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followmetoyourdoom · 2 years

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Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Casting Choices

As a disclaimer, I will be focusing on the actor and the English VAs and only on certain ones that stood out for me, for good or for bad

The Great

Keisuke Watanabe & Todd Haberkorn as Ling Yao - absolutely phenomenal, Keisuke is perfect for the role in both acting and looks. Costume, hair and makeup design was perfect too. Even when he becomes greed, everything is still so spot on. I wish we could have seen more of Greedling in the 3rd film. Todd as always does an amazing job with his voice, no flaws, he is Ling Yao.

Seiyô Uchino & ??? as Van Hohenheim - Seiyô was fantastic, the best iteration of Hohenheim I've seen. I prefer him to the brotherhood version. Seiyô plays him as a father who doesn't know how to be a father but is still trying and still fundamentally cares. He looks the part, he acts the part, his facial expressions are spot on. The VA (who I cannot find the name of, apologies) was pretty good. Nothing that stood out, but they did work perfectly together.

The Good

Tsubasa Honda & Caitlin Glass as Winry Rockbell - Tsubasa's acting was pretty decent, though a little over the top at times. The scene where she told Al off however was perfect. I do wish the costume & make up designers had let her lean more into her mechanic side. They made her a little too girly girl and while Winry does embrace her feminine side, she also embraces her mechanic side and I did struggle to see that. Caitlin was great as usual, she delivered some of the lines differently and some very similar. I almost cried at 'give them back, give me back my mum and dad'.

Ryôsuke Yamada & Caleb Yen as Edward Elric - Ryôsuke makes for a very good Ed, the facial expressions he pulls are great, his attitude is perfectly Ed, and when he needs to be soft he is. Caleb Yen needed to step in as the new VA after the first film for obvious reasons. I personally struggled with the change, but it was a change that needed to happen and overall I'm happy with how Caleb made his own version of Ed's voice. I enjoyed the 'huuuh???'s immensely.

The Meh

Dean Fujioka & Steve Phelan as Roy Mustang - Dean was... Okay. But he was a little expressionless at times. Hair wasn't right either. Steve again, was okay but just, didn't really get the gravitas of Roy for me. Together they did a decent job of a military man, but he wasn't always recognisable as Roy Mustang.

Atom Mizuishi & Matthew Moy as Alphonse Elric - We only see a little bit of Atom at the end and yeah he's decent enough, it works. Matthew did better than Aaron Dismuke in my opinion bc of the voice change from Brotherhood to the live action. I'm sure it was the age difference between when they recorded it which, understandable, can't help that, but I just didn't like the new voice Aaron picked. Matthew did better, but only just. It kinda worked when Al was in his armour. It did not work when he was Atom. At all.

The Bad

Mackenyu Arata & Parry Shen as Scar - I had no issues with the acting of Mackenyu, my main issue is with the casting in general. They did brown face. They didn't need to do brown face. Why did they do that. Just. Oh my god. Why. Everything else was fine, the acting, the costume, the voice acting but just... *sighs* Really guys?

Chiaki Kuriyama & ??? as Olivia Mira Armstrong - Now, Chiaki did amazing, looks the part, acts the part, etc... Moving on: Olivia is in this category bc of her English voice actor who I cannot find the name of. Her voice was completely wrong, she was straining to be powerful enough and the rest of the time her voice was too soft. Olivia isn't soft. You cannot get someone with a soft voice for her. None of her lines hit. She hesitated at times when Olivia wouldn't and it just. It was bad. She'd be in the terrible category if not for Chiaki.

The Terrible

Kanata Hongô & Brian Anderson as Envy - oh boy. Kanata... Kanata's acting was... Lacking, to say the least. He played Envy as more emo and uncaring, when in fact Envy is supposed to be batshit insane and constantly being a little shit and grinning or snarling when things suddenly aren't going his way. Brain was okay, he was trying, but he had limited expressions to work with, and his voice was too deep in my opinion and not snarky enough. For Envy's true form they got the voice right, but that was mere seconds, if that. Overall, very disappointed.

Monroe Ron & Risa Mei as May Chang - my main gripe is that, not only did they hire a person in their late 20s to play an 11 y/o child, but then that actor wasn't even that good. Sure she played the part, but she never felt like May. The costume hair and makeup were great, yet this still felt like a fan doing a very good cosplay without stepping into the roleplay aspect of it. Idk what child actor laws are like in Japan, but surely they could have gotten someone better at acting to at least warrant the age up if they needed an adult. Risa was fine, again, worked with what she had, though her voice was a liiiil too ear hurty for me.

#fma #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist live action #fma:la #fullmetal alchemist the revenge of scar #fullmetal alchemist the last transmutation

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