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This Week in Anime - Is the Live-Action Fullmetal Alchemist Film Any Good?


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miken



Joined: 08 Mar 2008
Posts: 52
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:44 am Reply with quote
Lord Oink wrote:
johnnysasaki wrote:
He has a well known hatred for Brotherhood for not being as dark and serious like the first anime,so it's hard to take seriously what he says when it comes to FMA...
. The one that had Mustang rant about his dream being becoming Fuhrer so he could dress the women in TINY MINISKIRTS -- and actually did -- was supposed to be the dark and serious one? The first series was a lot goofier from what I remember.

Anyway. Meh movie. Not as good as Kenshin or Gintama, but hey, what can you do.

nah. cheap polemics. both series had some silly scenes. but in general, the balance between serious stuff and humor was much better in the first series. not to mention character development...
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supercalafragilisticjoy



Joined: 17 Aug 2015
Posts: 95
Location: Chiba, Japan
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:26 am Reply with quote
Crystal Amethyst wrote:
Um... as a person who actually spend the full year in Japan and saw the movie in the cinema.. and knows the actor (the guy playing Edward) rather well and followed the shows that he was appearing in (because I needed to make sure that his acting will be of acceptable level)...

Can I just say that it's actually his own hair and he did colour it so the guy was actually blonde for over a year for the movie?... It's his actually hair...



I've actually heard that as well. I'm not a fan of Jonnys, but I went to see it with friends who are cosplayers. They said that it was his original hair, and the reason it looked so bad was because they took zero care when bleaching his hair. He's the exact example of what not to do when you dye your hair, apparently. It was rather distracting at times.

That said, I did think the costumes were okay (aside from the hair). Maes' look in particular was perfect I thought.
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supercalafragilisticjoy



Joined: 17 Aug 2015
Posts: 95
Location: Chiba, Japan
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:29 am Reply with quote
miken wrote:
Lord Oink wrote:
johnnysasaki wrote:
He has a well known hatred for Brotherhood for not being as dark and serious like the first anime,so it's hard to take seriously what he says when it comes to FMA...
. The one that had Mustang rant about his dream being becoming Fuhrer so he could dress the women in TINY MINISKIRTS -- and actually did -- was supposed to be the dark and serious one? The first series was a lot goofier from what I remember.

Anyway. Meh movie. Not as good as Kenshin or Gintama, but hey, what can you do.

nah. cheap polemics. both series had some silly scenes. but in general, the balance between serious stuff and humor was much better in the first series. not to mention character development...


Character development? Of whom? Absolutely with the first half of the 2003 vs. the 11 episodes of brotherhood, but there were also quite a few characters that got skipped over (Namely, Winry, the Armstrong family, and not to mention the entire East crew were skipped)

I wish they had gone for a full 4 seasons rather than speeding through the first few episodes.
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error5051



Joined: 22 Apr 2014
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 7:52 am Reply with quote
at this point I'm pretty sure the CEOs at warner brothers saw "the producers(1967)/(2005)" and thought it was a guide on how to make movies.now any one want to take bets on how many more flops they can make before filing for bankruptcy? lol
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L'Imperatore



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 918
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 8:12 am Reply with quote
error5051 wrote:
at this point I'm pretty sure the CEOs at warner brothers saw "the producers(1967)/(2005)" and thought it was a guide on how to make movies.now any one want to take bets on how many more flops they can make before filing for bankruptcy? lol

It's Warner Brothers Japan. And AFAIK, although they're the main producer, live-action movies in Japan are, like anime, produced by the production committee. This way, the burden/loss is shared by all.
And BTW, Warner Bros. Japan got lotsa money from live-action Gintama, one of the biggest local hit last year. So I don't think they'd go under anytime soon :p
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johnnysasaki



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 943
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 8:48 am Reply with quote
Lord Oink wrote:
johnnysasaki wrote:
He has a well known hatred for Brotherhood for not being as dark and serious like the first anime,so it's hard to take seriously what he says when it comes to FMA...
. The one that had Mustang rant about his dream being becoming Fuhrer so he could dress the women in TINY MINISKIRTS -- and actually did -- was supposed to be the dark and serious one? The first series was a lot goofier from what I remember.

Anyway. Meh movie. Not as good as Kenshin or Gintama, but hey, what can you do.


the original anime had its goofy moments,but gets really dark and serious after the half point,when they start to do their own thing instead of covering the manga.Any fans who prefer the original anime would dislike this movie regardless of its quality because it's more in tone with Brotherhood(though they took some cues from the original by having Shou Tucker being around more.)
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rizuchan



Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 978
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:44 am Reply with quote
Crystal Amethyst wrote:
Can I just say that it's actually his own hair and he did colour it so the guy was actually blonde for over a year for the movie?... It's his actually hair...

I actually kind of wondered if this was exactly why it looked so bad. Jake kept calling it "like cosplay", but there's a lot of reasons why cosplayers always use (good!) wigs. Human hair does not grow into anime shapes, and if you try to style it that way, it's going to fight you the whole way, and you probably don't have enough hair growing out of your head to get the "volume" of anime hair. And then the amount of product that you use to make it that shape, much less stay in that shape, is just going to end up looking like a Halloween wig styled with glue.

I've only ever purchased wigs that were "close enough", but I've heard of a lot of cosplayers making their own wigs from scratch so the hair parts exactly where they want it to. I can only assume that most wardrobe departments for movies do the same, at least for use in multiple scenes.

Gatherum wrote:
This is precisely why I pretty much never pay attention to Japanese live-action adaptations: They're not adaptations; they're cheap imitations.


I was going to disagree with you, because I generally enjoy live-action anime adaptations for what they are, but when I thought more about it... that's a pretty accurate description. Most anime movies are just fanservice. An excuse to see your favorite characters in meatspace. Thankfully I read a lot of shoujo, so high school romance adaptations are pretty easy and believable.

Except Ouran... I don't know if Ouran was terrible because manga humor doesn't translate to live-action, or if it's a cultural thing, because it's ubiquitous to Japanese variety shows, and I've even seen a couple Japanese dramas that do the over-the-top slapstick thing for comic relief moments.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber



Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3018
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:45 am Reply with quote
supercalafragilisticjoy wrote:
They said that it was his original hair, and the reason it looked so bad was because they took zero care when bleaching his hair. He's the exact example of what not to do when you dye your hair, apparently.


It's a pretty common problem! I had a friend in college who fell asleep with the bleach still in his hair, and woke up with what looked and felt like Barbie doll hair.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4136
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:11 am Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
I get that this is a bad movie, but the real question is, is it better or worse than Conqueror of Shamballa?


Oh, good question as both movies are created for people who've already seen Fullmetal Alchemist. Both movies shortchanged Alphonse Elric, my favorite character of the series, one movie turns him into Edward because they couldn't think of anything else to do with him and the other shows as little of him as possible because he was a special effect that increased the budget every second he was onscreen. But which is better...

With the live action movie, the typical response is just watch the anime, either series but with Shamballa, you're better off with Brotherhood which has the decency and common sense to not turn Maes Hughes into spoiler[ a Nazi.]. Did they not read the manga at all? Did they watch Fullmetal Alchemist? He spoiler[died fighting fascism!] He's a likable guy, a hero, a wonderful father! We love him! But we don't love spoiler[Nazis]... I think. Or at least I don't. So with a score of one strike against over two, the winner is Shamballa.

Who will go on to challenge Sacred Star of Milos in the finals.
Wait, wait, Shamballa has already forfeited. I did not see that one coming...
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Alexandre Martins



Joined: 28 Sep 2017
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:13 am Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:
I had been thinking of watching this movie after Theron's more positive review, but after what I've seen here, I'll probably pass on it. I haven't seen many live action anime adaptations and this does not make me want to add to that, especially if it isn't even so bad it's good.

That its US theatrical release was canceled seeming telling, especially considering Gintama's live action movie did get a theatrical release in the US, a show that does not have the same US following to say the least. Granted the Gintama movie did well in theaters in Japan, unlike this movie.


Now, tell of ONE live action adaptation of an anime that doesn't look like a college cultural festival project. Just one. Their budget is very low, the actors (?) are terrible, the makeup is even worse, the wigs are as fake as fake can be... And that goes for every one of them, including one of the most horrifying, Boogiepop Phantom!
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 4:26 pm Reply with quote
They make these live action anime adaptations to catch the I-don't-watch-cartoons fishes that won't bite on anime bait. Those beings probably have never seen the original so know no better, If it fills the holds of the studio's with more profit, good-on-'em. I'll just continue to ignore the lot and stick with the original.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11527
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 7:50 pm Reply with quote
Alexandre Martins wrote:
Now, tell of ONE live action adaptation of an anime that doesn't look like a college cultural festival project. Just one.

I admit I haven't seen a ton of live-action Japanese adaptations, but I thought they did a great job with the Rurouni Kenshin movies. They're the only such movies I've ever bought. Death Note's first two movies weren't bad either, but the only major fx they needed was Ryuk. I'm not sure about how to describe the adaptation of Detroit Metal City, but despite its flaws it was entertaining as hell (especially watching Kenichi Matsuyama chew up the scenery after seeing him as L in Death Note).
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1546
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:48 am Reply with quote
[quote="Animegomaniac"]
Takkun4343 wrote:
With the live action movie, the typical response is just watch the anime, either series but with Shamballa, you're better off with Brotherhood which has the decency and common sense to not turn Maes Hughes into spoiler[ a Nazi.]. Did they not read the manga at all? Did they watch Fullmetal Alchemist? He spoiler[died fighting fascism!] He's a likable guy, a hero, a wonderful father! We love him! But we don't love spoiler[Nazis]... I think. Or at least I don't. So with a score of one strike against over two, the winner is Shamballa.

When it comes to spoiler[Nazi] Hughes, I personally like to believe he either gave up his ways post-movie, or he was only spoiler[racist] towards the spoiler[Gypsies] and not the spoiler[Jews].
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0nsen



Joined: 01 Nov 2014
Posts: 256
PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:50 am Reply with quote
The first anime had less of this.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 2:54 pm Reply with quote
0nsen wrote:
The first anime had less of this.
My Norton just blocked that link. Nice one. Wink
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