For those of you who don’t know manga terminology, I’m going to take a moment to explain it to some of you (manga geeks like me; bear with me). First and foremost, manga is a style of Japanese comic books, typically read from left to right. There are two main types of manga: shonen and shojo. Shonen is manga targeted for a young male audience, whereas shojo is targeted for teenage girls. And I don’t know what angers me more–the fact that there’s even a distinction between these two mangas (google it, you’ll see), or the fact that the manga supposedly written for girls is mainly about romance, while all of the action takes place in the shonen category.

        I enjoy all kinds of manga, but all of these gender labels have got to go. In fact, one of my favorite manga series, Fullmetal Alchemist, is actually a shonen. And guess what, boys? It was written and illustrated by the talented Hiromi Arakawa.

        Hiromi actually made her pen name “Hiromu” so that people wouldn’t discriminate when contemplating on whether to buy her books or not. Even now, people are still surprised when they find out Fullmetal Alchemist was written by a woman. Hiromi voiced her opinion on the matter:

       “It is often said that women are better to talk about emotions, to write dialogues that hit the nail hard on the head, and men know how to create stories with twists and turns. As for me, I think it’s difficult today to make a distinction between genres. Some men are really able to imagine sensitive and complex characters, while some women are able to create sometimes violent action scenes. Nowadays, each writer has their own specialty. It doesn’t matter if they’re a man or a woman.” 

         And she is absolutely right. Arakawa is a master at creating intriguing plots, action-packed scenes and memorable characters.

        Fullmetal Alchemist revolves  around two alchemist brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who try to bring their dead mother back to life using a forbidden technique called Human Transmutation. Not only was the transmutation unsuccessful, but it also rebounded on the boys, causing Edward to lose his left leg and right arm and Alphonse to lose his entire physical body. Using his own blood, Edward drew a transmutation circle on an empty suit of armor and bonded his brother’s soul to it. Edward’s lost limbs are replaced with artificial limbs called automail (just think of Luke Skywalker) and together with his little brother, Alphonse, the brothers embark on a difficult journey to recover their bodies.

Aside from its amazing plot, what I especially love about Fullmetal Alchemist is the strong female characters. Three dimensional characters like Riza Hawkeye and Winry Rockbell play crucial roles to the story and serve more than just the heroes’ sidekicks. Although the women are not alchemists, they are skilled at other things like engineering and using sidearms. Riza’s maturity and experience at combat help Colonel Roy Mustang  gain enough confidence to ask her to be his bodyguard. And Winry’s top-notch performance at building automail limbs have saved Edward’s life countless times. Let’s face it, without his mechanical limbs, Edward wouldn’t have been able to do half of the amount of things he’d done (like sneak into the fifth laboratory). Point is, girls rule and boys are, ironically, the damsels in distress despite being the main characters.

Although none of the twenty-seven volumes are worth any accelerated reading points, immersing yourself in the Fullmetal world is honestly it’s own reward.