Full Metal Alchemist

Full Metal Alchemist - TV - 51 Episodes

Story 8/10
The story begins with two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who have gone through the most forbidden act in the world of alchemy, transmutating a human. Unable to accept their mother's death, they perform the transmutation only to find out why human transmutations were forbidden. Alchemy has a rule of equivalent trade. One cannot make something without giving something of equal value. Thus Alphonse's (the younger brother's) body and Edward's (the older brother's) right leg was taken in equivalent trade for transmuting their mother. To save his brother's soul Edward binds Alphonse's soul into an automaton, his left arm the cost.

FMA begins well and instantly captures attention, an immediate plus. As a combination of action, tragedy, and adventure, it also has a good blend of philosophy and a good dose of morals in the main character. But that I'll get into later on.

The plot is dissimilar from anything I've seen before and that in itself was a relief. As well, it was very one-sided. The brothers headed off to find a way to return to their regular bodies and the plot is very faithful to that. However, because the plot is so straight forward and loyal, the characters are able to develop very well. You get to see how relationships grow between everyone and you enjoy it.

Full Metal Alchemist was a REALLY GOOD ANIME. It's something I can't really explain. It balanced everything very well. Though it was a dark tale there were many moments of chibi comedy that balanced out. However because Full Metal was so multifaceted you get to see the characters in many different situations... and see how they react. You really get to learn and know the characters front and back, more than you do in most other animes.

One thing I really hate in animes is filler episodes. However each filler episode in FMA felt like it should have been there to help viewers understand what was going on so it was okay.

The series flowed well from beginning to end and I felt everything went in the right direction until the ending. Though I personally didn't enjoy how FMA ended it did correspond to how everything went. Everything was clear and concise and easily understood, thank God, but there was a moment near the end that confused me. I don't want to spoil the end for you so all I'll say is; Edward learns how to do something... so why doesn't he do it again?

Visuals 9/10
I loved the visuals for Full Metal. One of the things I look at before I watch anime are the visuals. So this was definite plus. The characters were drawn well with fully visible noses and thank you, no super huge cute eyes. The lines of the characters were thin and very simple. They did not look like sketches. The only time lines became blocky were in serious moments. Don't worry you'll know when that happens.

Shading was simple and in one color: gray.

The characters as well as the colors in the series were very fitting to the dark moments of the anime. The clothes, outfits, etc fit the world that FMA was created in. It was different enough to differentiate it from our world but not strange enough to call it weird.

There were very few still scenes, none of which were during important scenes. No "fuzzy" lines thank you very much and the colors were thankfully bright. Overall really good visuals. Especially during the alchemy scenes. Bright, eye-catching, and lots of wow.

Audio 8/10
The music corresponded with everything, again, really well. There was dark and creepy music to the dark scenes, and funny music to the comical scenes. Most of the time the music was instrumental, so that was a plus. However, like every other anime it had designated music for designated scenes. Sometimes it would have been nice to change it up a bit but overall it was good. Brought you back to the good times.

I have to say the Japanese version was SOOO much better. English dubbing just doesn't work out. Trust me; get the Japanese version with English subtitles. The voices (in Japanese) fit the characters so much better.

Characters 9/10
I absolutely loved all the characters in Full Metal Alchemist. It was a huge factor in making me love the anime.

Edward is like most dark anime main characters: dark but not dark enough. Though this would usually annoy the heck out of me, this is endearing on him. There are lots of morals that stop Ed from doing extremely bad things... but thankfully he has enough badass in him to kill the bad guys. Through it all Ed has to face a lot of adult decisions and its fun to see him still act childish once in awhile. If you're still a teen, you'll find lots to relate with him.

Alphonse is such a sweet character. He is an amazing guy. After all the crap he goes through he still manages to be the more mature brother between Ed and himself, even as the younger brother. Whenever Ed loses his temper about his height, Al is the one to calm him down. It's a funny thing to watch. On the other hand, you really get to see Al's naive younger brother side when it comes to the life decisions Ed has to make for the both of them.

Through the series you'll get to see how Ed and Al's relationship develop and you get to see how they love each other as brothers. It was a good detail to see to because the whole plot depended on their brotherly love for each other. Good job directors! Tear up for brotherly love.

Overall 8/10
I absolutely loved it. It's not an easy thing to describe but it was an amazing anime. Even though there were a few bumps in the road I really did love everything about it. The characters pulled me in, the plot sucked me dry, and the series just brought me along for the ride. It's hard to explain so after all this I'll just say; you have to SEE it to understand why it's so great. I would recommend this 100%.

A perfect introduction to an awesome sci-fi anime series.

I had heard that full metal alchemist was a cool show according to reading several anime websites, so i decided to borrow DVD from friends. The first episode basically follows the brothers ed and al in a hunt to find the Philosophers Stone while they're stranded in some wierd desert town. This is a not-to-miss pilot episode of what could be a great anime series.