| (As promised, I'm taking this blog in a new direction. So this is my first review, and what better than an anime movie?!)
In-depth FMA: TCS (Full Metal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala) Movie Analysis
While any diehard fan will watch with excitement, the ending is nonetheless a bit disappointing, and nothing like what one would expect. Surprisingly, the film offered only small tidbits of fan-service, and nothing like what one would expect for a highly anticipated sequel (even feature length) for such a hyped anime. I am writing this analysis as a response to all of those complaints out there about the ending and how the movie was not laden with fan-service. So, if you want a scene by scene recap, you will be disappointed. This is an analysis, I will warn you now! If the thought of that bores you to tears, please skip this piece of writing, but if you want read something thought-provoking, I invite you to read on.
Recently, I have looked at Japanese entertainment rather closely, especially films and anime, because I feel that there is so much being said that is merely taken as entertainment, and nothing else. I think in anime, especially FMA, there is a lot to analyze. People say that the TCS movie’s ending was bad, from a fan’s standpoint, since it was not a typical happy ending, but a rather unsatisfying one, where the hero turns away from returning home, to all of the glory and love awaiting him, and turns to a foreign land in the start of an effort to save the foreign world from calamity. It is noble, but dissatisfying, especially to the die-hard viewers. But if you look deeper, it is not merely about Edo’s journey and struggles; it is about the world, and not the fictional one of Central, and Amestris (sp?), but the one that we are living in today. You can almost feel the deep national allegory involved that speaks beyond the lovable characters. The whole anime and especially the movie has been loved precisely because it was heavy and loaded with cultural contexts and meanings, struggles between trying to do good and correct evils, and lessons about life, especially growing up. These are the very things that speak to us on a deep level, and what makes the characters so human and endearing.
I found that I told my 9 year old cousin, (a hooked- FMA fan in Hong Kong, who are only about 3 quarters of the way through the anime broadcast now) how the anime was teaching him a lesson, one that says the world is not fair, as you originally naively thought it to be. You don’t always get back what you put in. If you work hard at something, you might not get back a shining result. If you love someone, that person does not always love you back. If you give, you might never receive. The trade sometimes, and most of the time, is unequal. It is a lesson that we learn while we grow up. It is a lesson that Edo and Aru learned through their 2 years of adventures. We saw them as they were young, smart, naïve, and well intentioned, trying to revive their dead mother. We saw them fail, hit with reality and the rules of the adult world, how alchemy really worked, and how the consequences scarring them so physically led to their eventual understanding of the natural world, and life, and the deepest secrets of alchemy. It is sad for a viewer to watch as two innocent brothers must confront the tragedies of life at so young an age, such as death of a loved one, abandonment (by their father), the need for a purpose. But our sympathy for the two is what drew us to connect with them, and through the long (52 episodes), we also grew with them, as our understanding of that world unfolded along with theirs.
So I offer to the reader a plea, to look deeper beyond the action packed fantasy entertainment (which FMA undoubted was) and see connections with our reality, to appreciate FMA on an even greater level, to grow up if you will. I don’t want to say that the makers of FMA did indeed intend for all of the connections that I am pointing out, but you must admit Japanese anime makers put much effort in their productions, the majority of which include so much historical/mythical references, that the American viewer always appreciates and recognize as deep and meaningful, so why not allegorical? Most FMA fans scour the net for little tidbits of trivia about anime anyway, so most already know the references to the naming of the officers in Central starting with Mustang, all the way down to his lowest of subordinates. It is clear they were named after WWII warplanes. Clearly, the makers intended to put many WWII references within the anime: The Fuhrer, for example, along with the ethnic genocide that Mustang was involved in (Holocaust), the guilt he felt at following orders as part of the military (Nazi officers). Please don’t say that I am humanizing the Nazi’s! I’m just pointing out how it can be interpreted as a reference, and Roy is indeed a protagonist in FMA (so HE’S not evil!!!! No, we love him!) Now we get to a murky subject matter. No one likes talking about this time period. But if we look at the WWII references, we must think about that time period and Japan! We must think, as Japanese how were they connected to this history and time period? Well, no secret Japanese and Germans were allies. And again, here is a problematic area to talk about. Most Japanese people are uncomfortable talking about the war and Japan’s involvement in it. Japan’s official way of dealing with this history and educating their youth of it is to steer away from the political details and focus on the nation, glossing over a lot of not very pretty details. (You can argue with me over that, but of course I am generalizing.) Seriously, how comfortable would you be broaching the subject of say, Japan’s presence in China during this time period, to a Japanese national, someone that you maybe want to be on friendly, civil terms with, and don’t want to end up offending or having them hate you? For me, not very…. If my Japanese international classmates, who consider themselves westernized and open-minded in studying abroad, smart enough (and one can maybe assume privileged enough as well) to attend <unnamed northeastern elite liberal (and I mean liberal!) arts college> can sit in a History/Politics class about China and say out loud that they are offended just because the professor (Ph.D and expert on the subject) mentions the (I will say this in a whisper) Japanese having done some biological testing on Chinese civilians in a passing comment, one can only infer how cool the subject is to talk about in Japan, among the not as similarly educated and self-proclaimed “open-minded” populace.
Let me not lead you to thinking I’m into historical finger-pointing and unmasking of Japan’s nationalistic stance of historical denial (the late and courageous Iris Chang did a good job of that and made it her career). This is a movie analysis. So why didn’t Edo return home? Everyone was happy to see him, and would have welcomed him back with warm arms and conferred upon him accolades and titles. Why did he turn away and stay in the other world, the one with a similar history as our real one? The one that is pre-Nazi takeover of Germany, right before the consolidation of Hitler’s power. My feeling of the reason is why I admire the movie’s ending so much! And my esteem (I was extremely obsessed with the anime series and still is) for the FMA franchise rose to incomparable heights!
He, having learned all that he did from his far-reaching travels, and eye-opening experiences, understood, that that world was his! What did he mean by that? He was taking responsibility! He wasn’t turning away and saying, “well, it’s only a parallel world, not my own,” no, he was confronting it head-on, instead of looking merely at his world, his home, his version of world events (hm… whatever might I be referring to here?), and embracing the larger truth, the alternate version of events, no less true, accurate, or important. He was going to use his power, his knowledge, and everything he had learned in his world to try to change the calamity that he knew would transpire in that world! He knew, finally understood, that he had a hand in things and the fate of history, in that side as well, even if ever so little. For instance, the unfortunate deaths of the boys in the parallel world, counterpart German Edward, and his friendship with Alfonse’s counterpart and the actions that led to his untimely death, are in some part related to Edo’s influence. So he knew, he was not blameless, his actions had weight, and he recognized that. He decided to act then, for the bettering of that world he influenced, and which had influenced him.
So what am I getting at? National allegory. Does Edo represent Japan? Eh… ever so slightly. He is the protagonist that we are rooting for. He is the hero, the one whose perspective we see and understand. He has power, and he is the one we see growing up, he is the one we are maturing with. No, Edo isn’t symbolic of Japan per se, but his actions at the end of the movie are very telling!
I began saying I analyzed contemporary Japanese film. Geeky, I know. But the present well known Japanese film-makers are starting to tackle this difficult, murky subject, even though it can be seen as a hidden layer under entertainment. Yes, film is open to interpretation, so no single one is correct and definitive. But in works of at least one renowned director, Kore-eda, we can definitely see such an interpretation. In his film, After Life (1998), for example, the main protagonist Mochizuki, living in limbo between the world of the living and the dead, must confront his death, in war in the Philippines. He felt in death, and the war, everything was taken from him, so he could not pick a single defining memory (which is passage out of limbo) and move on to the next world. He does, however, finally do this by recognizing that his existence had an affect on others, and turning away from his inward view, picked a memory not sentimentally happy and unproblematic, but that of his after-life, finally taking responsibility for his actions. Hmm… feeling injustice at the war (and who started it by the way?), refusing to move-on and take responsibility….ok, reference understood. Not wallowing in the idyllic familiar version of the past, instead choosing to move on and acknowledge the affects of his actions, I would say, hauntingly similar to Edo’s choice I think.
If Japanese film-makers are addressing this difficult national discourse through film, why can’t anime-makers also deal with it? Can’t it be that the Japanese are starting to say, they want to reach out to that “other” reality, that other version of events, and be responsible for it, be active in it? Entertainment is a ripe field to put political allegory, viewpoints from the makers and such, but it can also suggest popular sentiment. Can it be that Japan is tip-toeing toward that “gate” and coming to terms with its history, even if ever so slightly? Even if the whole of the nation of Japan is definitely not, through films and mass culture artistic products such as anime, are we not seeing some response, some feeling, some sentiment towards reclaiming the denied history of Japan, even if it is helluva indirect?
That, I think, is why this movie is so good! Not just because of story line, character development, action, whatever the formula is for a winning anime/movie, but because of this deeper layer. Again, this is but my own personal interpretation, and I would love to be proven wrong if ever the filmmakers of TCS personally said otherwise, but it is a valid interpretation given all of the movie’s references, and a different one besides the common “why aren’t Winnie and Edo together???” complaints. Yes, I’m bummed about that too, (that and, more importantly, why aren’t Hawkeye and Roy together!!!????? Ah, so disappointed!) but given all of that I just pointed out, the ending is not bad at all, it’s just not the Disney, fairy-taled happily ever after version we are used to, but does that make this ending, this version of the events that transpire less “happy”, less “good”? Just like Edo moved on from a well-known version of the world, perhaps we as viewers, should start getting acquainted to a non-Disney-esque convention of the end of story-telling, for truly, is the story ever over? Does the world, fictional or not, just stop? Nope, and neither do the scars of history just disappear.
[With that said, I must stress the fact that, this has been a personal interpretation. I am not saying anything about the Nazis, just referencing their existence, and I’m not making any comments about Japan (nation and nationalism), Japanese people, Japanese International students; I am merely pointing out history, personal anecdotes and some experience with how some Japanese people I come/came into contact with have reacted to this subject. You do not have to agree with me. But I must admit that I have addressed the subject as neutrally as possible, and many of the points I make are widely accepted within academic circles. And of course, as an academic, I welcome criticism of my analysis, that is, if you have the time to do so, for I don’t really know why I wrote this detailed analysis when I should be doing my homework… Thanks for reading at least.] |
