Their boobs move. Like…realistically move. As in, the way actual breasts would motion if a woman made that movement without an over the top exaggeration and the camera is framed in a way so that it’s clearly not supposed to be sexual the way most anime would stage it. The scenes in question are meant to be taken seriously so the animators and direction is take things seriously. Either it’s just a character walking down a hall or clapping her hands.
If this were any other action/adventure anime, the camera angle would’ve been something like this for Winry’s introduction:
This is weird, but what I find so sexy about Riza is, well… How she isn’t sexualized. Like, she isn’t a pure sex object in nonstop sexy outfits. She’s a beautiful military woman, and she dresses appropriately for the role. Along with that she’s NEVER used as the ‘sexy distraction’ trope that women often are used for. She has a good role, she’s a fighter, but also has a kind heart for her friends.
That and more are reasons Riza is my favorite female anime character, and FMAB is my favorite anime.
Well said my friend.
I think there was only one instance of jiggle physics and that was with lust but that was when they were trying to make a joke about havoc having a thing for boobs and the joke was more about havoc than lust having big breasts.
“You fell into my booby trap” (proceeds to paralyze Havoc afterwards)
What I also love is that their boobs are in equal proportion to every other body part. Like, yeah, a character might have bigger boobs, but she also had a big waist/hips/legs/etc to go with it, so the largeness doesn’t feel fake. Plus, they never draw attention to the sexual stuff, and the only exception was the joke with Havoc. And it was posed in a way that made it feel like less of a raunchy boob joke and more of a joke on Havoc and how his attraction to boobs is what led him to be deceived, which doesn’t leave female viewers uncomfortable, or feeling like their body is constantly the butt of a joke, like some other animes do
That’s a good point that I didn’t realize. All of characters in the show have equally proportioned bodies.
Ed’s muscles get larger as he gets older but never reaches John Cena level of jacked since he’s still under 6 feet tall. He’s always presented as ripped and not ‘bulky’ like Sig or Alex.
Riza is about the same height as adult Ed, but they have different body styles thus the word for her would be toned. She’s still lean but her muscles and body shape are the same aren’t ‘compact’.
Fmab follows the basic body designs for males and female characters and doesn’t exaggerate a specific feature to the point where it’s comedic. It makes it’s bed, and lies in it.
Every time I see a girl in just about any other action/adventure (shonen) anime I just think:
“is your back okay? You need a doctor? Hey Thomas! Call Lucy a chiropractor!”
or better yet:
“Good Lord! Get this man a sandwich!”
The only real exception to the whole body proportion thing is ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG
But his ridiculously bulky muscles are used largely as a comedic element, in which the overly toned nature of his body is commented on as the “freak of nature” kind of idea and definitely not presented as if that’s some kind of expectation for anyone else in the show.
you: ed would be wrath/pride because of his temper/arrogance
me, an intellectual: in brotherhood, maybe, but in 03 ed would be sloth because of his solipsism, his uncaring attitude to the world around him. he assumes he’s independent from the world, that it doesn’t affect him and he doesn’t affect it. he’s detached from reality despite adamantly believing he’s the only one who knows truly how the world operates because of his own trauma and pain. he makes it clear that even though he’s a part of the military, he’s not truly a part of the military, which little does he know only shadows the complacency of the soldiers who stood by and watched a genocide and other atrocities occur. at his worst, ed is not vengeful or prideful, but rather he falls into a slum of self-pity and becomes motionless and uncaring. while ed’s personality includes his temper and his arrogance, they are not his worst qualities aka his fatal flaws. even when dealing with bad guy of the week episodes early on in the series, he’s rather indifferent to other people’s problems, and it takes some outside factor to get him to act in order to help others. if anyone embodies wrath or pride it would be al.
Except yes, they do. Winry is wearing coveralls. You type in mechanic, you’re gonna get a picture of someone with coveralls.
now, obviously, mechanics don’t usually wear their coveralls tied at the waist like that when they’re actually working…and neither does Winry. When she’s actually doing heavy mechanical work, she zips her coveralls up.
looks kinda like:
It’s fairly common for mechanics to tie their coveralls at the waist when not working, or not doing heavy duty work, since they’re hot.
Winry worked at home, in what seems to be a pretty hot climate, so wearing a tube top to reduce heat might be a thing and wearing the coveralls down would be way to keep cool between jobs without having to get changed. When she was younger she wore a tank top. When she move to Rush Valley to work in public (and her chest got bigger and probably required more support) she switched to a sports bra/crop top type thing under the coveralls.
The bandana style is actually kinda impractical as someone who’s cosplayed winry, it’s hot and it doesn’t do much to keep the hair in place (and Winry’s hairstyle is pretty annoying irl- but Ed’s hairstyle would be just as annoying, and he’s running around and fighting), but I don’t think that’s really what you were talking about probably. The coveralls and sports bra combo was v. comfortable though, and wearing it tied down actually kept me from suffocating. I could see doing intense work in it.
Of course, I’m not denying fanservice might be a factor, but saying mechanics never ever dress like this is…inaccurate. Some mechanics (though it’s not recommended) have been known to go SHIRTLESS under their coveralls. And all.
The bandana probably helps with the sweat from the job, though, even if her hairstyle is a bit impractical for it
Oh yeah, it definitely works as a sweat catcher. The thing is, wearing the bandana like that also ensures you sweat more,especially if you have bangs- it’s pressing them directly into her forehead. Which is why bandanas are generally higher on the head, to keep the hair pinned back.
Of course, not pinning Winry’s hair back is understandable artistic license you see with a lot of anime characters. Hair is a signifying feature that works well in framing the face, you often don’t want to hide it. Ed has his hair tied back, like someone who fights a lot would, BUT he has chin length side-bangs to frame his face that’d constantly get in his eyes irl. Roy has practical short hair, but his bangs are so long they directly interfere with his vision (Arakawa even joked about that in liner notes).
Similarly, Winry’s high ponytail is a hairstyle a mechanic probably would favor and demonstrates that side of her character, but Arakawa also wants to frame her face, so she has some of her hair stay down and never ties it back. Because she’s in an anime, Winry’s hair magically stays in place.
Like, basically all of the military characters (sans Olivier who is just special I guess) have short hair or hair tied back, but they also have distinctive and often impractical bangs to make them more easily identifiable and allow for more fun and variation. Arakawa’s character design is an interesting study in balancing realism and art, basically.
“I look at Dante and…I actually wouldn’t suspect a thing. Her sinister attitude is masked with a warm smile. Her insidious intentions aren’t bragged about. She likes perfume and fancy dresses. She enjoys politics and dancing. Dante is a romantic. Dante is a philosopher, Dante is…human.
Which makes her even more of a complex villain.
That’s exactly why Dante is everything we as human beings fear in society.
A psychopath.
A nihilist.
A Monster.“
Meanwhile, “Father, honestly, could be a Marvel Cinematic Universe Villain. He’s big, bad, ego driven. I remember the homunculus more than him, and he’s in charge. Yeah, he’s the bad guy. But he’s just kind of bland to me. One of the few things I didn’t like about Brotherhood was how I could look at him and immediately know, ‘bad guy with messiah complex.’
Even if he did “just want knowledge”, he controlled people with pure strength and intimidation alone, but Dante… she literally manipulated the homunculus and others by “saving them”, and then luring them in with the (false) hopes of achieving their goals(especially Lust). She was a sweet talker and good at hiding her true intentions. Unlike her, Father basically bragged about his goals. Personally, I find Dante more intriguing, and scarier, not to mention more realistic and human. Even her ost is really eerie, but so fitting. And her whole speech about equivalent exchange really left an impact on me, even the scene where she threw Rose’s baby in the air.
companion to my roy analysis, here’s a scene that really is a good culmination of important themes of 03. it’s a great scene that highlights roy and ed’s character development. it becomes hard to believe that these are the same two characters at the start of the series. beautiful.
A user @theishvalanalchemist has commenced an 2003 VS Brotherhood debate in the style of an Old VS New from Nostalgia Critic. Now I thoroughly enjoy these videos and Nostalgia Critic is one of my favorite Youtubers so I’m pretty excited for this. I have been writing fanfictions for both Fullmetal Alchemist versions for years now, rewatching both versions constantly, looking at multiple arguments on both sides and I’ve been pretty neutral on this seemingly age old argument. So I’ll share my views, I will keep them fairly open as I personally have no stance on which side wins this. Though I have not thought of the two varying versions in these categories, I will actually be looking at this from an analytical stand point and then talk about which series I personally prefer. I will be excluding the movies and focusing solely on the episodic series. I will also ignore the manga as an argument because frankly I think the ‘2003 anime doesn’t follow the manga’ argument doesn’t benefit Brotherhood at all. So without further ado, here is the Old VS New for FMA.
I never actually noticed how tightly he was holding onto her. Looking at this I realize now that he wasn’t holding her to shield her from the flames, but to stop her from putting herself in harm’s way.
In the span of about two seconds, Alphonse recognized that he needed to both throw up a protective barrier between them and the fire, and stop Riza from getting herself killed attempting to protect Roy.
At 14 years old he picked up on the intimacy of Roy and Riza’s relationship and integrated Riza’s breakdown just moments prior into his understanding of her as a person, and then used that information to both recognize that she would act impulsively and take action to stop her from doing so. All in the span of approximately two seconds.
This kid is way smarter than anyone seems to give him credit for. He can think on his feet and make snap decisions, and evaluate people’s behavior really quickly. He can do all three at once.
More love for Alphonse Elric please.
YES THANK YOU ALLISON!! More love for Alphonse Elric please!
I’m honestly…..speechless after reading this. This is incredible! Like, honestly there are some uncanny parallels between Hoho and Father and Ed and Al, that I can’t help but think this may be intentional as well. This made me think about the end of the manga/brotherhood, when Ed and Al go their separate ways, Ed to the West (like Father) and Al to the East (like Hohenheim), so adding on to that, it’s almost like Arakawa was breaking the parallels by making Al’s ending more like Hohenheim’s than Father’s. But really, these connections are amazing, because who would suspect Al of having so many similarities to the bad guy? I mean, obviously Al isn’t a bad guy in any sense, but really, even though he’s generally seen as the gentler and kinder of the brothers, he was the one out of the two of them to willingly use a philosopher’s stone (tho it was out of necessity and not for the benefit of himself) But still, this is incredible! Thanks for sending this in, I’m honestly in awe that five years later I’m still discovering the complexities of fma, whether they were intended or not, but yeah. God I love fma so much lol
Relatable FE Quote or Something 