Fullmetal Alchemist Review
By Rex
Fullmetal Alchemist Review
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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
The basic story (for those who haven't seen it) is about two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, looking for the Philosopher's Stone, which can greatly enchace their alchemy powers. The whole story revolves around this, with lots of twists and turns of course! The story itself focuses on the stone from the beginning to end, with filler episodes here and there. The story was written out very well as there was no inconsistencies at all. It can also get pretty emotional at times, my eyes were wet couple of times through out the series. There were twists and turns within the story, but the "major" twist (whats behind the gate) sort of dissapointed me as I was hoping for something (maybe the expectation i had was too high from all the hype). But the Gate idea also lead to the ending, which i quite liked. It was somewhat a fitting (and open) ending. However, there are still somethings that are left unexplained in the end, which, hopefully, will be covered in up coming movie in 2005. Overall, a solid and captivating storyline thats filled with suspense, humor and action.
- Rating
- 8 (good)
Art
The art is absolutely BEAUTIFUL in FMA. Character design is wonderful and
creative. I also have to comment on the effort that the artist put in, 51
episode with no recycle footage 
. The OP
and ED has some very nice animations as well. Espeically the 3rd, 4th OP, and
4th ED, the fight scene was drawn out extremely well. The animation for the
series itself is just as stunning. Everything is crisp and natural. The fight
scenes are just great too, as they move very fluidly. If you have seen other
BONES anime (Wolfs Rain, RahXephon), you can expect the same calibure of the
execellent artwork.
- Rating
- 10 (excellent)
Sound
Personally, i wasn't quite fond of the OPs to the series, but they do
"fit." The ED was a completely different story though. I love all the
ending songs . Although I haven't heard to OST yet, from what i can remember from
the TV, it should be a pretty good sound track. The voice overs was done, as
with most animes, extremly well. Al always had that echo sound when in the
armor, which is pretty cool. And both Ed and Al voices fits their personality
perfectly (even though both voices were voiced by females )
- Rating
- 8 (good)
Presentation
I love the series. Let me repeat, I LOVE THE SERIES . It was
a blast watching this. I haven't seen an anime lately that makes me watch
continuosly. I gave up my studies to watch eps 25-51 in one day, now im probably
going to fail, but that has nothing to do with this review...ANYWAYS, it is a
great package that has humor, which sometime made me laugh until it hurts. The
action scenes was amazing too. This combines lots of elements that makes an
anime enjoyable to watch, and because of that, I am sure that most people (I
will stay away from the word ALL, since there is always people who disagree)
will love FMA just as much as I do! Another factor that I think made FMA
interesting, was the whole universe they created where people can use alchemy.
It was original, as i haven't seen any other shows that uses this theory. It
also was...umm...COOL. Roy Mustang became my idol .
Final words? Watch it if you haven't! I had one of the best times while watching this, even though it's 51 episdoes, it is WORTH your time.
- Rating
- 10 (excellent)
Final Verdict
9.00 (very good)
Reviewed by Rex, 3y 45wk ago
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i totally agree, the story is really touching
and i totally recommend it to all to watch ^^
couldn't agree more, except on the sound part. i love the openings, especially the 4th one. but other than the openings, the sound is great, i have the first OST, listen to it all the time.
so yeah, if you haven't seen it, you seriously should watch this series, its one of my top favorites already ^^
Haha that`s funny but i do find the OST good here
Mellisa and Kesenai Tsumi are very nice... but i see that only for me 
Then
i agree with the voice of Edward but i don`t like the voice of Alphonse... i
just can`t take it 
i rather agree with everything else ! Good Job Rex!: )
The storyline gets 8? I don't think so...it should be a 8.5 or 9.. it's well planned and gets more and more interesting each episode... but well... everyone has their own opinion, right?
noooooooo!!! Fma in my opinion got
really underrated. like KorganoS said, more like
a 9 or 9.5 for storyline.
this is such a great anime! and manga =P..the anime is finished but the manga isn't ^o^ isn't that great?
Haven't read the manga, but the anime was amazing. The plot just never gave up and it just kept pushing forward. Pretty impressive for a story to hang-on for 52 episodes and not die out, and not give in to endless re-cap eps. Definitely a 9 in my book.
hai rex ^_^
just finished the FMA series ...
for me it's
story:8.5
art:10
music:9
presentation:10
and yeah it's worth my time watch it ^^
where could I download FMA the movie
FMA is the greatest animation in 2004.
story, direction, sketch... all part are nice.
I'm wildly excited FMA, comics is also great!!
I expect the movie in upcoming 2005.
I love FMA as I just recently started watching it and became rather fond of Hughes.
Your review is quite accurate in what I think it is, though I never knew that Al and Ed's voices were by female seiyuus lol...
I also think that the manga is great too. ^^ You can read it here: [url=www.readmanga.com]Fullmetal Alchemist[/url]
I hope that I can buy the movie
FMA is too interesting for me
hmm..
hey,
L'Arc~en~Ciel's song here?
perfect anime!!!!!!!!
FMA is too interesting for me
hmm..
hey,
L'Arc~en~Ciel's song here?
perfect anime!!!!!!!!
This show is awsome when you combine the "fiction" and the anime
yeah iloved it sooo much
hi
Hello!! X3
Uh, phorntheps? I don't think you can download a movie that just came out... what, not even a week ago? Not trying to be mean, but it's probably gonna be a while till anyone can download the FMA movie. I'm still looking for a place to download the episodes, if there is a place...
i agree on all but the sound it was as detailed as the sound of a foot on cement or an explosive alchemich reaction but otherwise your totaly right on the other stuff great review for a great show.
fullmetal alchemist is an AMAZING anime, the idea/plot of the story is ingenius. The end of the series wasn't much of a perfect ending, leaving us hanging like that, so the movie finished it, or so i heard. The movie that you get off the internet is done by cams, so it moves a lot. But FMA is still a great anime.
this show is awesome.
This show is great, and you did a great review of it. I wonder what you think about the movie ending, as it's been bashed and loved equally in every forum I've visited.
I think you should have covered the plot lines and the charas more, as they are the strong points of the show. I think the plot is amazing(even if the manga is still better) and the charas were very good and charismatic. The art was, as you say, very good (way better than the manga's), but the animation was even better, quite possibly the highest quiality anime I've ever seen(with the possible exception of Monster).
As for the music, the OP were so incredibly cool I'm surprised you didn't like ANY of them. Fav's are Rewrite, Undo and Link(movie OP). The endings didn't stuck out as much for me, though Kesenai Tsumi is STILL the best anime song ever sung in this world^^. Background music was very good, varied and hollywood-likeXD. Brothers continues to be the best non-OP-or-ED song ever.