T5W#342-Top 5 Thoughts on the Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Sequels Announcement

Finally, a topical Top 5 right after an announcement.  Just announced yesterday, to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the Fullmetal Alchemist Manga, we’re going to be getting not one but TWO Sequels to the 2017 Live Action Fullmetal Alchemist Movie.  These two new (and judging by the title Final) chapters will be released within a month of each other: Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Chapter-The Avenger Scar will arrive on May 20, 2022 and Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Chapter-The Last Transmutation will follow on June 24.  A full trailer for both films was released and show that A LOT is going to be thrown into both of these movies.  Given how I was pretty disappointed with the first live action venture of the Elrics (you can read that Anniversary Review here: http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/fullmetal-alchemist-2017-special-fourth.html) I have some thoughts on this announcement overall.  So, for today’s Top 5 Wednesday I’m looking at my Top 5 Thoughts on the Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Sequels Announcement.  I’m not writing everything off just yet as some of what has been shown looks very promising.  But I will be bringing up my issues with the previous film where I see it…and if you go read the review before hand, you’ll know what my #1 choice will be.  Either way, let’s break it all down.

 
#5-“The Final Battle”…Already?

When Rurouni Kenshin got the Live Action treatment, it was given five films to adapt a 28 Volume Manga.  It had it’s ups and downs but for the most part its still the gold standard of Live Action Anime Filmmaking.  The Fullmetal Alchemist Manga is one volume short of RuroKen (27 Volumes)…and theyre only giving the adaptation three movies?  There’s a helluva lot of ground to cover in what’s left of the FMA storyline.  You could argue this was done for the RuroKen Kyoto Arc but the difference here is that was only the middle of the Kenshin story…and yeah I know for a time it was meant to be The End but that wasn’t the case now was it?  I get the feeling that trying to cram almost 20 volumes of material into two movies is gonna result in a very rush job and yield unsatisfactory results…and given how badly the live action story launched in 2017, it cant afford to rush and do damage control at the same time.  Maybe a 4^th Film would put me more at ease.

 
#4-The Brotherhood Route

Given how the first halves of both the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood are nearly identical, I couldn’t tell which storyline the Live Action series would end up choosing.  I guess it makes sense it would be Brotherhood because it is the original Manga storyline.  I’m not gonna complain about that.  We get to see the Prince of Xing, Lin Yao, and his bodyguard Lan Fan in action, and we get a glimpse of the cold north of Fortress Briggs, along with the beautiful Olivier Mira Armstrong as it’s Commander.  Honestly, given the popularity of these characters and that of some of the other Manga exclusive characters, it definitely would’ve been a misstep leaving them out.  I just hope they get the proper screentime and attention they deserve from this two part finale.

 
#3-Fullmetal Alchemist: The Beginning-The Ishbal War

Now this is where the two part finale approach kind of hampers things.  Personally, I think the War in Ishbal could be it’s own prequel film, grim as it would be.  This is the conflict that shaped the lives and futures of many of the Fullmetal Alchemist cast including Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes, Alexander Armstrong, Solf Kimblee and one other guy we’ll get to in a second.  It’s arguably the harshest storyline of the entire series, holding back little when it comes to the horrors of war and the atrocities Mustang and his fellow Alchemists let loose when they were brought in.  This shouldn’t be just a five minute flashback sequence.  This is important stuff and it deserves justice in its live action portrayal.  I hate to keep coming back to this but even Kenshin got an entire Movie Prequel and it was the best film of his series. Without the War in Ishbal, FMA doesn’t have the emotional resonance that makes it so endearing as a whole when Roy and his comrades face their past to save their futures.

 
#2-Scar

A couple weeks back, this movie announcement was teased with a poster of the Anti Hero Scar (but we had no idea if this was gonna be a new Manga, much less a new pair of movies).  Scar is one of the most popular characters in the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise: a total bad ass complete with his own tragic and enduring backstory that shows he’s more than just the fearsome scar on his forehead.  Scar is probably the one part of this announcement I’m most excited about…and it’s because of another RuroKen connection wow I’m being terrible.  Mackenyu Arata will play Scar in the FMA sequels.  This dude, wow what can I say about him.  He’s coming off a wildly popular turn as Yukishiro Enishi in Rurouni Kenshin: The Final and based on his performance in that movie alone, Mackenyu has more than what it takes to handle the emotional and physical requirements to handle such a tortured soul as Scar.  This guy could become the next Tatsuya Fujiwara of Live Action Anime.  If these movies do suck, let Mackenyu as Scar be a shinning spot of goodness.
 

#1-FIX ED AND AL FOR FRAKS SAKE!!!

Honestly, I have no clue if theyre just gonna stay the course with these two but if you’ve read my FMA Live Action 2017 Review, you’ll know that Ed and Al are the worst parts of that adaptation.  Yes, the Elrics have gone through a horrible and tragic experience that has scarred them for life.  However, in the Anime and Manga, they mask a lot of that through snark and fun banter and never lose hope that they’ll complete their quests and get their bodies back.  The first Live Action Movie had Ed and Al depressed as heck the entire time, basically a shell of their more energetic and loveable Anime selves.  Ed got the worst because even when someone called him “short”, he hardly ever flipped out like he would in the Anime or Manga.  Much of the Fullmetal Alchemist experience is built upon how much you come to care about these two siblings and you want them to get the biggest win in all of Anime in the end.  Their Live Action counterparts…are just so dull, dark and depressing it hurts.  This needs to get fixed for the sequels to work.  Will they? Wont they?  Well if Netflix ends up getting them like they did with the first movie I guess I’ll find out later this year.