Full Metal Alchemist

[X-Nightcrawler]

Full Metal Alchemist (2004)

They thought there was nothing more they could lose . . . They were wrong.



"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's law of equivalent trade. We used to think that was the truth of the world when we were young."

Plot:
After their mother's tragic death, Edward and Alphonse Elric tried to revive her using Alchemy, the science of 'transmuting' something from one shape to another. But they broke the rule of equivalent trade doing so . . . now, Al is trapped inside a suit of armor and Ed lost his arm and leg. The only way to return to their former bodies -and maybe see their mother again- is finding the mythical Philosopher's Stone. But there are many obstacles on the way, including many others looking for the stone. Now it's a race to see who finds it first . . . And all this before the opening credits.

What I Thought:
Amazing fantasy, exciting action, hilarious comedy, intense horror, shattering drama and a few other stuff are the ingredients BONES studio (who brought the classics "Cowboy Bebop" and "Wolf's Rain" . . . those folks are just guarantee) used to tranmute the 2004 huge-hit anime series "Full Metal Alchemist". In less than a year, this 51 episode series already spawned 2 videogames, one full-length movie, a shitload of merchandise and a massive fanbase. Considered today as one of the top anime series you could possibly find . . . I just couldn't resist.

"Full Metal Alchemist" ("Fullmetal Alchemist" in the US) is unique in many levels. Now, I'm not the anime knowhow fellow, but I hadn't seen such a massive amount of genres meshed together and all done so well. This show had the romote control to my emotion, when it wanted I'd literally laugh out loud, at other moments I'd have by fingers lodged in the couch, at times excited me to point of yelps and at some points, it stabbed my heart, kicked me in the nuts, slept with my girlfriend and crashed my car. There's one point early in the series that's the definite most devastating thing I've seen in any medium . . . ever. It's like the writers thought "What's the worst, most completely shattering, totally wrong thing we can possibly do? Oh, I know!" and then ka-blooie. They also re-punch with the ending credits, edited to just remind you of what happened and further twist the knife that's on your heart.

But enough about me getting easily affected emotionally by anime. This show is more than extremely effective mood swings. There's a lot to back up the raving behind it. First off it's the axe-sharp writing. This extremely complex story managed to add complexities and complications like there's no tomorrow, also adding twist after twist after twist after twist, and all being surprising. But the good thing is that all the complexities are referenced enough times so you completely understand the thing, and in the end, all loose ends are tied up and wraps with a headbutt bittersweet finale that left me drooling in anticipation for the upcoming movie sequel. They also managed to create a very very realistic world with mature thematics (don't let the childish character designs confuse you) like racism, religious differences, war, and much more.

Focusing mostly on the theme of "loss" and "brotherhood", the show was more than some shallow thing you'd forget a day later. People can learn a lot about life from some of the undercurrents found in "Full Metal Alchemist" (loved the whole 'pregnant kitten' scene, I was seriously impressed by the depht this show could go to, no other series has gone like this). Take the "law of equivalent trade" used in alchemy in this universe. But there's also the clever notion of how many times they use this law when not referring to alchemy. I guess it's just like life, right? You can't gain something without giving something in return. I know it sounds silly, but seen in context, it's really really clever. The ending had something even more clever referring to the law of equivalent trade, this show is just so damned consistent.

But not everything is perfect with "Full Metal Alchemist" . . . the show is really really long (51 episodes) and many of the standalone episodes bring nothing or very little out of either plot or character. This is more apparent in the earlier episodes, when you think they're mostly going around meeting people that never return to the show. I was proven wrong when 80% of the characters that appear in the stand-alones made a return at some point, all enriching the conflict at hand. But still they could have trimmed many of the stand-alones. Another problem I had was regarding a certain moment in the series when the characters need a specific report, long lost in a library. Conviniently, a librarian just knew and had memorized every word of every book there. That was a huge trip in an otherwise well written story.

The characters are amazing . . . the scope and cast of characters is just huge when compared to other anime series. In the end we get this huge cast of main and supporting characters, and they focus on almost everyone at some point. The main characters ('mains' meaning about . . . 10 characters) were very dimensional, very human and mostly complex -and best of all, they were flawed. Sure, Alphonse (my favorite character, he just looks so damned badass) needed more layers (eventhough he's a well-developed character) and some phases of this or that fellow were somewhat unrealistic, but in the end, the development aquired beats the shit out of other shows I've seen (yes, they're more developed than the people in "Neon Genesis Evangelion").

What facinated me was the directing. The greatly fluid, well done animation and fun (if not a little childish) character designs are accompanied by greatly creative, inventive and downright fun direction. First off, I must say that the anime whackiness (odd faces, slapstick humor ["Tomato + Potato = Pomato!!" had me rolling down the floor], funny posing and oh so much more) and comedy were greatly welcome (the last series I had seen were dead-serious), I laughed during many instances and the whackiness was alway received with arms wide open (I don't think I ever rolled my eyes in any of the billions of times Ed gets called "chibi" and goes haywire). The creative bits included the strange moments like that shot when Ed almost gets squashed by the rolling ball or Sheska's "Imagination-Reality" thing when she talks about how she looks for the books. Can't describe it here, but trust me, i's really creative.

The action was really exciting, using the alchemy and the surroundings to a breaking point, making the battles unique. It's definitely your generic directing in any sense and way to look at it. The voice acting was amazing 99% of the time, except for a few (few) bumps with characters laughing and such, everyone did well with their respective roles and convinced me enough to understand the character's feelings. Nothing exceptional like that in "Neon Genesis Evangelion", but I can't say I didn't like the acting (especially Ed, damn, that actor could cry). Music was great, the opening and closing vocal tracks were very catchy, and the instrumental bits gave the urge to buy the soundtrack disc (coming my way). No song ever seemed to be un-fit for the situation.

Gore:
If you watch it in Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, you'll get a horribly trimmed version. However, the japanese episodes had enough to satisfy the gorehounds in all of us. Legless kid, someone getting limbs ripped off, someone gets cut in half, messed up exploding creature, exploding people, gunshots, corpses, finger through the head, impalings, someone getting knifed, skinless bodies and more.

Overall Rating:
9.4/10. It has a few flaws, yes. But what it does right, it does it much better than most things I have seen. Funny, scary, shattering, exciting and more. One of the best anime series in existence sounds about right.

[zombievictim]

I love anime. Its absolutely amazing but this didn't peak my interest. It just was really unexciting and boring. It just didn't fit my interests.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Originally posted by zombievictim
I love anime. Its absolutely amazing but this didn't peak my interest. It just was really unexciting and boring. It just didn't fit my interests.

Huh, with me it totally interested me after the first 10 seconds of the first episode, talk about gnarly.

[Dead Halloween]

Borrowing this bad boy from a friend this weekend.

Good review as always X's.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Originally posted by Dead Halloween
Borrowing this bad boy from a friend this weekend.

Eeeexcellent. And thanks.

[EvilDeadGirl]

Saw this a while back thanks to my Sis and loved it! Great story, awesome artwork. My new favorite series...well next to Naruto. Awesome review as usual X.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Originally posted by EvilDeadGirl
Saw this a while back thanks to my Sis and loved it! Great story, awesome artwork. My new favorite series...well next to Naruto. Awesome review as usual X.

Thank you. I'm glad someone else likes this anime as much as I do. It's right up there with Evangelion and Wolf's Rain.

*MASSIVE SPOILERS DO NOT GO ON UNLESS YOU WANT A VERY DEVASTATING MOMENT RUINED* (or highlight if you do).

What did you think of Nina's death in episode 7? I thought it was . . . just wrong, so ridiculously viscious.

[EvilDeadGirl]

Ah tell ya the truth I'm not that far yet X. I jes' ordered the Jap set offline so I can watch em all in one shot. Seen the first few episodes and loved em. OH you have to check out Naruto. You'd absolutely love it! Trouble is its not on DVD yet. Ya'd havta download.