Fullmetal Alchemist has often been termed the best manga in terms of broad appeal. Because of its huge audience base, it has dominated charts for years, not just a single season. Hiromu Arakawa’s creation brilliantly includes comedy, action, dark fantasy, steampunk, and other genres.
So, of course, people will be interested in knowing the inspiration behind the bestseller, and how she stumbled upon the story. An old interview from 2017 holds the answer to this question and can stun many of you. After all, it isn’t a conventional shonen anime that inspired her.
Which manga inspired Fullmetal Alchemist?
In a 2017 interview, Hiromu Arakawa, the author of Fullmetal Alchemist, was asked which manga influenced her the most. Her reply was that she was most absorbed in reading Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi.
It was the first manga that Arakawa had bought with her own money. It was during the time when the TV anime trend had just begun. She lived in a village where there were no bookstores, instead rice shops had books to sell.
When she got paid, she ran to the manga section of the store and bought the volume that was available. It was volume 16 of Urusei Yatsura, not even the first one, but she read it nonetheless. Arakawa admitted that she became conscious of how to write manga while reading Takahashi-sensei’s work. In fact, she re-read it while growing up and thought it was astonishing. By the end of the section, she brought her hands together as a tribute to the mangaka who influenced her the most.
It is surprising how it was Urusei Yatsura that stuck with Arakawa, despite Inuyasha being Takahashi’s most famous creation. It goes on to prove Takahashi-sensei’s talent even more, as Urusei Yatsura was the beginning of her career and it still performed beautifully.
How did Urusei Yatsura influence Fullmetal Alchemist?
Hiromu Arakawa explained that while reading Urusei Yatsura, she realized there’s no waste in the manga. This can be interpreted as the lack of filler content, which needlessly stretches out the manga. Fullmetal Alchemist is also popular for being very fast paced, which kept the audience engaged.
The efficiency in storytelling definitely stuck with Arakawa, and she performed wonderfully after taking inspiration from Urusei Yatsura. However, a fast pace isn’t the only great thing about her work. Fullmetal Alchemist showed a great deal of character development and action scenes which roped in a lot of action junkies.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Arakawa’s manga can even rival her idol’s work. It is evident by Fullmetal Alchemist staying at the top of My Anime List and Anime News Network rankings for around a decade, only recently overtaken by Frieren.
You can watch the Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood anime on Netflix and Hulu.
