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Plot Synopsis

"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 the heartbreaking story of two brothers trying to regain what they have lost. After the death of their mother, they feel so devastated to the point where they\'ll even do the forbidden to revive someone they love. I find this beautifully made, because we all know we\'d do anything to have a loved one back from the dead. If you have never had a loved one die on you, then you couldn\'t possibly understand the pain that comes with it.

Edward ends up losing two limbs and Alphonse ends up with no human body at all. So the two embark on a quest to get their bodies back.

The plot is powerfully made. With angst, comes amusing scenes. Which makes the story not tedious at all, because we all know we appreciate a laugh inbetween the story.

The fight scenes are short, but realistic. We all know we\'d get bored if a fight scene lasted two episodes long (coughDragonBallZcough).

I recommend the last seven episodes. Where things are finally heating up and more discoveries about the Philosopher\'s Stones and the Elric brothers are made.

Now as for the characters..

The Elric brothers are two strongly made characters. The series suceeds in showing the traditional bond between siblings. It is not predictable like other anime plots (y\'know, brother against brother, siblings always fighting, etc.). FMA shows how much the Elric brothers care and respect eachother, especially since they cannot stand being separated because all they really have to lose in life are eachother. It is a pleasant bond, and it truly makes the viewer feel the love the Elrics feel for eachother.

As for the other characters (Roy, Hughes, Riza, Havoc, etc.) they are balanced as well. Each one of them has an likable personality and are entertaining. Roy\'s fiery aspects makes the women melt and makes men want to be just like him; Hughes\' neverending love for his daughter (and constant bragging about her) makes the audience become engrossed with the humor in it. And as we all know, every character that we lose affects us as well. Its because the characters had such an impact on the show that it is hard not to see them anymore. (And most of you all know what I\'m talking about).

The villains (aka Homunculi, Scar and such) are quite the traditional villains. The Homunculi, whom are trying to take the Philosopher\'s Stone for their own means (possible human transmutation). And Scar, whom is well.. scarred by the tragedy upon his people and confusedly trying to avenge the loss of his brother and his people. Other villains as well, (Kimbley, Archer, etc.) either make the audience loathe their actions so much or makes the audience eager to see what they will do next.

Extremely dominant set of characters. An important aspect of every story, not just animes.

Rating

9 (very good)

Art

The art. I cannot say much about the art.

The art is simply beautiful. The anatomies are nicely drawn and with perfect detail. The legs are not too long, nor the bodies are thin to the point of thinking the characters are possible anorexics. Many animes draw their characters like this, unfortunately.

The landscaping has an impact and shows how important the art is as well as the plot itself.

And my favorite of course, as you all know, the battles. The fighting moves are perfect. Just perfect. They don\'t go slow at all, they are fast moving but enough to show the eye how perfectly Hiromu Arakawa draws. That kind of art is hard to draw and needs an inconsiderable amount of time to learn how to draw realistic blows and kicks.

I also like the facial expressions. And each character has a unique face. Each with their own set of eyes, mouth, face shape, etc.

Many other animes draw every single character with the same set of eyes (Chobits) or with similar horribly drawn face shapes and mouths (Pokemon and Dragonball Z). Notice the shape of Edward\'s eyes and compare them to Roy\'s, Winry\'s, or Al\'s. None of them are the same. And each fit the character perfectly. Edward\'s eyes give a sense of pain, anger, and determination. Alphonse\'s eyes give a sense of innocence, and curiosity; just like Roy\'s give an aura of fierceness, boldness, and a somber expression.

FMA truly has the best art I have ever encountered from every anime I\'ve ever seen.

Rating

10 (excellent)

Sound

The music is well made. The song \"Brat\'ja\" gives a solemn feeling, once it plays every time an angst situation is happening. \"Dante\" is also one of my favorites. It is quite an exotic sound, listen to it and you\'ll see yourself drifting away from your own body.

Now, as the voices.

I am generally much more satisfied with the Japanese voices. They do an incredible job and it doesn\'t sound cliched or anything. I was seeing FMA with my brother in Japanese audio with English subtitles. The actors took the trouble to truly fit themselves in with their characters and made every word sound as if THEY were feeling it, not just acting it. If you also take a look at the scenes where a battle is going on, you\'ll hear the characters gasp, groan, moan, and cry out and really think that the voice actors are inside the show. As if they are right there, feeling every sting of pain that follows a massive roundhouse kick (look at episode 50 with Ed and Envy\'s fight scene)

Now as the English voice actors, I am terribly dissapointed. Edward ended up sounding like a seventeen year old rather than a fifteen year old. Envy ended up sounding like an old woman, and Gluttony sounds like a chimera rather than an Lust-dependent obese person. Don\'t get me started on the English voices..

Rating

8 (good)

Presentation

FMA is hands down, the best anime I have encountered so far.

Its plot is mostly angst, but brief humor is added. This makes the show unpredictable.

Science-concepts make this story realistic, and makes the audience believe for a second that they are watching a real-life event. It is almost like a \"The Da Vinci Code\", it teaches us forgotten knowledge (I didn\'t knew crap about alchemy) and applies real life to it.

It is not a tedious \"random\" show. It doesn\'t make its characters running around for no reason and looking like idiots, the characters\' reactions are quite real and just the same as we would act.

We look at FMA and feel anger, sadness, and happiness when the characters do. It doesn\'t make the audience yawn at all, (except episode 16 \"That Which Is Lost\") and people would wake up at 3:00 am just to see it.

The concept is excellently composed, you\'ll be extremely satisfied with the end. Ah, and the movie following all 51 series is coming out on Japan, so make sure to watch for that. Out of all episodes, I\'ll give some recommendations.

+Episode to see for a laugh: Episode 13: Flame VS Fullmetal, and Episode 37.
--Don\'t drink milk when seeing this if you don\'t want it shooting out of your nose.

+Episodes not to miss: Episode 18: Marcoh\'s Notes, Episode 25: Farewell Ceremomy (keep some tissues nearby), Episode 34: The Theory of Avarice, Episode 40: The Scar, Episode 41: Holy Mother, Episode 42: Without Knowing His Name, Episode 43: The Stray Dog Has Run, Episode 44: Light Hoenheim, Episode 45: Corruption of The Soul , and episodes 28-51.
--See this. If you\'re in jail, break out, you\'ll miss important information and some good events if you don\'t see these.

+Episodes to miss: Episode 17:The House of the Waiting Family, Episode 16: That Which Is Lost, Episode 26: Her Reason
--Go drink a beer or something. You got better things to do than to watch these episodes. :/ They really tell no important info nor any significant scenes.

If you really want to know what I mean, then go ahead and take a look at my two screenshots. Which I took myself No spoilers in either of them, sorry for all you people who watch the FMA dubbed version. lol

Rating

9 (very good)

Final Verdict

9.00 (very good)

Reviewed by P-U-K-E, 2y 20wk ago