I was reading this article about how much work and heart hiromu arakawa put into writing fullmetal alchemist and Silver spoon and I’m honestly so impressed???
-she talked with war veterans and people with disabilities to accurately depict characters with those backgrounds
-she also researched military corruption extensively
-she fought to bring in more female characters with her editors who opposed it
-she has told her readers that there is no shame in leaving an emotionally toxic situation and you should never feel guilty for it
-she based the situation with the ishvalan people off of a real displaced indigenous group called the ainu people in hokkaido to raise awareness of their situation
-she criticizes the notion of self sacrifice being a noble thing especially since it’s such a prevalent theme in most shonen manga
-she worked on a farm with a lot of hardworking women and wanted her work to reflect just how complex real women can be rather than overdone anime stereotypes
-she has stated that she thinks there is value in not repressing anger in the face of injustice, and she thinks it’s good to use that anger in constructive ways
-she has emphasized in her story that you don’t always have to forgive the people who hurt you
-she worked on and alongside several other manga one shots, illustrations, character designs, anime adaptions, movie adaptions, and light novels all while having three kids over the course of her career
I don’t even think this is everything I read but hiromu arakawa is a goddamn badass
FMA appreciation life 