![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A bell for Fullmetal Alchemist
I lost my fansubbed-anime virginity to this show. I never quite pictured myself anxiously waiting for shows to be aired in Japan so that kind people somewhere would capture them, translate them into English, edit the subtitles in, and then make the files available for me to download, but lo, it came to pass.
I'm such a sucker for a show with a strong continuing storyline, which FMA had. In spades. But I also want my shows to end, satisfyingly, so that I can know how it all comes out. And now FMA has ended.
Back when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ali_wildgoose mentioned this show, there were, like, four episodes up or something. It was so manageable! I downloaded them and watched the first two and thought it was really nifty--I liked how they were contrasting the "science" of alchemy with the "religion" in Lior, the storyline with its twists and turns was fun. The battle scene where we learnt about Ed's automail and alchemy without a transmutation circle made me utter little sounds of glee.
So after that, I'm not sure why I didn't watch the other episodes I had right away, except that it was kind of a hassle to watch video files with whatever godforsaken program I was using then and I wasn't in the habit of doing it.
[insert long interval here]
When I did get around to the third episode with the backstory of Ed and Al and their mother, though ... I was hooked. So hard. I watched some ungodly number of episodes back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back (well, you get the point). There was some eating, going to class, and possibly sleeping in there, but not much. I called it "Fullmetal Crack" and went on about it at length to anyone who would listen.
Curiously, though, I didn't really do the whole fandom thing. Well, I looked at some fanart (and some of it was really hot) and read some fanfic (although everything I read kind of really sucked). But I didn't really ship anybody, or feel like making up any stories. I just loved Ed, loved Al, loved how much they loved each other, and wanted to know what was going to happen next OMG.
Well, okay, I kind of shipped people. I thought Ed and Roy really did have some chemistry when they first met, and then again towards the end, but they hardly had any scenes together in the middle and I was totally not feeling it. I thought Ed and his doppelganger Russell would have been so cute together, so I cheered when he came back again towards the end. I was a huge fan of the relationship between Winry and Sciezka--is it just me, or was that totally a fanon-type relationship? They totally took two characters that you never thought would meet or have anything to say to each other, got them together, and made them fabulous adorkable friends. If it were fanfic, the next step would be femmeslash. :D And of course, if Winry had to get together with an Elric boy, I wanted it to be Al, so. That happened.
No, notjust because I want Edward for myself. I thought they'd be sweet together.
I do have to admit that Winry kind of drove me insane, although I did appreciate that she was a squeeing fangirl of tools and gears and stuff. That was cool. In theory. In practice, I can only take so much vocalized squeeing before my ears rebel. Although as I said, I loved her with Sciezka (I guess they go together because they're both in the We Randomly Have Incomprehensible Names Unlike Everyone Else Club).
Okay, so much stuff happened in the middle that I can't even pretend that I'm going to talk about it all. I should have a FMA marathon with my brother the next time I'm home, though. By virtue of skipping everything else, that brings me to the ending.
My God, the ending.
You know, I'm not one of those people who wants to predict what the ending's going to be--I just want to experience it, you know?--but I just knew all along that somehow Al was going to sacrifice himself for Ed and then Ed was going to sacrifice himself for Al and yet when I saw it happening, it just blew me away.
Whereas the resolution of the King Bradley storyline totally threw me for a loop, with the little boy and the skull and Roy and oh, that just totally blew me away too.
And of course the thing with Hoenheim and the other universe was a total WTF out of left field, but it totally worked somehow, too. And poor Ed without his automail and poor Al without his memories and he's so ickle and innocent and determined and the waving and oh.
And can I just say how much I loved all the voice actors? Oh, so much. Especially Al's; he had the sweetest, most perfectly-suited voice.
And now I know many useful phrases in Japanese, such as "State Alchemist". I imagine this would be incredibly useful if I were somehow transported to Japan right this instant. Indeed.
In conclusion, I ♥ my deadgay gen mostly gen with some het show.
I'm such a sucker for a show with a strong continuing storyline, which FMA had. In spades. But I also want my shows to end, satisfyingly, so that I can know how it all comes out. And now FMA has ended.
Back when
ali_wildgoose mentioned this show, there were, like, four episodes up or something. It was so manageable! I downloaded them and watched the first two and thought it was really nifty--I liked how they were contrasting the "science" of alchemy with the "religion" in Lior, the storyline with its twists and turns was fun. The battle scene where we learnt about Ed's automail and alchemy without a transmutation circle made me utter little sounds of glee.So after that, I'm not sure why I didn't watch the other episodes I had right away, except that it was kind of a hassle to watch video files with whatever godforsaken program I was using then and I wasn't in the habit of doing it.
[insert long interval here]
When I did get around to the third episode with the backstory of Ed and Al and their mother, though ... I was hooked. So hard. I watched some ungodly number of episodes back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back (well, you get the point). There was some eating, going to class, and possibly sleeping in there, but not much. I called it "Fullmetal Crack" and went on about it at length to anyone who would listen.
Curiously, though, I didn't really do the whole fandom thing. Well, I looked at some fanart (and some of it was really hot) and read some fanfic (although everything I read kind of really sucked). But I didn't really ship anybody, or feel like making up any stories. I just loved Ed, loved Al, loved how much they loved each other, and wanted to know what was going to happen next OMG.
Well, okay, I kind of shipped people. I thought Ed and Roy really did have some chemistry when they first met, and then again towards the end, but they hardly had any scenes together in the middle and I was totally not feeling it. I thought Ed and his doppelganger Russell would have been so cute together, so I cheered when he came back again towards the end. I was a huge fan of the relationship between Winry and Sciezka--is it just me, or was that totally a fanon-type relationship? They totally took two characters that you never thought would meet or have anything to say to each other, got them together, and made them fabulous adorkable friends. If it were fanfic, the next step would be femmeslash. :D And of course, if Winry had to get together with an Elric boy, I wanted it to be Al, so. That happened.
No, not
I do have to admit that Winry kind of drove me insane, although I did appreciate that she was a squeeing fangirl of tools and gears and stuff. That was cool. In theory. In practice, I can only take so much vocalized squeeing before my ears rebel. Although as I said, I loved her with Sciezka (I guess they go together because they're both in the We Randomly Have Incomprehensible Names Unlike Everyone Else Club).
Okay, so much stuff happened in the middle that I can't even pretend that I'm going to talk about it all. I should have a FMA marathon with my brother the next time I'm home, though. By virtue of skipping everything else, that brings me to the ending.
My God, the ending.
You know, I'm not one of those people who wants to predict what the ending's going to be--I just want to experience it, you know?--but I just knew all along that somehow Al was going to sacrifice himself for Ed and then Ed was going to sacrifice himself for Al and yet when I saw it happening, it just blew me away.
Whereas the resolution of the King Bradley storyline totally threw me for a loop, with the little boy and the skull and Roy and oh, that just totally blew me away too.
And of course the thing with Hoenheim and the other universe was a total WTF out of left field, but it totally worked somehow, too. And poor Ed without his automail and poor Al without his memories and he's so ickle and innocent and determined and the waving and oh.
And can I just say how much I loved all the voice actors? Oh, so much. Especially Al's; he had the sweetest, most perfectly-suited voice.
And now I know many useful phrases in Japanese, such as "State Alchemist". I imagine this would be incredibly useful if I were somehow transported to Japan right this instant. Indeed.
In conclusion, I ♥ my dead