"You can't gain something without sacrificing something else of the equal value. This is the principle of the equivalent trade."
The story takes place in an alternate world from ours in the early 1900's. Two young brothers, older Edward Elric and younger Alphonse Elric, live with their mother Trisha in the small village of Resembool. Their father left home when they were still very young, but Ed and Al inherited his passion for alchemy.
1909. On a fine day, Trisha dies of an unknown illness, leaving her two sons orphans. Ed blames his father for Trisha's death and wants to find a way to bring her back to life. At this time, Ed was 10, Al 9. When Edward finds out about flesh forging in an alchemy book that belonged to his father, he engages in an intense training with Al in order to be able to perform a human transmutation.
On February 1910, the Elric brothers cross the forbidden line trying to resurrect their mom. The attempt ends in a complete failure. In the process, Ed loses his left leg and Al his whole body. In a last try full of despair, Ed uses alchemy to restore his brother's spirit putting it in a suit of mail, at the further cost of his right arm. When Al wakes up in the armour, he suddenly realizes what happened and takes his unconscious injured brother to the neighbours, the Rockbells.
After that day, the two decide to embark on a journey to find the legendary Philosopher's Stone, rumoured to create anything from nothing, in hopes of getting back their original bodies.
Story & Characters
Fullmetal Alchemist is probably one of the best, most interesting, dynamic, dramatic, and -overrated- series I've ever
come across. But before you marr me to death, please hear me out.
My trip down the FMA road has been a long and interesting one. I avoided the series for the longest time because it
sounded so overrated, as many popular series are. Which it is, but only because the hype about it makes it seem like the
best thing since the wheel or sliced bread. And while it's not, it's pretty darn good.
FMA is a very driven series, and the plot flows rather smoothly, even if there are a few plotholes. As far as I can
remember, there's only one filler episode that is totally irrelevant to the series, ep 37. Otherwise, the storyline
seems to push forward, if somewhat slowly at certain points, but that's not too much of an issue. The plot is highly
enjoyable and original, and through enough WTF!moments to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat.
The cast of the series is very interesting. For one, most of the male characters aren't all pretty-boys, which makes it
realistic and believable. They're driven, but otherwise fairly ordinary and likable save Envy and Armstrong. There're
also a lot of female character, especially considering it's a shounen series, and I found myself liking and
sympathsizing with a few of them: Izumi, Lust, and Rose, something that doesn't happen too often. I was expecting to
like Hawkeye a lot, since she's supposedly quite KA, but I didn't and it was quite a let-down. I was expecting to not
like Winry from the begining, but I ended up disliking her even more. Basically, the two female leads made the series
less enjoyable.
I was pretty disappointed with the character development as well. For such a driven series, a large number of the
characters are quite static in their views. Most of them, if they did change, was through a forceful, obvious change,
instead of smooth and slight shift. Perhaps the reason I disliked Hawkeye was because she wasn't very well developed,
and Winry because she refused to change when there was a need for her to. Ed and Al's transitions in their views were
very believable, as were Roy's, and I give a thumbs-up for the main characters' development.
Overall, I believe the storyline was very strong; however, the general cast of characters might need a bit of work.
Rating: 8
Art
While I can't say I'm a big fan of Arakawa's art, at least at the begining of her manga, the adaptation of it to anime
is gorgeous. Stylistically, it's very obviously hers still, but the colors and roundness of the anime is somewhat softer
and more pleasant to look at than her earlier drawings. The style is wholistically shounen and fitting for the series.
The characters' anatomy are proportional and the scenery is nicely drawn. I especially like the unique way the eyes are
drawn.
Every once in a while, because there are so many artists working on the series at once, there is a skewerd panel in
which the characters look odd. It's fairly minimal, though, and happens in almost all animes, I can't say I have too
much of a problem with it.
FMA has some really superb fight scenes. The motion is fluid and realistic, and incredibly dramatic. I really enjoy the
fight scenes in the series. Otherwise, the animation is in fairly regular standing. There's a few panels in which only
one object moves or it's a dead still, but it doesn't occur too often, or at least not often enough to be fairly
obvious.
I really like some of the animation for the intros, especially the second and fourth, but the third as well. The first
one, I didn't enjoy very much, and animation for most of the endings could've had more effort put into them. The intros
are mostly enjoyable, but the endings are a harder sell.
The colors are nice with correct color balance in certain lights, the scenes are pretty especially with all the
buildings and landscape, there're lots of dynamic fight scenes and overall enjoyable animation, and unique character
design is eye-catching. Something about the art style still puts me off though, and the endings drop the grade a bit.
Overall, nice art.
Rating: 9
Sound
FMA has a lovely OST, but perhaps isn't the best I've ever heard. There's a few "huh?" songs on there that
just make me -wince-, but otherwise the spiritual and dramatic soundtrack fits the angsty and dynamic plotline.
I can't say any of the op/ed sequences particularly captured me. They fit fairly well with the genre that FMA belongs
to, but some of them make me cry. "Melissa," the first opening, in particular segwayed really poorly from
"Toukan Kouka," and a many of the ending songs, especially "Motherland", I found rather boring. I
found myself skipping the opening/ending sequences most of them, and they aren't the type of songs I can listen to on
repeat either; my brain died after the first few times. If the ed themes have one thing going for them, though, is that
they flow rather well from kind-of-cute to tragically-depressing, and they manage to fit the overall mood of the
series.
I've only seen a few episodes of the dub (three, I believe), but I feel the Japanese VAs are much better. They're
convincing, and dramatic, and realistically fitting, while I find the English VAs sometimes dull and not entirely with
the mood of the scene.
FMA's overall sound doesn't impress me too much. There are quite a few OST tracks I find very classic and enjoyable, so
I can't say it's entirely horrible either.
Rating: 7
Presentation
As the series progressed, I noticed that it ended up having a lot of very poorly inserted humor. While it was
appreciative in the begining, when the storyline was lighter and less traumatic, Ed's outbursts and the Elrics' humorous
sibling squabbles grew a bit tiresome and unfitting to the events that were occuring/occured. Most of the attempts to
keep the series humorous during latter part of the series made me just go, "OW, PAIN."
If you're looking for 'ships in the series though, you might want to move away. Most of the canon subtext occurs in the
latter 10-15 episodes of the series, and felt rushed. (Unless if you 'ship Elricest though.) Especially the Brosh/Ross
subtext, and even the RoyAi, to a certain extent, with the whole uprising and Hawkeye screaming and then the
apple-peeling all in one episode. There's not really enough evidence to support EdWin, and AlWin seems to work better
canonistically than they do; in the anime, that is. If you're into very obvious and workable ships, the series will have
you crying.
I really like the themes and allegories in the series though. The painfully realistic touches about the darker side of
humanity appeals well to my side that "every story has a moral lesson." It's really a shame that the humor
contradicted it.
However, the biggest turnoff about FMA is mostly definately its fandom. The sheer size of it speaks for itself, not to
mention half the people are insanely immature and want to prove that their-ship-is-more-canon-than-yours in a gen
series. If you're into fandom wars and lots of people that will make you cry, you should probably stay away. Otherwise,
welcome! I can't say I can totally begrudge the series for having such a fandom though, but the hype they made about FMA
made the series more disappointing than it should be.
Wholistically, the series was quite enjoyable, and kept me on the edge of my seat and up late at night to watch all of
it. However, it wasn't quite as good as all the thousands of fans made it out to be. Disappointment? Not at all. Just
slightly overrated.
Rating: 6
Final Verdict
7.33 (above average)
Reviewed by Kyuu, Mar 19, 2006
