Forum - View topicFMA and... Stephen King? WTF?!
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Fullmetal Donut
 Posts: 13 |
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Having watched Fullmetal Alchemist in its entirety (minus the movie), I couldn't help but notice some interesting parallels between it and The Dark Tower, a 7 book series by Stephen King. If I'm not crazy, then it seems apparent that Arakawa-sama had some inspiration from the master of Horror.
Allow me to make my case: Exhibit A FMA: One of the main characters is named Edward. He's kind of a jerk and hates the fact he's short. He has hazel-colored eyes. DT: One of the main characters is named Edward. He's a jerk and a heroine addict who makes bad jokes and gets heckled for being short. He is described as having hazel-colored eyes. Exhibit B FMA: A black girl named Paninya, loses both of her legs and an arm (just the legs in the Manga) in a train wreck. She grows up to become a thief. DT: A black woman named Odetta Holmes loses both of her legs when they are run over by a train. She grows a multiple personality disorder and her alter ego becomes a cleptomaniac. Exhibit C FMA: spoiler[The concept of a "gate" leading to an alternate world (Namely 20th century Earth) becomes a main feature later in the series. ] DT: spoiler[Literal doors lead to the alternate world of 20th century Earth.] Exhibit D FMA: The main character Eward loses his right arm and left leg in a failed human transmutation. DT: spoiler[The main character Roland loses part of his right hand and left foot to a mutant lobster.] So sue me if I'm trying to find shapes in clouds and claim they're some kind of marshmallow demons, but if Hiromu Arakawa drew inspiration from Stephen King, it wouldn't surprise me. |
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omnistry
 Posts: 1015 |
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Wow. I never would've thought of them. Although the last one seems redonkulous, everything else was quite similar. Good find. (I often do this with anime music; like how NIN's "You Know What You Are" sounds almost like Yoko Kanno's "Inner Universe".)
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totalgeek
Posts: 307 Location: Raleigh, NC |
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I haven't read the manga, but in the anime it was never established that Paninya was a thief. The reason she grabbed the watch from Edward was because it was arranged by Winry for her to grab it so that Ed would chase her. The point was to prove whose automail was better.
Other than that, those are definitely some creepy coincidences! 
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Digital Dreamer
 Posts: 287 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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This thread is not making me want to watch Fullmetal Alchemist.
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Stupidman007
 Posts: 394 |
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FMA does seem to have a lot of references to things that are seemingly dark and weird.
But what you found was really interesting. Shephan King is a popular guy lol, I wouldn't be surprised either if FMA had inspirations from him. |
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Kin7cato
Posts: 99 |
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If this is all true, then my respect for FMA is starting to decline.
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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What little respect I had for the series faded long ago so this is just random extra points against it.(if its true and not just coincidence) |
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joel_s95387
Posts: 1804 Location: California... The Village Hidden In The Porn |
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Does the gate lead to 20th century world on the manga version of FMA?
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DrizzlingEnthalpy
 Posts: 255 |
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I've never liked FMA as much as, say, Evangelion or Ghost in the Shell, but as far as shonen shows go, FMA is pretty good. Come on... losing respect for it just because it borrowed from/stole from/homaged something from a Stephen King work? I dare you to find ONE recent show that doesn't reference a previous work just as strongly. Sorry if the above made it seem like I'm angry, I'm not; I just find it silly to lose respect for a show because of four possible similarities between it and a book series. |
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hentai4me
Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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errr...read what I said again, I lost respoect for the series BEFORE this, this coincidence or copy is just another point against it. The main reason I felt FMA failed was that they created a large cast of characters and possible story arcs that were all more or less wasted, Winry, Rose and Sheska are prime examples of great potential arcs but were just left as minor supporting characters. You cant say you didn't want to see Ed at some point do some awkward flirting or semi dating with Winry or Rose and I just found Sheska so endearing and wonderfully eccentric that whenever she was on screen she became the lead. |
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.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
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As for the relationships between the Stephen King novels and the FMA anime, it doesn't really lessen my respect for the show. The story development seemed to move swiftly along from episode to episode without being too brief. A lot (well all, actually) of plots are based of other things, some titles are just more obvious than others. Coming up with a plot is easy, our Answerman here gets plenty of 14 year olds with a great (sarcasm) idea for a manga or anime. It's the ability to execute a plot well that matters, and I think the FMA has a story line that was well done. |
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Fenrir
 Posts: 369 |
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Well first off the similarities that you are talking about in the series were not created by the auther herself. The last half of the anime series in fact is completely different from the manga which is not yet finished in Japan and volume 13 has just been released so its possible that the people that wrote the ending of the anime series were inspired by his series but it was not Arakawa that was full metal alchemist is till very much from from over. Just an example of the differences King Bradley is Wrath and instead of pride in the manga.
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Fullmetal Donut
Posts: 13 |
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However, from what I have seen of the series and read from the Manga, at least A,B and D are eerily similar.
As for the idea of FMA being tied to King, King is a well known author whose works have been published in many languages. The character similarities between Edward Elric/Edward Dean and Paninya/Odetta Holmes don't surprise me. Fans of King, myself included, know that he's more than a simple pop horror writer. He goes through painstaking lengths to fully flesh-out each character no matter how minor they are... And when he kills your favorite character, someone you've followed and loved through hundreds or even thousands of pages, that is the essence of horror. The fact that FMA holds such well-developed characters could be a testament to Stephen King's inspiration on Ms. Arakawa and/or Mr. Seiji (the Director of the TV Series.) |
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nefadol
 Posts: 25 |
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No. It's not even called the gate in the manga, it's just called the Doors of Truth. The gate, the main villian, and ton of other things do not exist in the manner that they are in the anime (or don't exist at all). ...and you should use spoiler tags btw, I had to add them in. |
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Stupidman007
Posts: 394 |
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It's very true that the FMA crew chose to give us less of the liked characters, and more of the boring characters that nobody wanted to see. Who really care about what happens to Wrath, Sloth and Envy? I'm sure everyone would much rather see action from Mustang, Armstrong, and the rest of the "good guys". I really thought that the anime series went downhill after episode 30 or so. My time was somewhat wasted from having to watch Wrath and Dante.
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