camarade

How do you write something with a deep message about our world that isn’t just “Japan society sucks, you suck because you are all apathetic cowards that don’t want to organize or care about politics, also you have incredibly deep rooted problems with authority and conforming with the status quo, [add another 20 criticisms here]”?

I agree with most of your post but this looks to me like a failure of imagination. the human condition is vast and can be explored without attacking the audience.

I've noticed anime series often tend to appear allegorical at first and then either veer into superficiality (which isn't a bad thing in of itself) or fail to deliver anything other than tired pop philosophy platitudes that don't ruffle any feathers.

FMA in particular seems to fall into the first category. for a while it looked like it was setting amestris up to be some kind of nazi analogy but it turns out demonic forces are pulling the strings and the evil doesn't actually dwell within; the system though not perfect is mostly good. maybe it's just a nice story about brothers fighting with magic.