Fullmetal Alchemist
| Fullmetal Alchemist | |
|---|---|
 The main protagonists along with Scar, (the furthest back) one of the main antagonists. | |
| Manga Author | Himoru Arakawa |
| Director | Seiji Mizushima |
| Format | Category:Anime (TV) |
| Made By | BONES |
| Episode Length | 22 Minutes |
| # of Episodes | 51 |
Summary
In an alchemic ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and leg, and his younger brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical prosthetics or "auto-mail", Edward joins the military, becomming a state alchemist. Edward and his brother seek the one thing that can restore their bodies. The legendary Philosopher's Stone. Their Journey isn't an easy one though, as they're hunted by creatures called Homunculi, artificial humans with super human powers. As well as scarred man with a mysterious past as well as a vendetta against all state alchemists.
Opinions
Greed
For me, this is the best anime I've seen. I'm more of a casual fan. I don't download subs and am willing to wait for shows to be dubbed. The anime seems balanced in a way. The action scenes don't seem to drag on and the story stays on track with the exception of maybe six episodes. Since this is based on a manga that is still going, fillers had to be made. However, the fillers aren't a continuous string of episodes. There's two filler episodes near the beginning that include a couple characters who return at the end to help Edward. As well as one episode that helps give more backstory to the character, Lust. A few things that bother me is that the dialogue starts to get a little repetitive in the beginning. Ed and Al talk about restoring their bodies back at least twice an episode, luckily it eventually stops once Ed and Al realize that there's more going on than their wants. I feel that the characters with the exception of one or two are likable. You can find traits that you may even have in common with them. Even with the antagonists. They aren't just plain evil, some have internal sturggles, some may want to just live their lives in peace. The voice acting is great, unlike most animes where they have a woman play the voice of a young boy, FUNimation had Aaron Dismuke, who at the start of the series was twelve years old play the role of Edward's brother Alphonse. The music is orchestrated and really makes the anime. The soundtrack even includes Beethoven's Fifth. Again, since the manga is still being written another ending was needed for the series. Most people think it's way too 'out there' but I think it just fine really. Last September, the movie "Conqueror of Shamballa" was released in America. It was a continuation and an ending to the anime series. It airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line-up. However if you're like me and simply don't have the time to watch TV, the DVD's are a great investment. Unlike FUNimation's past DVD releases i.e. Dragonball Z, these are really well made. Each DVD includes an insert booklet with concept art and production notes. The DVD's themselves include the standard English and Japanese with Subtitles options. The extras usually include trailers for FUNimation's other shows (which are aboslutely terrible), textless ending and opening themes, specific character biographies, as well as secret joke previews for the next episodes.
