Flame Day 2011- Fullmetal Alchemist: Standard Canon versus Alternate Continuity

Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the last decade’s most highly rated anime series. It has garnered praise from both fans and critics alike for its tightly woven narrative, emotionally engaging characters and deep philosophical underpinnings. At first glance the series seems like another typical shonen anime that features relatively young and naïve protagonists. With its controversial messages of science, religion, life and the worth of human beings it quickly becomes clear that FMA is anything but a typical shonen series. The relationship between Edward and Alphonse Elric and the people they meet on their journey forms the core of this occasionally dark story. Yet, a large segment of fans constantly fault this anime adaptation for almost completely breaking continuity with its manga source material.

In other words, because the series isn’t a direct adaptation Hiromu Arakawa’s work it’s automatically not worth the time of day. To further compound the situation Fullmetal Alchemist received a reboot in the form of a second anime in 2009. Unlike the first series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood closely sticks to the original source material. Should fans simply sweep the first series under the rug for simply being the “odd show out” in terms of canon? Many will argue in favor of completely ignoring the first anime because of the creation of a faithful adaptation. Personally, I believe both Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood can peacefully co-exist as two very different takes on Arakawa’s original work.

One important fact that fans tend to forget is when a manga series or even a novel series is adapted into an anime the change in medium can take several paths. The most common forms of an anime adaptation are:

• A long running and mostly faithful adaptation.
• A faithful adaptation that ends at a major arc while the source material continues on.
• A mostly faithful adaptation with a premature end that lacks closure.
• An early end to the series that is corrected years later with a final season.
• A complete retelling of the source material with an original ending.

These categories only apply to adaptations for series that haven’t been finished. Adapting a finished series into a different medium would be the most ideal situation but it doesn’t happen for extremely popular shows. Animation studios that remain mostly faithful to the source material will run a series until its original creator ends it. The result is a series that spans hundreds of episodes and airs for years on TV. The most prominent cases of this happening would today would be the big three, i.e.  BLEACH, Naruto and One Piece. Often these series tend to catch up with the manga quickly and filler episodes are aired until the source material is far ahead of the adaptation again. The problem with fillers are that most are inane and retain little of the flavor that made the original series interesting to begin with. If the fillers are really bad and cause ratings to drop it might result in a series being cancelled.

If an anime adaptation focuses on one arc only part of the series’ story is told. If done right it results in show that lacks the depth of the source material but is satisfying in its own right. The endings tend to be fairly open but they rarely result in a frustrating cliff-hanger. In other cases an adaptation remains too faithful and only has a certain number of episodes to tell a story. The series then ends abruptly and major plot points are never addressed, or worse yet the plot hits its stride just as the series ends. Think of the latter situation as a non-ending. Shows such as Air Gear, Tenjho Tenge and Kekkaishi come to mind.

Inuyasha would have fit into this category as well if not for the 2009 series finale titled Inuyasha: The Final Act. That pushes Inuyasha into the forth category where the story ended early (with a non-ending) and was later finished well after the manga ended. In some respects a series like Rurouni Kenshin falls into the first, third and forth categories. It ran for nearly 100 episodes was cancelled due to bad fillers, had several more short adaptations and will finally receive closure with a new series later this year. Fullmetal Alchemist falls into the fifth category, and unlike a lot of anime series pulls off a surprisingly well done retelling of the source material.

In July 2001 Fullmetal Alchemist began its serialization in Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine. The tankobon or manga volumes of the series wouldn’t begin to appear until January 2002. The manga serialization itself wouldn’t be finished until July of 2010. In 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist was adapted into a 51-episode series by Bones and Aniplex at the height of its popularity. The adaptation would air on Japanese TV for a little under a year. In 2003 and 2004 Arakawa wasn’t very far into her work on the series and its conclusion was years away. That left director Seiji Mizushima and head writer Sho Aikawa in a bind.

With only a 51-episode allotment they couldn’t continue FMA endlessly until the series finished its run in Square Enix’s monthly magazine. Starting the anime series after Arakawa finished her manga also wasn’t an option. So they came up with the loose adaptation that fans are familiar with today. With direct help from Arakawa, Mizushima and Aikawa changed much of FMA’s central plot and developed many of the lesser characters. What resulted was an anime that could stand independently from the manga with its own unique story and ending. Many manga fans hated the changes while fans of the anime were none the wiser (myself included).

In order to create a largely original and independent story a lot of changes were made to the Fullmetal Alchemist anime. If I had to highlight all of the differences I’d need to write several articles. Instead I’ll focus on the biggest differences between FMA and Brotherhood’s major concepts. As it stands now this list will be partially incomplete. As of this writing I did not have the time to marathon both series before Flame Day and I’m only following the Brotherhood dub on Adult Swim. When I see Brotherhood’s ending in a few months I may make a few revisions to this article. From this point forward there will be spoilers from both series. I will spoil all of Fullmetal Alchemist including the movie, Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie: The Conqueror of Shamballa and up to episode 49 in Brotherhood. If that bothers you please stop reading here and skip to the conclusion of this article. In turn if you comment on this article please warn readers of potential spoilers.

Homunculi as the Sinful Price to Pay for Committing the Ultimate Taboo (FMA):

Homunculi are the very personification of the Seven Deadly Sins and are born in a fascinating manner. In terms of alchemy human
transmutation, i.e., attempting to bring a human back from the dead, is strictly taboo. However, that fact doesn’t prevent alchemists from trying and consequences are often dire. In exchange for human transmutation an alchemist ends up having all or part of his or her body sacrificed as payment (with seeing the Gate of Truth and gaining knowledge as the only positive).

Furthermore, transmutation usually fails and the person brought back to life is often found as a grotesque mound of mostly decomposed living flesh. That mound of flesh eventually regenerates and ends up looking like the person who the alchemist originally wanted to revive. Yet that person is a mere shadow of their former self and will become a violent homunculus if he or she is fed shards of a Philosopher’s Stone. On a cruel note, not only does an alchemist’s human transmutation fail but the person they loved ends up being revived as a monster. For example, when Ed and Al revived their mother she eventually became the homunculus “Sloth.” She wanted to kill her sons just to prove she was nothing like the original Trisha Elric.

With their regenerative powers and supernatural bodies these former humans consider themselves to be superior beings. The easiest way to destroy a homunculus is destroy the remains of the original body they were born from. Otherwise they can be sealed away by removing their Philosopher’s Stone shards or by changing the composition of their chemical make up.

The Father’s Sins Personified as Homunculi (Brotherhood):

Homunculi are the personification of the Seven Deadly Sins but their creation stems from one sinister being. In Brotherhood a failed human transmutation is just that, a failure. The dead are not revived and no homunculi are created. For all of their hard work an alchemist just loses a vital body part and gains vital knowledge via The Truth.

As for the Homunculi themselves, they are created by a mysterious man living under Central named “Father.” He can create homunculi in two ways, by directly splitting off a portion of his flesh and embedding it with a Philospher’s Stone or by directly injecting a human with the liquid form of a stone. The injected human has his or her mind and body taken over by the violent nature of the stone and becomes a homunculus. Either method produces a creature that is essentially one of Father’s personality traits. A homunculus can’t endlessly revive from death and if they’re killed enough times they will eventually die for good. If their Philosopher’s Stone is destroyed a homunculus’ body may revert to a (mostly) harmless form. Of course Father can revive a fallen homunculus whenever he wishes. Most homunculi share their creator’s low opinion of humans and strive to further his goals.

Dante of the Deep Forest and Hohenheim of Light (FMA):

Dante of the Deep Forest is the series’ main antagonist. She started the rumor of the Philosopher’s Stone in order to dupe alchemists into creating it for her. She also manipulates the homunculi into doing her bidding. She cares little for other humans and only seeks to further her immortal existence.

Throughout the series Hohenheim of Light, or Ed and Al’s father is a mysterious figure. Ed positively hates his father for abandoning his mother, while Al is a little more open minded. When Hohenheim does appear again he turns out to be a likable man who genuinely cares about his wife and sons. It is eventually revealed that he left his family when his body began to decay. In turn that brought about revelations of his sinister past to light.

Late in the series the true purpose of the Philosopher’s Stone is revealed. Dante and Hohenheim are actually mass murders and body snatchers who have been using the power of the stone to steal host bodies for centuries. When their original bodies began to age they created the stone in order to gain immortality. Using the stone they attached their souls and minds to the body of a hapless victim and lived on in that body. When it aged or began to rot (due to being implanted with a foreign soul) they jumped bodies again. Each body jump required more and more energy from the stone. When the stone was finally used up Dante and Hohenheim sacrificed thousands of victims in order to create a new stone. These acts perpetuated their immortality, or at least it did until Hohenheim had a change of heart and decided to live out the rest of his days as Trisha Elric’s husband. That left Dante to create a new stone on her own and set up the events in FMA.

The Dwarf in the Flask and the Destruction of Xerxes (Brotherhood):

In this series Hohenheim plays the role of sole survivor of a past civilization and the victim. Midway through the series it is revealed that he is in fact immortal and has a body that does not age. His body is a living Philosopher’s Stone that’s filled with the souls of thousands of his fellow countrymen. His unexpected path to immortality began when he met what would become the series’ main antagonist, the Dwarf in the Flask, or the original homunculus.

As a young man Hohenheim lived in the ancient civilization known as Xerxes and was a slave named Number 23. The original homunculus was created by an alchemist using the young slave’s blood. Although it was born in a flask the mysterious creature already had a wealth of knowledge. To thank the young slave for his blood, the homunculus gave him a name (Von Hohenheim) and taught him alchemy. Later, the king of Xerxes began to seek immortality. Seeing its chance the homunculus tricked the king into forming a gigantic transmutation circle around the country. Once the circle was completed it turned itself and an unwitting Hohenheim into living Philosopher’s Stones. In exchange for immortality the souls of every human in Xerxes were sacrificed. All the while the former slave had no idea what was going on. After the cataclysmic event he woke up to discover a Xerxes littered with dead bodies. Worse yet, the homunculus had created a new body for itself in Hohenheim’s exact image.

The Power of Souls and Alternate Reality (FMA):

One of the biggest reveals at the end of FMA is the fact that the entire world is a parallel universe of Earth during and just after World War I. Amestris is basically the alternate reality counterpart to Germany. While human civilization developed along science and technology FMA’s parallel world developed through alchemy. Additionally, both worlds are connected by the Gate of Truth. When a person dies on Earth their soul provides the energy used for alchemy. In contrast, alchemy does not exist on Earth. This is made clear when Hohenheim and Ed are sent through the Gate of Truth by Dante and end up in England during the first World War. When passing through the Gate to the other side a person’
s mind and soul are automatically drawn into their counterpart’s body. During a German zeppelin raid in London the body that Ed inhibits is killed. Using the energy from his counterpart’s death Ed is able to return to his side of the Gate. Had this not happened Ed would have remained stranded in London as a normal person. Of course this ultimately happens when he sacrifices his body in exchange for Al’s at the end of the anime. At the end of the tie-in movie he and Al end up on the Earth side of the Gate and are unable to use alchemy or return to Amestris.

Alchemy Powered by a Living Philosopher’s Stone (Brotherhood):

The original Homunculus, now called Father after creating several more Homunculi, form the country of Amestris. The highest ranking Amestrian military officials are in complete cahoots with Father and he uses them as pawns to further his goals. In creating alchemy for use in Amestris, Father brings over a corrupted form from Xerxes which is powered by the millions of souls within himself. With this power he can easily nullify an Amestrian’s ability to use alchemy. In the case of his first fight against Ed and Al he did just that to put an end to the battle. In the grand scheme of things Father wishes to sacrifice the people in Amestris in order to become a living God.

As a counter measure to Father’s corrupt alchemy, Hohenheim created a different style of alchemy derived from Xerxes and passed this style onto citizens of Xing (the FMA universe’s version of China). This alchemy is powered by chi instead of souls.

The Tightly Woven Plot versus The Grand Adventure:

Overall the worlds of both Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood are similar but still very different. In FMA the story never left the boundaries of Amestris before the big reveal of an alternate world.  Hell, the country isn’t even referred to as Amestris in the first anime. The plot is basically a tightly woven story of Ed and Al’s journey to discover a way to restore their original bodies. The cast of supporting characters within Fullmetal Alchemist is much smaller but their personalities and motives are for the most part better developed. In the end this engaging anime embodies the saying “life isn’t fair.” The characters do their best to cope and thrive within less than ideal situations. At its best FMA is a highly emotional anime with characters who are easy to care about. At its worst some of the plot points seem to come out of left field. Additionally, the series’ bittersweet ending can leave a bad taste in the mouths of many fans.

Where the original Fullmetal Alchemist series tends to stray into dark and emotional themes, Brotherhood has a surprisingly lighthearted theme at its core. This fact is almost ironic and certainly amusing given that the actual story is more violent than its alternate counterpart. This anime re-do is essentially the world of Amestris and its neighboring countries from the manga fully realized. There are more characters, a larger plot and generally more of the world to explore. Where the day to day details of FMA and large parts of backstory felt incomplete in the original anime, Brotherhood fleshes them out. The story starts off by focusing on Ed and Al’s goal to restore their original bodies but they are eventually swept up in a plot much larger than themselves. In essence, the goal of the  Elrics to get their bodies back is supplanted by their quest to save Amestris from the dark machinations of Father. At its worst Brotherhood lacks the emotional impact of FMA, especially in the first half of the story.

Why Both Series Are Worth Watching:

Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood are both worth watching because of their wildly different plots.  One series tackles a dark philosophical angle where life isn’t fair but emotional bonds are important. The other series is a large adventure story that reveals the horrors of war and the consequences of one’s own actions. Both series are an interesting and thoughtful critique on the darker aspects of human nature and what people will sacrifice in order to get what they want. If you’ve watched the first FMA series and are hesitant about Brotherhood just give it a try. In the end it’s a happier version of FMA with an expanded universe (in HD no less). If you simply hate the original FMA because of the changes remember the original writers didn’t have much to work with at the time. Given the choices in adaptation style the first FMA series could have turned out to be an incompetent mess like lots of other anime series. Instead we ended up with a damned good alternate continuity story.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood images courtesy of Random Curiosity. The original Fullmetal Alchemist anime images were captured from DVD by me via VLC.