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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Fullmetal Alchemist GN 25
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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Typo in the review: it's Greed/Lin, not Envy/Lin, spoiler[especially since Envy died a while ago].
I stopped reading after vol. 23 (so I avoided looking at any specific details in the review), I just wanted to wait for the whole thing so I could finish it in one-go. However, the final volume is ways away, so at this rate I'm more likely to conclude the series via Brotherhood as I'll order Part 5 soon. Edit: I also greatly agree about the art. In fact, even though FMA is my favorite shonen, I would actually probably pick a few other shonen titles to get adapted (or re-adapted for those that ended abruptly) over it given the choice, simply because Arakawa has this art style that makes everything feel in motion, so an adaptation almost feels unnecessary (don't get me wrong though, Brotherhood is great and I love the first anime for its different, but just as good, take on the tale). |
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Fullmetal_Jedi
Posts: 12 |
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Why wait? The whole thing is up online to read. I'm re-reading as I get the volumes though which is great. It's cool seeing the art in print the second time around because it's like getting a whole new appreciation for the series and makes the second read through even better.
That's what I do with most series now like One Piece, 20th Century Boys, etc. As for the review, I don't think having focus on a lot of characters or a lot of ongoing plot threads should be considered a negative. I mean, you should realize in an ongoing series that the stories aren't going to tie up neatly at the start and end of a volume. A large ensemble cast is one of the strengths of Fullmetal Alchemist and shouldn't be used to detract from the score. Too many stories going on at once is only a problem if they're convoluted or don't make sense. Simply having a lot going on is NOT a bad thing at all. |
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doctordoom85
Posts: 2094 |
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I will wait as scanlations to licensed series are just an annoyance to me. The only ones I will read are to super-popular mainstream titles that if you DON'T read the scanlations of, everyone and their mom will be talking about it so much that the whole story will over time be spoiled to you anyway, hence why I read Naruto and One Piece on scanlations but wait for the manga volumes for everything else.
Plus, anytime I've seen a scanlated chapter of FMA, the dialogue doesn't flow as well compared to Viz's translation, so considering this is my favorite shonen I see no reason to settle for less. |
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amarielah
 Posts: 178 |
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On the contrary, how a story is told is just as important as what is being told, and an overly-busy or rushed method of storytelling is definitely a negative for a great deal of people,regardless of whether or not the plot is coherent. The pacing of the FMA manga has always been a huge issue for me, especially towards the end, and it appears that this particular reviewer agrees with me. Also, I find the large ensemble cast rather unnecessary, especially as viewpoint characters. The story could have easily been told by following three or four different primary characters, but was instead spread out over many more - some of whom were barely developed beyond their relevance to the plot. Occasionally changing POVs to give some insight into less relevant characters is one thing, but telling entire swathes of the story from their POV is another. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2657 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Ack! I'm so sorry! 
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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I really love the emphasis on other characters because it makes it clear that in real life they are no main characters. You're not going to get some warrior god who always takes on the bad guy while everyone else watches.
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amarielah
Posts: 178 |
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Real life =/= fiction, and there are a myriad ways of showing the far-reaching consequences of events that don't include bringing in ultimately superfluous characters. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the series has an inconsistent narrative because it had volumes upon volumes with such a heavy emphasis on a very small group of characters, and only veered away from those characters when the plot grew too extensive for them to properly wrap it all up. If Arakawa had the whole thing plotted out from the beginning (something I'm not entirely convinced of, TBH), she, IMO, should have introduced a lion's share of the later POV characters very close to the beginning, and told the intintial volumes the same way she did the later ones. Because, whether she intended to or not, she did introduce a pair of characters that were pretty obviously the main protagonists - or at least the "Ishmaels" through which the story was going to be told - and then completely ignored them for volumes at a time later. And while they were still very much alive and well.
Basically, she should have done what Baccano did. It would have made for a much more flowing, balanced narrative. However, it does say a lot about how compelling the plot is that people overall weren't that pissed off by the sudden absence of the characters they'd already grown to love - Terry Goodkind tried to pull that shit, but his preachy, convoluted mess of a plot wasn't compelling enough to keep a lot of his readership interested. |
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Charred Knight
Posts: 3085 |
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Most of the cast does appear in the first 7 volumes, if you tried to force anymore than the entire first few arcs would be weighed down. You didn't need to know about Xing, Lin, or Olivier until the they appeared.
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Jarmel
Posts: 280 Location: NYC |
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Yes trying to introduce them earlier would hae been a disaster as the story would have been jumping all over the place. Also she would have had to come up with reasons and completely new arcs as to justify why they should appear earlier. Really the earlier arcs were establishing the brothers as protagonists as well as Roy. |
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