Engineering in the Media (III) – Full Metal Alchemist

Well, I’ve covered material depicting a North American perspective, so I suppose it’s time I go over to the other side of the world and see how engineers are depicted there. I figure that a European/Australian media would be somewhat similar to what is seen over here, so I’ll take a look at Asian media, more specifically, Manga and Anime (Japanese comics and cartoons respectively).

These mediums have their own fair share of crazy characters and themes, ranging from fights with fantasy monsters to Intergalactic spaceships to high school themed dramas. One of the few series I can recall that actually had an engineer in it is titled “Full Metal Alchemist”.

The world that the characters live in, Amestris, is a parallel one from our own, where alchemy, as a science, triumphed over science as we know it today (though their version of alchemy is just slightly short of magic in our terms). At a glance, it appears that they’re able to make things out of this air, or shoot fireballs and stones at will. However, what they’re actually doing is reconstructing matter at the molecular level, with the assistance of “Transmutation circles” (see picture below), which is the basis behind the fundamental law in alchemy, the law of equivalent exchange – “to obtain, something of equal value must be lost”.

A Transmutation Circle

Essentially, what they have is a much more advanced (and cooler) form of chemistry than we do.

Although alchemy plays a huge role in this world, engineers have not been completely made obsolete. One character by the name of Winry works as an automail engineer. Basically put, automail is an advanced prosthetic limb (the limb is hooked up to the user’s nervous system so they can use it like an actual limb) made of a steel like material. Winry is capable of both making and repairing automail, in addition to having a knack for machinery in general. In short, she’s a mechanical engineer.

Winry Rockbell from Full Metal Alchemist

Yet again “science” is glorified to be much more interesting, and advanced as engineering is (not to say engineering is many times more difficult than science, but each have their own respective pros and cons).

The only element of engineering covered in the series is automail, and it seems like it’s downplayed to being similar to repairing a car. I’m not sure about the people in this other world, but having to reconnect all the nerves in someone’s arm is no easy feat. I suppose it wouldn’t make good entertainment to watch the protagonist scream in pain for several hours during the operation, but given the difficulty in the line of work, a little more credit would be nice. Not to say that rearranging all the molecules of an object is easy either, but from what is shown, it gives the impression that by doing some research, clapping your hands together, and placing them on a intricately drawn circle (see video below for examples) is much more difficult than working with automail (of course being able to draw out this circle takes a bit of knowledge and skill on it’s own, it still doesn’t seem like that complex of an art).



Also, because of the utility of alchemy (one can repair a broken radio say so long as all the parts are present), engineering is further seen as useless as alchemy can probably do it much better. This element can especially be seen when the protagonist is brought into our world (more specifically to Germany in the years leading up to the Second World War), as the impression that is given is that he has been sent back to a more primitive time.

This isn’t to say that Full Metal Alchemist isn’t a good series – I would have to say it’s one of my favourites. However, it would be nice if the engineering material in the series was given a little more credit than it has gotten. As I have only seen the anime, I don’t quite know what the situation is like in the magna – this would be a good excuse as any to start reading it. =D