Thank you Arakawa sensei

Being a fan of FMA for 7 years, I attempted to imitate Arakawa style for 4 to 5 years, spent the next 2 or 3 years trying to break away from the style. Surprisingly, I took much less effort to recreate this style compared to the past, and it came out even closer to original than what i used to do.


Wall of text ahead, don't have to read it all really... u///u

Quite a number of years since I got into FMA... from the time when I was a 14 year old. It was pretty much my only obsession of that time. The obesssion that only can be shared on the internet, because there was nobody in real life that I can share my interest with. Everyone treated me like a freak. This series was my companion, was also my life savior. For those long agonising few years of secondary school life.

I never really expected myself to even build my own art style through imitating Arakawa's art style. Not many other anime or manga has had so much influence on me, which has become something that I would use to identify myself. For a period of time everyone would describe my drawing style as "FMA style", and as I felt the need to have a more independent style, I felt that it wasn't a good thing that my drawing style is identified as an imitation of someone else's creation. But no doubt, Arakawa's influence has greatly affected me, her art, her storytelling style, has become a major part of my life. There is no way I can 'escape' it, so I went with the flow, and somehow brought it with me in my life.

Another reason why I am so grateful for Arakawa, and for her manga series, was for the morales it taught me. It gave me hope, the hope that kept me from the idea of suicide to run away from something as minor as daily verbal abuse in school. Really, now that i think about it, the 'bullying' I experienced really wasn't too bad. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. The series gave me courage and strength, and also tolerance. What Scar's teacher told him, also reminded me to endure through the pain, suppress the desire to seek revenge. Sure I held quite some hatred for the people who brought pain upon me... a couple of times I really wished I could murder them. But I held back the idea. The manga series has shown me the ugly side of humans, but it also encouraged positive traits and attitude to deal with drawbacks in life.

Actually I'm sure there are many other manga series that contains as much awesomeness as this series, or maybe more. But this series was the one that went through the earlier parts of my life, it was like a companion to me, an old friend.

Now, I am going through a different stage in life. I got to know many more new friends, and interests. I guess it really is about time to say: Good bye.

Good bye, Fullmetal Alchemist!

I'm still following your new series though, sensei!! XD

To watchers/viewers: Care to share why you followed this series and how you started?