Forum - View topicNEWS: Fullmetal Alchemist's Original Ed, Al to Reprise Roles
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Sariachan
 Posts: 1496 Location: Italy |
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I wasn't against new seiyuu for the two main roles, but this is an awesome news not the less, if for nothing else, because Romi Paku is one of my favourite JP voice actresses at least!
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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My biggest fear is that Series 2 Al is going to be Series 1 Al saying the manga's Al's lines. I mean I can totally imagine the big scene where Al stands up to Lust to protect Riza as being called cute and Tsundere instead of badass which is what Arakawa was going for. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I'm not sure I see the difference between Alphonse in the manga and Alphonse in the anime. Same background, same attitude. Perhaps a tad more active in the manga, but he wasn't a slouch in the anime.
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SnaphappyFMA
Posts: 216 Location: California |
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Great news - Rie Kugimiya made me cry as Al.
Now - get Toru Okawa back as (see avatar), and life is sweet!
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Charred Knight
Posts: 3085 |
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Al was much more mature and more badass in the manga. First series Al is a 10 year old's soul trapped in a suit of armor Manga Al is a 14 year old's soul trapped in a suit of armor. |
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RhymesWithEmpty
 Posts: 208 |
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I'm glad to see roles are being reprised, and I hope the same will happen for the dub - I've got to concur with what's been said about not minding hearing a bit older sounding Alphonse from Aaron Dismuke.
Alphonse is slightly more independent in the manga, and perhaps doesn't say "Brother!" quite as much, I think, but other than that, the original anime captured Al just fine, imo, especially with what little of the manga they were working off of. Sure, he spoiler[learns how to perform alchemy without the use of a circle, like Ed, but all that really amounts to is Ed jokingly freaking out about his diminishing significance and wondering why he's even the title character anymore, if my memory serves me, heh.] Other than making him slightly more independent, it really has more affect on the storyline than it does his character. Honestly, I didn't think of Al as "Tsundere" in the first series. Sure, the fact that he was 10 years old kind of made him automatically cute, but when you looked at his personality on its own, what you got was a very mature character. Scared or confused at times, granted, but still mature far beyond his years. And which character wasn't scared or confused somewhere over the course of the show anyways?  He has plenty of badass moments, too. It's all of that mixed in with him still being a child at heart that made him a great character, I think.
Actually, the one Al line I'm really looking forward to in this new series is when spoiler[Al is hiding May Chang inside his armor after having been escorted out of Father's secret lair, unbeknownst to Ed, who promptly jumps out of the shower, naked - "Just put some pants on, big brother, because inside my armor...... there's a little girl."  ] Also looking forward to a lot of his more badass moments, of course, but that part shall always be one of my favorites.
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penguintruth
Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I disagree with this assessment. Alphonse was mostly the same in the anime, and had several moments of badassery, such his taking on Wrath on his own to his helping Scar take on Kimbley. Also, despite spoiler[Alphonse returning to the same age he was when the human transmutation went down at the end of the first series,] I think that during the anime he grew up, because they kept acknowleding his passing age in subtitles provided in both Japanese and English. spoiler[What happened at the end was just a fluke of using the Philosopher's Stone. ] If anything, he's more relevant in the anime. In the manga, for a long time he was just completely pushed to the side. It annoys me, because Ed and Al are rarely together in the manga and when they were they barely acknowledged each other. The anime was better at enforcing the theme of brotherhood. |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Wait a second. I just looked over the announced staff again and I noticed that something is missing. Michiru Oshima will not be returning to provide the musical score.
Being a fan of the dub, I could care less about the Japanese actors reprising their respective roles, but to remove Michiru Oshima from the picture is an absolute travesty. |
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Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2916 |
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Took the words right outta my mouth, hon. *fingers crossed* If all the VAs from the previous FMA end up reprising their roles as their respective characters, that'd just about make my year (well, that, and FUNi announcing their acquisition of the 2nd anime, naturally). 
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Charred Knight
Posts: 3085 |
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Ed and Al being seperate allows both to grow as characters. Most of their character development happens when their seperated. For example the two most badass scenes Al is in happen because Ed isn't their to help him, and Al is the only person who can do it. I should point out that while the anime emphasises the relationship between brothers more they also do it to the detriment of the series, the scene where Ed and Al show their growth by stating that while they wanted to see each other smiled, they know want to see everyone smile showing their growth and seeing that their part of a much bigger world than just the two of them. Also from what I have heard the ending pisses off most people just because it seems to ignore the Elric brother's relationship with everyone else. Also the seperation only happens a lot recently since Arakawa has a crap load of things going on and she needs the Elric's seperated so they can accomplish things faster. She needs Ed accomplishing something in one scene, and Al accomplishing something else in another scene. Why it is nice to emphasis Brothers you can't do it so much that it takes over the series. I don't need to be constantly shown that the Elric brothers are brothers because its shown already, as long as Ed, and Al care for each other I don't need them to be constantly with each other talking about how great it is to be together, their brothers not gay lovers. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Except that, especially for the past few years, Arakawa has just been using characters as mere vehicles for the plot, rather than characters in themselves, even adding new ones that, while somewhat interesting, don't do much except give the author an excuse to have another faction in a different area discovering something else that might later add up to something. It's gotten better in the past few chapters, but I feel like Ed and Al have both become less relevant in the manga, despite being the supposed main characters. Mizushima never, ever lost sight of who the main characters were.
As for likening their relationship in the anime to that of "gay lovers", I would argue that the most important person to each of these characters is the other, and I always felt the reinforcement of their brotherly bonds wasn't "gay", but rather very geniune and poignant. |
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RhymesWithEmpty
Posts: 208 |
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I've got to agree with penguintruth for the most part. I don't think Arakawa has been adding and using characters solely for plot progression, I think she's excellent at combining plot progression with characterization. And she is especially great at breaking up the "screen time" pretty evenly between her characters, considering how many different plot points she'll have going on at any one point in time. This is also, however, to the detriment of the main characters. Sometimes taking the focus off of the main characters and giving other characters the spotlight can be a great thing, but FMA already has a lot of strong side/supporting characters, so right now Arakawa needs to be careful that she doesn't let the title character get outshone. Focusing on Ed and Al, and on their relationship with each other, is definitely something that the anime handled better, imo. And it's not that they just ran around saying "We're brothers! We love eachother!" It was, as penguintruth said, very genuine and poignant.
Also, I think the movie addressed the issue of their being strong characters on their own. And it also shows that the brothers do have a much more mature, worldly view of things - it's definitely not just all about them and their relationship. Ed basically says so towards the end of the movie - I forget the exact line, but he pretty much concedes that they have kind of been selfish up until then, and need to start thinking about the ramifications their actions have on the rest of the world. spoiler[And then they sacrifice their lives with all of their loved ones(well, except for each other, although Ed does think he's losing Al again at first) to help fix the catastrophe they had a hand in creating.] I'd call that a tremendous amount of growth. |
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Charred Knight
Posts: 3085 |
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It shows to me that the Elric brothers are not mystical chosen ones but are instead simply genius alchemist who are wanted by the bad guys for something they did. With the anime the plot only moved when the Elric brothers showed up, and from what little we saw of Mustang when Ed and Al where not around he doesn't actually seem to do anything. Its only at the end does Mustang actually do anything of importance. It shows that its a fleshed out world, instead of a world that only comes to life when the Elric brothers show up. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I agree with you somewhat, but also disagree in the sense that the anime version is a little more dynamic than you give it credit for. As I mentioned, I believe that a lot of the material in the beginning of the manga was a lot better when it was depicted in the anime, because, among other things, it was more lively and showed there was more going on, not just emotionally, but in actions. Now, you can make an argument that later on in the anime, things tend to happen because the Elric brothers are involved, but its somewhat justified by the different plan the homonucli have in the anime and the incident in Lior which ends up changing Alphonse. I think Roy does plenty in the anime. Most of the times where he's doing nothing corresponds with the early parts of the manga where he isn't doing much in, either. In fact, they actually add in action sequences like his mock fight with Ed in that portion to make him more palatable, though his battle with Lust in the manga was a bit more exciting. I would say that, yes, the manga's world is more fleshed out, but I felt the first anime was stronger thematically. That's why largely I like them about the same and see no reason for yet another anime. Not that I won't be watching it. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6876 Location: Kazune City |
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I've heard some convention stories of Aaron Dismuke being asked to do Al's voice, and responding, "Sorry, can't do it anymore." If you want to hear a more recent Dismuke performance, check him out as Yasuchika Morinozuka in ep 18 of Ouran HS Host Club. But maybe the magic of the metal bowl and the differences in a remake will make it possible again.
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