"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.
If you watch only the first two episodes, the sense of the story is straight to the point: They are searching for something. You meet the brothers, as well as the strangers following them. The plot itself gets deep midpoint through the series... sometimes you can't even tell who's on whose side... strange twists to the story make it original and appealing. Everything is centered on the Philosopher's Stone and the story branches out from there, including the characters themselves. Every single one of them is unique, each with different personalities; even down to the minor characters of the story. Each individual character has its own desires, ambitions, even down to why they do this or act a certain way. Their characteristics (Hughes is comedic yet serious... Hawkeye is serious but has a certain attitude change among different people). It's just like taking a bunch of random people, placing them in situations like in FMA, and seeing how they would react.
~The Good Side:
- The story is extremely well done and very through.
- Storyline leaves many cliffhangers that go can go either way per episode.
- Even though the story is very dramatic, comedic and humourous scenes here and there make it lighthearted.
- Each person is unique... very in-depth (even if it's just a minor character).
- Character relations with certain people and mutual hatreds with others... something common in reality as
well.
~The Bad Side:
- I don't know about others, but I didn't like the extreme cliffhanger at the end of the series. Sometimes it just makes
you wonder... a lot (I can't tell you how many days I would wander through the day wondering what would happen next in
the storyline).
Rating:
The animation is graphically nice. There's a certain level of difficulty since you have to make it look like alchemy is transforming something, and even that is very smooth. Battles are realistic and subtle things as sunlight reflection, moonlight, and rain are all portrayed very well, giving it a nice realistic element to the anime series.
~The Good Side:
- They went far on the sounds... to the point where echo noises from metal clashing against metal is heard in a distinct
yet subtle way. That itself is worth noting.
~The Bad Side:
- I can't see anything bad in this one.
Rating:
Music and sound effects were very clean. Object and sound effect noises were very clean, concise, and timed perfectly. There was very little overlapping of music to sound effects (we all know how disturbing that can be), and no overuse or reuse of music and sound effects (I mean, some of the battle scene ones can be considered as exceptions, but even then there is a small change to make it unique).
~The Good Side:
- Very clean, clearly heard when needed.
- No overuse or major reuse of sound effects or music.
~The Bad Side:
- I can't see anything bad in this one either.
Rating:
The way the storyline is laid out is very specific and organized. Each arc revisits the previous arc in one way or another, and even though the timeline may sometimes jump around, you can actually tell. The side jokes and humor stints during the episode, although funny and humorous, are sometimes a bit off in my opinion; the placement seems like it's there to release tension more than anything.
Other Notes:
A very enjoyable series that is full of suspense, humor, and drama to anybody who watches it. A central theme revolving
around the plot (down straight to the "Law of Alchemy" described early in the series), and anybody who wants
to watch an enjoyable and suspenseful series should definitely take their time to watch this.
Rating:
9.17 (very good)
Reviewed by joeshen, Jan 06, 2007
Nice review! Very well written.
But about the art of FMA, don't you think that the lack of details when it comes to the major fight scenes is also worth noting? Notice that injuries look incredibly minor (stab wounds, burn marks, bruises, etc.) during fight scenes but are then exaggerated after them.
But still, FMA is a great anime and is well up the list of the best animes ever.
I recently watched FMA myself and I didn't rate it as highly as you did. The cliffhanger wasn't the problem for me, it was the poor execution of the ending entirely. But I'm picky on that.
As for your review, it seems a bit on the shallow side. With a show of this size much more can be written about it to give readers a better feel for the anime. Not only that but your Good side in the art section was referring to the sound. You defintely have a different and quite effective way of reviewing via the point by point system, it simply needs refining and then you'll end up with some solid reviews.
wahaha~FMA was a good anime but a little weird on the story plot...but all in all i think this anime is nice~
Just to add to the above points - I could have mentioned something about the voice acting as well (but that's just me). I love this series as well so :)
Thanks for the review!
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