Some thoughts on Full Metal Alchemist
Full Metal Alchemist (FMA) is definitely an anime that has impacted me, as I thought that it could have a profound philosophical impact. I actually recommend anybody who is reading this post to watch the channel @goatjesus on Youtube, as he does a tremendous job dissecting FMA (both 2003 version and Brotherhood). In this post, we are going to review some important points that I noticed on this anime that also reflect the world that we are living in.
Picture taken from [1]
The Ishval War
The Ishval War happened because of a misunderstanding. The homunculus Envy, who was disguised as a soldier unfortunately shot an ishval child so that there would be an uproar of the ishvalan people (who were living in the desert area) against the Amestris. Similar tactics are used by the very same homunculus throughout the anime to divide amestris, ishvalan or other people, as they knew that by dividing more people, they could better govern and get the philosophical stone. What can be learned from this in our daily lives is that people should not be divided, as there are always a few people who benefit from this.
Picture taken from [2] showing the map of territories and kingdom in FMA
The Philosopher's stone
Throughout the anime Ed and Al are looking for the philosopher's stone to bring their body back. In FMA 2003, Dante the villain is looking for the philosopher stone so that she could have eternal life and the homunculus are looking for the philosopher's stone so that they could become human beings again. In FMA Brotherhood, Ling Yao is looking for the philosopher's stone so that he could be a powerful king for his kingdom. We can therefore interpret the philosopher stone as that powerful tool that beings can use for the good or for the bad, for their own self interest or for the community. I personally can easily translate this into Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a new tool that can be used very positively or very negatively, depending on who is owning it. For instance AI can be used to avoid car accidents (believe or not but the highest mortality rate actually comes from car accidents) or to generate fake news and control people (which is very bad obviously).
Picture taken from [5]
The Gate
There has been many analysis about the gate in the past (again, just watch @goatjesus channel for more detail). One thing that always amazes me when I think about the gate in FMA is that it is the source of infinite knowledge. You can actually verify that by observing Ed in FMA 2003 the first time he is crossing the gate: his mind is literally being filled with all kinds of information. Right after he comes out of the gate, he is actually a different person, as he is a lot more intelligent (in the sense that he learned tremendously in the gate) and he knows much more alchemy. This is of very high importance as it teaches us that knowledge is key and always will be key.
Picture taken from [3] showing the gate in FMA 2003
Training of Ed and Al by Master Izumi
Ed and Al trained in the forest while they were Master Izumi's students. This is of high importance, as it teaches all of us that we need to respect and learn from nature and our ecosystem in general. Nature contains knowledge that we have not been even able to suspect. For instance, we currently do not even know 10% of what is in our oceans. There are species that out-compete any mankind invention. The mantis shrimp can see with 16 cones (which means they can see wi-fi, x-rays, ultraviolet light, etc …) .
Picture taken from [4] showing a Pentatoma rufipes at a cherry leaf
This was my analysis on Full Metal Alchemist, as I am a big fan of this anime and it always inspires me phylosophically whenever I watch it. I hope that you guys enjoyed it! :)
juv79505 sincerely thank you for reading this article. Please feel free to comment below in case you have ideas, questions, suggestions or want to criticize this article in general. Also, note that all pictures used in this article where extracted from the google section “pictures labeled for commercial reuse”.
References
Got to have love for FMA
Exactly!FMA is one of the best anime ever with Death Note! Thank you for commenting my post!