Review: FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: The Complete Four-Panel Comics

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: THE COMPLETE FOUR-PANEL COMICS
VIZ MEDIA

MANGAKA: Hiromu Arakawa
TRANSLATION: Lillian Diaz-Przybyl
LETTERS: Jeannie Lee
EDITOR: Hope Donovan
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0617-4; paperback (March 2019) Rated “T” for “Teen”
136pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

Fullmetal Alchemist is a shonen manga written and drawn by Hiromu Arakawa.  The manga was serialized in Japan's Shonen Gangan magazine from 2001 to 2010 and was collected in 27 tankobon (trade paperback) volumes.  VIZ Media published an English language edition of the manga in North America as a series of graphic novels.

Fullmetal Alchemist's story focuses on brothers Edward & Alphonse Elric.  The duo engages in a forbidden alchemical ritual in an attempt to bring their late mother back to life.  However, the ritual goes wrong, causing Edward to lose a leg, while Alphonse loses his entire body.  Edward grafts his younger brother’s soul into a suit of armor, a process which also costs Edward his right arm.  Edward replaces his own missing flesh with “auto-mail” limbs, and he eventually becomes a state alchemist in service of the Amestris state military.  Edward searches for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, the one thing that can restore the brothers’ bodies.

Like many manga, Fullmetal Alchemist included with the main narrative what are called four-panel comics.  Four-panel comics are generally gag comic strips that play with a series' characters, plots, stories, and settings in a humorous manner.  They are usually four panels in length and are printed vertically.

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Four-Panel Comics is a new single-volume paperback book from VIZ Media.  It collects the four-panel comic strips from Hiromu Arakawa’s original Fullmetal Alchemist series.  In a addition to the four-panel strips from the Fullmetal Alchemist graphic novels, this book publishes the four-panel comics that were included in the DVD collections of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime (including the “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” series) and other Fullmetal Alchemist related products.  This book also includes some never-before-published bonus comics.

My VIZ Media representative sent me several volumes of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga during the series' original North American publication.  He also sent me Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Four-Panel Comics.

I won't kid you and say that all these Fullmetal Alchemist four-panel comics are great, but many are funny, in fact, surprisingly so.  Fullmetal Alchemist can be such an intense narrative, so it is nice to see so many of the characters, especially Ed and Al (Edward and Alphonse Elric) in a funny light.  Honestly, there were points during my reading of this book in which I thought that these four-panel comics were making a convincing argument that there are at least several chapters worth of humorous manga to be mined from the world of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Fans of Fullmetal Alchemist will want to experience the sunny side of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Four-Panel Comics.

B+
7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Loveless: Ritsuka or Seimei?

I read Loveless, Vol. 11

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Loveless: Mobile Suit Gundam /Loveless Crossover

I read Loveless, Vol. 10

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Review: LOVELESS 2-IN-1 Volume 1

LOVELESS 2-IN-1, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Yun Kouga
TRANSLATION: Ray Yoshimoto
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Lillian Diaz-Pazygyl
LETTERS: James Dashiell
EDITOR: Hope Donovan
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4990-3; paperback; Rated “T” for “Teen”
446pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $16.99 CAN, £9.99 UK

Yun Kouga, the pen name of Risa Yamada, is known for creating such manga as Crown of Love and Gestalt. One of her other popular titles, Loveless, a fantasy/drama series, has a new North American publisher. Tokyopop had the license to publish the series in English, releasing eight of the series’ graphic novels before going out of business. VIZ Media now has the license and resumed the English-language publication of the series with the ninth volume.

VIZ Media will also republish the first eight volumes in 2-in-1 editions, which has a single graphic novel edition containing two volumes. Loveless 2-in-1 Edition, Vol. 1 collects Loveless Volumes 1 and 2.

Loveless, Vol. 1 introduces 11-year-old Ritsuka Aoyagi, a troubled sixth grade student who is still grieving the loss of his older brother, Seimei, who was murdered a few months earlier. Ritsuka meets Soubi Agatsuma, a 20-year-old man who claims to have been a friend of Seimei’s. After a little while, Ritsuka learns that Seimei and Soubi acted as a fighting pair.

They were involved in battles in which the fighting involved spells composed of carefully selected words. Soubi was the “sentouki” or “fighter unit.” Seimei was the “sacrifice,” the one who bears the damage inflicted upon the fighter. When the sacrifice gets worn down, the fighter loses. Through Soubi, Ritsuka learns that Seimei was killed by a mysterious group called Septimal Moon.

In Loveless, Vol. 2, Ritsuka and Soubi grow closer, while more pairs of fighters come forward to challenge them or Soubi, specifically. Yuiko Hawatari, Ritsuka’s classmate, falls deeper in love with him. Ritsuka’s therapist, Dr. Katsuko, tries to unravel the mystery of his apparent dual personalities.

Apparently, Yun Kouga does not consider her creation, Loveless, to be boys’ love manga, although the series does depict romantic, committed, or intimate relationships between pairs of boys and young men. There are no scenes of fleshy entanglements between naked young men, as may be found in the boys’ love subset, yaoi manga. But there is the kind of lusty hugging between fully-clothed young men that one might find in the non-explicit-sex subset of boys’ love called shounen-ai.

That’s how Loveless is. It takes on the characteristics of many genres. It’s part battle manga, and I must admit to being intrigued by its verbal, word-based skirmishes. Call Loveless a battle rap manga. It is also a high school romance with a love triangle (Ritsuka, Soubi, and Yuiko) that threatens to keep adding romantic interests (a fellow student and possibly a teacher). It is a family drama complete with a psycho mom and a largely absent dad.

Loveless is not too much of a good thing, but rather, too many good things. I like Loveless, but I’m not in love with it.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux