Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist has got to be one of my all-time favorite manga series. With the live-action movie and manga said to be coming out, Wisecrack looks into the philosophy behind FMA, and has discovered that it has a strong theme of Science replacing Faith.
If you look closely at the series, FMA is chockfull of characters who are scientists/alchemists, and each of them has their own ideology on how to handle Science. Some people want to use Science and turn that into an instrument of Faith, while others totally dismiss Faith, but push forward with Science as long as they have the moral high-ground e.g. The Elric Brothers.
I don’t know how to explain it as well as the video does, but the Elric Brothers become the heroes of the story because they are scientists who want to embrace all the truth of Science, but they are unwilling to push forward if it means having to sacrifice human lives. Villains like Father and the rest are also men of Science, but they disregard all of humanity, seeing them as mere instruments to their search for the “truth.”
In the end, the message of FMA is not to abandon Science or Religion, or say which one is better; the real message is that Science can just be as dangerous as religion, and everyone should approach everything with a certain level of skepticism and doubt. No one should be a mindless sheep.
The live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie comes out Dec. 1.
See Also: Watch: The Philosophy Of Spider-Man, More American Than Captain America
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