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qrdel's Fullmetal Alchemist Tv Review

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist tv Review

"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 Amestris, in the early 1900's. Two brothers, Edward and his younger brother Alphonse Elric, live with their mother, Trisha, in the small village of Resembool. Although their father left home when they were still very young, his sons inherited his passion for alchemy and practiced it on their own. In 1909, Trisha dies of an unknown illness, the boys' father still nowhere in sight. When Ed finds out about human transmutation from one of his father's books, he and Al engage in intense training in order to be able to perform the ritual that will bring their mother back.

In 1910, the Elric brothers cross the forbidden line; unfortunately, the resurrection attempt is a complete failure, as Ed loses his left leg and Al — his entire body. In a last desperate attempt to undo the damage, Ed binds his brother's spirit to a nearby suit of armor, at the further cost of his right arm. After recovering, the two embark on a journey to find the legendary Philosopher's Stone, rumored to facilitate alchemic tasks without the requirement of equivalent exchange, in hopes of getting their original bodies back.

Story & Characters

"In this world everything submits to the Equivalent Trade Rule. You cannot gain anything if you don't represent the thing of an equal value... Elric brothers believed it was also the truth about the world..."

Those words begin one of the best anime series I have ever seen and are at the same time basis for the plot. Story of Elric brothers who seek Philosopher's Stone to return their bodies back to normal starts quite slowly and does not preview what awaits you closer to the climax... Yet its quite interesting and well-composed. Gaps, plot bugs, unexplained situations - you won't be overthown by plot as such, but prepare yourself because real action starts after 5th laboratory incident episodes... Everything, starting from human transmutation, Philosophers Stone, chimeras, Sins and at Equivalent Trade starts to be more and more clear. Plot itself is build perfectly. At the very end every single misundertanding is cleared in such a way that you wont even remember that at some point 'this or that' was quite annoying cause it didnt suit place and time... actually it DID, but you simply was left unaware of some things... :D

Character development is completely different league... I thought that GAINAX and Hideaki Anno are masters when it comes to making complicated characters but ANIPLEX did things far better than former Shin Seiki Evangelions' staff! Every single character is different. You would never know what Ed, Winry, Roy (especially him) or Hughes are actually thinking. Seven Sins are absolutely masterpiece. Envys' twisted psyche, Lust with her memories of Ishbar create creepy atmosphere over Homonculuses. On the other hand we have Gluttony who uses his stomach to think (although he's far from being comedy character here...).

Also vision of the world is quite good. All those places like Ishbar, Central, East of West cities would suggest that action is taking place somewhere around Arabia (a lot of dust, sand and sun here and there). Not to mention fantastic idea ANIPLEX had with the Gate and two worlds coexisting parallelly... but aren't I talking to much?

Rating: 10

Art

Only ochs' and achs' shall be said about Haganes' video part... Although drawing itself is quite simple (well, manga i even simplier when it comes to drawings... :|) animation is created perfectly and I can't really remember any low-downs throughout this quite long (51 eps) TV series. All battle sequences are done with lots of attention and care, there's practically no problem with them. 'Practically' because they're quite rare (especially during first 25 episodes) and at some point I was really thinking why aren't they showing us some action... this disadvantage dissapears in second part of anime because action gets much more exciting (Greed rules!).

Sceneries are beautifully drawn, especially woods near Resemboll (home place for Ed and Al) are unforgettable. Same goes for chara design. Although as I said before drawings are simple, animators and people responsible for putting paint on black and white pictures put a lot of effort in their work... and in consequence some charas like Al, Greed or Hohenheim of Light (Ed is just like him:D) engraved in my memory forever...

Another BRAVO! goes for comedy scenes. They wouldn't be that funny if animators wouldn't make all those shots so weird, sarcastic, sometimes so wicked that I wouldn't dare to even call them 'pro-drawings' (it looks as if kid put few straight lines here and there :D). Enough to say that some jokes are funny just because animation at that time was so obscure that I must've been dead if I didnt laugh at that :)

Basically the Art is one of the strongest points in FMA... so.... 9 + (darn I cant give more than that...)

Rating: 9

Sound

What struck me about the sound was the choice of opening and ending themes. Its ubelieveably accurate. All songs suit perfectly particular stage in anime. I especially enjoyed 2nd ending and 3rd opening.

Nothing much to say about background sound... well its quite good, all hits, explosions, transmutation sounds, everything is good and on its place... although somehow it didn't struck me as much as op and ed music.

On the other hand score is something what tigers love the most... :D I couldn't imagine more fabulous more suitable and enjoyable score to that title. Not once and not two did score make me almost cry... it simply builds such a fantastic atmosphere... I'd love to have one in digitals... maybe someday.

Actors voices is something completely different. Again someone did great job in matching personalities with their seiyuus'. It's really rare for anime series to have such a fantastic actors background. Ed and Al's voices are perfect. same goes for Winry and Roy Mustang... also Armstrongs seiyuu (and Armstrong himself) is unforgettable... more animes done with such a perfection, please...

If not average background sounds I would give 9... but isn't 8 good after all?

Rating: 8

Presentation

Well, it seems I'm getting closer to the end... what should I say to make you watch FMA? (although most of you already watched it and doesn't regret that, do you?). Instead of making long list of advantages and disadvantages I'll tell you my story...

So... here I was almost alone in my struggle <<<AGAINST>>> FMA. I thought its really crappy anime, with almost no action and lame characters... Once I borrowed dvds with Eds' adventures to give this anime series a chance ("That's my way of an otaku :P"), watched few episodes from the very beginning (up to 12 I think) and drop-out the series for a long time... and then when I was completely against it friend of mine threatened me that he won't aknowledge NGE as the best anime ever if I won't even try watch Alchemist till the final episode. I struggled, I watched... and here I am... after 2 months of struggle... Once lethal FMA enemy... now I'm writing completely positive review... so if there's anyone who thinks similarly to me... (are there? Impossible.. :P) just give it a chance... stop making stupid faces... watch FMA thoroughly... You won't regret that... at the end you will ask for more... just like PEPSI... :)

Rating: 10

Final Verdict

9.5000 (excellent)

Reviewed by qrdel, Mar 06, 2007

Comments

  1. leeshawran01 Mar 07, 2007

    w0w its cute

  2. shoujoboy Mar 12, 2007

    When you are reviewing a show that is clearly going to rate high in your book, it is hard to quell that massive fanboy/fangirl on the inside to write an objective review. It seems you at times attempted to, but gave more into ranting than you should have. Run on sentences and grammatical problems riddle much of your review and the ... was used entirely too much. I'm sure most will agree with your scoring but your writing leaves a bit to be desired. Keep at it and we'll see what you have for us in the future.

  3. qrdel Mar 16, 2007

    Well I'm still doing my best to improve writing skills. Its not that easy tho. I'm not a native speaker of English which makes things even tougher. Thx for what you've written here. I appreciate your comments and will try even harder to improve my writing skills. Ave.

  4. tainted3 Jun 04, 2007

    i agree with your rating.your rating fell short of words,wuite literally though.

  5. beyondmeasure Jan 24, 2008

    Alchemist, while good enough in anyone's book, isn't that great, to merit such a high score.

    Try 8.

  6. ShadowRunner3000 Dec 21, 2008

    I agree with your rating as well........to put it simply FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST RULES! XD

  7. Sanisa Sep 22, 2009

    Thanks for the review!

  8. rukasu04 Mute Member Nov 30, 2009

    Nice review, thanks

  9. SchRita Jan 15, 2010

    Thanks for the review!

  10. Sanisa Feb 24, 2010

    Thanks for the review! Nice ^__^

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