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Feb. 2nd, 2010 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOkay, so up until now I've been liveblogging Fullmetal Alchemist as I read through scanlations, which basically comes out to a lot of cheerful random babble. I'm not saying I'm not going to do that anymore - I may or may not - but I want to talk about Volume 15 separately.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a shonen manga; the main plot, as advertised, follows two teenaged brothers who committed an ill-advised attempt at bringing back the dead, who are On A Quest to reverse the damage they did to themselves in the attempt. They work within the military system, and it's clear from the beginning that the country's military - and therefore most of the adult characters in the story - has been deeply shaped by a campaign that took place six years ago, the Ishvalan War of Extermination. As the story progresses, you learn bits and pieces about the war. Most people won't talk much about it; almost everyone is scarred by it; the initial main antagonist is a survivor from the other side, out for revenge, and the kids can't understand why some of their superiors think he might have a point.
In Volume 15, Edward Elric, the Hot-Tempered but Idealistic teenaged protagonist, who doesn't believe in killing or revenge, finally asks Lieutenant Hawkeye to tell him about the war. The rest of the volume is a brutal and complex extended flashback of a genocidal war - largely from the perspective of the soldiers who are on the attacking side. A soldier in the midst of a breakdown tries to show mercy and is promptly warned that he could be court-martialed for it; one doctor is conscripted to perform torture on prisoners, and others are killed by a patient lashing out for the loss of his entire family; an officer is killed by one of his men on the battlefield, after stupid decisions that endanger lives; our young idealistic viewpoint characters kill and kill and wonder why, but do nothing to stop or change it. It's an atmosphere where the most psychopathic and sadistic character in the story becomes the voice of hard truth: "Maybe you were prepared to kill one or two people, but not thousands? The moment you put on this uniform, you knew something like this could be expected of you. Why do you act as though you're the victims?"
It's an incredible gutpunch to see these characters that you have grown to like and respect over the course of the story, and have them lay it out flat: they have done unforgivable things. In a just society, they would be war criminals. Arakawa makes them completely identifiable, and at the same time does not give an inch about the brutality of what they are doing. What makes it work, why it's so strong and not an apologia, is that this isn't a story about people who feel really bad about their actions and thus are redeemed and forgiven. Edward tries to say, but the whole thing was due to [supernatural forces underlying the story]; they're to blame, not you. Hawkeye tells him that isn't how it works. No matter who was pulling the strings, human beings did those things to other humans. In a later chapter, the doctor who committed torture meets with his wife and son, after an extended separation. He's given up practicing medicine out of guilt and trauma. His son says to him, "I know you've done things that can't be forgiven." But that doesn't mean the doctor should give up the chance to save more lives. Forgiveness and redemption are not on the table here. It's about accountability, and taking responsibility, and doing your absolute best to make sure it doesn't happen again.
There's a note at the front of the volume from the author: In researching this volume, I interviewed veterans who had been at the front during World War II. I read countless books, examined film footage, and listened to many detailed and intense stories firsthand, but the comment that affected me the most came from a former soldier, who lowered his gaze to the tabletop and said, "I never watch war movies."
I read the Ishval flashback arc of the manga in scanlation over the weekend. Yesterday, I went out and bought the volume - the first one I have actually bought, although now I think I do eventually intend to buy them all (if only for the hilarious commentary at the back of each volume) - and reread it through again. I don't know if the volume would stand on its own without the rest of the manga, though I think it might; on the one hand, it's a powerful story in and of itself, and on the other I suspect it has a lot more impact once you've already spent fourteen volumes getting to know the postwar versions of the characters involved. Either way, it's one of the strongest fictional depictions of war and its consequences that I've ever read.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a shonen manga; the main plot, as advertised, follows two teenaged brothers who committed an ill-advised attempt at bringing back the dead, who are On A Quest to reverse the damage they did to themselves in the attempt. They work within the military system, and it's clear from the beginning that the country's military - and therefore most of the adult characters in the story - has been deeply shaped by a campaign that took place six years ago, the Ishvalan War of Extermination. As the story progresses, you learn bits and pieces about the war. Most people won't talk much about it; almost everyone is scarred by it; the initial main antagonist is a survivor from the other side, out for revenge, and the kids can't understand why some of their superiors think he might have a point.
In Volume 15, Edward Elric, the Hot-Tempered but Idealistic teenaged protagonist, who doesn't believe in killing or revenge, finally asks Lieutenant Hawkeye to tell him about the war. The rest of the volume is a brutal and complex extended flashback of a genocidal war - largely from the perspective of the soldiers who are on the attacking side. A soldier in the midst of a breakdown tries to show mercy and is promptly warned that he could be court-martialed for it; one doctor is conscripted to perform torture on prisoners, and others are killed by a patient lashing out for the loss of his entire family; an officer is killed by one of his men on the battlefield, after stupid decisions that endanger lives; our young idealistic viewpoint characters kill and kill and wonder why, but do nothing to stop or change it. It's an atmosphere where the most psychopathic and sadistic character in the story becomes the voice of hard truth: "Maybe you were prepared to kill one or two people, but not thousands? The moment you put on this uniform, you knew something like this could be expected of you. Why do you act as though you're the victims?"
It's an incredible gutpunch to see these characters that you have grown to like and respect over the course of the story, and have them lay it out flat: they have done unforgivable things. In a just society, they would be war criminals. Arakawa makes them completely identifiable, and at the same time does not give an inch about the brutality of what they are doing. What makes it work, why it's so strong and not an apologia, is that this isn't a story about people who feel really bad about their actions and thus are redeemed and forgiven. Edward tries to say, but the whole thing was due to [supernatural forces underlying the story]; they're to blame, not you. Hawkeye tells him that isn't how it works. No matter who was pulling the strings, human beings did those things to other humans. In a later chapter, the doctor who committed torture meets with his wife and son, after an extended separation. He's given up practicing medicine out of guilt and trauma. His son says to him, "I know you've done things that can't be forgiven." But that doesn't mean the doctor should give up the chance to save more lives. Forgiveness and redemption are not on the table here. It's about accountability, and taking responsibility, and doing your absolute best to make sure it doesn't happen again.
There's a note at the front of the volume from the author: In researching this volume, I interviewed veterans who had been at the front during World War II. I read countless books, examined film footage, and listened to many detailed and intense stories firsthand, but the comment that affected me the most came from a former soldier, who lowered his gaze to the tabletop and said, "I never watch war movies."
I read the Ishval flashback arc of the manga in scanlation over the weekend. Yesterday, I went out and bought the volume - the first one I have actually bought, although now I think I do eventually intend to buy them all (if only for the hilarious commentary at the back of each volume) - and reread it through again. I don't know if the volume would stand on its own without the rest of the manga, though I think it might; on the one hand, it's a powerful story in and of itself, and on the other I suspect it has a lot more impact once you've already spent fourteen volumes getting to know the postwar versions of the characters involved. Either way, it's one of the strongest fictional depictions of war and its consequences that I've ever read.
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Date: 2010-02-02 08:28 pm (UTC)To all of this. There are many reasons why I am loving FMA, as you know because I have informed you of them at length, but this story -- this aspect of the underlying story, and this particular storyline -- is one of the reasons why I love it seriously and unironically, and not just as fluff.
Because for all the humor, it's really, really not fluff.
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Date: 2010-02-02 08:53 pm (UTC)Aaaaand yes. Exactly. The humor (and there is a lot of it! and it is hilarious!) makes a lot of the darker stuff bearable, and identifiable also, but you never miss what's going on underneath.
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Date: 2010-02-02 09:43 pm (UTC)Yes absolutely. And as we have discussed, it would be grindingly horrible without the ridiculous humor and the lighthearted bits, but that doesn't mean the writers ever forget about the underlying themes when they scurry off into pandas and shonen fight scenes and insulting Ed's height. Which I really appreciate. It's the right kind of mood whiplash, for me, because it's not really whiplash, and it's not quite gallows humor either.
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Date: 2010-02-02 09:53 pm (UTC). . . HI SELIM.)
Exactly! Me too - my favorite kinds of stories tend to be the ones that can integrate the humor with the dark underlying themes that way. And FMA quite obviously is no exception. (Excuse me, the panda is VERY SERIOUS. How can you tell me that when panda is sad your heart does not sorrow extra too?)
(Though admittedly it is a little whiplash when you get to the end of Volume 15, and the very first page after is a repeat of DRAMATIC SILHOUETTE OF ANGSTRIDDEN SCAR . . . followed by a version where he is de-silhouettized and has funny faces drawn on his tummy and a tie around his head, and a cheerful note from Arakawa, "This is why you don't fall asleep around your friends." *giggling* THANKS, ARAKAWA.)
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Date: 2010-02-02 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-02 09:27 pm (UTC)I'm a bit further in the anime that's based on the manga than I am in the manga itself, and so far it doesn't seem to be falling down in this at all. Once it's all done I will definitely be posting about it as a whole, and let you know whether I think it holds up all the way! As for where it is right now, at least, I'd highly, highly recommend it.
(Another superhero-related note: while there is no spandex, there are characters who are prone to losing their shirts A LOT. Some of them do it as a side effect of their alchemy attacks! Sometimes, people stare at them as they battle evil and go "Yes, very impressive, but WHY ARE YOU NAKED?" Sometimes, they sparkle. I merely comment, nothing more.)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-02 09:45 pm (UTC)AAAAAAAAH. DON'T SAY THAT. I'm all caught up on the manga, and it does have that near-the-end feel, but AAAAAAH THAT WOULD MEAN NO MORE FMA.
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Date: 2010-02-02 09:54 pm (UTC)". . . oh no halfway done. D:"