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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

Where to start, where to start. This story introduces so many different events that it is tough to just talk or focus on one thing. That can be an up or downside depending on your preference. Personally I thought it is annoying. yes the main point is about Ed and Al getting their bodies back, but all the side stories and events that go on makes everything very confusing. At one point the story is following Ed and Al, looking for the philosphers stone, the next minute they are with Roy or with Winry following them. Totally confusing. Yes the stories themselves are well written, no doubt about that. Its just the story relies on organization too. The constant changing of who they are talking about gets annoying and frankly, just stupid. I like the scientific nature of it all, about alchemy and everything cause it brings up many moral issues. It really makes a person think. The characters are really developed which I enjoy because who likes a static character, I know i don't. Overall this story is somewhat entertaining but it has several very slow points which in this case, cannot be ignored.

Rating

7 (above average)

Art

Once again anime styles keep impressing me. I don't ever recall, out of all the aniems I've seen, seen a style like this. Its very refreshing to see a different style never used before. Its well drawn and definately the right choice for a series like this. I wouldn't have done any better. I can definately tell the emotions each character as by just a hand gesture or movement of their eyes. That goes to show how well drawn it is. There are some occasional spots where it seems really 'funky', but I can live with it. each show has their own hiccups of course.

Rating

9 (very good)

Sound

Some of the songs used for the opening and ending sounded strange to me at first. I don't know what it was. It was tough to get used to, but once I did get used to it I started to enjoy it. You got great bands/singers like Crystal Kay and L'Arc~en~ciel doing songs for the opening and ending, which they do a great job doing. There is a major problem with these songs though. Despite how good they are they get really old after a while. When listening to the full version of each song, they sound great the first couple of times but after that I never really have the interest in listening to them again. They just don't have the hook that is needed in a song to keep the audience. The voices overs in the english version (the only version I have gotten a chance to see so far) are really good actually. Despite the bad rap that dubbed animes get for having bad voice overs this one actually has some good voices. Yes they aren't perfect so to speak but its good enough that I want to watch/hear them again. I think they did an alright job on the sound overall.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

Overall they do a decent job presenting this one though this anime is too hyped up. Because of the big fan base for this anime a high standard has been created. I am not saying that having many fans is bad but the fans do too much to say its perfect. That was the problem I had watching this. Because of the high standard that the fans set, I ended up going in with the same standard, thus getting disappointed. The humor is good at a lot of points and many episodes are enjoyable but a lot of cases it just goes really slow. I don't think this anime should have been anymore than 26 episodes only because of how slow it takes to get to the end. I keep hoping that the next episode is the episode that everything finally comes to a conclusion but it jsut leaves more open and a clonclusion has yet to be found. There are many questions left unanswered thus leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. Overall this anime is decent but doesn't live up to the reputation that everyone has giving it. Sorry FMA-fans.

Rating

6 (average)

Final Verdict

7.00 (above average)

Reviewed by Aoshi101, 2y 18wk ago