~ curious Seemingly Pointless Things To Notice ~


I've been reading the manga again being on hoildays and I found a few seemingly pointless things that make you go hummmmm.

1. Izumi and Sig are in centeral when Winry arrives to fix Ed's arm after the 5th Lab episode. They're on the 1st page at Centeral station looking at a train timetable.

2. Their butcher shop sells.... mammoth O.o. Sereiously, when Al's sweeping outside and gets the "I know your secrets" note check the sign outside the store.

3. Unlike the anime the kids dont see the future when they look at true knowledge. Though both see themselves happy with their father when they were kids.

4. Envy only has between 10-20 people used in his stone. These are Barry's "renforcements" that Lan Fan sences. Then later he asks exactly how many people are in you? Lan Fan then kills him roughly 5 or more times. Envy should be more careful.

5. That girl from Xing calls her panda little mei. Meimei is Chinese means little sister.

Think that's it. Have any of your own?

*edit* no one has anything ah well. *added one*

Mmmmm...mammoth.

that envy has 10-20 lives is just a rough estimate... she did say 20 or more. but we're not really sure if what lanfan really meant was envy's lives or not since it wasn't totally explained.

In manga, when Ed is in 5th lab, on the wall there are several word in Latin.'Flavius' - son and 'predemptor' - em... am not sure, if the word 'forerunner' would suit here well... 'ator' - PROBABLY one of forms of word 'dark, gloomy'

Hmm, have to do a re-run of the manga if I want to post these little tidbits.

here's 1... in chap 30, page 100... the scene where hawkeye is walking alone with groceries... on the last panel, look to the left and you'll see a poster of Yoki...

Like in the Rush Valley episode from the anime: in the automail shop with Paninya and the old man.

Wasn't this chap released before anime started

*off-topic* Kase changed her banner and avatar back to Ed in green ^__^ Do not know why, but I'm in love with this picture =)

chapter 33, the part where winry is running after Ed with a chainsaw w/ the sunset in the background... you'll see the Al-dog (doggie wearing al's helmet)

About chapter: Yup, it was released before the anime, but it reminded me of the ep because I unfortunately didn't see the poster in the manga. ;;

About sig + avatar: Prinz said something similar about them. *__* And yes, I love this image too.

Wow, I never even noticed them there before.. but they never actually make an appearance in Central so that's odd....

That's what you call making a cameo appearance. Like (I like to give examples ) in the Yami no Matsuei manga, the main characters/players from FFVII made cameo appearances in one scene, but afterwards they were gone.

In the Naruto manga, pretty early on in the series (im not sure witch chap.)I noticed that Zabuza was wearing the wrong headband. His head was on an angle so it took me a while to find what was wrong with the picture (i knew there was something..) but it was definatly the konoha one.

I also notice some seemingly pointless thing...

1. Do heal alchemy exist in FMA world? (Manga/Anime) While Roy burn his wound to seal it and kill Lust is cool, but why cant he just draw an array of healing and save his and Havoc's life instead, or Mustang concentrade on Fire alchemy that is dummy to other form of alchemy? I read somewhere in manga it explains that in far east alchemy is mainly use for heal and research purpose, but do that mean in central healing alchemy is generally ignored? In the GBA FMA game there is even a notive Alchemist that assist Ed and AL which specialize in healing....

2. Which leads to another question, can Ed and AL use healing type alchemy?

That appears in the anime as well, I think. When Winry comes to Central and Armstrong goes to pick her up. Or maybe she just came on her own. Ahh, I can't remember.

It zoomed past them when we were in Winry's point of view looking around for the object that would catch her eye, which was ultimately Armstrong.

I guess the reason Roy didn't heal Havoc was because he isn't specialized in that type of Alchemy. Ed could be since he just needs to remember how to heal someone and use his clap-technique. Roy would have to remember both the elements used and create the array to start it all off...

But the main thing is, you need to be specialized in it. It would be a real hassle if you studied for more than one type of Alchemy since you need to remember many things at once. @_@

I forget his name, Dr. Marcoh?

He could heal!

At least in the anime, I am not sure if it is also in the manga, but we learn that they were at the train station at central on a trip to find Ed and Al, that is why they were later in his hospital room and look at the map.

Yes! Did you notice, that Ed, with his huge amount of knowledge about alchemy, uses only one type of alchemy - he transmutes something(his automail, or ground or whatever) into objects he can fight with and then solve his problems in a violent way :-)

Something I found out accidentally. My friend was fond of alchemy some time ago and when she watched FMA, she pointed to an increadible fact. On the paper, given to Ed by Roy, where his title 'Fullmetal' is written; there is a recipe how to create a Pholosopher's stone! The whole stuff seemes rather pointlees, but it is it.

Whoa!!! So Ed had the recipe all along and didn't even know it's there!!! Poor kid!!! Going into alll that trouble!!

I suppose he wouldn't be able to create one with those kind of instructions "See the green dragon... Cut more, until you see the red dragon' Something like this.

Sounda like a drug trip O.o, no that isnt the recipie.


Dont think of it like magic, alchemy is CHEMISTRY. Helaing alchemy is essensualy returning things to the state they were before injury, as people are very complex true healing alchemy is nigh on impossibly, its simply too fiddly, its easy to make things combust, change shape, even change element if you have enough power but this isnt about strength this is delicate. I think they only put Cony in the GBA game as all RPGs need a healer.

In vol. 6 the past where Ed and Al was on the island, there was this weird looking rabbit thingy O_o

here the pic:

Night of the muttant Bunnies!!!!! Muahahhahahahhahahaha!!!!!

Ha ha, he knows whats on the menu.
Another thing (you have no idea how many times I've read this series)
In rush valley one of the auto-mail mechanics has a picture of Bard (guy on train, Ed kicks his ass, then Al, then Roy) as an example of the work he's done.

Something stupid I notice was just how 'occidental' it is. The houses, stuff they eat, using fork and knife...

and there is a pic of a char in the latest PS2 game on that same board too.

Yeah, I saw that too...

chapter 41 spoiler


know it's pointless, sorry.

In the manga Izumi and Sig appeared in Central Station for a reason... they said they met a man named Hohenheim in Central back in chapter 20.

Hohenheim Elric, Ed and Al's father. They also mentioned he was very close to finding what he had been working for... *cough*stone*cough*

Dunno how relevant this is (it's kinda stuipd really) but in chapt 35 (where Barry etc are all waving around a newspaper), the back page has a picture of a burning skyline. That skyline happens to look strangely like a contempory city (maybe London?) to me...or perhaps its my imagination

Not really related, but no one else seems to be talking about it: In chapt 40 on pg 28, there is a huge, whole-page picture of what appears to be a transmution circle in the ruins at Xerxes. I'm not all that great at the research/background stuff, but I swear that thing looks familiar. Also note that the figure in the center of the circle (the dragon-like thing) is the same symbol that the Military in Central now use...

Any ideas as to what the heck this thing is? Its a good bet that this thing is to play a MAJOR part...otherwise our beloved author wouldn't have spent an entire page on it!

Doesn't that mean Hohenheim isn't "Father", the guy who *fathered* the homonoculus?
Look at it this way.. Hohenheim met Izumi at Central way way early in the manga, in volume 4.
Yet in volume 7-8 of the manga, Wrath went to the South to visit Edward's teacher = Izumi, to determine if she was worthy of being a Human Sacrifice Candidate.

If Hohenheim = Father, Father would have found out about Izumi early on.
Maybe Wrath went on his own initiative, but I'm sure he would have been updated by Father before that.

About her not needing a sygil you mean? She didnt nessary use alchemy in front of him.
Also he did not know she was the boy's teacher. (Izumi was suprised to learn he was their father), so even if Wrath knew about Izumi he didnt know she was also the boy's teacher.

Beware, for large, long (hope not boring) posts lay before you.

Lessee... I reread the whole manga recently, for pleasure's sake but also to find graphic details and such (I'm a detail whore), as here in these forums you made me notice some of them and I wanted to search more.

So, if you find any of them, details (cameos, Arakawa showing that she has the plot well thought, etc), facts/factoids, mistakes/contradictions/plotholes, etc. put'em here. OK? And discuss the ones that already are.

I'll start with my share:

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Facts:

Only one - Every time an Elric (clappily) alchemises a lance/spear/pole, it is rendered (cut) useless by his rival at the very same instant. See:
--> Chapter 1, Ed vs Chimera: he makes a spear, the chimera cuts it. End of the story
--> Chapter 24, Ed "vs" Bradley: again, he makes a lance (the same one, BTW. Detail) and Bradley cuts it without Ed even noticing. ;
--> Chapter 33, Ed vs Lanfan: he makes a pole, does a few attacks (which are dodged) and then she traps and cuts it. Bye bye.
--> Chapter 39, Al vs Lust: again the same ol' story. Al makes spear, points it at Lust, she cuts it.

Dunno if it's a coincidence or some "hidden" running gag from Arakawa sensei, but the fact is there.

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Possible mistakes/contradictions/plotholes:

Yup, there are. I'm a fanboy too , but, let's face it, no work is perfect. The ones I found:

1- This one is perhaps the "smallest" one, or the one most easily explainable. But still, I think it is, because (my guess is) she made the manga first and the gaiden later. Lessee, when you read the manga, you see that Riza and Winry meet after the failed "mommy transmutation" (chapter 24). Short afterwards, in the Simple People gaiden we see that Riza lets her hair long because of Winry and she gets earrings because of the Lieutenant, and Winry tells the brothers so. BUT, after some time, the 2 of them meet again and Ed and Al say "Best friends?" "But, from when?" (chapter 35), when Winry herself had told them.
Yes, you could just say they had forgotten after 3 years, perfectly possible, and the discussion ends here. But, still, when I read that part in the manga I thought it was nice, a detail, a "wink" to the reader, who knows more than the main characters... and to me that scene lost this little charm after the gaiden, which I love, apart of that. I mean, not that I have a big issue with this. And, in favour to Arakawa sensei I must say that, yes, in fact Winry doesn't wear any earrings until after having met Riza, and she started showing long hair after meeting Winry, so I guess the author had this gaiden in mind when drawing those scenes (a coherence detail, more on this later).
I'm picky, ain't I? ;

2- A rather surprising one, because of the lack of surprise. In chapter 38, page 26 (see page) Al breaks a lock with alchemy. Supposedly, clappy alchemy (why would he lose time to draw a sigil when not needed at all?). Where's the problem? Roy's with them, he HAS to see Al "clappyalcheming" and he says nothing, he's not surprised, he doesn't comment anything, neither at that point nor ever after. Strange, at least.

[attachmentid=1286]

3- This is a mistake either from Arakawa sensei or from Kain Fury (I think it's the former tho', I don't imagine him disobeying a direct order from Mustang himself ). In chapter 38 page 18, when Barry's body appears, Mustang orders Fury to withdraw without leaving any trace behind (where he had all those radios and stuff). Ok. But some time later, chapter 45, Roy and Riza go there to find that he did leave behind something more than "a trace": the radios, the weapons, the spare glasses... everything is still there! How convenient, right?

To Be Continued in Next Post ;

Continuation:

4- Last one, and most interesting. This one may be explained later but I doubt it. And I think it was commented here before. Okay. We found out recently (Ed did) that you cannot bring back the dead, those who don't exist, right? Those made with human transmutation didn't have the bodily features of the dead people, right? Neither Trisha nor Izumi's child had them. Then we turn to the Blind Alchemist gaiden and what do we see? Ooops, "NotRozarie" has the same features as the dead Rozarie (namely, the hair). How come is that? You could say that she thought of this theory after having drawn the gaiden, but I don't think so. After all "FakeTrisha" always had black hair, guess she had it thought from the beginning (no can tell for sure, of course). So, my theory is that it was just a lapsus from the author's part. Also, altho' this is no mistake/whatever (for now), "NotRozarie" is the only human transmutation that has "survived", that is still "alive" (somewhat, she/it moves her/its mouth).
Interesting...

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And finally, details:

Gotta love Arakawa sensei for these. Aplenty of 'em. Some of them were already posted in this forum at some point, but I'll add them for completeness' sake.

Sutaato!

1, Chapter 5, page 5 -- Small one. Armostrong's file appears before his first official appearance in the manga. Coherence detail, that shows the work done before the manga itself. Love these. A better one later.
[attachmentid=1287]

2, Chapter8, page 2 -- Through the train window, in the platform, you can see 2 figures, those of a woman with long hair in a tail, white shirt and black pants, and a big, voluminous man... First appearance of Izumi and Sig, anyone? Coherence detail too.
[attachmentid=1288]

3, Chapter 8, page 11 -- Another small one. See Lust's paper --> "British Naval Commander Murdered" o_O. Funny.
[attachmentid=1289]

4, Chapter 14, page 3 -- This time, yes, first or second appearance (before the "official one" I mean) of Izumi and Sig, looking at the timetable (or whatever) in Central station. Guess what? Yup, coherence detail.
[attachmentid=1290]

5, Chapter 17, page 4 -- Someone said that there's a picture of Bard as an example of automail made in that street shop, but he's not the only one. Don't you know the guy in the picture below? If you have volume 8 or the first PS2 game, you'll do: He's Colonel Gantz (katakana says "Gantsu", guessed the transcription).
[attachmentid=1291]

6, Chapter 21, page 11 -- Damn Evil Genius, they fantranslated just the way opposite as the one I believe more appropriate. That is, overadapting to English instead of just translating for one side, and leaving side text in Japanese so we miss some jokes for the other. Nchts. I'm thankful for the translation tho' . Why this? Because we might have missed funny jokes like the one in this page, last panel: the teacher throws chalks at the Elrics and they stop them whith their books while shouting "Elric Guard!!"
[attachmentid=1292]

7, Chapter 23, page 17 -- In the last panel, you can see that the Elrics (it was probably Hohemheim's -hint, hint-) also have one sigil like the one on the doors in the 5th and the 3rd Lab, and similar to the one in Xerxes. Plot element, I say.
[attachmentid=1293]

Again, TBC in next post

There:

8, Chapter 35, page 7 --
Roy -- Ah, hagane no.
*Ed angry*
Al -- Konnichiwa, Colonel.
Roy -- Why the unhappy face?

Does this dialog sound familiar? It's exactly the same as in chapter 4, page 34. ;
[attachmentid=1294][attachmentid=1295]

9, Chapter 35, page 19 -- Look at the paper Barry is holding. Does the picture look familiar? It's a big fire in some military warehouse. Why the detail? Because when Roy sees this piece of news, he decides that he won't have any trouble with the coroner detecting the decoy, because he knows it'll be Knox, his Ishval comrade, the one doing the autopsy. As he himself says it in chapter 42, pages 26, 27.
See? She (Arakawa sensei) had it all planed all along. This is the coherence detail I love the most.
[attachmentid=1296][attachmentid=1297][attachmentid=1298]

10, Chapter 36 onward -- Another mentioned one, Winry is staying, in the hotel, at room 503. As a reminder, there was this Japanese jeans brand called Edwin (relates to "Ed x Win love") and they put out a jeans model called 503, Levi's' style. That's why the Jap fandom started refering to Ed x Winry scenes as "503", and here Arakawa shows she cares for the fans. Yay!

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Last but not least, Yoki details:

Apparently probably Arakawa sensei's favourite character (at least for cameos), as all these prove:

1, Chapter 16, page 8 -- A sad one maybe. Did Yoki have a child? Maybe, but he'd be dead. That could explain his angry attitude against the world, the poor thing... Look at the leftmost tomb, you can read:
Mazu Yoki II
1862 - 1868
Or similar. With only 4 years died the poor child...
[attachmentid=1299]

2, Chapter 30, page 37 -- Last panel, left. "Missing person" sign. Guess who is he...
[attachmentid=1300]

3, Chapter 34, page 9 -- Left panel, another sign. This one is "Yoki Circus"!
[attachmentid=1301]

4, Chapter 35, page 32 -- And finally the last one. Look at the paper Barry shows to Ross. Apart from the big fire news, down in the left corner, another "missing person" sign.
[attachmentid=1302]

And thassit. Boy was that long, hope you enjoy it.

Arakawa sensei ROCKS!!!!111one

Oh wow! Very thoroughly researched! *grin* Thank you for all this! I like how you included the whole page (and what chapter and page #) so we can really see where these took place.

A few you mentioned I saw, but really didn't think much on it when I first saw them, like seeing Armstrong's file before he actually showed up. But you had quite a few I hadn't seen! Excellent lookout for spoting Sig and Izumi first appearence and all of Yoki's cameos! BTW, do we know what Yoki's first name is? It could be a related child if not his.

I'll of course now be on the lookout for more stuff, but I doubt I will find as many as you have!

Hey. Long time lurker, first time poster.




I sort of read this scene differently, mentally covering up the plothole with the following:

The don't leave a trace order was refering to Riza's lookout. That location was discovered, but the place with the radios/electronics wasn't, or otherwise Gluttony probably would had attacked Fury first (geeks = easy target). Judging from how long it takes Fury and Hayate to reach Riza, the lookout and the place with the radios would have been close, but not exactly next door to each other.

Roy later refers to the location as "Fury's 'secondary residence'" in chapter 45. The equipment and notes about the military's communications network that Fury has could be major evidence if found. Fury lives in the military dorms and in turn there would be a risk of everything being found through room searches, etc. The ideal thing would be to keep it all in another location. Thus the "secondary residence".

Also, it appears that Roy and friends have several locations to stash weapons and supplies throughout the city. They quickly found an apartment to keep Barry in and Roy mentioned to Riza in chapter 47 that there's a vacant house in the suburbs they can regroup at.

Or it could just be a massive black plothole that will suck up the series and the whole fandom, leaving only whispers of a legend called "Fullmetal Alchemist".

WOW!!
So many things I haven't noticed!!
Sensenic-san, you must have worked very hard!!

That's a very good point, yes. No, not the black hole one, the rest

That'd make one plothole less. Good.

No, some of them I had my eye on from a while ago, some others were discovered by somebody else who posted them here (sorry, I don't remember who you were people), like the Curtis couple at Central or Bard as an example at the Rush Valley street shop.
I was just reading the manga for personal enjoyment and just kept writing down every detail I saw.
The hard effort was writing those darn posts and uploading the pics. Arf! Tiresome.

Thank you soo much for posting all of this stuff! I'm really thankfull!
poor Yoki!

I love these kinds of posts (provided it really shows thought), and what you have posted shows it

I agree with that Ed's spears are always useless. I think it's like this spear thing is his opening move before he gets to more effective methods.

On the Riza-Winry relationship, the "best friends-since when" lines from Ed and Al are supposed to reflect their puzzlement at how Riza and Winry can chat up so easily with each other, especially since as Kain himself said once that Riza is a woman who talks very little. Winry and Riza have never met ever since Roy went to Resembool, so to the brothers it is a wonder how two women who never met regularly can talk so easily.

Yes, the manga could have Roy and gang getting surprised at Al's clappy alchemy (definitely clappy since Al later do clappy in the fight against Lust and Riza wasn't surprised either) but I think of it as a missed opportunity rather than a hole. Being experienced military men and knowing that Ed can do clappy, they might only be mildly surprised (as in "gasp, you can do that too, Alphonse?") instead of "AAAHHHHH!!! YOU CAN DO THAT TOO?!" like Barry would have So drawing that in might be considered a waste of time.


Not a mistake, the house Roy and Riza went in chapter 45 is another house, not the one in chapter 38. This could be the new hideout after the hideout in chapter 38 was cleared, or Kain maintains several hideouts across Central in advance, just in case they need some hideout to look around.

About the Rozarie case, one could take the easy way out by saying it is a Gaiden but I'm willing to bet that's not the case. Rozarie is still not a successful human transmutation, the reason being that she's still not human. What you have there is a shriveled human-like cadaver thing with an unknown thing lurking inside. Jude might have transmuted something that looks almost like Rozarie but there's no way to say it is 100% like Rozarie physically. The eyes might be different colors but no one can tell since there is only hollow eye sockets left. The voice might be different due to different voice boxes but the transmute only mumbles so no one can really tell. So 'NotRozarie' is still not Rozarie.

What I would like to know though is if the Homunculi have already also planned to abduct Jude for whatever they plan to do when the time comes.

Now for a real mistake, check out the chess game played between Roy and the Brigadier General of East City. Check out the final position of the chess pieces. There's no way that was a checkmate Arakawa probably never played chess.

Yay, thanks.

Might be.

Oh, I know, I didn't say they should've gone Barryish, but at least (if not then, because of the tension, later) some comment like "Oh? I see you can do clap alchemy too now Al" or similar would've been more logic. It still feels strange noone saying anything about it.

The manga doesn't tell me so...
When Roy sees the tower where Riza was hiding in chapter 38 he thinks of Kain's "secondary residence". That's how Arakawa sensei reminds us about it, so I'd say it's the same one.
Eh... I'd rather go with Teddog's theory, he explains it better than me ;
He'd have just left Riza's and Havoc's hideouts clean (as ordered by Mustang) and brought everything back to the "secondary residence", where he was back then too.

I won't say it, not in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga case. because all of the gaidens are, I think, quite clearly pieces of the whole story (that is, as apparently is the official word for this concept in Internet, they are "canon"), that are just told apart from the main one.

Well, I never said that NotRozarie was human nor that she was Rozarie (I named her NotRozarie, after all -hint, hint - ), but that she/it had some of Rozarie's bodily features (the hair and, I forgot then, the height), whereas none of the other 2 cases we know had, because you can't bring back the dead, blah, blah, blah...

Oufff, I thought of it but just didn't care to take a deep look at it. Neither I think Arakawa sensei did. You're more detailist than me and the author ;
And I've seen worst cases of "fake" chess games.

Here's a mistake that I just remembered. It's a rather obscure one that would likely only be noticed by people who are as nerdy as my family is. XD

[attachmentid=1361]

My brother explained this to me over AIM shortly after I had finished up with the translating. The method that Roy claims to use, oxygen toxicity, is only effective at depths. (And I assure you that this isn't a translation error; putting the Japanese term [酸素酔い] into Google gave me a myriad of Japanese diving sites, and then after a little bit more research I found that the appropriate English diving term is "oxygen toxicity.") Oxygen is not toxic above sea level. XD;

My brother said that the reason that breathing pure oxygen is bad is because your body gets too used to it (?? not really sure what he meant by that), but it would take a crazy long amount of time for what Roy is attempting to actually work. As in, like, several hours.

Thus, the conclusion that we can come up with this is that Arakawa made a mistake, or that oxygen is toxic in Amestris. :D


EDIT: Heee, this is post number hyakugojuuichi~ XD *immensely amused* Forgive me, I've been watching Animutation flash videos for the past few days.

OMG!!! That was great!!!!!!! I would never be able to notice such small details!!! that was excellent!! Kepp up with the good work!!

Actually there could be another explanation for their lack of surprise.
Al fought against the Xings before and use clappy against Who ( what a name ).
Who will definitely tell Lin and Ranfun about it.
Now the Xings are collaborating with Mustang, exchanging information.
Likely Mustang would have heard about the Elrics from the Xings and got to know of Al using clappy against Who.

Wow! great details. some of them I hadn't seen at all! I *heart* Arakawa-sensei too!! l0l

Anyway, on the Winry/Riza friendship thing... I saw it more of "Since when were they friends?" was asked because the only time the brothers saw them together was back in Rizenbul after the human transmutation.
And in relation to the gaiden, I think they could "easily talk together" because each had "secretly" "inspired" the other. So I still think it was a charming/cute scene. -shrugs- just my opinion on it

Keep up the watch! I'll try to find more details too!