Overview - Important Characters and Topics

Alphonse Elric (back)
and Edward Elric (front)

Hiromu Arakawa

 

Fullmetal Alchemist - Hiromu Arakawa

    The manga Fullmetal Alchemist was written by Hiromu Arakawa between July 2001 and June 2010, and it follows the journey of two brothers who use the magical transmutation power of "alchemy", inspired by the pre-chemistry pseudoscience of alchemy. The brothers as children lost their mother and tried to resurrect her, which is the greatest taboo of alchemy in-universe. Because of this, the alchemy spell backfired, causing one brother, Alphonse, to lose his body and the other brother, Edward, to lose his leg. In order to bind his brother's soul to an empty suit of armor, Ed sacrifices one of his arms. The story follows these brothers as the main characters, who join the military as state alchemists to gain access to research materials and resources to find how to gain back their original bodies. They attempt to learn the secret of the philosopher's stone, a material said to defy the laws of equivalent exchange that alchemy magic follows.

Alchemical Transmutation Circles

War and Genocide

    An important theme in Fullmetal Alchemist is the value of life, as well as the commodification of it. The philosopher's stones the characters search for are created from genocide, requiring human souls to condense into the stone. The more powerful the stone, the more souls it contains. This stems from the alchemical principle of equivalent exchange. Because of this, many wars are fought in and around the country the story is set in, Amestris. Amestris is portrayed as a generic militaristic European country, most closely resembling Germany around World War II. This nation previously carried out a genocide in a neighboring country called Ishval, which is portrayed as a generic Middle Eastern country, with their religious and cultural practices resembling that of Islam. While Arakawa was writing this story, especially most of the parts that involve Ishval, it was the height of the American War on Terror. While Arakawa is Japanese and originally released the material in Japan, the early 2000's were a time where Japanese comics and animation were starting to be in demand to a larger American audience. Despite this, Arakawa did not censor any of her writing, and still portrayed the Amestrians annexing and genociding the Ishvalans, a clear representation of Western countries occupying and engaging in warfare in Middle Eastern nations like Iraq and Afghanistan. Her fantasy steampunk setting showed terrible atrocities in these wars, which were bound to make readers notice similarities between her writings and real-world conflicts.

Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye

    The primary plot of Fullmetal Alchemist follows the Elric brothers regaining their bodies and fighting villains. The two most important characters aiding them through the story are Colonel Roy Mustang and his right hand woman Riza Hawkeye. Mustang sees the corruption in the Amestrian government, and hopes to seize power from the current king by working his way up the ranks. In the story, Mustang and his staff uncover a government plot to commit various genocides around the country and in neighboring nations. The government aims to do this to gather souls into philosopher's stones and eventually perform a nationwide transmutation for the villain behind this conspiracy to attain godlike powers. Mustang, Hawkeye, and their subordinates thwart this plot with the help of the Elric brothers, dismantling the standing government in the process. Mustang assumes leadership of the nation at the end of the story. Through the story, however, there is much debate and discussion amongst characters of Mustang's motives, plans, and ideals for the nation. Having been soldiers in the Ishval Civil War, or Ishvalan War of Extermination as most characters call it, Mustang's crew regrets all the atrocities their nation committed and aims to make things right, and to never allow something like it again.

Riza Hawkeye

Roy Mustang