We'll say goodbye, lost heaven...
Oh my, I'm experiencing blog entry backlog yet again! I have yet to blog about PCC, Ozine and my trips to Japan and Taiwan. But for now, here's a heartbreaking piece of news from Anime News Network that was shared in fm_alchemist. Basically, my beloved FMA is ending in two months. I quote the article:
"Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood director Yasuhiro Irie has confirmed on his Twitter account on Thursday that original manga creator Hiromu Arakawa has planned out the final manga installment, and that his staff is writing and storyboarding the material for the anime based on that ending. He added that he was shocked by the enormity of the final chapter and noted that there are only two months left."
The first reaction I had was basically: "Oh no! If only this were just a dream." Of course, it's inevitable that FMA will come to an end someday. I even thought that I'd be prepared for the end of FMA; I already learned that it would end approximately in June, after all. But now that June is drawing near, all I can think of is, why did it have to be so soon? FMA is going to leave a big, gaping void in my heart when it ends. This may sound like a bit of a stretch, but so far, there hasn't been any anime or manga that I loved more than FMA. It has been a part of my life for five or six years - I can't remember whether I started getting into FMA in 2004 or 2005, but either way, FMA has been with me for quite some time (ever since I was in high school, to be precise).
I started watching FMA merely for entertainment because I was young then, and perhaps I was too captivated by the plot and the awesome characters to notice the hidden depths of FMA. I mean, many elements of the plot were already deep enough, but it was only after doing more research that I realized how well-researched FMA was, how much deeper it actually was. I found out about the significance of the names Xerxes and Amestris, about alchemy and mythology (e.g. the perfect being that Ed and Al talked about), and the fact that many of the FMA military characters were named after WWII vehicles.
But more than that, I realized that FMA isn't just an entertaining series, but it also reflects a lot of values without being cheesy or didactic. At first, I thought that the values it reflected were just the generic values such as the power of friendship and persistence. I thought it was awesome how FMA could reflect those values without looking like a morality play. But when I started taking Philosophy classes last year, I realized how so many philosophical insights can be found in FMA. I found out that there was more to FMA than those values we'd learned about so often. FMA touched on a lot of insights regarding the human condition, actually. A Philosophy teacher who I befriended at an event in school (this was before I took Philo classes) and who also happens to watch FMA said the same thing.
FMA taught me a lot about the human condition, on how sacrifice is not always the best form of atonement (and too often enough, it isn't); how humans, being mortal and finite beings, have it so much better than immortal beings whose existence is basically a dead end, how human beings can and should make history, how we can make history even by the little things we do. To illustrate, allow me to synthesize Albert Dondeyne's "Historicity" and Hannah Arendt's "Labor, Work, Action" - we are born into an interconnected web of human relationships, and so the things we do can affect others. Thus, we don't have to do noble or grand things to affect history - and isn't this precisely what Major Miles was saying when he made the "pebble in the pond" analogy, and didn't Mustang sum this up in his idealistic, yet beautiful, talk about geometric progression (i.e. protecting others, who will in turn, protect those below them)? I was able to connect what I learned in Philosophy with what I saw in FMA's plot and characters, and so I think that this series certainly has a lot of life lessons to teach.
And, of course, the depth of FMA aside, I will miss the engaging plot and the interesting characters. I don't think I've ever hated any FMA character, even the villainous ones (okay, maybe Dr. Goldteeth is quite despicable). The antagonists were pretty interesting in their own ways, too, and maybe the least I felt about some characters was indifference. And it seems that I just keep on warming up to characters each time I reread the manga or watch FMA! For instance, I thought that Olivia was cool before, but I was kinda so-so about her. But now I think that she is so badass and awesome! She's become one of my top favorites. The same goes for Miles, even though he's a very minor character. And lately, I've become so intrigued by Kimbley because he's a charming sociopath (though of course, I'd be scared of him if I met him in real life). I'll never forget characters such as Roy, Riza, Olivia, Miles, Havoc, Ed, Al, Scar, etc.
That said, I will definitely miss FMA when it ends. I'm probably writing this entry two months early - already, it seems as if I'm saying goodbye! - but I just want to put things in perspective as early as now. Even if the ending might be a happy one, I would definitely shed a few tears over the ending of such a wonderful series. But despite my sadness over the fact that FMA is ending soon, maybe it is for the better. As someone commented, it'd be better for FMA to end the way Arakawa-sensei wanted it to end rather than overstaying its welcome just to please us fans who'd definitely want to see more of our beloved characters. As my Philosophy teacher, Mr. Strebel, said, good people - and, I'd like to add, good things - never really die because their relevance will still live on. Even after FMA ends, we fans will still continue to remember FMA and to pay homage to it with fanfics, fan art, cosplay... or even simple appreciation, such as a comment or two about how wonderful FMA is. And, every time someone recommends FMA to another and that other person ends up liking it, then FMA still lives on. So in a sense, after two months, it won't really be the end of FMA.
"Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood director Yasuhiro Irie has confirmed on his Twitter account on Thursday that original manga creator Hiromu Arakawa has planned out the final manga installment, and that his staff is writing and storyboarding the material for the anime based on that ending. He added that he was shocked by the enormity of the final chapter and noted that there are only two months left."
The first reaction I had was basically: "Oh no! If only this were just a dream." Of course, it's inevitable that FMA will come to an end someday. I even thought that I'd be prepared for the end of FMA; I already learned that it would end approximately in June, after all. But now that June is drawing near, all I can think of is, why did it have to be so soon? FMA is going to leave a big, gaping void in my heart when it ends. This may sound like a bit of a stretch, but so far, there hasn't been any anime or manga that I loved more than FMA. It has been a part of my life for five or six years - I can't remember whether I started getting into FMA in 2004 or 2005, but either way, FMA has been with me for quite some time (ever since I was in high school, to be precise).
I started watching FMA merely for entertainment because I was young then, and perhaps I was too captivated by the plot and the awesome characters to notice the hidden depths of FMA. I mean, many elements of the plot were already deep enough, but it was only after doing more research that I realized how well-researched FMA was, how much deeper it actually was. I found out about the significance of the names Xerxes and Amestris, about alchemy and mythology (e.g. the perfect being that Ed and Al talked about), and the fact that many of the FMA military characters were named after WWII vehicles.
But more than that, I realized that FMA isn't just an entertaining series, but it also reflects a lot of values without being cheesy or didactic. At first, I thought that the values it reflected were just the generic values such as the power of friendship and persistence. I thought it was awesome how FMA could reflect those values without looking like a morality play. But when I started taking Philosophy classes last year, I realized how so many philosophical insights can be found in FMA. I found out that there was more to FMA than those values we'd learned about so often. FMA touched on a lot of insights regarding the human condition, actually. A Philosophy teacher who I befriended at an event in school (this was before I took Philo classes) and who also happens to watch FMA said the same thing.
FMA taught me a lot about the human condition, on how sacrifice is not always the best form of atonement (and too often enough, it isn't); how humans, being mortal and finite beings, have it so much better than immortal beings whose existence is basically a dead end, how human beings can and should make history, how we can make history even by the little things we do. To illustrate, allow me to synthesize Albert Dondeyne's "Historicity" and Hannah Arendt's "Labor, Work, Action" - we are born into an interconnected web of human relationships, and so the things we do can affect others. Thus, we don't have to do noble or grand things to affect history - and isn't this precisely what Major Miles was saying when he made the "pebble in the pond" analogy, and didn't Mustang sum this up in his idealistic, yet beautiful, talk about geometric progression (i.e. protecting others, who will in turn, protect those below them)? I was able to connect what I learned in Philosophy with what I saw in FMA's plot and characters, and so I think that this series certainly has a lot of life lessons to teach.
And, of course, the depth of FMA aside, I will miss the engaging plot and the interesting characters. I don't think I've ever hated any FMA character, even the villainous ones (okay, maybe Dr. Goldteeth is quite despicable). The antagonists were pretty interesting in their own ways, too, and maybe the least I felt about some characters was indifference. And it seems that I just keep on warming up to characters each time I reread the manga or watch FMA! For instance, I thought that Olivia was cool before, but I was kinda so-so about her. But now I think that she is so badass and awesome! She's become one of my top favorites. The same goes for Miles, even though he's a very minor character. And lately, I've become so intrigued by Kimbley because he's a charming sociopath (though of course, I'd be scared of him if I met him in real life). I'll never forget characters such as Roy, Riza, Olivia, Miles, Havoc, Ed, Al, Scar, etc.
That said, I will definitely miss FMA when it ends. I'm probably writing this entry two months early - already, it seems as if I'm saying goodbye! - but I just want to put things in perspective as early as now. Even if the ending might be a happy one, I would definitely shed a few tears over the ending of such a wonderful series. But despite my sadness over the fact that FMA is ending soon, maybe it is for the better. As someone commented, it'd be better for FMA to end the way Arakawa-sensei wanted it to end rather than overstaying its welcome just to please us fans who'd definitely want to see more of our beloved characters. As my Philosophy teacher, Mr. Strebel, said, good people - and, I'd like to add, good things - never really die because their relevance will still live on. Even after FMA ends, we fans will still continue to remember FMA and to pay homage to it with fanfics, fan art, cosplay... or even simple appreciation, such as a comment or two about how wonderful FMA is. And, every time someone recommends FMA to another and that other person ends up liking it, then FMA still lives on. So in a sense, after two months, it won't really be the end of FMA.