The Value of Amestris: Imperialism in Fullmetal Alchemist
The threat of imperialism looms over the modern world, just as it looms over the world of Fullmetal Alchemist and the characters within.
[Do I seem unusually informal? It’s because I’m the script for an audio essay! Please don’t mind the occasional joke throughout.]
[This article also contains spoilers for all of Fullmetal Alchemist. Proceed with caution.]
Fullmetal Alchemist. Written by acclaimed mangaka Hiromu Arakawa and published from 2001 to 2010 in Monthly Shounen Gangan magazine, it’s a shounen — or boys’ — manga (or seinen, depending on who you ask), that follows the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, the former of whom took the phrase “it cost me an arm and a leg” a little bit too literally.
The primary storyline of the series focuses on Ed and Al as they attempt to get their original bodies back after a failed attempt to bring their mother back to life through human transmutation, using Fullmetal Alchemist’s fantastical interpretation of “alchemy”. As a result of this quest, the two boys end up involved with the military of their country, Amestris, and unearth a country-wide government conspiracy in the process.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a comic that has widely impacted the world of shonen manga and has formed a fanbase far beyond its roots in Japan. Readers were treated to not only a beautifully illustrated story with exciting action and humorous characters, but a narrative that tackles topics of political corruption, civil unrest, racism, disability and feminism.
This impact has not been short lived, either; Even nine years after its conclusion, people continue to bring up the name in their lists of “favorite series of all time” and “recommendations for new manga readers”. Fan artists continue to push out stunning renders of their favorite characters, people with access to photoshop and a sense of millennial humor continue to do the lord’s work.
Honestly, when I searched “Fullmetal Alchemist” on Twitter, I really don’t know what I expected from you people.
Even more interesting is when author Hiromu Arakawa is searched for instead. Then, you are treated to an avalanche of fans thanking her for creating Fullmetal Alchemist, and acknowledging her much needed presence as a female creator in a genre both intended for and dominated by men. Her strong female characters are a recurring theme amongst tweets, and the subject is not unfamiliar with academia, either.
While uncommon due to society’s perception of comics and their intellectual value, Fullmetal Alchemist has seen itself the subject of academic review. Arguably the most common is the series’ portrayal of marginalized groups, particularly women. Amber Fetch’s Masters of Arts thesis, “More Than Alchemic Reactions: Playing With Gender Norms In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” is an interesting exploration of how gender norms are displayed in characters that flaunt them in the canon of Fullmetal Alchemist, such as the Armstrongs and Lust and Envy. Elsewhere, characters such as the automail engineer Winry Rockbell are frequently mentioned in discussions of women disregarding gender roles and stereotypes, particularly in regards to her headstrong personality and gender atypical profession.
Academic writings have also touched upon Fullmetal Alchemist’s roll in its medium, such as in Dr. Lesley-Anne Gallacher’s article, “(Fullmetal) Alchemy: The Monstrosity of Reading Words and Pictures in Shonen Manga”. Here Gallacher explores the idea of comics such as Fullmetal Alchemist having the ability to produce greater literary meaning when readers are able to appreciate the combination of text and imagery as one “monstrous” whole rather than disparate parts. Here she often uses the canonical concept of “alchemy” as a parallel to the idea of creating a new form of storytelling out of existing parts.
And storytelling is lauded as arguably the key grab of Fullmetal Alchemist. Writings surrounding the stories’ characters and the roles they play, the interplay of science and religion, and even the representation of disability have been the focus of scrutiny and academic writing since the story’s release.
And we’re about to talk about none of that.
No, because in and amongst what academia I have seen of Fullmetal Alchemist, there seems to be one nagging gap in topics of discussion.
Namely, imperialism.
Methods of Analysis
I will be looking at the roll of imperialism in the narrative of Fullmetal Alchemist, how it is expressed within its characters and plot, and how it may resemble themes of imperialism in our real world.
To this end, I focused my analysis on five characters and five major storylines.
For characters, I focused on:
- Our primary protagonists and the loves of my life Edward and Alphonse Elric.
- The man I’m pretty sure my mom is going to leave my father for, Roy Mustang.
- Proof Amestrians aren’t very good at creative nicknames, Scar.
- And Father. Homunculus. Dwarf in the Flask. Uh…
For the sake of clarity, I will be referring to the primary antagonist of Fullmetal Alchemist as “Homunculus”, to avoid confusion with his other two aliases. Any time I reference his subordinates, I will refer to them either as the “homunculi”, or by their respective names.
As for the storylines I looked at, I focused on:
- Chapters 23 and 24 (Ed and Al’s Human Transmutation Attempt)
- Chapters 6–8, 41, 57–61 (Ishval)
- Chapters 41, 53, 74–75 (Xerxes)
- Chapters 62–73 (Briggs)
- Chapters 104–108 (The Finale)
When analyzing the role of imperialism in Fullmetal Alchemist, I chose to focus primarily on chapters and storylines in which military force or influence was present, as is the case with Ishval, Briggs and The Finale. Human Transmutation and Xerxes were chosen due to the relevance they have towards the motivations of the characters involved in my study.
Similarly, the characters I chose were decided upon due to their involvement with the military, and due to the unique circumstances and perspectives each character poses. Through my research, I began to discover that each character seems to represent a different facet of or perspective on imperialism, something that is reinforced by the characters’ story arcs. Because of this, I will be looking at each of these characters individually — with the exception of the Elric Brothers, who will be looked at as a unit — and showcasing how they interact with the imperialist themes of Fullmetal Alchemist’s world and plot.
Homunculus: The Embodiment of An Imperialist Nation
In a discussion on imperialism, it is important to first mark down exactly how imperialism manifests in Fullmetal Alchemist’s plot. Initially, I looked at it purely from a plot and setting perspective, rather than from a character perspective. It is shown both in dialogue and by action that the main country the story is set in, Amestris, is a militaristic country with imperialistic tendencies. It frequently engages in armed conflict with its border countries dating back to 1558, when the country was initially founded. The character of General Armstrong also explains in chapter 67 that Amestris was initially very small, but “continuously annexed and conquered” neighboring countries to grow to the size it is at the time of the series. All of these conflicts were instigated by military action. While the purpose of these reveals was more so to illustrate that the country of Amestris was turned into a military state as part of a plan by the group of homunculi currently in power, it does also serve as proof that Amestris works under imperialist policies, namely “a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force”.
However, during my research, I came to find that imperialism was not just represented literally through the country of Amestris. It was also represented metaphorically through Amestris’ leader, and the primary antagonist of the series.
Homunculus is first introduced as “Father”, the leader of a group of man-made humanoid beings known as the “homunculi”. As the story progresses, the Elric Brothers and their allies learn that the homunculi are acting as a sort of shadow-government, manipulating Amestris and the Amestrian army for their own benefit. Homunculus’ end goal is to use the population of Amestris to create a Philosopher’s Stone — a substance created from the souls of humans that grants extreme alchemical power — powerful enough for him to obtain the powers of God.
Really, your standard “end of the world” shounen manga stakes.
Parallels can already be seen between an imperialist country and Homunculus. He is a being wishing to increase his power and influence, and is using government policy and military force to accomplish this goal. He set up a figurehead leader under his own command that was President Fuhrer King Bradley (yes, that is his full title) — which also bares some resemblance to the practice of nepotism when one also considers that Bradley is Wrath, Homunculus’ “son”. Additionally, in Chapter 63 he has war criminals such as the alchemist Solf J. Kimblee released from prison, an action that actually goes so far as to alert other military men of foul play within country leadership. He instigates civil conflict for his own benefit, including allowing his other son, Envy, to shoot an Ishvalan child while disguised as an Amestrian soldier, beginning a bloody civil war.
However, it is in chapters 74 and 75 that showcase this metaphor more clearly than at any other point in the plot. These two chapters focus on telling the origin of Homunculus, the “Dwarf in the Flask”; He is a being,made by alchemists of the country of Xerxes, with incredible knowledge that is unable to leave the glass container he calls home. Homunculus eventually forms a relationship with the slave — and future father of Edward and Alphonse — whose blood led to Homunculus’ creation, whom he dubbed “Van Hohenheim”. Homunculus is later consulted by the king of his country about obtaining immortality, where he teaches those in leadership how to create a Philosopher’s Stone by using the lives of all the citizens in the land. The chapter ends when the country-wide alchemical transmutation results in Hohenheim effectively becoming a Philosopher’s Stone instead, and Homunculus getting a body of his own and escaping his flask with the other half of Xerxes’ souls as his own stone.
Assuming that Homunculus represents a country, particularly one with powerful influence, then the imperialistic symbolism is fairly direct. Homunculus was born — or built — from the blood of a slave, that he turns around and belittles for being stupid and powerless. He then dangles the desires of freedom and liberty, and implies that he and Hohenheim are seeking the same thing, all in order to take advantage of Hohenheim later. It is a tenant of imperialist empires to take advantage of the peoples that empire sees as “lesser”, despite often being built from the work those people are forced into doing. Additionally, much like a country wishing to expand its influence and break from its borders, Homunculus admits his greatest wish in life is to be free of his flask — he also finds this to be more desirable than having friends or family. Then, in chapter 75, Homunculus takes advantage of a corrupt, self-serving government to obtain the means to expand his power. His influence instigates civil unrest through the destruction of border cities disguised as “rebel attacks”, and government projects disguised as infrastructure benefiting the ignorant rural citizens, to keep suspicions from rising. And then, after the country of Xerxes has quite literally been absorbed by Homunculus and he has been allowed to escape his flask and leave his borders, he moves on to repeat this with another country, that of Amestris.
Homunculus is imperialism in the story of Fullmetal Alchemist, and in his role as antagonist, it is the goal of all the other protagonist characters to fight back against imperialism, to tear him and his militaristic state down. It is why in chapters 104 through 108, the final battle feels like a coup-d’etat, where multiple armies aligned with the Elrics turn on their fellow military men and the “leader” of their country, and why Homunculus is only taken down once the country of Amestris no longer unites against fabricated outside threats, but the threat of its own corrupt leadership. …That, and any good manga needs to have “the power of friendship” somewhere in its narrative.
Additionally, we are able to see how the other characters in this study are impacted by imperialism not only in how they are involved with the Amestrian military, but also by how they interact with Homunculus and the other homunculi themselves.
Which leads us into our first example of the imperialist soldier…
Roy Mustang: The Disillusioned Patriot
Roy Mustang is one of the many State Alchemists — Alchemists in the employment of the Amestrian military — present in the series, and often serves as an advisor and ally for the Elric Brothers. He began his military career as a standard soldier, whilst being taught his signature flame alchemy under the guidance of another alchemist. Upon being certified as a State Alchemist, he gradually climbed through the ranks and was forced to serve in various Amestrian military campaigns, including the “Ishvalan Extermination Campaign”; An order signed by the Fuhrer that utilized State Alchemists as human weapons in a genocide on an Amestrian ethnic group, the Ishvalans.
Mustang’s character well illustrates the impact of imperialist propaganda on a country’s citizens, and the patterns of disillusionment an individual can have when they begin to break down patriotic, or even nationalistic, thoughts.
Mustang begins his character as a proud patriot, seeking to serve in his military. In chapter 58 he explains in response to his teacher’s ridicule that he believes that “being useful to the military is linked to being useful to the people,” and he continuously cites that he was always driven by a desire to use his abilities to protect the people of his country, a sentiment shared by many other military and alchemist characters in the series. However, at the same time the reader can see Mustang being vulnerable to military propaganda, as in the same page as before he states, “now that we are exposed to threats from the surrounding countries, strengthening the military is most urgent.” As the reader should know at this point that Amestris was the country instigating military action on its borders, it is clear that these “surrounding threats” are lies being fed to impressionable people such as the younger Mustang.
However, unlike many of his military comrades that end up turning to embrace the military, Homunculus, and by extension, imperialism, Mustang turns to the opposite direction after being exposed to the truth of war. When forced to participate in the Ishvalan Extermination Campaign, he bemoans his inability to protect both his fellow soldiers and the innocent Ishvalans he’s been ordered to murder; Actions at a complete antithesis to what drove him to enter the army to begin with. This begins to crumble his faith in the military, and a conversation with his friend and ally Maes Hughes reveals a new driving goal. Mustang sees that the only way to properly protect those beneath him is by obtaining the highest rank in the land, namely, the spot currently occupied by King Bradley, currently controlled by Homunculus, and what propels Amestris as a military, imperialist state.
Roy Mustang’s character is representative both of what imperialist propaganda can create as well as destroy, and is essentially the poster child of the military coup-d’etat. He is a driving force in turning other sects of the Amestris army against Homunculus, and he is representative of the possibility of an imperialist force turning against itself. He is a patriot, disillusioned by war, the good soldier turned traitor.
However, what is to be said about the soldier who never really experienced “the truth”; At least the kind of truth that didn’t take part of his body?
The Elric Brothers: Self-Serving Soldiers
If Roy Mustang is the spitting image of the perfect patriot, then Edward and Alphonse Elric are his perfect foil. Ed and Al are suspicious from the military from the start, as are the people around him. Edward blames the Ishvalan “Civil War” for the stunted growth of his rural home town in chapter 8, and when Mustang and his second-in-command Riza Hawkeye come to offer a chance at State Alchemist to Edward in chapter 24, Ed’s childhood friend Winry expresses fear that the military will rip Ed and Al away from her; Just as her parents were killed in Ishval. When Edward takes the State Alchemist examination he makes a phony attempt at assassinating the Fuhrer when he arrives unguarded to observe the test, and while talking to Mustang afterwards, he’s open about his disdain for the military and recognizes a shared sentiment in Mustang as well.
Certainly, Ed and Al’s decision to cooperate with the Amestrian military was not founded on some false patriotism; It was founded on self-serving benefits.
The reasoning is simple: Becoming a State Alchemist means access to typically inaccessible data, research and technologies, with the caveat that the alchemist is bound to follow military orders. Due to the taboo nature of Ed and Al’s disabled bodies, being able to quietly take advantage of national resources in order to find a way to get their original bodies back is the only feasible option for them, particularly in their statuses as young, effectively-orphaned children. Edward is clear throughout the story that he would do anything to get Alphonse’s body back — his little brother spends the entirety of the series as just a soul bonded to an empty suit of armor — and Alphonse shares a similar sentiment. If serving the military is the tool to reaching their end goal, then so be it.
However, this is not to say that the Elrics are wholly selfish, and it is in this that puts them in an unusual role. Throughout their early journeys they are frequently helping the people they come across, and gradually become more and more familiar with the corruption with Amestris. They are ignorant, but not in the same way Mustang was. They are simply unaware of the internal mechanisms of the army. If Mustang is the military insider working to tear the military apart from within, then the Elrics are the outsiders seeking to be the face of this “revolution” against the imperialist state that they never had a close attachment to in the first place. In a sense, they are the story’s closest equivalent to an activist.
Throughout Fullmetal Alchemist’s narrative, the Elrics are travelling throughout the country, educating themselves on the activities of their country, such as what is seen in their discussions with Dr. Marcoh in chapter 8 in their quest to learn about the Philospher’s Stone, and with their excursions to places like Xerxes and Briggs. As they do so, they begin to try and force change where they go, particularly in the latter half of the series, when the brothers are fully aware of Amestris’ political corruption. For example, upon their arrival in Ft. Briggs, the brothers help to turn the entire Briggs forces against the Amestrian Central Command by revealing what they know of the movements of the homunculi, and by taking advantage of the mindsets of already tight-knit and skeptical Briggs soldiers.
Indeed, the Elric Brothers are the middle ground of this story, not quite soldier and not quite civilian, acting as activists against their imperialist enemy. Their shared ground of being loyal to the people they care about within their country, but managing without the nationalism shared by many of their fellow soldiers, allow them to make the greatest strides and eventually tear down Homunculus from his seat of power and help to end Amestris as an imperialist state.
However, they are not quite the outsiders of the story.
Scar: The Vengeful Product of Imperialism
The only character in this analysis to not be directly affiliated with the Amestrian military, “Scar” is one of the few surviving Ishvalans from the extermination campaign and civil war. If Roy Mustang and the Elric brothers serve as each other’s military opposites, then Scar is the antithesis to Homunculus desire for power. Before the tragedy of Ishval finished, Scar was adamant about defending Ishval and even remaining somewhat isolated; Scar argues in chapter 58 with his younger brother that studying alchemy and trying to side with Amestris will result only in Ishval’s further destruction. An ironic argument, considering it was that study of alchemy that saved the entire country of Amestris in the story’s finale. Scar is a staunch opponent of Amestris, and when his family and friends are killed by State Alchemists, that opposition grew into vengeance.
Scar’s character is representative of two major ideas: One is his character being illustrative of the worst that imperialism can bring. Amestris’ and Homunculus’ desire for power lead to the genocide of a people and the isolation of an ethnic group struggling to survive in slums of their own country. Second is the extremism that such treatment can foster.
Despite the understandable reasoning he has, Scar is a terrorist, and a mass murderer. Under the guise of “divine judgement of Ishvala”, he seeks to kill Amestrian State Alchemists, regardless of their involvement in the extermination campaign, given he targets Edward in chapter 6. As opposed to Ed and Al, who seek to make change in Amestris through the most peaceful means allowed to them, Scar relies on murder. Initially, he is treated as purely a villain, a tragic result of Ishval’s massacre.
However, Fullmetal Alchemist’s storyline offers Scar a chance at redemption, as characters seek to set him on the right path. Scar is forced to face the pain he has caused others in his seeking for vengeance, particularly in chapters like chapter 72. He is confronted by Winry Rockbell here, the daughter of two Amestrian doctors that healed him during the Ishvalan Civil War, and who he murdered in a disoriented rage. He is forced to recognize that there are Amestrians who do not fall for the imperialist violence of their home country, and that by blindly targeting anyone associated with it, he is only hurting his cause. Additionally, during the same chapter, Scar meets Major Miles, a Briggs soldier of Ishvalan decent. A parallel to Scar, Miles chose to remain in the army with the help of his superior General Armstrong — as any Ishvalan-Amestrian soldiers were discharged from the army during the extermination campaign — in order to change Amestrian opinion of Ishval from the inside. He believes his status as part-Amestrian, part-Ishvalan allows him this opportunity, and this explanation helps contribute to Scar’s slow growth as a character. Scar even admits at this point that he is, “glad that someone like you exists.”
By the end of the Fullmetal Alchemist narrative, Scar is a part of the primary force fighting against Homunculus and the homunculi, and is even the one to successfully kill Wrath, the homunculus that had been acting as King Bradley. However, he is only successful in this after casting aside his desire for vengeance against Amestris in favor of protecting the country of his homeland from the imperialist scourge within it, and the people within it with the power to reshape Amestris away from its military state. He is both the product of imperialism, and it’s inevitable downfall.
Punching God In The Face: How Fullmetal Alchemist Combats Imperialism
Perhaps saying that it was the power of friendship that lead to the demise of the military state of Amestris is oversimplifying things. To boil all of this symbolism down to one childish theme seems a step backwards.
However, it may be the biggest point Fullmetal Alchemist makes about imperialism in the entire series.
The final confrontation consists of the major cast, including Ed and Al, Mustang and Scar, in a fight against Homunculus who has seemingly increased his power to the greatest extreme, by taking in the powers of god itself. Despite being one entity, he is a seemingly unstoppable force, with not one method of action capable of taking it down. Scar’s one-man acts of terrorism, even directed at the correct enemy, only manage to take down one of Homunculus’ children and set off a trap that is debilitating, not destructive. Roy Mustang’s traitorous army of soldiers struggle to fight back against Amestrian soldiers alone, let alone touch a divine being immune to standard firepower. And Ed and Al’s activism may have brought all these people together in one place, but their power individually pales in comparison. Homunculus feels unstoppable, just as an imperialist force may feel unstoppable to those it has turned on.
However, it is individually that these groups struggle. Together, united as one force, our heroes manage to fight back against their enemy. Much as how General Armstrong describes her Briggs’ forces fighting as “one army” without mind to race or gender or history to survive in an inhospitable land, Amestris is forced to put aside its differences and work as one army against the threat trying to destroy it from the inside. Men and women, children and adults, Ishvalan and Amestrian, all are forced to work as one against a single enemy.
And it works.
Fullmetal Alchemist recognizes the destructiveness of imperialism, of a military state, of divisiveness and hunger for power, but it also recognizes the possibility to destroy all of that. By recognizing that one’s experiences do not exist in a bubble, that peoples can grow from the damage that imperialism does to them, and that these people can unite together to overthrow corruption regardless of how seemingly insurmountable it is.
And, in the end, this is not a message exclusive to the country of Amestris, to a world of fantasy where alchemists make wonders and the impossible is possible.
Because, in the end, Fullmetal Alchemist’s imperialism was brought to its knees by bare human hands.
