Anime
Expo nearly was the meeting place for the Edward Elrics. Vic Mignogna,
the voice of the Fullmetal Alchemist character in the Funimation dub,
was invited as a guest of honor at the California event, and also
invited was Romi Paku, the original Japanese voice. "I've never met a
Japanese counterpart of anything I've played," Mignogna said at an
interview session. "When I found out a month ago that Romi Paku was
going to be here, I went crazy. The premiere of the (Fullmetal
Alchemist) movie, meeting Seiji Mizushima (the series' and movie's
director) and the crowning cherry on top was meeting Paku. I bought her
a gift, something to represent my culture. I live in Houston, Texas,
and what would be a better gift than to buy a fancy Stetson cowboy
hat?" That meeting never happened for what Mignogna said were
bureaucratic and legal reasons. Paku works in Japan but is a Korean
national, and a work visa had expired, preventing her from making the
trip to California, he said, something that happened only when she
reached the airport for the flight to America. The gift for Paku
remains in its box, but Mignogna had a gift for director Mizushima, an
Italian charm bracelet made by a U.S. fan, with each link bearing the
picture of an Alchemist character.
Mignogna
has more observations on Alchemist, Edward, morality and his
relationship with that character. He grew closer to Ed because he spent
so much time with the character, through 51 TV episodes, the movie and
three games. "Plus, he's such an incredible character. He's not a
shallow character, and there's so much to play there. Someone asked me
how you can be freaking out someone about being short and the next
moment you can have the audience in tears. I don't know, but the
writing is brilliant and the story is brilliant." Some fans, thinking
that Edward is an atheist, wonder if there's a conflict between that
and Mignogna's openly stated Christianity. "I don't think Ed is an
atheist," Mignogna replies. "He's a bitter little boy.How many of us
don't understand the concept of shaking your fist at God when tragedy
strikes?" Mignogna notes that Elric expressed doubt about God in the
series' first episodes, but in a later episode, "He sits next to Al and
says `We have to take care of each other because we're not gods, we're
tiny little people who couldn't even save someone."
Anime
Expo nearly was the meeting place for the Edward Elrics. Vic Mignogna,
the voice of the Fullmetal Alchemist character in the Funimation dub,
was invited as a guest of honor at the California event, and also
invited was Romi Paku, the original Japanese voice. "I've never met a
Japanese counterpart of anything I've played," Mignogna said at an
interview session. "When I found out a month ago that Romi Paku was
going to be here, I went crazy. The premiere of the (Fullmetal
Alchemist) movie, meeting Seiji Mizushima (the series' and movie's
director) and the crowning cherry on top was meeting Paku. I bought her
a gift, something to represent my culture. I live in Houston, Texas,
and what would be a better gift than to buy a fancy Stetson cowboy
hat?" That meeting never happened for what Mignogna said were
bureaucratic and legal reasons. Paku works in Japan but is a Korean
national, and a work visa had expired, preventing her from making the
trip to California, he said, something that happened only when she
reached the airport for the flight to America. The gift for Paku
remains in its box, but Mignogna had a gift for director Mizushima, an
Italian charm bracelet made by a U.S. fan, with each link bearing the
picture of an Alchemist character.
Mignogna
has more observations on Alchemist, Edward, morality and his
relationship with that character. He grew closer to Ed because he spent
so much time with the character, through 51 TV episodes, the movie and
three games. "Plus, he's such an incredible character. He's not a
shallow character, and there's so much to play there. Someone asked me
how you can be freaking out someone about being short and the next
moment you can have the audience in tears. I don't know, but the
writing is brilliant and the story is brilliant." Some fans, thinking
that Edward is an atheist, wonder if there's a conflict between that
and Mignogna's openly stated Christianity. "I don't think Ed is an
atheist," Mignogna replies. "He's a bitter little boy.How many of us
don't understand the concept of shaking your fist at God when tragedy
strikes?" Mignogna notes that Elric expressed doubt about God in the
series' first episodes, but in a later episode, "He sits next to Al and
says `We have to take care of each other because we're not gods, we're
tiny little people who couldn't even save someone."
