Armplay
by Denise Sawicki on July 24, 2011
So, It seems like our frequent thunderstorms have programmed me to become wide awake at bizarre times even when there isn't a storm. I am definitely going back to bed. First I wanted to comment on a strange trend in anime. I have not watched all that much anime, but something weird always seems to happen to people's arms. I will try to avoid spoilers for anyone who cares by just using generic words such as "someone"...
Someone borrows or steals someone else's arm and uses it as if it were their own:
-Fullmetal Alchemist (two important cases)
-Trigun
-Claymore
Someone has a mechanical arm:
-Fullmetal Alchemist
-Trigun (frankly I don't know if they are animal, vegetable, or mineral but "mechanical" seems to describe the arms in question reasonably well)
-Cowboy Bebop
-Gankutsuou (Someone's arm seems to be composed of a canister containing a special pen. There is no word as to why or how this is the case)
Not *as* weird, but someone loses an arm:
Most of the above, plus:
-Gantz
-Le Chevalier D'Eon
In contrast, anime I have seen in which I can't remember anything weird happening to anyone's arms:
-Evangelion (there is a leg lost)
-Eden of the East
-Fruits Basket (something weird happens to people's entire bodies but it's not specifically about their arms except for the hugging bit)
Two Replies to Armplay
Denise Sawicki | July 25, 2011
Hand-gun, I love it... Maybe he gets a lot of iron in his diet.
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Scott Hardie | July 24, 2011
For some reason I'm reminded of the game Final Fantasy VII, as steeped in anime influence as any other in the series, in which a character has his severed hand replaced by a machine gun. The weapon has a life of its own, sometimes firing when he gets angry, which he seems to be often. It never runs out of ammunition or needs to be reloaded, and indeed there isn't even a place to insert bullets; it just has an endless supply. Even in a fantasy game, the implausibility of that hand-gun always bugged me. But, this is a game where an entire town transforms into a cannon, so I probably shouldn't overthink this.