The-strangest-thing-happened - It's Brute Force!

Fullmetal alchemist 2003 EP25 : Words of Farewell [Hughes ' Funeral]

100 - happy birthday reigen arataka (thank you)

watching the emi episode makes me kick and giggle my feet

every once in a while i remember my “???% only appears when mob sustains fatal injuries that otherwise would have killed him because it’s the only time his will supersedes his desire to repress it” theory/headcanon and make myself sad

ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR FOLKS

He got a makeover. No more star, but he has lights

Shigeo and Mob omitted scene dialogue translation

I felt like the way some of the dialogue in the MP100 manga during the Confession Arc “No one will save me” scene (not included in anime) was a little confusing, so I got my hands on the raws for that chapter and translated it from the Japanese to English to get a better feel for it.

Translation under the cut! (It’s long)

This scene happens in the manga directly before Reigen’s scenes start. It’s basically Shigeo’s internal dialogue that happens as Serizawa and Reigen are attempting to reach Shigeo using the umbrella as a shield. It’s also one of my top three scenes in the entire manga and I was crushed it wasn’t included in the anime.

But! The translated dialogue can be pretty confusing. The subject matter is already a bit abstract and nebulous, and it’s made even harder to fully grasp translated out of its original language. It’s the curse of translated media to always be slightly less clear than the source material. This is why I wanted to go and translate the Japanese myself.

The first page I translated is this one:

Below is the translated dialogue, separated by speech bubble, going right to left and top to bottom:

Mob: なぜこんなことを？— Why do something like this?

Shigeo: 僕のためだ。— For me.

Shigeo: やりたいことをやるためだ。— To do what I want to do.

Shigeo: 僕は僕のためにいる。— I am here for my own sake.

Shigeo: 僕には僕が必要なんだ。— I need myself.

Shigeo: 車にはねられたのを覚えているか？ — Do you remember being hit by a car?

Shigeo: そして身体だけじゃ動けなくなった。— After that, I couldn’t move with just my body.

Shigeo: だから意思で動くしかない。— So I had no choice but to move with my will.

Mob: 何を言っているんだ。お前は僕の意思じゃないよ。— What are you talking about? You’re not my will!

Shigeo: わかってないな。それが偽物だっていうんだ。— You don’t understand, do you? I’m saying that it’s not true.

Shigeo: ツボミちゃんに会いに行くための強い気持ちがあるだろう。— You have strong feelings about going to meet Tsubomi-chan, don’t you?

Shigeo: 僕にとってそれはとても大事なものだ。— To me, that is a very important thing.

Mob: そんなもの… こんなに人に迷惑かけてまですることじゃない。お前の考えは普通じゃないよ。— Something like that… isn’t worth making trouble for people like this. Your mindset isn’t normal!

Shigeo: 普通ってなんだ？またそうやって僕そのものを否定するのか？What’s “normal”? Are you going to keep denying me like that?

Shigeo: アンタはいつもそうやって納得したつもりになってた。— You were always pretending you understood like that.

Shigeo: そして割りを食うのはいつも僕だ。— And it was always me who scraped by as a percentage.

Shigeo: このままアンタが壊れて消えれば… — At this point, if you break apart and disappear…

Shigeo: もう僕は我慢しなくていい。— I won’t have to endure it anymore.

Shigeo: 僕の好きにやらせてもらう。— I will be able to do as I please. 

Mob: 自分勝手に力を速って… — Using my powers for selfish reasons…

Mob: 誰かに迷惑をかけることが「自由」なのか？— and making problems for everybody… Is that “freedom”?

Mob: 僕はそんなことを求めて生きてない！— That’s not what I want, or what I’m living for!

Shigeo: 誰かって誰た？誰に迷惑がかかるんだ? — Who is “everybody”? Who are you making trouble for?

Mob: え… — Uh…

Shigeo: 誰なんだよ。— Who??

Shigeo: その誰かが僕を幸せにしてくれるのか？— Will those people bring me happiness?

Shigeo: いつか助けてくれるのか？— Will they save me someday?

Shigeo: 思い出すんだ。Remember.

Shigeo: …いつも僕を助けてたのは…僕だろう。— …The one who always saved me… was me.

Shigeo: そんなこと… 利用されてたんだよ。— You always used me… for that sort of thing.

Shigeo: しかもそれをわかってて喜んでた。なぜ？— And yet, knowing that, you were pleased. Why?

Shigeo: 臆病だからだよ。自分の行動に…力に…責任を持ちたくないから… — Because you’re a coward. Because you don’t want to be responsible for your actions… your power…

Shigeo: だから他人のためにしか自分の力を使わない… — So you only use your power for the sake of others…

Shigeo: でも力を認めて受け入れてもらえるのは嬉しかった。なせ？— But you were happy that your powers were acknowledged and accepted. Why?

Shigeo: 力を使う僕こそ本当の僕だから。— Because the me that uses my powers is the real me.

Mob: 違う。力は関係ない。力がなくたって僕は僕だ。— That’s wrong. Power is irrelevant. Even without power, I am me.

Shigeo: 関係ある。力があってこその僕だ。— It is relevant. It’s precisely because of power that I am me.

Shigeo: 自分の本性を、裏を、半分を、隠して安心？— Does it give you peace of mind, hiding your true nature, your hidden side, half of yourself?

Shigeo: 嘘だな。— It’s a lie.

Shigeo: 自分に嘘をついたまま長いこと忘れちゃってたんだよ。— Telling yourself lies for such a long time like that, you ended up forgetting.

Shigeo: 部活に入って自分を変ようとしたけどそんなのは無理だ。— You tried to change yourself by joining your club, but that’s not possible.

Shigeo: 簡単に新しい自分を作ろうとしてるだけ。— You’re simply trying to fabricate a new self.

Shigeo: 一番難しい問題を先送りにして努力した元気になってるんだよ「モブ」は。— You tried to put off the most difficult problem by working out and getting fit, “Mob”.

Shigeo: ずーっと… 僕を見てなかった。— You didn’t look at me… for a very long time.

Mob: だって… もしこれが本当の僕の姿だっていうなら… — That’s because… if this is my true form…

Mob: 本当の僕になんて誰も近寄られない。誰も… — If this is the real me, no one will want to be near me. No one…

Mob: 誰も助けてくれない。そんなの嫌だ… — No one will save me. I hate it…

Shigeo: 本当は僕は誰も信用していない。まあ…律はわかってくれたみたいだけど。— The truth is, I don’t trust anyone. Well… Ritsu seemed to get it, though.

Shigeo: こうやって暴れる僕だって本当の僕だ。— The one violently raging like this is the true me.

Shigeo: まだ認めたくないの？— Don’t you want to admit it already?

Shigeo: まだ逃げるのか… — You’re still running away…

Shigeo: 本当に弱い… — You really are weak…

Shigeo: だから認めるんだ。これが僕だ。— Admit it. This is me.

Shigeo: 誰も助けてくれない。No one will save me.

Shigeo: それならそれでいい。それが僕だから。— If so, that’s fine. It’s me, after all.

Shigeo: 次に目覚めたときは僕は僕になってる。— When next I open my eyes, I will become me. 

Shigeo: さようなら、モブ。— Goodbye, Mob.

———-

Notes:

1) In the most widely-used scanlation, this line:

Shigeo: そして割りを食うのはいつも僕だ。— And it was always me who scraped by as a percentage.

is translated as:

Shigeo: “And it always put me at a disadvantage.”

It’s generally correct, but I think it loses some of the impact that the original, seemingly very intentional wording has. 割り means “percentage” or “proportion” in this sense, and 食う, though most widely used as a masculine slang word for “to eat”, has a secondary usage meaning “to survive/to make a living (through hardship)” My version of this line is not the most strictly dictionary-accurate one but I feel like it captures the feeling well, which is the point of translation when done well.

2) The line:

Mob: 誰も助けてくれない。そんなの嫌だ… — No one will save me. I hate it…

is translated in the scanlation as:

“No one will save me. I don’t want that…”

This is still technically correct, but I’ve always thought 「嫌」 to be a bit stronger than that. It’s most often used to express dislike of something, so it’s correct to say “I don’t like it…” but it’s also the kanji used in 嫌い (I hate…), and it makes more sense to me to think of it as “I hate it” because it also parallels Ritsu’s “嫌いだ/ I hate it” statement in his vs ??? sequence.

Anyway, sorry this was so long! I hope it makes sense. I feel like it cleared up a few of the murkier statements for me.

A list of interesting vocab used here, for Japanese language learners:

偽物　「にせもの」：(n) counterfeit, imitation, sham

迷惑をかける　「めいわく」：to cause trouble (for someone), to bother, to inconvenience

否定　「ひてい」：denial, disavowal, repudiation

我慢する　「がまん(する)」：to endure, to bear with (something)

臆病　「おくびょう」：cowardly, timid (kanji literally means “timidity sickness”)

近寄る　「ちかよる」：to approach, to draw near

暴れる　「あばれる」：to act violently, to rage, to be riotous

Just one of countless pictures the Mustangs received over the years ;3

Roy and Riza vs defeated idealism.

Roy and Riza's journey in Fullmetal Alchemist is the struggle of the naive idealism of youth against the cynical realism of adulthood. At the core of their characters there is a tenet: that Alchemy — or rather power — should be used for the benefit of the people. Like many things in FMA there is an irony in this. This belief that's so crucial to their characters is something they inherited from someone who, in a way, represents the antithesis of this idea.

Berthold Hawkeye.

The Manga goes out of its way to tell us this is something Behold believed in and passed on to them. First when Roy uses it to justify why he joined the military, and then when Riza admits that she believed in her father's words.

The thing is that there is a dissonance between Berthold's teachings and his character's actions. Berthold is a recluse living away from the people his hoarded knowledge is supposed to help. Roy and Riza know this, and they call him out on it.

They both fervently believe in Berthold's teaching, and they don't understand why he's so adamantly against putting it to practice. When they join the military they don't do so to spite him, they do so because they believe in what he preaches, so much so that they want to prove his cynicism wrong.

The problem is that Berthold is right.

He's sooo freaking right.

Their government is corrupt. All that talk about protecting their people is pure propaganda. His cynicism is the pain of someone who was burned too much by the world's cruelty. Berthold is an idealist that has given up, much like Hohenheim before Trisha. He is someone that once wished to help people, and probably came to the same painful realization that Roy and Riza eventually had in Ishval. The path to hell can be paved with good intentions, and sometimes you're completely powerless to do anything about it.

Now, what makes Riza and Roy such great characters, is the fact that instead of falling into despair and secluding themselves like Berthold did, they decide to fight back and continue clawing at the world with their own — no longer so naive — idealism. They have seen where defeat leads to, and they refuse to walk that path.

My favorite example of Roy's acceptance of both Berthold's teaching, as well as his rejection of Berthold's character, is his conversation with Hughes in Ishval.

This conversation is such a beautiful call back to Berthold telling Roy that alchemists die when they cease to think. This is Roy doubling down, acknowledging that yes he was naive — the world is a much more complicated and painful place than he realized — but still he refuses to give up on the face of reality like Berthold did. Where Berthold accepted his fate, as a man who was already dead inside, Roy and Riza continue to struggle to survive.

Berthold might have taught Roy and Riza that power should be used for good, but his biggest lesson to them was perhaps serving as an example of what happens when you allow your dreams and hope to die.

Ps. This thematic of children following on their parent/mentor footsteps and surpassing them is constant on FMA. Winry being a mechanic like her grandma and deciding to be like her parents by forgiving Scar. Ed and Al becoming alchemist like Hohenheim, but also embracing their familiar bonds and continue to help people despite their trauma. Ling Yao becoming emperor and dismantling the infighting his father had promoted. Scar embracing his brother's alchemy and dream. It is then fitting that Roy and Riza also inherited something from Berthold and then surpassed him.

ground me ground you

mobdonalds (more below the cut)

Can it be considered fanart if it involves the collective effort of 4 almost-uni-students spending 1.5h at a local mcdonalds cutting up nori, arranging fries and artfully using ketchup packets to recreate the faces of mp100 characters?

Further info on our reasoning behind the type of food used for each character:

(All in good fun, we were just goofing around with our food)

Mob is a double cheeseburger while Ritsu is a normal cheeseburger - this is due to Ritsu's feelings of inferiority

Haystack Teru gets some nice fries for his hair for that golden crispy look

Reigen is the plumpest juiciest burger with the nicest bun because. You know.

Shou... I'm so sorry Shou you deserved better (ignore how it looks like a crime scene)