good night.
Feb. 17th, 2005 03:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikkenekoI think I've finally acquired a real, compelling motivation to get to bed earlier. If I stay up too late, the damn birds start singing. I HATE birdsong. Grrr. Shootemall.
I've also been foregoing writing this week (so far) in favor of actually sleeping and doing homework and stuff, be proud of me, but I do want to finish that chimera fic sometime this week.
So in lieu of a fic update, you get late-night fangirlish induced ranting.
I was babbling (fangirl-drunk) at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hime1999 just last night about this, and I touched briefly upon what I consider to be the primary difference between the manga and the anime; the anime is more character-driven. Although the world and the plot are given quite their share of fantastic space, it's really all about the people. And when you compare the changes between the anime and the manga, almost all of them are driven towards one purpose: to make the events more personal. To bring them closer to home. To make them more intimate, more emotionally impacting.
After the canon diverges in episode 25, the series begins to cycle back to its starting points. We see people -- and places -- and THINGS -- that we never dreamed we'd see again. Were you expecting to see Ed's arm and leg again? I sure wasn't. Were you expecting the climactic event of the story to take place in Lior -- the very same place it started? I wasn't. Characters return that we never expected to see again -- Barry, Tucker, Lyla, Rose, Russell and Fletcher, Ed and Al's mother.
The structure of events cycles, as well. If you break the series in half at episode 25, then patterns and cycles start to become apparent. An early episode in the first half, episode 3, is devoted to flashback and backstory, as well as explication of the rules of the world. An early episode in the second half, episode 28, is devoted to flashback and backstory, and the next few episodes reveal profound truths about the rules of the world. An event in the final episode of the first half, the death of a major character, is echoed in episode 50 with the death of another major character. (We're lucky that the series went one episode more, or he might have stayed dead!)
Just consider: in the manga, Nina and Shou Tucker were essentially strangers to the Elric brothers. They might have gotten to know them, even grown to care about them, but their deaths were no more than a passing out of characters who had passed briefly into their lives. By changing the timing, and the setting, of that storyline in the anime, Tucker and Nina became Ed and Al's new family, their new home after leaving Riesenburg. The death of Nina, who was nothing less than a sister to them, was devastating; the betrayal of Tucker, what I consider to be the final blow to Ed and Al's trust in adults. How could Ross or Mustang expect Ed and Al to trust them, when every adult they've ever believed in either abandoned or betrayed them?
Even little things can make a big impact. Both the anime and the manga have Ed and Al present at the birth of a child; Izumi remarks on this as one of the defining moments in their education. In the manga, the baby in question is essentially a stranger's. Perhaps a friend's, but someone they leave behind and never see again. In the manga, the baby was Alicia -- Hughes' adored daughter. By being there from the first moment of her life, Ed and Al were brought into the Hughes family almost as much as they were brought into the Tucker family. Hughes' death in episode 25 was not merely the death of a confidante, or a co-worker, or a good friend -- he was family. Even the change that placed Roy, not some anonymous soldier flunky, as the killer of Winry's parents serves not only to deepend Mustang's character, but to create a bond between the two.
The number 1 example of this, though, is the Dublith arc. Izumi and Wrath. In the manga, Wrath is someone else entirely; his identity was changed in the anime. Anime Wrath is Izumi's lost son; the baby that she miscarried and tried to save, and failed. She lost him for what she thought was forever, along with any hope of any future children; and when it seemed like, against all odds, there was the possibility that he had returned to her, he was only to become a soulless monster.
Now, maybe it's late at night and I'm tired, but speaking as a woman, I really can't imagine anything closer to home than that.
A similar change was worked with the identity of Sloth. Manga Sloth is a total stranger, one we haven't even met yet; anime Sloth was Ed and Al's mother. Her existence tied in with the very beginning of the show, and ran towards nearly the end, bringing everything around in a loop and tying in all the ends together. The change that was worked on the homunculus creation process that changed Wrath's identity also gave Sloth a horrible new signifigance. And the same change was worked in the very last episode, when we discover that like Sloth and Wrath, Envy too had the most personal and intimate of connections.
That one change -- the manner in which a homunculus is created -- is the single biggest difference between the anime and manga, and the most powerful. They are no longer just monsters, formless creatures of evil. They are our sins, creations made of love and good intentions gone horribly wrong. When one of these monsters wears the face of your lover, or your mother, or your brother, or your son, there's no way to pretend that they aren't a part of you. No way to deny the hold they have on your heart.
Tonight's rec:
"Ring of Fire" bykracken. Dramatic, angsty Roy/Ed fic. Mind you, I'm cheating here -- not only do I know the author, and know perfectly well that she's good, but I also know how the story will go. >_> It's early yet, but it promises a nice ride.
I've also been foregoing writing this week (so far) in favor of actually sleeping and doing homework and stuff, be proud of me, but I do want to finish that chimera fic sometime this week.
So in lieu of a fic update, you get late-night fangirlish induced ranting.
I was babbling (fangirl-drunk) at
hime1999 just last night about this, and I touched briefly upon what I consider to be the primary difference between the manga and the anime; the anime is more character-driven. Although the world and the plot are given quite their share of fantastic space, it's really all about the people. And when you compare the changes between the anime and the manga, almost all of them are driven towards one purpose: to make the events more personal. To bring them closer to home. To make them more intimate, more emotionally impacting. After the canon diverges in episode 25, the series begins to cycle back to its starting points. We see people -- and places -- and THINGS -- that we never dreamed we'd see again. Were you expecting to see Ed's arm and leg again? I sure wasn't. Were you expecting the climactic event of the story to take place in Lior -- the very same place it started? I wasn't. Characters return that we never expected to see again -- Barry, Tucker, Lyla, Rose, Russell and Fletcher, Ed and Al's mother.
The structure of events cycles, as well. If you break the series in half at episode 25, then patterns and cycles start to become apparent. An early episode in the first half, episode 3, is devoted to flashback and backstory, as well as explication of the rules of the world. An early episode in the second half, episode 28, is devoted to flashback and backstory, and the next few episodes reveal profound truths about the rules of the world. An event in the final episode of the first half, the death of a major character, is echoed in episode 50 with the death of another major character. (We're lucky that the series went one episode more, or he might have stayed dead!)
Just consider: in the manga, Nina and Shou Tucker were essentially strangers to the Elric brothers. They might have gotten to know them, even grown to care about them, but their deaths were no more than a passing out of characters who had passed briefly into their lives. By changing the timing, and the setting, of that storyline in the anime, Tucker and Nina became Ed and Al's new family, their new home after leaving Riesenburg. The death of Nina, who was nothing less than a sister to them, was devastating; the betrayal of Tucker, what I consider to be the final blow to Ed and Al's trust in adults. How could Ross or Mustang expect Ed and Al to trust them, when every adult they've ever believed in either abandoned or betrayed them?
Even little things can make a big impact. Both the anime and the manga have Ed and Al present at the birth of a child; Izumi remarks on this as one of the defining moments in their education. In the manga, the baby in question is essentially a stranger's. Perhaps a friend's, but someone they leave behind and never see again. In the manga, the baby was Alicia -- Hughes' adored daughter. By being there from the first moment of her life, Ed and Al were brought into the Hughes family almost as much as they were brought into the Tucker family. Hughes' death in episode 25 was not merely the death of a confidante, or a co-worker, or a good friend -- he was family. Even the change that placed Roy, not some anonymous soldier flunky, as the killer of Winry's parents serves not only to deepend Mustang's character, but to create a bond between the two.
The number 1 example of this, though, is the Dublith arc. Izumi and Wrath. In the manga, Wrath is someone else entirely; his identity was changed in the anime. Anime Wrath is Izumi's lost son; the baby that she miscarried and tried to save, and failed. She lost him for what she thought was forever, along with any hope of any future children; and when it seemed like, against all odds, there was the possibility that he had returned to her, he was only to become a soulless monster.
Now, maybe it's late at night and I'm tired, but speaking as a woman, I really can't imagine anything closer to home than that.
A similar change was worked with the identity of Sloth. Manga Sloth is a total stranger, one we haven't even met yet; anime Sloth was Ed and Al's mother. Her existence tied in with the very beginning of the show, and ran towards nearly the end, bringing everything around in a loop and tying in all the ends together. The change that was worked on the homunculus creation process that changed Wrath's identity also gave Sloth a horrible new signifigance. And the same change was worked in the very last episode, when we discover that like Sloth and Wrath, Envy too had the most personal and intimate of connections.
That one change -- the manner in which a homunculus is created -- is the single biggest difference between the anime and manga, and the most powerful. They are no longer just monsters, formless creatures of evil. They are our sins, creations made of love and good intentions gone horribly wrong. When one of these monsters wears the face of your lover, or your mother, or your brother, or your son, there's no way to pretend that they aren't a part of you. No way to deny the hold they have on your heart.
Tonight's rec:
"Ring of Fire" by
kracken. Dramatic, angsty Roy/Ed fic. Mind you, I'm cheating here -- not only do I know the author, and know perfectly well that she's good, but I also know how the story will go. >_> It's early yet, but it promises a nice ride.