Plato and Manga

Amy

Fullmetal Alchemist is a shounen manga and anime series, which, in a genre known for its fast-moving plot lines, action-packed fight scenes, and little else of substance, stands out as a thought-provoking masterpiece. It’s no coincidence that the show where the two main characters are pursuing the philosophers stone has a great deal of philosophical commentary. Here, I’ll be discussing about a huge similarity between a theme in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Plato’s system of beliefs.

Just to bring anyone who doesn’t know the plot up to speed, it follows two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who foolishly attempted the forbidden practice of human transmutation in order to bring their dead mother back to life. However, it not only failed, but causes Edward to lose his leg, and Alphonse to lose his whole being. Edward then sacrifices his arm to reclaim his brother’s soul and bond it to a suit of armour, with the result leaving Edward with half his limbs gone and Alphonse trapped in an inhuman body.

So, you’re probably wondering how any of this links to Plato. Well, when Ed and Al performed human transmutation, they were both taken to the Gate of Truth. And in that moment, we can take a look at the clues. Truth’s realm is a stark white, a seemingly empty dimension, except for his physical form and the Gate of Truth, that somehow contains the entirety of all knowledge. His physical form is odd. It’s simply a white silhouette of whatever character is, at that moment, currently visiting. Moreover, in some cases, he possesses some of the features that he’s borrowed from his visitors, like when he appeared before Edward while wearing his lost arm and leg. This suggests that the faces which Truth takes on aren’t his own at all. They’re all just reflections of the desires of the characters who visit his plane.

And why does this relate to Plato’s beliefs? In a number of his dialogues, Plato discusses his Theory of Forms, a fundamental concept in his philosophy that attempts to explain the nature of reality and knowledge. According to this theory, there are two different worlds or levels of reality. These are the world of appearances, which is the physical world we inhabit and perceive through our senses, and the world of Forms, which is the perfect, eternal realm of abstract ideas and concepts.

Plato argued that for every object or concept in our physical world, there exists a corresponding perfect Form in this higher realm. These Forms are the true essence of things, while the physical objects we see are merely imperfect copies or shadows of these ideal Forms. For example, while we may see many different chairs in our world, each varying in shape and size, Plato would argue that there exists a perfect, abstract Form of "chairness" that all physical chairs imperfectly imitate.

We see a manifestation of this in Fullmetal Alchemist, with Truth. Humans who commit the taboo of human transmutation are dragged to the world where Truth resides and gain knowledge proportional to their sacrifice. Now, look at the world where Truth inhabits. It’s seemingly empty, but is actually full of more than what humans could ever likely understand. And this is because the only things naturally present in this world are ideas or facts, just like how there are no sensible things present in the world of forms, only abstract concepts and ideas which are reflected upon the world of appearances.

Throughout the series, it is very vague as to what Truth really is. He’s rarely present, but every appearance of his leads to huge consequences. He’s seemingly neutral, but his actions shake the entire narrative. Yet the world where he lives seems to almost be a visual representation of the world of forms, the world in which, as Plato describes, God lives.

And by incorporating this Platonic concept into the narrative, into the unravelling of one of the biggest mysteries of the series, Fullmetal Alchemist elevates its storytelling beyond typical shounen tropes, cementing its status as one of the most compelling series of all time.