sori fumihiko

There’s no question that 2017 saw a hell of a year it had with live-action anime flicks. The good news is that the feedback has been largely positive on all fronts and now director Sori Fumihiko’s own offering with an adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist now looks to share in the glory with Yamada Ryosuke leading the cast. Edward Elric, a young, brilliant alchemist, has lost much in his twelve-year life: when he and his brother Alphonse try to resurrect their dead mother through the forbidden act of human transmutation, Edward loses his brother as well as two of his limbs. With his supreme alchemy skills, Edward binds Alphonse’s soul to a large suit of armor.  A year later, Edward, now promoted to the fullmetal alchemist of the state, embarkson a journey with his younger brother to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone. The fabled mythical object is rumored to be capable of […]

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Manga author Arakawa Hiromu’s 2001-2003 Enix publication, Fullmetal Alchemist, has stood the test of time with two animated series and films and further posterity on home release platforms. Given this, I guess the next obvious step would be to take things further and test the waters with a live-action approach, a feat that is never easy to do and especially with a story as big, sprawling and emotionally compelling as this one. It brings us the story of two brothers, held together only by the bond as strong as their skills in alchemy following one of the most peak, tragic moments in their childhood, and an act of blasphemy that would gravely change their lives. It’s a story that only thickens more and more as you go with military drama and upheaval as part of the central narrative, and with characters both real, and twice as supernatural. There’s conspiracy, danger, […]

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Without question in my own collective up keep of live-action anime/manga-adapted feature titles to come, Fumihiko Sori’s take on the sprawling epic, Fullmetal Alchemist, is sure to be on radar for many an otaku. It’s also been one of the more tedious animes to follow with there being two versions – the latter being Irie Yasuhiro’s Bones-produced Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood providing a more complete telling of the Arakawa Hiromu manga. Boasting actor and J-pop band Hey! Say! JUMP! member Yamada Ryosuke in the title role, the film takes its cues from a story that perhaps sits as one of the deepest and darkest, and notably horrific in certain instances. It’s a story brimming with action, suspense, intrigue, drama and mystery, and with an inherent spotlight on matters of “equivalent exchange” and the consequences of mankind’s own subjugation to bad habits – war being a central aspect of the narrative here. […]

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Earlier this year I made it my goal to brush up on as much anime as possible what with all I’ve been missing since life got a little busier in the past decade. Recent viewings have fortunately included a great deal of series and films, including both animated serial versions adapting Arakawa Hiromu’s 2001-2010 manga publication, Fullmetal Alchemist, which, as of March, has officially been in development with director Sori Fumihiko at the helm. The second series in 2009, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, is a terrific revival of its 2003 predecessor, Fullmetal Alchemist; Both share similar parts of the story with Brotherhood moving forward and closely to the source material with way less filler, and otherwise showcases an epic fantasy tale full of intrigue, action and suspense with emphasis on family, friendship, redemption, and spiritual awakening, as well as the lingering consequences of war and genocide. The series is set in […]

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This year, I’ve found myself a new hobby in catching up with as much anime that I’ve missed in the last fifteen years or so as I possibly can. I’m having fun with it as I’ve already seen five series and currently in the middle of a sixth, which now brings me to even more homework I’ll be doing between now and 2017. For this, I speak of the sci-fi action series, Fullmetal Alchemist which debuted a manga from author Arakawa Hiromu in 2001 before venturing into several animated shows and a feauture film in the decade that followed. Reports in the last 12 hours from Japanese media outlets (forwarded through Crunchyroll) are now buzzing over news of a new feature film in the works for 2017 with Ashita no Joe helmer Sori Fumihiko directing and Hey! Say! JUMP’s own Yamada Ryosuke (Assassination Classroom) cast to portray protagonist, Edward Elric.  […]

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