By live-action standards, Netflix’s Fullmetal Alchemist exceeds expectations
Following flops like Death Note and Ghost in the Shell, Fullmetal Alchemist stands out as one of the better live-action adaptations for an anime.
For better or worse, anime to live-action adaptations are becoming a common occurrence. After the atrocity that was the Death Note live-action film, fans remain mostly skeptical about these announcements. You can imagine the concern when Netflix announced the release of a Fullmetal Alchemist live-action movie.
A beloved classic, Fullmetal Alchemist is based off of the manga series written by Hiromu Arakawa. The story follows the Elric brothers after a botched attempt to bring their mother back from the dead. Losing two of Ed’s limbs and Al’s entire physical body in the process, the two set out to find the Philosopher’s Stone, their only hope of returning to their former states.
The Netflix release became available for streaming on Feb. 19, 2018. And while it could never live up to the manga or anime versions of Arakawa’s story, it did surpass the low expectations anime fans have learned to have for such productions. It’s certainly worth a watch.
From casting to costumes
The adaptation is directed by Fumihiko Sori, best known for his work on Pinpon and Vexille. Breaking from the unfortunate Western tendency of whitewashing anime-based films, Sori intentionally sought Japanese actors for his project. At the Tokyo Film Festival, he stated, “Japan and the West have quite different cultures…I think FMA needed to be made in Japan to get the soul right.”
That sentiment alone earns Sori’s film brownie points, though it’s far from the only reason to give to applaud the film. The actors encapsulate the characters perfectly. Ryôsuke Yamada nails his impression of Ed. And even side characters, like Roy Mustang (Dean Fujioka) and Maes Hughes (Ryuta Sato), mirror their anime counterparts well.
The costumes are also spot on. Viewers can tell that the film makers were determined to portray Arakawa’s world as precisely as possible. Aesthetically speaking, they did a great job. Everything strongly resembles the animation in appearance.
Fight scenes and special effects
A huge concern when turning an animated series into a live-action film is whether the action sequences will look as awesome with real actors and a limited budget. These worries are amplified when the story in question contains any extraordinary component, which of course, Fullmetal Alchemist does.
Thankfully, the alchemy translates well. The film’s special effects budget must have been decent, as the fight scenes don’t appear tacky or limited in any way. Anyone still traumatized by The Last Airbender can relax. There’s no awkward dancing during this live-action.
And fans worried about what CGI Alphonse would look like can sleep soundly tonight. His appearance is perfect — as is Nina’s chimera form, though we might have liked a slightly less accurate depiction of that fiasco.
Condensing the story
It’s no easy task fitting five seasons of television into two hours. Fullmetal Alchemist‘s ability to do so proved both impressive and unsatisfying. On the one hand, the changes made to shorten the plot were mostly minor. Overall, the film remains true to the earlier episodes of the series.
But shortening the story also means cutting beloved characters and story arcs, two things that never sit well with any fan base. The Ishvalan War subplot is sadly overlooked in the film, as are four of the Seven Deadly Sins.
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The filmmakers couldn’t be expected to include everything, but such omissions usually leave fans disappointed. This could have been rectified by making the movie into a series, but it’s still possible that there will be a sequel containing the excluded material. The ending left enough open-ended that we aren’t ruling it out yet.