FMA Raged Interesting Comment
The following is an interesting comment I received from someone who read the FMA Raged Article. This is the e-mail I sent in reply, I received no e-mail back.
Dear Ehren,
Thank you for your comments about my RAGED articles. Before I reply to anything about your comments I want to say that I could not publish the comment because of the large amount of profanity you used. If you could please take out the curse words and the like if you are inclined I will publish it. You are entitled to your opinion. For your convenience I have provided the text below:
“First off, watch the raws, everyone knows CArtoon Network eats anime alive. Second, READ THE MANGA IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE ANIME!! For christ’s sake, what is the matter with you that you take one look at something that is in fact an action anime and say there’s nothing in it? What about all the times Ed and Al have to fight to survive? What aobut the fight between Hohenheim and DAnte before she blasts him through the gate? What about the fights with Scar? What about the fights with the homunculi?
And the manga is almost completely seperate from the anime; same characters, different plotline, but similar. And… it’s still going, getting a new greed and the homunculi father/hohenheim look alike is yet to be explained, while Roy and Riza and Ed and Al are caught in a trap by Pride/King Bradley.
If there was no plot, then hardly anyone would watch it, let alone me. FMA forces you to think and think very hard about what’s going on, makes you try to figure out what’s happening for yourself. The anime AND manga do that, the manga even more so.
The characters are blah? No character development? No variation between the charcaters? Roy is a smartass, uber controling, yet incredibly lazy colonel with very slow burning temper. Riza is a calm and collected sharp shooter with more going on with her than we know (She has a very elaborate fire transmution circle tattooed on her back), Ed is a short, pretty young man with cat like eyes and a hair trigger temper, but is otherwise a good guy at heart even when he’s being an evil little bastard, Al is his younger, sweeter and generally calmer brother, caring more about Ed’s welfare than his own, even when he may at any second have a soul to armor rejection and possibly blow up from it. (He is a very adimrable, but both are somewhat stupid at times, because they’re boys.) Winry is a very sweet and loving girl, wanting to improve in her automail work so she can make sure Ed will always be protected by her, since she feels that is the only way she will ever be able to do anything for him. She loves him dearly and Ed does the same toward her. He keeps her from sullying her hands with Scar’s blood (kept her from killing him because she found out he killed her parents) because her hands were meant for letting people live, not for killing.
As for cosplaying the characters, I love seeing how people come up with ways to dress up like the characters; I want to one day go to a convention dressed as Ed because I’m supposed to be almost exactly like him. When I saw my friend’s little sister dressed up as Ed ( and she IS him), I wanted to take as many pictures as possible, though I never was able to get a camera on her. She looked exactly like him, including the hieght. The only thing missing was the automail arm and I’ve seen some really nice automail arms and legs and even Al’s armor in my time as an FMA fan.
If you have a problem trying to find plot in this series, I suggest you try reading things meant for little children, because obviously, you never learned reading comprehension, you shitfaced moron.”
-Ehren
Regarding your first paragraph, I did not watch FMA on Cartoon Network. I do not know how you derived this information but I was not even aware that FMA was shown on CN. If you had seen the other posts and the like you may have noticed the trend of animes I watch, fansubs such as Noein and Fate/Stay Night that are not presently availible in the US. I watched FMA when it was being fansubbed. Also, the article is about the anime not the manga. I’m only talking about the anime, why would I read the manga? I’m not talking about the manga. I had a cordial conversation with someone who read the manga and I am aware that they are very different, but I still have no interest in reading the manga. I’m not a manga reader that is my personal preference.
I would like to make it clear that the article is an editorial not a factual objective review. If you had caught in you may have noticed the sarcastic tone in my writing, in all seriousness what does a random picture of a guy cosplaying Edward have to do with the anime? Nothing.
I didn’t like the characters. That is my opinion, but I am not going to back up on editorial with objectivity. The editorial is meant for entertainment, so again, there is no point. You like the characters, I don’t. That’s all. I do, however, like Winry but I didn’t mention her in the editorial.
I don’t know much about cosplay, I just said that people cosplay it too much.
This all aside, your opinion was somewhat helpful. It would be nice to have a comment where someone disagrees with me so that everyone can see all sides of the editorial, however, you wrote this: “you never learned reading comprehension, you shitfaced moron” Now, I am not sure why you wrote that. I was not aware that a person could be so upset over something so trivial as an opinion over a bunch of animated characters. Are you really upset over the article? If so maybe you should get your priorities straight. There should be no reason to be offended over and editorial about anime. There IS reason to be offended if someone insults you directly in a fashion totally unwarranted. Reading comprehension? I scored a 740/800 on the Reading Comprehension section of the SAT putting me in the top 3 percentile in the nation. But, there should be no reason for me to be telling you that. You do not even know me, yet you insult me over an anime?
Your other comment about fanservice again brings up issues near the end when you had an almost solid argument. You like fanservice, I don’t. Same thing as I said before, I’m ok with that. I am not offended. Then you wrote this…
“you get the picture? Probably not because you’re still bitching like a little girl and not doing anything about the problems you see, or finding out if that is all there is to what you’re seeing. you fail at life, moron.”
I do not get the picture. I don’t understand how I am ‘bitching.’ I don’t like fanservice, so what? Why would I need to do something about the ‘problems’ ? There is no problem. I don’t like fanservice, that’s just my opinion. Do you want me to call up BONES and say, “You shitfaced morons don’t put fanservice in your anime!” Why would I do that? I would just not watch any BONES anime. Furthermore, how do I ‘fail at life’? Do I fail at life because I don’t get off to animated characters’ titties? Do I fail at life because I don’t get a hardon when I see the drawn panties of an imaginary character? If so then I get a F-. Furthermore, what do I need to FIND OUT about fanservice? If you could please enlighten to me about what I’m missing, the deeper meaning of fanservice.
Now, a cordial and polite comment would be as follows. You said “Evangelion is a complete waste of time.” I disagree, this is why:
Evangelion is a heavily introspective and philosophical anime. It requires, to be fully understood, knowledge of Biblical references, mythology, and Freudian psychology. The allusions to the Bible and other Christian elements are extensive as well as the status of ‘man’ in the eyes of the creator of the anime. Evangelion is a very deep anime and in fact, to fully explain many questions present in the anime it took up to 7 pages typed (located at Eva Monkey.) Evangelion requires much though into the interrelationships of characters, the protagonists and antagonists as well as the relative plot devices. These must be connected with the aforementioned resources (Bible, Freud, Mythology) to understand truly Evangelion.
Now am I going to call you a ‘moron’ because I disagree with your opinion on Evangelion? No. I disagreed and I said why, nothing more. I did not make it personal. There is no need to get personal over an anime. But in actuality, all anime is a ‘complete waste of time.’ There is nothing productive in watching anime. Working at a job is productive. Writing an editorial about FMA is not productive. Cleaning the house is productive.
Don’t take anime so seriously. Chill.
Your Anime+ Host,
Alex
Bean said,
October 16th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Wow. I like FMA and read that other artical and I didn’t get pissed off. NEWSFLASH. FMA AIN’T REAL. :P Some one needs to overnight a Fedex telling that idiot who sent that mail. Ohh, and by the way, everyone is always saying, oh look into the deeper meaning of EVA and stuff. I really don’t care. IT’S AN ANIME. If it was a book or something else, I would look for the meaning, really I would.
Mitch said,
October 17th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Wow man that was a great post. I impressed with the way you responded to Ehren. Can’t wait until you start doing Anime+ podcasts again!!
NeBy said,
February 21st, 2007 at 8:52 am
Hi there. I’m pretty new to the anime-scene, but thanks to the internet, I’m beginning to be a real addict (seen dozens of anime series these last months). Anime is A LOT better then our normal western cartoons, that’s for sure. But, as in all things, you have crap and you have jewels. Now, as for your review of FMA; I can’t else but disagree. I’ve watched it and I think it definately belongs to the better part of anime. I know tastes differ, and some reviews of anime I saw were raving, when I thought they weren’t much, and vice versa. However, I do feel that, regardless of opinion, you are being a bit intellectual dishonest about your review.
First of all, you say: “That is my opinion, but I am not going to back up on editorial with objectivity. ”
But, when reading your review itself, you say: “You know he’s heading in the right direction but he spends his time just praising FMA because he loves it while not being able to look at it objectively.”
This points to a contradictio in terminis. If you imply that someone (who loves FMA) is unable to look at it objectively, you are implying that YOU (who doesn’t like it) ARE being objective. This contradicts your current line of explanation, in which you assertain that it’s only an opinion without any objectivity being claimed. It is clear to me the parent poster who responded to you (albeit harshily) had the same impression as me: you can not make an assumption (even an implied one) to be objective, without giving proof of your claim.
The proof you gave was, however, non-existant; it boils down to mere opinions. And even those were of a poor level. I mean, part of your objection towards FMA is apparently that it’s no good because it has become ‘main-stream’. This is a weak argument, because nothing inherently dictates that something that becomes mainstream isn’t worth much (I know one has examples where this is the case, but it’s not a general rule on itself). I didn’t know FMA was popular; I never even heard of it. Still, I liked it far above other anime that I saw before and after that. That has nothing to do with how mainstream it got to be.
Another remark I really found stupid in your review, was about Al being gay and have incesteous thoughts with his brother…I mean, really, if that’s the extent of your argumentation for a balanced review, you’d better stop reviewing. For gods’ sake, what has that got to do with it? Gayness, apart from beauty, is also in the eye of the beholder, it would seem. But you know, even if you were right about it (which is highly unlikely); what does it matter? Since when is being gay (especially as an anime-character) a defining characteristic to conclude the anime isn’t worth anything? If you have issues with that, it must be an ordeal for you to make a review whenever an ambiguous shonen-character appears, let alone if an anime has shotacon-elements in it). However, it has *absolutely* no bearing on the question of the quality of an anime, and the fact that you use so many trivial ‘measurements’ to define what’s not good with FMA, makes your whole review (or ‘editorial’, as you like) to be pretty weak and nonsensical.
From the whole bunch of remarks, only about two arguments made some sense; the rest was just idiotic opinion-spouting. Which is, indeed, something you can do, but then don’t present it as if you have more objectivity then someone else, and don’t do the trouble of providing ‘arguments’ why FMA is so bad. If you try to validate your opinion by arguments, then you are asserting that it is more then just a mere opinion (opinions don’t need to give any argumentation, after all), and in that case, you have to show that your arguments have some validity. In your case, most of them don’t.
BTW, I liked evangelion too, but on a whole other plane than I liked FMA. You fall in the same pitfall that so many anime-fans/reviewers have: you fail to see there are several ways in which one can enjoy a given anime genre. You don’t look at what that genre is supposed to provide, but at your own issues with it. That’s why even some very good anime-reviewers suddenly review almost all hentai as being ‘bad’ because it ‘has no character development’. For gods’ sake, that’s not the point: you don’t watch regular porn for it’s story-line or deep plots neither! Hentai isn’t about deep plots, or character development, it’s goal is totally different, so if you’re making a review with set expectations, you are going to find it lacking, obviously. In a way, you do the same with FMA: yes, there may not be as many hidden references and intellectual challenges or deep philosophy as in evangelion, but that’s not the point of FMA either, and to compare both is like the proverbial apples and oranges.
I would like to point out the strong elements of FMA which you seem oblivious to, but I fear my post is already long enough as it is. Maybe it’ll be useful for some extra thoughts on the matter.
Alex said,
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 am
Dear NeBy,
My point of writing the article was entirely a publicity stunt. If you look closely, you will find that it worked. I do not care about objectivity etc. as that is not the focal point of my RAGED articles. As you can see by the mere title of the articles that they are simply made to piss people off, such as yourself wasting your time writing a massive essay that I don’t really care for. As for you saying that I fall in the pitfall that “many anime fan reviewers” etc. fall into I can but argue the opposite, that is I am quite the minority. Find a REAL review, not opinionated made up bullshit that I wrote, that doesn’t like FMA. Therein you shall find the purpose of my article, a viewpoint that goes against the grain and that is why people read it.
I can not and unable to stress enough the point of my article that I pointed out to in previous replies I made. Simply, I am not trying to look at the anime objectively and I do not care that even in the article I act hypocritical because the essay itself is entirely for entertainment (largely for myself and not for fanboys who get so upset they write essays in reply).
I was not trying to give a balanced review. If you listen to the podcast you will find balanced reviews there. That’s why the articles are called “RAGED” is it that hard for you to understand? I make no real points, the writing style is for entertainment, for Godsake I don’t even give a score. I provide no proof to support my opinions.
I am reading the rest of your points and I just have to say that you do not understand the concept of the article. Let me sum it up in one sentence: IT IS NOT A REVIEW, IT’S MADE TO PISS PEOPLE OFF
alex said,
April 13th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
hi nice site.
robert said,
June 14th, 2007 at 11:43 am
hi all.
az_0k said,
July 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
The fact that you are reading someone else’s review on EVA to understsand the show and wrote something here as if you really understand it is pathetic enough. However, I do agree with you that EVA might not be overrated as stated by some people, because I watched it and I don’t understand a lot of things in it but just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s not good. I just have the guts feelings that it is a good show. And, as you pointed out and I completely agree with, to fully understand the show requires massive knowledge of Bible and psychology. The biblical aspect even goes beyond the Bible, as I’m sure it’s already mentioned in that 7-page review you read that EVA constantly made reference to Death-Sea scroll, especially in the Movie (the huge cross in the sky). Death Sea scroll is not something that normal ppl would read, such as you and me. Even if you indeed read it at some point of your life for reasons only known to urself, I highly doubt that you can understand it. The psychological part of the show is also complex, since the producer had his own mental problems at that time, and a large part of this show was dedicated to his journey to recover from this mental problem of his. Now to fully understand the psychological aspect of this show which was produced by a guy who was a little messed up in his head requires huge amount of life experience, which I certainly don’t have and neither do you, a freshman at UT. So next time when you make some comments on, say, anything, ask yourself if you truly understand it. Don’t write something like this that’ll embarrass both you and me.
PSHowever, if you write this only to piss ppl off, or in your own words for “publicity”, then you certainly are inconsiderate of other ppl’s feelings. You have to understand that ppl value different things. Things that might seem stupid to you, let’s say anime, might be what other ppl value the most. What if someone starts to say shit on your family which Im sure you value a lot? How do you feel? Sure it’s a free country, and in your own words:”everyone has their own opinions” but by doing things without caring for others aren’t we hurting the ppl we don’t even know, or sometimes ppl we actually love? I read somewhere that you watched Noein and there was a line I remebered the most. Karusa (that raven guy from the future):”No need to talk to him. He (karusa in the presen) certainly doesn’t know how to care for others.”
az_0k said,
July 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Also for the issue of publicity, I stopped reading your RAGED FMA article after the first paragraph because you weren’t making any sense there. What’s the point of reading an article that doesn’t give you anything in return only to waste your time?Some people might find it’s fun to read it but not many I hope.
Spike (yes it's my name actual name lol) said,
January 5th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Yo ur podcast is amazing and some people really need to calm down and btw how do I find that cosplay girl u were talkin bout yes I no that was a long time ago but still and merry late Christmas lol again best podcast ever.