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Discussion Guidelines
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Spoiler Courtesy
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Time for what’s sure to be a completely uneventful train ride.
Though, Team Mustang finally shows up. Unfortunately, most of them go unnamed in this chapter. (Fun fact: they’re all named for military vehicles or weapons.)
I never noticed too. In my defence it seems they are US military terms. My first thought when I hear Mustang is about cars/horses I didn’t know that a plane named like this existed. Sources say the Roy’s team all named after aircrafts. It’s actually interesting if their purpose is correlating to the characters.
There is some correlation I believe to functionality.
I understand they are all named after military things, but not necessarily consistently; Hughes for example I think is named after a specific vessel, not a class of vehicle etc, whereas Mustang and Hawkeye are named after planes.
Late series spoilers interestingly I just noted that Hawkeye has a character relationship spoiler in her naming theme…
Yeah, once the action started going it was much easier than the previous chapter.
Impressions
I’m surprised by how little exposition/arc setting there was in this volume, it feels super “short” as a result even though it’s normal 単行本 format. The last two chapters were basically self-contained episodic stories. I’m not complaining, it’s just unexpected for me so early in a series.
Also it’s only with the final page and the reveal of the 焰の錬金術師 that I realized that 鋼の錬金術師 was not (only?) in relation to his metal body but rather that most of his alchemy centers around metal/steel. I really got baited by the fact that Alphonse is, literally, a “full metal alchemist” which is even pointed out in a joke in the first chapter.
I know that there’s probably going to be an offshoot club and I already have the 2nd volume so I will probably do it but I’m also a bit torn because I feel like I would enjoy this more in a year or so when my general vocab knowledge has improved a bit. It’s right at the edge of my abilities at this point, I have to do a lot of lookups and even the grammar is giving me trouble at times.
Same. In truth, I already dropped out after week 2, but I’m still in denial about it. I got too many other bookclubs as it is and somehow it’s always this one where I keep falling more and more behind, because it’s the slowest read for me. I guess I won’t join the offshot club and instead slowly read volume 1 at my own pace.
I knew nothing about Full Metal Alchemist before this except that it was famous. It hasn’t really grabbed me yet, but it’s so widely beloved that I want to stick with it a while longer. I agree that there is surprisingly little exposition/background info in this first volume, so I’m curious how much more we will get in the upcoming volume(s).
I also find it frustratingly hard to read at times. I thought my Japanese was fairly good by now, but heh, I guess not I’m hoping it’s just a matter of getting used to the writing style. I’m sure it will get better after a volume or ten
I could see this getting more fun as we spend more time with some of these characters. In this first volume, there was a bit much of a focus on bad guys who are (at this point) just “random” bad guys to me. I also have a feeling that this manga will find its groove a bit more as we go along.
Knowing the story already was a major leg up since i was basically just connecting plot beats and when i got stuck i could refer to my English copy. So yeah, this was definitely on the edge of my abilities - probably about a perfect level for this club i think
Marginally but I’ve been reading it for 11 vols now so I’m fairly used to the vocab and general direction. I think it’ll be okay with the vocab sheet, if i get around to filling it out
It’s worth noting in the remake anime they actually skip the latter two stories in this volume entirely, which might give you a sense of their overall narrative importance
I’m hoping it’s just a matter of getting used to the writing style. I’m sure it will get better after a volume or ten 
