Fullmetal Alchemist core vocab breakdown
So I recently rewatched FMA:B with my partner, and I thought I’d have a chat about some of the interesting vocab and wordplay!
So we’re all on the same page, Fullmetal Alchemist is written and said 鋼の錬金術師 (はがね の れんきんじゅつし / hagane no renkinjutsushi).
鋼 (はがね / hagane) means steel. So really, it should be the steel alchemist. Sometimes though, manga artists will decide on the English name even when it’s not a proper translation, such as is the case of attack on titan.
錬金術 (れんきんじゅつ / renkinjutsu) means alchemy. If you read the kanji you could translate it as “the art of refining gold”, which makes a good deal of sense.
錬金術師 (れんきんじゅつし / renkinjutsushi) means alchemist. This is the same as the previous word but with 師 on the end, which is the kanji for master or expert. That last character is the same one used in doctor 医師 (いし/ ishi) which could be read “master of medicine”. Therefore an alchemist can be understood to be one who has mastered the art of refining gold.
錬丹術 (れんたんじゅつ / rentanjutsu) is officially translated as alkahestry. This is the same word as alchemist but they replaced the kanji for gold (which is read きん / kin) and used the kanji for vermillion or red pigment.
This is actually super interesting because in Chinese culture, vermillion is said to be the colour of blood and therefore the colour of life. This makes sense because in the show, alkahestry is used to heal people. Xing is also based on China, and the typical symbol of alkahestry in the show is the Wu Xing - the Chinese idea of all five elements represented as a perfect five-pointed star.
The word alkahestry actually comes from the real concept of alkahest, which was believed to be a universal solvent and was highly sought by alchemists so they could make a philosopher’s stone. All in all you could translate it as “the skill of refining life force”, taken in context. It becomes pretty clear to see where the concept of the philosopher’s stone came from then.
錬成 (れんせい / rensei) means transmutation. By itself this word actually just means training or drilling something, but in context we take the kanji apart. The kanji mean “refining” and “to turn into”, so it’s the process of turning one thing into another. The れん here is the same as in alchemy and alkahestry.
人体 (じんたい / jintai) means the human body. Therefore, 人体錬成 (じんたいれんせい / jintai rensei) is human transmutation.
大総統 (だいそうと / daisouto) is translated as fuhrer. Putting aside all parallels between nazi germany and Amestris, let’s look at this word. What I find fascinating about this is that 総統 (そうと/souto) means supreme ruler or sometimes fuhrer when used in that context. That’s all well and good. But instead of using that word, they went and made a new one by sticking 大 before it, which means big. Wow. That’s just… Just wow.
So that’s that! Are there any other words or shows you’d like me to break down? Drop me an ask and I’ll get right on it.
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