Overall, Fullmetal Alchemist had a steady pace but did happen to drag along at time-piling the suspense. Near the end, it did seem to be rushed quite a bit but it could also be that the producers planned it that way. They wanted it to be so much at one time to increase the drama and intensity.
What made Fullmetal Alchemist such a prized anime, was that it had just a bit of everything-not to much or not to little. Filled with lots of humor, intense action and even the horrors of reality.
Fullmetal Alchemist is overall not the average predictable anime that you'd expect. For one, not everything turns out perfectly.

Extras
Each release of a new manga volume contains fun little manga!! The novels (with the dust covers) contain covers with fun scenarios and the spines have images of the people who die in the manga ascending as angels (just a word of warning if you want to avoid spoilers ;) ) For those buying the Viz version, these panels can be found at the back of the book.

Also, often at the back there are four 4-panel skits where the author has some fun with the characters. It is these little things that increase my eagerness to purchase my next copy of FMA. Much to my delight, Volume 12 came with a little book full of these little skits.

It seems almost pointless to write a review of a show that pretty much everybody on the planet Earth has seen, but I'm gonna do it anyway. This show is probably one of the biggest fan favorites in animation history, and with good reason. I certainly think there is better out there that many may never see, but there isn't much. The only things I can knock the show on is the missed ending and the drawn out episode count. If a bit had been skimmed off and made into say a 39 episode show, then maybe it would have had much more of an impact. I give credit where credit is due. The show had a wonderful story with characters to love and hate. Great and unforeseeable plot twists. Solid animation and sound. And there wasn't any flashback episodes (which I despise).

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.

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.

Fullmetal Alchemist is very much enjoyable and can be watched by anyone (well anyone over ten years of age that is). There is quite alot of humor too suprisingly especially in the early episodes too and will have you laughing but when Fullmetal Alchemist gets serious, boy those it get serious and quite fast too. This is one of Fullmetal Alchemist best quality which is conveying just how serious things are getting without directly telling you through funny dialouge and stupid actions. But the best quality of all in Fullmetal Alchemist is the inner message that it leaves for about the principal of equivalent exchange and its appilications. I don't think anyone who watches Fullmetal Alchemist straight through would stay the same.

It is in fact 100% entertaining, and it keeps you want to see more. At least, I haven't heard of an anime about a two boys lost parts of there body trying to revive there dead mother. All of the action starts from there.. otherwise, its something that will feel refreshingly new to you, especially if you're a regular anime watcher. Me, I've seen quite alot of action adventure animes. therefore I do believe that this anime is away beyond any other action anime I have seen. because it gathered everything in one anime. you can feel the emotions and the excitment. above that, you frankly can't wait untill you see the next episode.

Humor... some of the things that they do, make you laugh cause its cute...but again, maybe thats just for me :P.

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.

is series has everything it takes to be a great one - a dynamic and easy-to-follow story, complex characters, plenty of humorous moments, a touch of philosophy, decent visuals and last but not least an awesome OST. One impediment would be that the beginning is a bit slow, with plenty of flashbacks and many things that may seem strange on first sight, but everything is cleared up later in the series. If you have the patiente to endure through the first five episodes, I assure you it will be well worth it, so you should definitely watch it if you have the chance.

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.