Maybe there ought to be some name for the suspension-of-disbelief threshold. A specific term for the line a fantasy series can potentially cross and break its own tone over. In the case of FMA, I can easily accept haunted suits of armor and rampant alchemical transmutations, but there’s something about the notion of a cute girl having a rocket launcher in her kneecap that’s too much for me.
I don’t even have an issue with any of the other variations on auto-mail and all their cybernetic implementations in this show - - just that particular gimmick. It’s enough like something you’d see in an old SNES video game that I feel like Ed & Al are going to start collecting coins that are popping out of their dead enemies or something.
I felt that way when this girl was introduced in BROTHERHOOD, by the way. I will say that she gets a fuller, more sensible introduction in this version, as a number of other secondary and tertiary characters have, and I’m seeing how that all fits a pattern. As I’ve said, a lot of times BROTHERHOOD would sort-of trade on capital that had been earned off-screen; presenting characters or concepts with some expectations that had been built up in the actual show. That even applied to Ed’s relationship with Winry, which really seemed to be taken for granted without a lot of the hoop-jumping of courtship you’d expect from a proper romantic sub-plot.
So, on the plus side, all the shenanigans with auto-mail and Ed having to swallow his pride and “job” in arm-wrestling to a girl Winry feels sorry actually does feel more befitting of a cutesy developing relationship. I’m sure the two never actually - - * AHEM * - - consummate that relationship in this version, either, but if we’re going to having a running comparison chart, then these are things which FMA is doing better than FMA:B.
Watch this episode, "Her Reason" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
