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May Chang (メイ・チャン Mei Chan),[1][2] also spelt Mei-Chan[3] or Mei Chang,[citation needed] is the seventeenth royal princess of Xing, born to the Xingese Emperor and the royal concubine representing the Chang house.
Despite being so young, May has been tasked with finding a way to raise the social standing of the poor, downtrodden Chang clan in the eyes of the Emperor and has embarked on a journey to discover and present her father with the secret to immortality. Skilled as she is in the art of Alkahestry, May sets out across the desert toward Amestris with her beloved pet panda, Shao May, so that she may learn about the Philosopher's Stone and, arriving there, seeks out the tutelage of the Fullmetal Alchemist.
Appearance
May is a short young girl of Xingese ethnicity with fair skin, dark-colored eyes, and dark braided hair, with her hair ending in two buns on opposite sides of her head that let down six strands of her hair that reach to her knees. She also wears light and dark-colored, eastern-style clothing, similar to the Xingese traditional royal attire, and a light-purple bag around her left shoulder and right waist. She is often holding her pet panda Shao May.
In her younger years, May wore her hair in two pigtails similar to Nina Tucker as shown when she remembers the day she met Shao May.
Personality
May is a Xingese princess with remarkable strength and knowledge of alkahestry. May's feelings towards others are often very strong and very straightforward, whether that be mild compassion, gratitude, jealousy, or anger. As a result, she has a very active imagination and is quick to make first impressions and conclusions, especially to a fault, such as her imagined version of Edward and later Alphonse as princes. When she meets them in person, she initially fights against them because she is unaware of their identities and motives. However, this same imagination also offers her a great deal of creativity, especially as an alchemist, able to think outside the box in ways that others are not.
May possesses both extreme determination and fearlessness, showing greater courage than one would expect a girl her age to have. She showed absolutely no hesitation in fighting the Mannequin Soldiers and Father during the Promised Day and is rarely intimidated in the face of danger. She also possesses great willpower, able to cross the desert between Amestris and Xing with no one but Shao May, even against extreme weather and starvation.
As the princess of the Chang clan, she feels that it is her responsibility and burden to seek the Philosopher's Stone to save her clan from larger, more powerful clans. Unlike others, she has no desire to use it herself and does not do so out of a sense of power. Indeed, once learning about the stone's true nature she becomes very reluctant to pursue it, recognizing the moral problems of the stone, however she decides to pursue it anyway because of her sense of duty to her clan.
Easily attached to others, she cannot help but show attachment and gratitude to those who show her kindness and is incapable of abandoning those in need, such as becoming attached to Alphonse Elric after he saves her. However, she still possesses a certain degree of innocence and naivety in her youth, and her compassionate qualities can lead her to be manipulated by others, such as the homunculus Envy who led her to stay in Amestris rather than returning to Xing due to her sense of guilt and gratitude towards its citizens.
Abilities
A master of Xingese martial arts, May has proven to be one of the best fighters in the entire series despite her size, capable of surprising balance, amazing acrobatic feats, and extremely difficult kicking techniques. Even without her alchemical abilities, she has displayed the ability to defeat multiple powerful opponents in a matter of seconds with no apparent difficulty. As a warrior of Xing, May is able to sense the chi (energy) of other beings, both human and homunculi. This allows May to track, gain insight into the intentions of others, and learn about her opponents' abilities.
May's weapon of choice are special knives that enhance the range of her Alkahestry, able to perform alchemical feats from a distance unlike the traditional Amestrian style of alchemy. She has been shown to throw multiple knives simultaneously with incredible accuracy over fairly long distances. Even without the use of alchemy, the knives are a deadly and precise form of attack, though she rarely uses lethal force.
A master of Alkahestry, she most often uses it for medicinal purposes, able to heal non-lethal wounds within seconds. While healing is her specialty, she is in no way lacking in the more standard applications of transmutation, able to perform traditional acts of alchemy with speed and efficiency on par with any other alchemist. She is so prodigious in the art of Alkahestry that it parallels the genius of the Elric brothers in alchemy, able to match the two of them both in alchemy and in intellect. When she was in northern Amestris, she was the only one who discovered how to decode Scar's brother's notes, despite several other people being there, including Tim Marcoh, a certified genius. Eventually, she also becomes an able teacher as well to serve as an instructor to Alphonse and continues to teach Alkahestry after the series conclusion.
Relationships
Scar - May stumbles across Scar during her travels in Amestris and seems to immediately like him, despite his gruff personality and his initial obsession with revenge and murder. May is the first one in the story to treat Scar as a person rather than as an opponent and the two begin a close, almost familial relationship.
Edward Elric - Prior to meeting him, May had a crush on Ed, albeit one largely based on stories in Xing about his heroic deeds, including the erroneous claim that he was tall and handsome. Upon actually meeting Ed, she was mortified to discover that he was not the gallant knight she has built up in her head (going as far as to claim Ed had put that image in her head) and her romantic dreams were shattered. Unaware of her previous affections, Edward responded to this hostility with his usual short temper. Following this, the two quickly found each other to be annoying nuisances; however, them being allied throughout the rest of the story seems to have softened this over time, as Ed comforts May when she helps Al sacrifice his soul to save Ed's arm.
Alphonse Elric - While recovering from injuries at Dr. Knox's house with Alphonse, May asks him if his real body resembles Ed. Al, not wanting to be compared to his diminutive brother, insists rather defensively that he is taller, more handsome, and more polite than his elder brother. Taking his word for it, May immediately transfers her affections to the younger Elric, imagining him to be a dashing knight in shining armor. Al largely remains oblivious to these feelings, but eventually gains somewhat of an inkling for how she feels. For the rest of the story, she refers to him as "Alphonse-sama" (in the original Japanese language) and although they bicker while she tries to teach him alkahestry in the North, due to their mutual intelligence and combat skills, they work well together in several adventures, including cracking Scar's brother's code and capturing Envy. May weeps when they part ways. Reunited during the final battle with Father, Al goes to great lengths to protect May and then asks her to help him make a terrible sacrifice, to which she reluctantly agrees. Her relief at seeing Al return in his former body brings her to near-hysteric tears. As Ed and Al walk home toward Resembool, Ed commented on how Al has become an object of affection of May and in return, he too has grown fond of her. Two years later, Al departs for Xing to visit May and learn alkahestry from her. From the final Elric Family picture, most fans conclude that Alphonse, after learning all the alkahestry from May, decides to take her to Amestris.
Lan Fan and Ling Yao - Ling is May's older half-brother, but Lan Fan is the only other Xingese character with whom May has an extended conversation during the story. Because they come from rival clans, upon seeing each other both May and Lan Fan immediately tried to kill each other, despite the fact that both were injured and currently recovering under Dr. Knox's care. Knox immediately defused their standoff, and his story about the Ishval Massacre caused both girls to lose the will to fight. Much later, after the last fight with Father, May despairs that Ling, having been a Homunculus, has won the race to bring the secret of immortality to the Emperor of Xing. However, Lan Fan asks Ling to protect the Chang clan when he becomes Emperor, to which he readily agrees, much to May's surprise.
Shao May - May and Shao May have a similar family situation, and thus feel a strong connection to each other. Just as Shao May was abandoned by the other pandas due to her stunted growth, May in a way feels that her whole family is abandoned by Xing, due to the low standing of the Chang clan. In Chapter 48 it is shown that Shao May considers May and herself on the same level of respect, second only to Alphonse, due to his ability to not feel pain when Shao May bites his finger.
History
After a grueling and perilous trek, May finally arrives in the Amestrian frontier town of Youswell, where she uses her abilities to rescue Halling from a collapsed mine. When the residents of Youswell compare her to the first alchemist to perform an act of heroism in their town, May falls immediately in love with her misguided perception of Edward Elric (having misinterpreted Halling's description of Fullmetal and his legendary exploits) and sets off in search of him, hoping that her new imaginary lover may be able to help her strengthen her clan. She and Shao May make their way to Central (along the way just missing Edward in Resembool), where they encounter Yoki and Scar and join up with them after hearing that Scar, too, is chasing after the Fullmetal Alchemist. May is the first to recognize the symbols tattooed on Scar's right arm as the Dragon's Pulse, a purification array that represents the basis of Alkahestry.
Drawn to Scar's underlying good nature, May becomes his ally and friend, rescuing him and healing his wounds after his ill-fated encounter with the Elrics, Hawkeye, and Gluttony. In return, Scar warms up to her and helps her locate and follow Alphonse Elric when it appears that he has abducted Shao May. The two follow Al and Gluttony into Father's underground lair, battling both his army of guard chimeras and the sinking feeling that the power that flows within Central is not a wholesome one.
Upon breaking into Father's inner sanctum, May learns that Edward Elric is not, in reality, the statuesque, princely figure she had fabricated and in a rage of misplaced vindication, bursts into attack, revealing that she is still able to transmute within Father's presence as Amestrian alchemists are not. She is injured while battling Gluttony and is forced to escape from the battlefield hidden inside Alphonse's armor.
Alphonse takes May to be treated at the home of Dr. Knox, where she encounters and recognizes Lan Fan as a retainer of the Yao clan and challenges her to a duel, as each of the twenty royal heirs are seeking to eliminate each other in the bid for the Emperor's favor and, subsequently, the throne. Their skirmish is cut short by the intervention of Dr. Knox, who refuses to allow two of his patients to injure each other further. As Knox tells Alphonse the gruesome story of the Ishval Civil War, May and Lan Fan listen on. May finds a kindred spirit in Alphonse. She later asks him if his real body is similar to Edward's and Alphonse reacts as if May had insulted him; he becomes rather defensive and insists to May that he is taller, more handsome, and more polite than his older brother. May, envisioning Alphonse as a dashing prince, finds herself crushing on the younger Elric instead.
After leaving Knox's home fully recovered, May rejoins Scar and Yoki - who now have Tim Marcoh in tow. May recognizes the name from Knox's stories of Ishval and is excited to finally have a lead to the Philosopher's Stone, but Scar tells her that she must not lust for such an evil thing. After Scar destroys the outer layer of Marcoh's face, he asks May to use Alkahestry to staunch the bleeding while leaving the wound itself intact so as to let the doctor's face heal albeit malformed, disguising him from enemies.
North to Briggs
Now that they have an Amestrian Alchemist, a Xingese Alchemist, and an Ishvalan Alchemist, the group makes their next move - recovering Scar's brother's alchemy notes from the place they are hidden: Briggs. May and Marcoh head north together by a train while Scar plays decoy with Yoki on foot. They find the notes, but are unable to decipher them without Scar around. May discusses the differences between Alchemy and Alkahestry, but mentions to Marcoh that his assertions regarding the origin of alchemical energy are incorrect - rather than stemming from the movement of tectonic plates in the Earth's crust, she believes that the true source of the energy is from the movement of a multitude of human souls. She also reveals she no longer wishes to use the Philosopher's Stone. Like the Elric brothers, she believes it would be wrong to use human lives and even if she just tells him how to make it, she knows he can and will gather the necessary sources to do so.
After heading North, May and Tim Marcoh sneak away from the train station in disguise, as they had found out that Kimblee was pursuing them, and had the train station closely watched. Instead, Scar and Yoki (dressed up as Marcoh) confronted the Red Lotus Alchemist, and as a result Scar had critically injured him.
Afterwards, the team meets back up at the house where Scar had hidden his brother's notes. However, Scar noticed that the Briggs team was closing in, and so they had moved into an abandoned mining town to hide in. After they escape the pursuing Kimblee yet again, the group hides in the outskirts of a town where Marcoh takes on a job as a Doctor. Soon after though, Envy, who was deliberately led to the hideout, had attacked. However, the group had set up traps specifically to destroy him. May had placed a multitude of transmutation circles on the ground before the battle, then as Envy stood on one, she would activate it using alkahestry to injure him. After Envy is defeated by Tim Marcoh, who had destroyed his Philosopher's stone, May is told by Scar to return to Xing with Envy (in his original form, a small lizard) since she, as a Xingese citizen, should not be caught up in their affairs and has her own mission to think about for the sake of her clan.
Back to Xing?
However, as May passes through Youswell on the desert's border, their kindness guilt her into remaining in Amestris to help the country fight against the homunculus. Envy encourages her to return to Father's lair, and she heads off to Central.
It's unclear what May did during the time skip, but presumably, part of it was spent traveling from Briggs to Youswell, and then back to Central. When we next see her, she has just arrived in Central and is heading through the same tunnels to Father's lair that she traversed with Scar earlier in the series. There, she, Envy and Shao May encounter a horde of Mannequin Soldier Homunculi, which began to chase them. May fights them off, but Envy manages to absorb most of the soldiers and returns to his former form. A fight then ensues, and from Envy's reaction, May determines the correct direction to Father's lair. The two of them fight in the pipelines beneath the city and finally fall through to the chamber below Laboratory 3, where Roy, Riza, Edward, Scar, Zampano, Jerso and Darius were fighting more Mannequin soldiers. Scar, shocked to see May still in Amestris, yells at her for not returning to her country. May, shocked and confused, tears up, to which Scar gruffly responds "Whatever. Don't cry." Roy and Riza stay behind to fight Envy while May and the rest of the group continue through the chamber door, and she uses the Dragon's Pulse to lead them to Father's lair. However, Scar and Edward soon return to stop Roy, leaving her with the chimera.
Later, when the Gold-Toothed Doctor and his henchmen slit Riza's throat to force Roy to perform human transmutation, May and the Chimaera pop out of the pipes in the ceiling in time to stop the Doctor's plans. The battle between Scar, the chimera, and the henchmen resumes, and while Roy cradles Riza--who has now fainted from blood loss--May tries to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone that the Gold-Toothed Doctor dropped. However, Roy's panicked cries appeal to her selfless nature once again. She rushes to their side and uses Alkahestry to seal Riza's wound. After urging Riza to rest, as May only stopped the bleeding and could not create more blood to replace that which she had lost, May mentions that she can once again sense enormous amounts of twisted ch'i beneath them, which causes the Gold-Toothed Doctor to panic and tell them to stay away from that place. Then a wounded Wrath arrives, followed by Pride, who absorbs the Gold-toothed Doctor and forces Roy to perform Human Transmutation, thereby transporting him to Father's Den. Wrath tries to stall May, Scar, Hawkeye and the chimera by provoking them, but, from the Gold-Toothed Doctor's earlier reaction to May's sensing the chi'i, they realize Wrath is trying to stall them. Scar stays to fight Wrath while May descends to Father's lair.
May is initially distraught to see Alphonse unconscious again, but after he reawakens and she realizes that Father has the ultimate secret to immortality (which she still seeks for the Xing Emperor) May insists she can take Father on herself with Alkahestry. Father glares at her and tells her "You don't belong here," but she tells the Elrics to take down Pride, and then attacks Father, managing to pin his arms down. She then leaps at Father to finish him despite Hohenheim's warning, but because Father can absorb her throwing knives and transmute without moving, he repels her using his Philosopher's Stones. May is knocked away, bleeding from her eyes and mouth.
Alphonse rushes to May while she partially cures herself, leaving Edward with Pride, and Alphonse protects her from Father's attack, but the Elrics' and Izumi's efforts to stop them prove futile, and Father activates the nationwide transmutation circle, thereby opening the world's gate. May, Greed, Roy, Riza, Izumi, Hohenheim, Alphonse, and Edward are the only ones left alive and bear witness Father's new form, much to their shock. As Father unleashes his alchemical attacks on the group, Hohenheim creates an energy shield while May literally holds the ground, preventing Father from attacking from below. After Hohenheim's failsafe activates, May continues to defend the group from Father's attacks.
The Final Battle
After Father escaped to replenish his stone supply, May pursues him with Alphonse, and both are eventually struck by a beam of pure energy. The younger Elric shields her and Shao May from the full force of the attack, and falls apart in the process. Edward is blown back by another of Father's explosions, and his automail arm is destroyed while his remaining human arm is impaled on a spike, rendering him trapped and unable to use alchemy. Alphonse, in a panic, tries to rise, but nearly cracks his blood seal. He then begs May to help him trade his soul back for Edward's arm, saying she's the only one he could ask. She tearfully complies.
At the end of the battle, May is seen crying next to Al's broken armor. She happily greets him once Edward sacrifices his ability to use alchemy in order to resurrect Alphonse. Later, Ling takes her back to Xing, promising to gather all clans and protect them once he becomes the Emperor. May notes angrily that Greed has rubbed off on him.
After a two-year time skip, Alphonse prepares to travel to Xing in order to study Alkahestry with May. In the epilogue, she is seen in the new Elric family picture.
Etymology
- Her name, メイ, which is officially romanised as May, is an English diminutive of various names, such as Mabel and Margaret, but is also a full name in its own right. It can also be given in reference to the month of May, or the hawthorn flower called May. It can also be seen as a variant spelling of the name Mei, a name from Chinese which is also used in Japanese.
- In Japanese, Mei can have several meanings depending on the kanji used, including beautiful, bright, or plum. Due to May's name being written in katakana rather than kanji, though, it has no inherent meaning in Japanese.
- It should be noted that May's name is spelt with katakana characters (メイ). Katakana characters typically are used to denote a foreign word or name. If her name was truly meant to be spelt "Mei", her name likely would have been written in hiragana (which denotes a Japanese word or name) as めい, or with Kanji. Despite this, Japanese given names are sometimes written in katakana, and was especially common for girl names in the past.
- The name Mei can have the same meanings in Chinese as it does in Japanese, although it should be noted that the Chinese word 妹妹 (Meimei) means "younger sister", which may be a reference to May Chang's relation to Ling Yao, or perhaps just a reference to her being one of the younger children of the Xing.
- Chang or Cháng is a common Chinese surname that means "lasting forever" or "long-lasting", which may be a nod to the fact that her and her clan are seeking to attain eternal life and become emperor.
Trivia
- Her English voice actress, Monica Rial, also played Lyra in the 2003 anime series.
- Unlike her crush on Ed (which was largely due to her imagination tricking her), May's affection for Alphonse is more genuine as she got to know him as a person (as she couldn't judge him by appearance due to fact he was just a soul attached to a suit of armor until the Promised Day.)
- May's first appearance in Youswell is cut from the 2009 anime.
- In the 2009 anime, May meets Scar and Yoki much earlier than in the manga, around the time the Elric brothers meet her half-brother Ling Yao. In the manga, May had just arrived in Amestris at the time Ling and the Elrics were meeting.
- In the opening Hologram, May is shown holding her two kunai in a fighting stance, suggesting that, along with using them as mediums for Alkehestry, she can also use her kunai in combat.
- May is quite polite to older strangers, always calling them mister or miss.
- What May was up to prior to The Promised Day was never revealed. Given Scar's surprise at her return, it's not likely she was helping with the Reverse Transmutation Circle.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Episode 15 eyecatcher
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 To The Promised Day official website
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 8 (English 2014 edition) "I'm Mei-Chan. And this is Xiao-Mei." ISBN-13: 9780316374101 ISBN-10: 0316374105