The shift in tone that occures at the end of chapter five is incredibly dramatic and very hard to swallow, because it come as such a surprise. Before this point Fullmetal Alchemist seemed like a typical shonen adventure story and wish fulfillment saga. In the Manga, it is the most shocking thing that we have seen up to now. Its not here just for the shock factor, which is important because the manga never really revisits this event. Both make the story incredibly important and noteworthy within this early point in the narrative. For the manga it’s a narrative tone and directional change and for 2003 it is used to spur character development. In both the Manga and in 2003 this story serves as a huge turning point. Shou Tucker does the unthinkable and transmutes Nina and Alexander into a talking Chimera, the same thing he did to his wife two years prior. We also learn that Tucker is under a great deal of stress, because his assessment is coming up and if he doesn’t do anything noteworthy for it, he will loose his status and as Ed and Al learn he will do anything to keep it. We are told that Tucker’s wife left him shortly before he became a State Alchemist. Things are not going very well in the Tucker household. Here they learn that Tucker has a four year old daughter named Nina and a dog called Alexander who Ed and Al take the time to play with for a bit. Upon arriving they explain their circumstances to Tucker who allows to them to have access to his library. Colonel Mustang suggests that the boys study the work of Shou Tucker, a state Alchemist who received his certification two years prior when he created a talking Chimera. Ed and Al are returning from Lior, having lost their first great lead on the philosopher’s stone and because of this they are considering looking at bioalchemy as a possible means of getting their bodies back. The layout of the story in the manga and in brotherhood is almost completely identical. It’s a great story so far, but it has made writing this and reading that story at the same time a whole lot harder. I am currently reading a book entitled the Alchemists Daughter, which is about a group woman who were all experimented on alchemically by their fathers. I find myself reminded of her constantly. More then anything else in the franchises entirety and that’s saying something. The story of Nina, for me, is one of the hardest parts of FMA to look at and it deeply scarred me. In this installment I’ll be covering the first chapter and the beginning of the 2 nd chapter in volume 2 of the manga, episode four of Brotherhood and episodes 6 and 7 of 2003. So, finally, after many, many rewrites, here is part two of my FMA comparison/analyses. I will make a few exceptions in order to cover material in the series 2003. I’ve decided to more or less follow the Manga’s events in order and branch out from there. The other reason is that I think I’ve finally found my footing in regards to the direction I’ll be taking when covering material. One of these is the subject matter, see that last word in the title? It’s a name, Nina, and if you don’t know who that is, then if you continue to read this you will soon find out. I do hope that you will manage to forgive me, for a couple reasons. Oh, wow, it has a been a while since I posted the first part in my FMA comparison series.
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