Representation of the political monster in Avatar : the last airbender (2005 – 2008) and in Fullmetal Alchemist (2001 – 2010)

• Autor(a) principal: Moniz, Fábio Rúben de Sousa
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/56483
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Línguas e Literaturas

The main purpose of this study is to contribute to the debate on the representations of the political monster in two Japanese types of cultural art media, namely: manga, with recourse to Fullmetal Alchemist; and anime, with recourse to Avatar: The Last Airbender—although the latter may not be considered an anime series, it has been animated in South Korean animation studios. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, we focus on the Fire Nation’s Fire Lord Ozai and his lineage. Ozai is represented as the monster in charge, the most fearful of them all, who sought territorial conquest and power above everything, creating other monsters along the way. In Fullmetal Alchemist, there are several monsters spread all over, who are part of a single entity: Father. Father has, as their goal, to obtain utmost power and become the perfect being. From these two representations, one can draw a number of links with the political monster in real life, such as that of Adolph Hitler, whose means of getting to power via force, fear, and propaganda led to an event of genocide. An event that is represented in Avatar: The Last Airbender, with the annihilation of the Air Nomads; and in Fullmetal Alchemist, with the Ishballan genocide. Bearing in mind that these two works of fiction were conceived in two different geographical opposites, i. e. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a work of fiction written and directed in North America, whereas Fullmetal Alchemist is a work of fiction written and drawn in Japan, they are also to be considered as works of imagology.