Week Seven Feb. 27: Shonen and Seinen. 

            Boys Manga

            Before this class, I read 20^thCentury Boys. I didn’t understand that it was jumping between past present and future till class. the manga really confused me. I feel as though I would have needed to see the end to understand the beginning. The more I read, the more confused I was. I was sad when I found out about the death of the man that was remembered as the little kid with snot running down his nose. The way he was made fun of, but still saved them made him super likeable. This kind. of makes me think of how we also talked about FMA. In that show Hews dies. He was an innocent and likeable character as well. Is there a thing where the innocent guy must die in boy’s manga?

            I will say that FMA is probably the reason I’m in this class. I joined the class knowing hardly anything about Anime. I never watched anime before college. My friends told me to watch FMA and I gave it a chance. Everything I expected to see that made me not want to see anime wasn’t there. I was waiting for the slutty ditzy girl, and some kind of perfect male hero. Sortry if that is a completely inaccurate view of anime, but I hadn’t seen it. And yah, I thought all anime girls were eager obsessive like Sakkara in Naruto, or sluts like Sundae. Then, I watched FMA... 

            What made me like the show wasn’t just the female characters. Honestly, my favorite characters were the guys. Everyone is so well written. The strong family values through the show really pushed to make the characters likeable. From the beginning, I laughed at the fact that Ed was insecure about his height. He wasn’t some perfect tall and handsome hero and he knew it. Al was so incent in the suit of armor, and the brother’s relationship is so strong. The fact that both of them want their bodies back makes sense, but what really hits is the obvious sighs that each of them is more intent to save the other. Both of them blame themselves, and would do anything for each other. 

            From the beginning of the show, a simple question is asked. Everything needs to be traded for something of equal value, so what is the worth of a human soul? It should be obvious, a life for a life. The thing is, when the boys learn this, the decide that is too big of a price to pay. Throughout it all, they know there has to be a better way, they will never give up on their beliefs against taking a life for their own gain. Even when their dying father (who Ed hated) offers to sacrifice himself for Al, Ed refuses the offer and finds another way. 

            The background characters were strong and stood out in their own way as well. Mustang was ambitus. Usually I tend to hate characters that want power, but he honestly wanted it to help people. Ling was the same way. Teacher was one of the best characters in the show. It is as though the main characters were like sons to her. The fact that she tried to bring her lost child back and in turn, lost her reproductive organs pushed to prove that trying to bring back what is lost will only make you lose more. It was really deep and dark, but meaningful. She learned her lesson, and she is the greatest housewife in all of fiction as far as I’m concerned. 

            One of the side characters that I really want to point out is Armstrong. He seems like he is just the comic relief character, and he is in a way. The thing is, in so many ways he is more than that. Armstrong really cares about people from the beginning. People aren’t always ready to bring him into the fold, but nobody ever expects anything but good intentions from him. What really made me realize the character was more than comic relief was the Ishvalen war. During the flashbacks, everyone there seemed to be corrupted in some way. They lost those they cared about or became monsters themselves. Some characters were both lost and corrupted. Armstrong was different. He was the only one who didn’t take part in the massacre. Many saw him a joke, and I think he wanted to be seen as one. The characters who didn’t know him well saw a big strong monster who could crust them, but Armstrong was the nicest guy. When he saw innocents dying he broke. The big strong man broke in the middle of a war zone and tried to appeal to his comrades’ better natures. In the end he walked away because he couldn’t take part in it. The fact that he said if he could change anything he would have defended the people instead of walking away. He regretted his actions, but in the moment, it looked like he didn’t have it in him to fight his own people at the time. In a show full of darkness and corrupt characters, Armstrong and Hews were the only characters with pure hearts and intentions. This makes Armstrong a joke, but Hews was a joke until he died. It’s nice to see that Armstrong survived the series.