Anime, not just TV, have Deep Meanings.

Link: Read the manga (http://www.mangareader.net/116/full-metal-alchemist.html), watch the anime series (http://www.funimation.com/fullmetal-alchemist)

Fullmetal Alchemist is a Japanese anime series that circles around the lives of two orphan brothers (Elric brothers) who are alchemists and must fight the bad alchemists.

Just who the bad alchemists are? In the Inferno, Dante is not seen as the creator of the sins, but an observer.  Currently, it seems like his main purpose of the Inferno is to present the corruption and sinful nature in humanity and the Church through philosophical, political and religious ideologies. He is just exposing the rest of the world (and possibly enlightening himself) about the evil and that life should not be like this. A possible reason for why Dante goes through his journey in the Comedy is to show him that he has the potential to overcome the evil in the world, more specifically, the evil within his Florentine society and he must not succumb to the temptation pride, avarice and envy that gotten his fellow Florentines in Hell.

            However, in the manga series, there is a character named Dante who is the creator of the seven homunculi. A homunculus is an object that is representation of a human being and in the manga, the homunculi have super-human abilities, but do not have a soul. This is a direct contrast to the individuals in the Inferno since they have souls, nevertheless, dead souls. They were never alive and so they can never die (or can they…read the magna/watch the anime to find out). The seven homunculi represent the seven deadly sins in Christianity. These sins are represented in each circle in Hell with most of the sins being part of an individual circle or multiple circles. The use of the seven homunculi is not show the world evils of humanity, like Dante does in the Inferno, but to spread more evil into the world and make human life unbearable through constant oppression. There is an episode in the anime series titled, “Dante of the Deep Forest,” which is a direct allusion to the opening canto in the Inferno when Dante enters the dark forest. It is in the dark forest where Dante also encounters the three beasts, she-wolf, lion and the leopard. Dante might not have physically gone into battle with the beasts, but the beasts do represent important symbols for the inferno, which are pride, avarice, and envy. However, in the episode, the Elric brothers find out about Dante and her creation of the homunculi (although there is a plot twist that concerns the Elric brothers and the homunculi) through their battle with two homunculi, Envy and Greed. The Elric brothers do not have victory over the homunculi as Dante does in the Inferno when he does not succumb to the temptation of the sins.

            There are more connections between Fullmental Alchemist and Purgatorio and I will add commentary on that when the class reaches Purgatorio.