Season 1 - Production Notes
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ura_hagarenFrom the Vol. 1 fanbook, 2/28/2004 + Online Production Desk Web Diary
Director Mizushima Seiji's column:
Mizushima notes that he has been working on the Hagaren world for about one year now, and the series has been airing for three months. At this point, he is going over the finale with the story editor, and doing the check-ups on the turning point at the middle of the series, and keeping an especially close watch on the animation directors and keeping in contact with them so that the quality doesn't fall even when there are staff shortages. Because of having such a heavy hand in all parts of the series, it's left a heavy impression on him as a whole to this point, but of particular strength have been episodes one and seven. Receiving favorable reviews from the producers on the first episode, where they were really groping in the dark to build up everything gave him relief and confidence that he was doing it right. As for episode 7, it was a test to see how much of the depths of human darkness he could express. There was a big response to that, that a parent could do something like that to their child. So, he says, of course as the director he would think that is an episode meant to leave an impression.
Producer Oyama Yoshi's column:
"Since I'm doing a column, I think that I would like to focus on what hasn't been talked about much first, namely the music that connects the series. While reading the manga and the scripts, the Fullmetal Alchemist world has a European atmosphere and pace, but the setting also includes alchemy, and furthermore there are the Homunculi, automail, chimera, it takes place in a military state with racial/territorial segregation, there's religion and a lot of others themes to carry. So while it definitely calls for a classical taste, it also creates an image calling for string, wood, brass and percussion instruments, a full orchestra's worth. Furthermore, I thought it'd be nice if the head composer could be a woman. Given we're a studio said to make everything "full of old men" you may ask why. Ed and Al committed the taboo to revive their mother, they're supported by Winry and their master (and of course Pinako, too!) so I thought that there were extraordinary women with a strong presence. Once I had that image in my head, a certain name quickly came to mind. Therefore, we are going with Oshima Michiru-san's music."
Misc:
There's also an article plugging the first PS2 game (Tobenai Tenshi) and how it's based on the manga, being in production back before the anime was decided on in 2002, and mentioning how it's got a lot of action and shows an unseen side of Lieutenant Hawkeye. A monthly Gangan Furoku has a DVD promoting the game, stating it officially takes place in the manga, and has Paku and Kugimiya playing the game and reading some of the lines (the first game was not full voiced), and then reading each other's lines. There's another article plugging the radio show (Hagaren Housouykyoku). Lastly, there's an article explaining the epaulets and rank insignias for the series.
On the next page is a description of how anime is made in a studio, from scenarios to continuity to the drawings to the coloring to the scanning to the recording to the final print, but nothing particularly relevant to FMA itself.
There's a shot of the pictures Nina draws in episode 7.
"Those pictures were actually drawn by one of the staff member's children." There's also a kind of devious crayon drawing of Tucker with some red blob thing. "Unfortunately, this picture wasn't used in the anime. It has a different feel from the other pictures, but that in itself lends it a unique taste." (Scans to come).
Yoshihiro Oyabu of Bones studio did most of the updates for the FMA blog that ran during FMA's syndication.
In his first blog, he received the first blue-print sketches from the director for the first episode and suddenly felt like he was working on a G****m series for the fact that he couldn't give Al expressions, and because they didn't need to worry about lip flap. So he pressed the character designer on how he was going to deal with that, to which the character designer responded brightly and cheerfully: "It's fine! Armor can emote, too! Images are but one way to do it!!" And come to think of it, he thinks Mizushima said something similar once, And so, speaking of other ways to reflect character, he talks about Al's voice. When he read the manga, he ended up picturing Al's voice as that of an old man; this was a common reading of it, apparently, as a few other staff members felt the same way (including Armstrong's seiyuu Utsumi Kenji who, upon seeing Ohkawa Tohru (Roy) in the studio their first day, said 'Oh, Ohkawa-kun you're the armor?'). Oyabu was so convinced that Al should be an old man like Quent from Wolf's Rain that he couldn't make room for another Al in his mind; he said that's to be expected for a studio known for loving Old Men. So which would have more of an impact, a stern faced, old man armor or a boy soprano? The studio was in discussion over it with each other and checking with Arakawa. Later, he made a post stating that he no longer had a problem with hearing Al as an old man because every voice in the series he now heard as director, Mizushima, which made him very glad FMA wasn't a moe anime. There was a picture of Hawkeye from the video game barking orders out at him as Mizushima.
In a blog about Ed and Al's colors, they had fun goofing off by setting Al up with various G****m colors. He hopes one day other studios, when messing around, will say things like 'Al's color!' or other Hagaren terms.
He later remarked that while the recording was underway and the voices of everyone but Ed and Al were still a secret, a series so far full of nothing but boys and old men had a studio full of beautiful women, such as Paku, Kugimiya, and the unnamed actors of Roze, Lust, Winry and Pinako.
There was some talk about what tasks are done by whom on what days of the week. There were talks about how editing took about 11 hours for episode 1, but only 9 for episode 2, so it varies a lot. He wondered how long episode 3 would take.
He talked about how the fans of the manga must hate the anime staff, for they had Arakawa in the studio, focusing on keeping characterizations accurate even with the story changes by talking it over with her, and how she talked about what was going to happen to the characters and what they would do from here on out. Of course, such a thing couldn't be printed there.
Director Mizushima Seiji's column:
Mizushima notes that he has been working on the Hagaren world for about one year now, and the series has been airing for three months. At this point, he is going over the finale with the story editor, and doing the check-ups on the turning point at the middle of the series, and keeping an especially close watch on the animation directors and keeping in contact with them so that the quality doesn't fall even when there are staff shortages. Because of having such a heavy hand in all parts of the series, it's left a heavy impression on him as a whole to this point, but of particular strength have been episodes one and seven. Receiving favorable reviews from the producers on the first episode, where they were really groping in the dark to build up everything gave him relief and confidence that he was doing it right. As for episode 7, it was a test to see how much of the depths of human darkness he could express. There was a big response to that, that a parent could do something like that to their child. So, he says, of course as the director he would think that is an episode meant to leave an impression.
Producer Oyama Yoshi's column:
"Since I'm doing a column, I think that I would like to focus on what hasn't been talked about much first, namely the music that connects the series. While reading the manga and the scripts, the Fullmetal Alchemist world has a European atmosphere and pace, but the setting also includes alchemy, and furthermore there are the Homunculi, automail, chimera, it takes place in a military state with racial/territorial segregation, there's religion and a lot of others themes to carry. So while it definitely calls for a classical taste, it also creates an image calling for string, wood, brass and percussion instruments, a full orchestra's worth. Furthermore, I thought it'd be nice if the head composer could be a woman. Given we're a studio said to make everything "full of old men" you may ask why. Ed and Al committed the taboo to revive their mother, they're supported by Winry and their master (and of course Pinako, too!) so I thought that there were extraordinary women with a strong presence. Once I had that image in my head, a certain name quickly came to mind. Therefore, we are going with Oshima Michiru-san's music."
Misc:
There's also an article plugging the first PS2 game (Tobenai Tenshi) and how it's based on the manga, being in production back before the anime was decided on in 2002, and mentioning how it's got a lot of action and shows an unseen side of Lieutenant Hawkeye. A monthly Gangan Furoku has a DVD promoting the game, stating it officially takes place in the manga, and has Paku and Kugimiya playing the game and reading some of the lines (the first game was not full voiced), and then reading each other's lines. There's another article plugging the radio show (Hagaren Housouykyoku). Lastly, there's an article explaining the epaulets and rank insignias for the series.
On the next page is a description of how anime is made in a studio, from scenarios to continuity to the drawings to the coloring to the scanning to the recording to the final print, but nothing particularly relevant to FMA itself.
There's a shot of the pictures Nina draws in episode 7.
"Those pictures were actually drawn by one of the staff member's children." There's also a kind of devious crayon drawing of Tucker with some red blob thing. "Unfortunately, this picture wasn't used in the anime. It has a different feel from the other pictures, but that in itself lends it a unique taste." (Scans to come).
Yoshihiro Oyabu of Bones studio did most of the updates for the FMA blog that ran during FMA's syndication.
In his first blog, he received the first blue-print sketches from the director for the first episode and suddenly felt like he was working on a G****m series for the fact that he couldn't give Al expressions, and because they didn't need to worry about lip flap. So he pressed the character designer on how he was going to deal with that, to which the character designer responded brightly and cheerfully: "It's fine! Armor can emote, too! Images are but one way to do it!!" And come to think of it, he thinks Mizushima said something similar once, And so, speaking of other ways to reflect character, he talks about Al's voice. When he read the manga, he ended up picturing Al's voice as that of an old man; this was a common reading of it, apparently, as a few other staff members felt the same way (including Armstrong's seiyuu Utsumi Kenji who, upon seeing Ohkawa Tohru (Roy) in the studio their first day, said 'Oh, Ohkawa-kun you're the armor?'). Oyabu was so convinced that Al should be an old man like Quent from Wolf's Rain that he couldn't make room for another Al in his mind; he said that's to be expected for a studio known for loving Old Men. So which would have more of an impact, a stern faced, old man armor or a boy soprano? The studio was in discussion over it with each other and checking with Arakawa. Later, he made a post stating that he no longer had a problem with hearing Al as an old man because every voice in the series he now heard as director, Mizushima, which made him very glad FMA wasn't a moe anime. There was a picture of Hawkeye from the video game barking orders out at him as Mizushima.
In a blog about Ed and Al's colors, they had fun goofing off by setting Al up with various G****m colors. He hopes one day other studios, when messing around, will say things like 'Al's color!' or other Hagaren terms.
He later remarked that while the recording was underway and the voices of everyone but Ed and Al were still a secret, a series so far full of nothing but boys and old men had a studio full of beautiful women, such as Paku, Kugimiya, and the unnamed actors of Roze, Lust, Winry and Pinako.
There was some talk about what tasks are done by whom on what days of the week. There were talks about how editing took about 11 hours for episode 1, but only 9 for episode 2, so it varies a lot. He wondered how long episode 3 would take.
He talked about how the fans of the manga must hate the anime staff, for they had Arakawa in the studio, focusing on keeping characterizations accurate even with the story changes by talking it over with her, and how she talked about what was going to happen to the characters and what they would do from here on out. Of course, such a thing couldn't be printed there.
