism into this grand and serious thing when there were millions of Fascists who spent their days hanging out with their friends and having meals and making jokes. This predominant depiction of Nazis I think turns then into an alien force of things that look like humans but just goose-step and kill people (and the show utilizes that imagery when it depicts the Ishtvalan genocide).
That said, I think it undermines itself with the ending and turns Fascism back into an alien force imposed on humanity, but even then it shows how people can be easily taken in and corrupted by institutions and their propaganda.
It made me feel a lot of things. I don’t think I’ve ever found a piece of media more adept at making you feel the outrage and sorrow of every single death in a genocide. Usually the giant numbers are numbing. Here the mythology gives them weight and perspective
Let's get one thing clear: hoenheim sucks
the dude is literally as powerful as the evil man who plans to genocide the world and doesn't even try to fight him or really even seem to work against him
he taught folks alchemy and then later that was used to win, but like, I don't remember it framing this as his intended result, his own master plan against father, it just kinda worked out like that
I got the feeling he only found out about Fathers plan kind of recently. I always assumed that was why he left Ed and Al, he'd just learned about Father trying to make the big stone. That makes the most sense to me, where he goes to Xing for a few centuries and then heads west, falls in love, and then the genocide starts and he decides to make his big circle that brings everyone back to life.
Oh you're right I forgot he planted them
still though, I feel like he shoulda been taking a more active, time sensitive role, he spent a lot of time puttering around
I've never seen it before and know nothing about it but here's my take, it is a regressive and reactionary text to be viewed only in order to facilitate to most ruthless and scathing criticism. I also add that incurse Full metal Alchemist and all who enjoy it to an early and well deserved grave.
I’ve never seen it before and know nothing about it but...
This is literally every media criticism on this website.
Some corrupt general get's thrown into liquid concrete and they build a wall on top of him, thought.
I mostly agree, but Mustang didn't get in power. I don't think the show or manga would have actually gone through with showing him or any of the others executed for war crimes, but he's only a general in the epilogue. So you're free to imagine all of the war criminal characters up against the wall if you'd like, it could be canon.
they say he eventually became fuhrer and enacted liberal reforms in Brotherhood, so we can assume be executed some war criminals.
The only message is kinda that war is bad? And ambition unchecked by compassion is bad?
There's something to be said about Entryism, as a great deal of the story revolves around Edward's decision to join the military and the consequences of that decision.
There is also something to be said regarding the cost associated with power. The Equivalent Exchange Theory that underpins Alchemy and the efforts power-seeking individuals make to circumvent this rule form the backdrop of nearly every character in the show. The big reveal in the show boils down to
Full Metal Spoilers!!!
the potential for unlimited power being prefaced by the necessity for limitless cruelty, a la human sacrifice on a national scale being necessary to create a "flawless" Philosopher's Stone.
Wait, aren't there two different versions? Because I remember the political stuff being more subdued - the version I remember was fun magical adventures mixed with sad magical adventures.
EDIT: More "subdued" I guess in the sense that it didn't take root in my brain - the government was magical evil fascists but I don't recall the show really digging too deep into it.
It's main message is to always keep moving no matter how bad things get, and to not lose your humanity in the pursuit of power or control. The messages about the Ishvalans are more that genocide is never for the advantage of the citizens of the country committing genocide, but for the goals and power of the rulers. I think you're forgetting that germany committed a few genocides in Africa and the Middle East before WW1, which makes the loose metaphor more clear than trying to impose american actions from much later onto it. There's also a lot of "don't be blindly obedient to authority, and fight your government if it is evil" messaging, which is vague and not as radical as we would like, but better than most liberal shows.
The main reason I always connect it to Iraq is the timing, the series started in 2003 so it's just right there.
I get that, but it just doesn't add up quite right. Iraq wasn't a US colony before invasion, but germany did hold colonies wherein they committed genocides to maintain their power and access resources.
This was a great write up! You really hit on something with the failed equivalent exchange of their mother and the idea of souls in replacement for the human essence that cant be measured in dollar store chemicals.
