Beyond the Gate English Version

Tree of Life, Truth, The Gate...

2009-06-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

The well-known Tree of Life... I think there's no one that haven't seen it at least once. It had been referenced in a lot of fiction works.
Surely, a lot of people had seen it on Neon Genesis Evangelion OP, and I suppose that it has been referenced on Bleach (although I am not sure since I hadn't watched that anime series ._.U)

But now there's something different. The aforementioned Tree appears on the FMA manga and new anime, more precisely in the Gate.

On the next picture we can see the manga, anime and intro versions of the Tree of Life. It seems to me that the one used in the intro is the same one which Arakawa-san drew on the Gate in the manga version. By the way, that HUGE gate in the middle of a big, blank space, floating as if it were the most natural thing in the world... You mustn't be Edward Elric to feel small in the middle of that immensity.

(Ed: Who is a little atom in the middle of nothing???!!!)

Once an alchemist performs the VERY FORBIDDEN Human Transmutation (I love to write it with capital letters :P), he/she is brought in front of the mysterious Gate, where she/he is greeted by it's friendly (just joking ¬¬) host... Known as the World, the Universe, God, the True Knowledge, the All (something about that I will talk later -_-U) the Truth... YOU or ME!!!

Most known as Truth-kun (they say he's male XD).

This human parts thief is the one who opens the Gate and shows to the alchemist the GREAT knowledge required to perform an successful Human Transmutation... Just up to certain degree.
Do you remember what I had said on the post about the intro of the new series, about the things needed for a Human Transmutation? Truth-kun gives to the alchemists a lot of information, but when they're about to realize what do they lack for an successful Human Transmutation... The Gate is closed.

That's all.

Ok, ok... And why the f**k Truth-kun closes the Gate precisely at that point?

Because if an alchemist gets enough knowledge to perform the succesful Human Transmutation, then this alchemist will be a God!!! Ed wasn't wrong when he was on Leto's Church talking to Rose and told her that alchemist were the ones that are closer to God... Specially those who had seen the Gate.

Oh, yesss... And in this point is where we can talk about the Tree of Life.
To understand it, we must know what it is. To begin, we must know that it is a symbol from the Kabbalah and one of the most important ones for the Judaism. It is a depiction of the path which leads to the comprension of God and - notice it - the way He created the World.

Isn't obvious? Yes, it is!!! Moreover, consider that the Tree of Life is like a "map" about Creation... Or in other words, a kind of "How to perform a successful Human Transmutation".

The worst thing is that comprehending it perfectly (Kabbalah means perfection) it's needed a lot of research, study and an adequate instruction. Like Alchemy, isn't it?

That Tree is composed by 10 spheres called Sephiroth, a hebrew word meaning "path". According to the Kabbalah, those are the ten emanations which God used to create the World.
From top to bottom, the names of the spheres are:
1.- Kether, illumination
2.- Chokmah, wisdom
3.- Binah, comprehension
4.- Chesed, compassion
5.- Geburah, rectitude
6.- Tipheret, beauty
7.- Netzach, strength
8.- Hod, splendour
9.- Yesod, reasoning
10.- Malkuth, power
Plus an independent sphere called Daat, the sephiroth of Knowledge. The realization of this sephiroth in the Four Worlds lead the performer before the Father (no, not THAT Father XD, although it can be if we make an analogy...)

Between each sephiroth there are some links, called Paths, and they are named with the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet:
1.- Aleph
2.- Beth
3.- Gimel
4.- Daleth
5.- Heh
6.- Vav
7.- Zayin
8.- Cheth
9.- Teth
10.- Yod
11.- Kaph
12.- Lamed
13.- Mem
14.- Nun
15.- Samekh
16.- Ayin
17.- Peh
18.- Tzaddi
19.- Qoph
20.- Resh
21.- Shin
22.- Tau

If we look closely, in some sephiroth there are some symbols associated with planets and the Moon. Just as a fact, remember that in Alchemy those symbols were used to symbolize some metals (for example Sun is gold, Moon is Silver, Venus is copper, etc.). Taking it into account, it can't be strange that the Tree had been studied by the alchemist on ancient times, since they were looking not only the physical perfection but also spiritual.

Now it makes a lot of sense that Arakawa-san had designed the Gate in that way, doesn't it?

And also there exists the dark side of this Tree, called Qlifot, Tree of Death or Infernal Tree. With all it's sephiroth and paths just like the Tree of Life but representing it's negative form. Everything has a bad side.

That's all for now, the truth is that talking about the Tree of Life in a more detailed way could take sooooo long and for now I think that's all about it's relevance with FMA.

In a next post: "All in one, one in All"... The ALL, another well known concept to Hermetism, which also had influenced Alchemy. See ya...

Cosplay: brooch tutorial.

2009-06-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

Asked by Miyuki-chan about how I made the brooch that Ed uses on his black jacket, I decided to make a tutorial about it ^^.

First of all, as in any cosplay we must look for some illustrations and captures from the anime or manga drawings. We can see that the brooch is a metallic rectangular piece, with two tiny round pieces; those pieces aren't flat.

Well, it's easy, but a little bit tricky. We will need:
- aluminum plate (it's slim and can be bought at stationery shops. If you can't find it you can use copper plate, as long as it were slim)
- two round headed metallic thumbtacks (golden or silvery, not the ones with coloured heads because they usually are flat-headed and not rounded)
- foamy. Any color as long as it were thick (better if it is grey or white)
- a good transparent glue, the kind that's used to stick fabric or metal. The ones for handcraft are ok.
- a gun of hot silicon (ask Lt. Hawkeye for it :D)
- Silvery paint or silver spray paint.

First, cut a 2,5 x 6,5 cm foamy piece.

Draw carefully a piece with the same shape on the aluminum plate (be careful when handling it, you can suffer cuts). Better if it's one or two millimetres bigger ^^.

We have two similar pieces. With the glue, stick them together. When it's dry, you must even the sides of the rectangle, the plate and the foamy must have the same size.

Nail down the thumbtacks as in Ed's reference pictures. Before nailing them fully, put a drop of glue under the head (of the thumbtack, not one's XD) to keep them on it's place.

Those spikes must be cut off with tweezers. Be careful, because when they're cut off they can jump to your eyes >_<

Take two pressbuttons and glue one side to the place where on the front we can see the heads of the thumbtacks. Better glue them with the hot silicon glue; be sure that the glue is very hot, it makes the foamy to melt a little and sticks safer the pressbutton. The other side is sewn on the jacket, a little bit under the collar (look carefully to the references. Better test it before sewing it firmly)

When the brooch is firmly sticked, paint it silvery.

Hope that it helps!

Cosplay............

2009-05-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

Some photos of my Edward Elric cosplay, made for the contest on past January 4th. Because it was summer, you'll imagine how I suffered due to the heat with that thing on. Even so, it was real fun to make and wear it and I got the second place of the contest; I loved it so much that I wore it two more times, just for fun.

Here is a preview I made for a forum in which I asked about some opinions previous to the cosplay contest. I asked someone to make it for me (-.-U around 16 dollars on it for the making and materials) but the flamel was made and sewn by me ^^. The black jacket was modified by me, and I made the automail from slim aluminum plates, foamy, thumbtacks, the sleeve of an old shirt and a black glove XD. Obviously, I also wore my alchemist watch.

This one is the first in which I wore the cosplay for fun XD. That day I didn't wore the automail since in the past contest it got some damage (a piece from a finger got unsticked T_T). Personally it is one of my favorite photos ^^.

Something noticeable were the fangirls, who asked me a lot of photographs and asked me to pose in many of Ed's attitudes. Kumo-kun told me that the expressions on their faces made them to look as rabid fangirls (and one of them even glomped me in a very effusive way, even when she was cosplaying too O_O)

This is from the same day, and I must say... T_T That I have the same height than Ed, that's why the cosplay looks so nice ._.U

And those one are also for fun. This time, with my dear friend Kumo-kun, cosplaying Alphonse Heiderich. I know that in the movie Heid NEVER sees Ed with that outfit, but I still haven't the Shambala version of Ed's clothing and it was just for fun so... Anyways it was great!

... And some fanservice it's always welcome ;)

This one is my masterpiece, the automail... Due to unknown circumstances the aluminum plates vanished from the city shops, so I had to left it up to this. Even so it was really a lot of fun wearing it, even though the smell of the spray paint was noticeable sometimes due to the heat ._.U, and I almost got my arm turned a true automail XD.

As soon as possible I'll write about the Tree of Life that appears in the Gate. See ya!

Hermaphrodite, Tree of Life, Philosopher's Stone...

2009-05-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

After a long time without posting anything really good in the blog, I'll talk about something from the new anime (even when still there's some stuff from the first series =_=)

On the intro that appears from the second episode, we can see some pictures that have an interesting meaning from an alchemic and esoterical point of view.

For example, the first thing we see is the well-known Tree of Life, about which maybe I'll write something later, in a separate post (since it appears also in The Gate). Then, the sequence shows a tumbled "8", symbol of infinite, that explodes in a lot of chemical abvreviatures (chemical symbols) which re-unite in some DNA chains that -again- form an infinite symbol. This picture is followed by two human bodies, feminine and masculine over a transmutation circle, which seem to create a Philosopher's Stone.

It's crystal clear!!!

The Philosopher's Stone is the union of the "feminine" and "masculine" quicksilver, which originate the Hermaphrodite, another of the names of the Philosopher's Stone ¿got it?

***Spoiler!!!***
And the transmutation circle is the same that Father had created under Amestris, mwahahahahaha....
***Spoiler end***

Jeje, piece of cake... Though in this case the concepts of feminine and masculine aren't literal, but a way to say "different but complementary", because the Stone, in spite of being something really different, has in it the essence of the elements from it was made.

More info about the Stone, in previous posts...

The infinite and the DNA chains... It just refers about the Human Transmutation. ¿Why? Obvious! The knowledge required to create a human being from zero (or in this case, from Alchemy), is virtually infinite. Link it to the chemical elements that compose the human body, which also compose the DNA chains that compose the human body information and... ¡ta-da!, we have a perfect human transmutation!!!

Ed: "But even when I understand it... ¿Why I can't do it?"

Just because we lack of the enough knowledge to do it! And in the same way as the matter of the Philosopher's Stone, in order to create a human being (reviving it in this case) we need two things: the Knowledge and the Materials. Without Knowledge, the Materials are useless, and without the Material the Knowledge is also useless,
¿Do you get the reason why they're complementary?

And at the same time it explains why after that picture of the DNA (human being, human transmutation, human body...) we see and allegory of the Philosopher's Stone. Telling more about why those concepts are chained on the story would be a GREAT SPOILER... But i'm going to tell it anyways...

***Spoiler!!!***
In the manga version, Hohenheim is the Philosopher's Stone ;) It's not as Hoho-papa were a simple human, but is close to being one... That's the link that at least I see :P
***Spoiler End***

There is it. Whoever who wants to know the spoilers, go and find them XD.

That's all for now. Later (if my professional practice allows me) I'll talk something more about the Tree of Life XD.

Fun with Edward...

2008-12-01T09:22:00.000-08:00

Just for fun, I was making my own persocom ears and I made ones for Ed...

Fullmetal... Star?

2008-11-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

This time I took some imgs from other series which had allusions to FMA. First, the references made on Lucky Star, on episode 12

And the most known, on episode 19.

This one is from Ouran Koukou Host Club, episode 16. This time the reference is less evident, but if we took a close view, it's like Ed's funny head.

Hayate no Gotoku!, episode 3. Nagi Sanzennin beats her friend and takes many forms, one of them is armor Alphonse. By the way, Nagi's seiyuu is Kugimiya Rie, the same who gave Aru's voice in the anime series.

And finally, as an anecdote, Arakawa Hiromu named Ed after the main character of the movie "Edward Scissorhands".

Shamballa, Shambala, Shambhala or how it would be spelled [シャンバラ]

2008-10-15T12:54:00.001-07:00

I can't let this aside, since the movie is called "Conqueror of Shamballa"... Besides, the concept of a "Lost Heaven" is rather interesting.

According to Wikipedia.es...

"Shamballa is a fantastic city, sacred to the Tibetan Buddhists. Shangri-La is a mythical city also situated in the Himalayas, based on Shamballa, and created by James Hilton. Both refers to dreamlike places, natural paradises and peaceful lands. The second one was very popular in the second half of the XX century. Both seem to be interchangeable concepts in the movie, although they're different concepts. In the Nazi mysticism, some mytical places as Shamballa were proposed as the origin of the Aryan race."

So, let's see how it is related with the Shamballa on the movie. For those who don't remember some details, a little description.
It is supposed that Dietlinde Eckart wants to open the Gate to a place she believes has powerful weapons. She wants these weapons to support the Nazi party in their revolution. And Hohenheim and Edward say that their world "is not Shamballa" (and they were right although Dietlinde ignored them...)

According to the Tibetan buddhist traditions, Shambhala is a mythical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the Himalayas, although it's not clear whether it is a physical place or an ethereal place which only can be reach with the mind. Up to here it's possible to believe that the alchemy world (since it has not a better definition) can be that Shamballa; and a legend says "When the World shall enter in a period of war and hatred, and everything shall be lost, the King of Shamballa shall leave his secret city with a great army to obliterate any hatred and start a new Golden Age"
¿Did you remember that Dietlinde wanted to get "powerful weapons" from that world? Here's the answer why she got such an idea. As I said when I wrote about Thule Society, they were searching for mythical places hoping to find one of them in order to use their powers to help the Nazi party. Let's say they didn't get what they wanted...

About Shangri-La, it is a concept that appears in a novel called "Lost Horizon" written on 1933 by James Hilton. It refers to a place in the Himalayas in which the time stops, full of beautiful landscapes, peaceful and fresh based on the mythical Shamballa. I think it doesn't seems similar to the alchemy world...

In the end, about Shambala, it's all. And sincerely, I still can't figure the right writing of the word, but after all those versions (シャンバラ ¿Syanbara?) I guess that's a minimal detail :P. A word had never given me so many doubts as this one, although I have an excellent ortography (I don't say it, my teachers have said it :x)

Merchandising: Fullmetal Alchemist Play Arts Series Edward Elric

2008-10-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most wanted figures, because they're well done, detailed, cheap and had a lot of articulation points. I'm going to write about Ed, because it is the only one I have xD.

The figure is 15cm tall aprox, and the box says that it has over 16 points of articulation. I agree with a comment that I read once about this figures, in the fact that it has more than that. The version I have is japanese, although the most known is the US license. It's curious, but here in Chile the japanese one is cheaper than the US one, when it's more common that the japanese ones are more expensive than other licenses. To recognize the edition, just look at the series title which is printed in the box, according to the license it will be "Hagane no Renkinjyutsushi" (in japanese characters) or "Fullmetal Alchemist". The license belongs to Kotobukiya.

It is made from PVC and some harder plastic pieces. At least in the version I have,
this harder pieces are more prone to break, due to it's lack of flexibility (due to someone I will not mention, xD, I broke one of the arm joints of the coat T_T, but it could be easy to repair with some tricks). They have an excellent detail and everything is well painted, although in the US version the belt is dark brown as in the anime, and in this version is painted in a lighter color (which looks even lighter due to the camera flash light). But the face expression seems to be nicer on the japanese one.

As accessories, Ed has: two pairs of arms (for the red coat and the black jacket), an automail, two gloved hands, three automail hands, the automail blade and the Longinus spear he uses to fight. As I read in the comments I mentioned before, IT'S odd to see the automail with the black jacket since it can't be removed, but I think that if it had been removable as the red coat, maybe there would have been an extra skin colored arm and hands and that will have made the figure more expensive.

I wish that I could buy Al soon, and maybe Winry, but at least I have one of the things that I put in my wishlist *-*

Thule Society [ツレ会]

2008-10-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

The "Conqueror of Shamballa" movie makes references to the Thule Society, which was an actual organization in Germany before the World War II.

As in the movie, at first it was an organization dedicated to occultism study (as we can see it in the last episode of the series), which supported the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (later, the Nazi party)
One of the main study themes of this society was the Aryan race origin, which was the basement for all those superiority ideas about this race. The name of the society cames from the legendary Thule Island (a.k.a. Hyperborea), an island described as the origin of the Aryan race, a Northern equivalent to the Atlantis race from the legendary Atlantis.
The Aryans who lived on Thule were described as giants with supernatural abilities who were connected with the Cosmos through their magical powers. They had better physical, psychic and intelectual capacity than common human beings and a far more advanced technology.

Perhaps due to misinterpretations, or due to the combination of different sources of information, the Aryans from Thule were considered as direct ancestors of the German Aryan race, which originated the wrong ideas about the German superiority.
Note: Some Rosicrucian texts refers to the Aryan race, but in this case they describe an evolution stage of the humankind rather than a particular race. According to this, the nowadays humankind is the Aryan race, divided in seven sub-races which will raise the next one whose evolutive stage will be spiritually higher in the "Aquarius Age"

Unfortunately, due to this misinterpretations the Thule Society became an institution which started to promote racism and the false inferiority of human groups as Jews. Hitler himself was not an active member of this society; moreover, he disapproved esoterical themes, although part of the Thule Society continued the esoterical studies during his government.

Later, the Nazi party breaks apart from the Thule Society, which is later closed. And when one of it's ex-members declared that the Thule Society helped Hitler to became Führer, he was arrested and his books forbidden under a law that prohibited all esoterical organizations in Germany; However, some Thule members and the racist ideas of the society were included (at leas partially) in the Third Reich.

In Conqueror of Shamballa, the leader of the society, Dietlinde Eckart wants to use the power that's supposed to be in Shambala to help Hitler reach the authority over Germany on the Münich Putsch. It failed, so Hitler and his followers were arrested as in the movie.

Check!:
Dietlinde Eckart is supposed to be the counterpart of Dietrich Eckart, although he wasn't the leader of the Thule Society, although he had ties with it and the Nazi party. Sincerely... Dietlinde is much more beautiful :P
Karl Haushofer was one of the founders of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei and he actually was in Japan studying it's Geopolitics. He was a geographer and a soldier, and when he returned to Germany on 1919 became director of the Geopolitical Studies of the Münich University. He influenced a lot on the German Military, in the Nazi projects to conquer the world and even in Hitler himself.

Rudolf Hess was a member of the Thule Society who joined to the Nazi party, was part of the Münich Putsch and after this he was imprisoned with Haushofer and Hitler. He helped Hitler to redact his book "Mein Kampf" and was his personal secretary.

(Thanks to DanJiga from the FMA spanish yaoi forum for allowing me to use the info and pictures about the historical characters from CoS ^^)

Merchandising, 2nd part: Pocket watch, Flamel and Amestris emblem necklaces.

2008-10-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the merchandising comments, I can't forget the favorite of all merchandising products, the one which any FMA fan wants to have, the State Alchemist pocket watch.
The one I have is certainly special. It is the most known version of all, and although it is bootleg it's very nice, and the most similar to the manga and anime design according to what I had seen on Internet. The date it has written is the one on the manga (Don't forget 3 Oct 11); it isn't made of silver (otherwise it would cost an arm and a leg :lol: ) and the only mistake it has is the fact that the date isn't carved, it's engraved in a raised way, and it's written in another direction. The fastener is different to the one Ed has, but it is easy to change.

It is packed in a metallic round box and as a curious thing the kind of battery it uses is one a little bit unusual on watches, but it can be found (although when I needed to change it I asked at least on three clockmaking shops until I found one that had it XD)

Now, the necklaces. There are at least nine different models (those I had seen: Flamel, Amestris emblem, Al's transmutation circle combined with the flamel, one with Ed, Ouroboros, Scar's tatoo, another one with the Flamel but in another material, Roy's gloves transmutation circle, the transmutation circle that binds Al's soul to the armor. I have the first four ones. I haven't any clue about the material, maybe stainless steel (heh, fullmetal? xD) and the first one I mentioned can be seen in this Christmas illustration. Ed's Flamel necklace can be easily seen, but Roy's Amestris emblem it's a little bit difficult to see; and that's all I found about the necklaces, just add that the ones I have had been very cheap to the things I usually find about FMA :). ¿Bootleg? ¿Original? maybe the first option, but I'm not really sure. Anyways, they are a nice addition to the collection.

To finish, a bonus. Keychains/phone straps. In this case I just added a photo with Ed and Al when they were little because they're clearly inspired in the episode when the Elrics remember when they were trained by Izumi on the Yock island, but I also have older Ed, Riza and Roy from the same collection. They have the "©HA/SE •M•A•B•D" license, and I got them as keychains although I use chibi Ed and chibi Al in my mobile phone. Some colors are wrong, I think the bootleg version (usually sold as phone straps) has a prettier coloring although Riza has her eyes too red and Al has his eyes too dark. Anyways, the manufacture is excellent and they're cheap, although I had to buy the chibi Elrics separately, and in the bootleg edition they come together.

¿Conclusion? the watch gets 9,5/10 just for the details on the date (if it had been put in the right direction, and carved instead being engraved, maybe it could have being better than the one from the official license); the necklaces get 10/10 since they're nice and cheap, regardless they're bootleg; and the keychains 9/10 for the coloring.

Merchandising, 1st part: Gashapon HG series 1

2008-10-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Going apart from what I want to comment in this blog, today I'm going to write about some of my own FMA merchandising.

I'll start with the gashapon HG series 1, by Bandai. The complete collection is composed by 6 little figures, made from PVC. I think mine are a bootleg edition, but that doesn't mean that aren't good. They have a good detail, a good made and are very similar to the anime characters. The bad thing is that some details aren't painted and some joints look weak.
They are packaged indivudually in a little plastic bag with a label that shows all the figures of the collection.

The first one is, obviously, Edward. Is not exactly alike, but it reminds me to the scene of the first episode, when Ed reveals his automail. The difference is that in the anime he hasn't his red coat and he has a hole in his trousers, on the left leg. He cames with those "tentacles" which represents the energy rays of a transmutation.

The second one is Winry. Personally, my favorite figure, although she has her eyes painted green and not blue as in the anime T_T. The most close to the anime scene, in this case belonging to the first opening (Melissa). She cames with her bed (or part of it :P) the posture is exactly alike to the anime scene and the tools are part of the details of the bed, although I made a little spanner with aluminum sheet :) .

Roy Mustang is the third one. I think that it matches with the episode in which Dr. Marcoh tells about Ishval, since he wears his black coat. The thng I like more about it is the movement sensation that the finish gives, and the details on the clothing are clearly carved although the white lines were painted by me :P. In the photograph it can't be seen, but he has the transmutation circle drawn in his left glove.

Then we have Maes Hughes. Clearly inspired by the sad episode in which he fights Envy. As in Mustang's figure, I had to paint the white lines, but the details are as good as in the other figures; specially his knife, it's identical. It's not that the phone was loose, the figure has it in that way; and the glasses are a transparent PVC piece, and they look good although they seem to me more alike to the ones that Cyclops from X-Men wears :P.

Scar. Another one well detailed. The pose is the one he uses to attack from the ground, but I couldn't remember when he wore his shirt sleeveless (in the first episodes he appeared he wore a long-sleeved shirt :P); but it recalls me to the episode 15, when he fought with the military on East City.
It has some little leftovers of materials, but they are difficult to see. The white lines are not painted (WTF they have with the white details?), but the scar on his face IS painted. His red eyes are clearly drawn, although they may have been a little smaller (maybe like Mustang's, but he has even smaller eyes! @_@)
The tatoo is totally carved, and the painting is not clear. But the detail drawn in the arm compensates it.

The last one is Envy's figure. One of the best although I don't like Envy too much, and although I think the neck looks too long. But it has that typical expression in his face, and the Ouroboros is drawn in his left thigh. I think that the hair would have been greenish, but the shape is perfect; is the tallest of all the figures, that's why I had to put a support on his back, to keep it vertically positioned. Under his foot there is the head of Prisoner 48's armor; his painting could have been more greyish, but the helmet details are excellent; it is fixed to the basement.

A good purchase. I give it a 8/10, due to the color mistakes and the not painted details, but a good addition to your FMA collection.

Philosopher's Stone [賢者の石], 2nd part: FMA world.

2008-10-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

"It gives happiness on adversity,
victory on battle
and life to the dead...
Is what the stone red as blood is.
People calls this stone, with respect,
the Philosopher's Stone".

Alphonse Elric, ep 19, "The Truth behind truths"

Red Water [朱い水, akai mizu]
I'll begin with this substance, which is the first one related to the Philosopher's Stone which appears in the series.
Created by Nash Tringham, red water is a liquid from which red stones can be gotten. It is dangerous to living beings due to the fumes it vents; but when it is crystallized, it could be used to heal wounds and as an antidote to the damage caused by the liquid form.
Sincerely, I don't know any similar substance on our Alchemy. IMHO, it has some parallelism with the "Wet Way" to create the Philosopher's Stone, although this method is used to get White Stone, not Red Stone.

The fact that it is poisonous recalls me something I read once in an actual article about Alchemy. It said that some alchemists died due to the continuous contact with the fumes produced by the chemical reactions produced by their works to create the Philosopher's Stone.

Red Stone [朱石, akai ishi]
Created by Dr. Marcoh, it is an incomplete Philosopher's Stone. It is unstable, because it is never known when it will got worn or reach it's limit. It is made from human lives as the Philosopher's Stone, but in less quantity.
The first time it appears in the series is in episode 14, when Marcoh tells to the Elrics that it was used on the Ishbal Massacre.
When bottled, seems to be liquid, but when it tooks contact with the air it becames a semisolid gelatinous substance. It is better to treat injuries and illnesses than the crystallized red water.
This can be compared to an intermediate product of the process to create a true Philosopher's Stone. Even so it has some powers that according to the texts the true Philosopher's Stone has, like healing.

Philosopher's Stone [賢者の石, Kenjya no Ishi]
And finally the Philosopher's Stone. Created from a HUGE amount of human lives, it allows to the user to ignore the Equivalent Exchange law. Every time the stone is used, part of the human energy that forms it is consumed, so part of the stone dissappears.
Towards the end of the series, we know that Hohenheim and Dante have Philosopher's Stones, and Alphonse is turned one when Scar transmutes him in the stone to save him from dying due to the transmutation made by Kimbly to turn him a bomb.

In the last post related to the Philosopher's Stone, I said that some of the properties given to it was the possibility to became immortal with the stone. We can see this clearly with Hohenheim and Dante, although later it is said that the process of "soul transplantation" isn't a process which could be realized forever.

In the case of Al, the fact that himself had become a Philosopher's Stone seems to symbolize that there are so many interpretations of the true form of the stone that in the end it would be anything, depending on the alchemist that made the Great Work.
Note: Even so, the most frequent description of the Philosopher's Stone is the one that says that it is a red powder, as the one that Flamel had. By the way, a direct translations of the kanjis for it is "Stone of the Wiseman".

Check!:
Scar's arm has tatooed the transmutation circle to create the Philosopher's Stone (although the tatoo hasn't a circular form, it actually has a lot of curves in it's design). Later, when Ed wants to revive Al after his sacrifice for him, he uses the same circle besides other drawn in his body ¿Maybe Ed wanted to became a new Philosopher's Stone?

Philosopher's Stone [賢者の石], 1st part: description.

2008-10-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the Philosopher's Stone, the famous stone that is the origin of all this turmoil. But it isn't a simply stone, and that's why there isn't just one version about what really is it, so before analyzing it from the FMA universe, i'm going to write about the things wrote about it out there.

Commonly, it's said about the Philosopher's Stone as a substance with extraordinary properties, the most known the ability to turn ordinary metals on gold; but that's not all the truth: others say that it will be able to heal any injury or illness and even giving immortality to the user.
The most spiritual POVs suggest that the Philosopher's Stone is rather getting the absolute knowledge and/or the spiritual perfection of the human being.

There are two versions of the stone: the most known is the red one, which turns common metals on gold. And the white one, less known, able to transmute metals on silver.
Both are obtained from iron pyrite, using different methods. To get the red stone the "Dry Way" is used, and in order to get the white one the "Wet Way" is used.; although another documents say that it doesn't matter which way we use, we will get the white stone first and then, following the chosen process, the red stone.
The process through a Philosopher's Stone is created is called "Great Work" (Magnum Opus in latin)

The Philosopher's Stone owe it's power to the fact that it is even better than gold, which is the perfect metal for alchemists due to it's properties (it is called incorruptible, since it doesn't get corroded, doesn't oxidate or lose it's shine). Then the Philosopher's Stone acts transmutating a corruptible base (common metals) on gold. This is the reason why it's believed that is possible to became immortal with the stone; the mortal and corruptible body of the alchemist is transmuted to one which resists the natural corruption (ageing)
Note: Here is the point that links the Philosopher's Stone with the Fountain of Youth, since it's said that the Great Work is also a process through it would be discovered.

It was said that the alchemist Nicholas Flamel got a Philosopher's Stone, and thanks to it he became a rich man though he was a humble person. He was part of charity works, founded hospitals and chapels, never revealing his secret. Once Louis XIV sent an emissary to confirm the rumours about the stone. Since Flamel was an honest man, it is said that he told the truth to the emissary and gave to him a flask full of a red powder, which was kept on the family of this emissary for a long time.
After Flamel's death, his house and tomb were plundered by those ambitious people who wanted the Philosopher's Stone, but they didn't find anything.

This is all about the Philosopher's Stone on the history of Alchemy. In the next post I'll analyze it's role on FMA.

The Twelve Gates ~George Ripley~

2008-10-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

George Ripley (sh*t, this guy isn't on Encarta... ) was a very famous alchemist from s. XV. His most known work is "The Compound of Alchemy", also known as "The Twelve Gates", which is dedicated to king Edward IV of England.

¿What links him with FMA?
An excerpt from his "Recapitulation of the Twelve Gates" can be read in the State Alchemist certificate given to Ed in the episode 8.
The original version of Ripley says in one of it's verses:

"Pale and black with false citrine, imperfect white and red,
The Peacock's feathers in gay colours, the rainbow which shall go over,
The spotted panther, the lion green, the Crows bill blue as lead.
These shall appear before you perfect white, and many more others.
And after the perfect white, grey, false citrine also,
And after these, there shall appear the red body invariable,
Then you have a medicine of the third order of his own kind multipliable."

And here is a caption from the certificate:

Some words are different since both are interpretations made from the original text written in old English, but they say virtually the same.

This paragraph is also written in the transmutation circle made by the Elric brothers when they tried to perform the human transmutation.

The Golden Tripod

2008-10-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

In episode 6, during the State Alchemist exam, Ed is called to a personal interview. Bradley asks him to sit down in a golden tripod, telling him that it will not fall if he is really an alchemist.

This object is surely inspired in a writing belonging to a Benedictine monk called Basilius Valentinus, who was an alchemist. That writing is called "The Golden Tripod" and it can be considered as a guide to create a Philosopher's Stone. The concept of the tripod is referred to the three parts that compose the "Magna Opus", which are: the internal soul, the impalpable spirit, and visible bodies. This three principles are also the orogin of each human being, and the text says also that animals lack of "internal soul", which links, in the FMA story, to the Homunculi.
Check!: this also links with the fact why homunculi can't perform alchemy.

A fact that called my attention when I read the text from Valentinus is that he claims to be "absolutely true" in his explanation of the process, which can be linked with the challenge of Bradley to Ed in order to show that he is a true alchemist, not just an amateur.

In his "little work" as he calls it, Valentinus give twelve "Keys" which: "with which we may open the doors of the knowledge of the Most Ancient Stone and unseal the Most Secret Fountain of Health". If we replace "unseal" with "discover", maybe he is reffering to the legendary Fountain of Youth.

One of Valentinus drawings that illustrates the twelve keys, specifically in the seventh one, seems to be a transmutation circle which shows the processes to make in this stage (I'm not an expert alchemist yet, and it is difficult to me to fully understand the text, although I get the main ideas). Then in the ninth key he presents a triangle which seems to be drawn in the floor under the tripod in the scene of the anime episode.
In this transmutation circle I managed to identify a symbol corresponding to Aurum (sol, sun or gold). At the right one corresponding to Argentum (luna, or silver), and the third, just behind Ed, recalls vaguely to one used for Hydragyrum (mercury, quicksilver). If we compare it to the triangle drawn by Valentinus we will see that they're the same in the same order; not the same because alchemists had more than one symbol to each metal or substance.
The same circle can be seen on the "Military v/s Seven Deadly Sins" OVA. A simplified version in the ring given to the "viewer" and another more detailed when he (or she) uses alchemy.

Moreover, the first key has an illustration very similar to the engraving that we can see in the doors of the room Ed must enter to be interviewed. In the text illustration, a king and a queen represents the two first elements necessary to initiate the making of the Philosopher's Stone. This concept, transferred to the series, may show us that opening that doors is Ed's first step to achieve his goal.
Check!: The concept of the Twelve Gates was also used by the alchemist George Ripley.

Homunculus [ホムンクルス].

2008-10-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

INITIAL NOTES: For now, I'm just analyzing things about the anime version of Fullmetal Alchemist, not the mangaverse. Although they share the beginning and some common concepts, the story itself differs a lot in another aspects. One of those different aspects is the origin of homunculi, which is the main topic of this entry.

Homunculi are artificial beings, whose common characteristics are:
- They don't have a soul
- They were born after a failed human transmutations, or through alchemy experiments to make artificial life.

Last time I explained the meaning of the Ouroboros tatoo, but now I add that the tatoo is drawn in their bodies to give them a conscience.
The fact why they don't have a soul is just the proof that humans, even if they have a great deal of power, is still unable to create something as abstract as a soul. Besides, the fact that alchemists lose part of their bodies or even their life symbolizes that trying to be like God is a high risk, since it is a power impossible to manage in a responsible way for human beings.

When the human transmutation is just made, homunculi haven't human appearance. They are just a pile of human parts, an alive body without shape. When they eat red stones - which are made from human lives or red water - they acquire little by little the human appearance; we can say that consuming "natural" life they became a little bit human. Also, this change makes them to acquire their characteristical abilities - in replace of the alchemy that humans can perform. Maybe they can't perform alchemy because they haven't a soul or whether because they are artificial beings after all.
All of them have a name according to each Deadly Sin, given by Dante, as a symbol of the "sins of the alchemists that violate the ultimate taboo".

Homunculi by birth order:
Envy [エンヴィー]
Created by Hohenheim when he tried to revive his first son. Hohenheim abandoned Envy, so he hates him. His ability of shapeshifting is probably an allegory of the Deadly Sin he represents: envy is the desire of having what others have, in this case Envy "steals" the appearance of others.
Check!: Everyone knows it, even Wikipedia says it, but I MUST say it: the fandom calls him "palm tree"... Just check his hair XD

Greed [グリード]
Created by Dante when she tried to revive a man loved by her (maybe a lover, but it is never clarified at all). In this case, more than his abilities is his personality the most evident symbol of the sin he represents. The sin of greed is the desire of having a great deal of material possesions, specially if gotten by bad actions. Greed says clearly that he wishes eternal life to have power, being rich, having women and a good life.
His ability to harden his skin, the Ultimate Shield, seems to be unrelated to his sin, but I think that it symbolizes that his interests are more about material things instead of abstract or spiritual things.

Gluttony [グラトニー]
Some sources say that it was Dante who created him, others say that he was created by an unknown alchemist and then Dante picked him as the other homunculi (yes, it seems to me that she picks them as kittens XD). In my opinion, the one who symbolizes in a better way his Deadly Sin: the gluttony is the excessive consumption of food, drink or any substance. Gluttony is able to eat ANYTHING, he is always thinking in food and is very fat. I remembered the movie "The Seven Deadly Sins", in which one of the victims of the serial killer was an obese man. Maybe Arakawa-san took inspiration from it, although it is obvious that a glutton one will be fat.

Pride [プライド]
Created by Dante, is the most "human" of all, since he can grow older as a normal human and it is difficult to think he's not human judging by his appearance.
The pride is the desire of being more important than everyone, and giving himself or herself more importance than the person deserves. It is considered the worst of the Deadly Sins and the origin of the rest of them.
Dante considers him as her "masterpiece", which symbolizes the "severity" of the sin: he is an exact copy of a human being. And his ability, the Ultimate Eye, can be another allegory of the sin: a proud person wants to be always over everyone, controlling and ruling, as Pride does from his Führer status.

Lust [ラスト]
Created by Scar's older brother, when tried to revive his girlfriend.
The lust is another excess sin (as gluttony), this time the obsession about sexual matters. Lust is a very beautiful woman, attractive and obviously desirable. I think that she awakens the desire more than representing it by herself. Her ability (the Ultimate Spear) is not related with the Deadly Sin, at least I don't get the connection.

Wrath [ラース]
Created by Izumi when tried to revive the baby she lost due to a spontaneous abortion.
The wrath is defined by the hatred and uncontrolled anger, that can be externalized as impatience, negation of the truth and vengeance desires.
As in the case of Greed, we can see this traits more in the personality of Wrath than in his abilites (he can perform alchemy thanks to Edward's lost limbs). Wrath is just a child, but vengeful, is violent when he is scared or angry, and he negates Izumi as his mother since he hates her for abandoning him (when she saw what she created through the human transmutation she gave him to The Gate). Although we must say that this traits aren't evident on Conqueror of Shamballa.

Sloth [スロウス]
Created by Edward and Alphonse when they tried to revive their mother.
The slothfulness is considered the least severe of the Deadly Sins; it is defined as the lack of use of the own talents, the inaction due to indolence or just the neglect of the own duties. The fact that this is the least severe of the sins can symbolize that in a certain way this is more "forgivable" that two children had tried to revive their mother, unlike the other Deadly Sins (compare with the origin of Pride, and the severeness of the sin). Sloth has a calm nature, and her movements are relaxed; she rather stays watching and coordinating than involving directly in a fight. Her ability to turn her body into water, recalls the idea of water symbolizing tranquility and inactivity. Just imagine a calm, peaceful lake.

Flamel [フラメル]; Ouroboros [ウロボロス].

2008-10-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Flamel is the emblem worn by the Elric brothers, inherited from their teacher Izumi, who inherited it from her teacher Dante.
It isn't an exclusive symbol from the series. The actual alchemist and philosopher Nicholas Flamel, from whose surname cames the name of the symbol, used it in one of his books as an allegory of "everything has a beginning and an end".
In the original illustration, the snake is nailed to the cross, which is inserted on something that resembles a tomb.
The snake symbolizes life, and the fact that the animal is nailed to the cross symbolizes death. At the same time, the cross is inserted on the earth, completing the cycle of life: everything that has born from earth, will return to it.

This recalls the phrase that Izumi said to the Elric brothers to know if they will be able to be trained by her: "All is one, one is all". According to the right answer of the little Elrics, the "one" is the being, or individual, and the "all" is the world; at the same time, the world is formed by the union of the individuals in the infinite cycle of life and death.

The Ouroboros is the tatoo which identifies homunculi [ホムンクルス]. Although Flamel's illustration isn't as similar to the Ouroboros as the Flamel, the figure is clearly influenced, but it is more stylized.
In the original, a snake which is over a stick laying on the ground is biting it's tail. On the contrary to the previous symbol, this represents those things that have not a beginning nor an end, those things that evade in some way the natural cycle.

The snake which eats it's tail appears in another fiction works as a symbol of unexplainable or strange things. For example, in Millennium by Chris Carter (X-Files), it appears on the opening credits of each episode. We can see the symbol even in X-Files, tatooed on the back of agent Dana Scully.
As in the first symbol, the snake represents life. But the fact that it hasn't beginning or end (since it is always eating itself but never ends) makes it something abnormal, as homunculi. In the anime, homunculi are created when an alchemist tries to perform an human transmutation; in the manga, they're created by an entity called Father.
In both cases, the Ouroboros symbolizes their non human nature, marking them as the abnormal beings they are.

Check!:
On episode 2 of the anime series, in the roof of Cornello's room appears the Ouroboros, being this the first time we can see it with every detail. Then, from the floor, coinciding with the parts of the roof in which appeared the symbol, emerges a menacing red snake.

Episodes 1 & 2: Liore [リオル]

2008-10-13T10:15:00.001-07:00

The first thing we see on Liore are the statues of the Sun God Leto, which are placed in almost every corner of the city. This can symbolize in a physical way the omnipresence of the god, enhanced by the fact that Cornello uses a radio broadcast to preach, as another way to let the message to reach every place of the city.

Then, we get to know that Liore has flourished thanks to Cornello's miracles, who even has built a free wine fountain in the middle of the city (food and fun XD)

Cornello's attitude is typical of a sectarian leader, who want to subjugate a group of people with the sole purpose of making them to do anything what he wants without questioning it (in the second episode he says he wants to have an army that will be willing to die for him, in order to conquer Amestris). He says that he's "Leto's Avatar in Earth", and says that it was the god who had given him the power to do "miracles" with the false Philospoher´s Stone, which boosts his alchemic* abilities with the sole purpose of keeping Liore under his control, hiding himself behind a false kindness.
*Note: I doubt that Cornello had been a true alchemist, although he seemed to know about the Law of Equivalent Exchange, and the way he obstructed the actions of the Elric brothers seemed to have sense, at least taking into account that he was unaware of their true abilities. IMHO, Cornello was just an "amateur", as Edward correctly said and maybe he lacked of serious studies of Alchemy.

Leto the Sun God: I'm not sure if Arakawa got based on the myth of Leto to create this entity, but anyways there are some details that recall the original story. Leto, in Greek Mythology, was a daughter of titans and mother of Artemis (moon goddess) and Apollo (sun god).
*Taken from Encarta and translated into English*
She was one of the many lovers of Zeus, who fearful of Hera's vengeance, exiled Leto when she was pregnant and about to give birth. Aware of Hera's possible vengeance, all countries and islands refused to give shelter to the desesperate Leto, who just wanted a place in which her children can be born. After a long journey, she arrived to a little island that floated in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The island, called Delos, was an arid and rocky place but when Leto arrived and asked for shelter, she received hospitality. In that moment, four big pillars risen from the depths of the sea to support the island, which remained firmly anchored for ever.
~*~
If we extrapolate this legend to Liore's history, we can find an analogy to realize that at the time in which Cornello arrived, Liore was poor, but it changed with the help of the "Avatar of Leto the Sun God", as he calls himself; the situation of the city changes radically, giving Liore the "pillars" to become one of the richer cities of Amestris.

Check!:
Liore is located at the east of Amestris, near to the place in which Ishbal was located. This can explain why Liore's inhabitants seem to be ignorant about alchemy; it could be possible that they will be culturally close to Ishbalans, since they not only share physical traits, but also in a certain way they seem to share similar customs.

Welcome!

2008-10-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

This is my blog about Fullmetal Alchemist, one of my favorite anime series ever (if not my main favorite ;) ).

I think that translating the contents of my blog (in Spanish) can help to reach a wider range of FMA fans, I decided to do it now although I had thought before (I'm a little bit lazy and I'm studying in the university, so I haven't enough time ^^U). But I hope you like my work.

I intended to make a blog about the series and the relationship of it with alchemy and history in "our" world (got it? XD), but then I added some about my merchandising of the series and the blog turned out to be a general FMA blog. And please, forgive me for any grammar mistake you may find. English is not my mother language and although I have a good level I'm not as good as I would wish, so be kind with me and ask me anything you don't understand.

At first I'll talk only about the anime, but maybe someday I'll put something about the manga since I had read it scanlated until the last episode published ^^.

I would love to read your comments and know your opinions about topics related to FMA. For now, I say welcome to all of you and I'm happy to do something about my favorite (and your favorite) anime/manga series.

Enjoy!