Full Metal Alchemist (anime/manga)
September 19th, 2007 by Nothayama
PG-13/16 for violence, darkness, etc.; official series website (anime on TV) and official series website (manga/novels/books)
This is yet another title that we reviewed before everyone and his dog got into it, so there are plenty of other sites that will give you a more in-depth review. Two brothers suffer the loss of various body parts at the hands of creepy pseudo-science, then travel the globe in search of the object that can help them get their original bodies back. This series tries desperately to be an interesting story full of touching moments but only succeeds about half the time. It’s a perfectly solid anime, but it falls into shounen cliche too often, which is extremely distracting because it’s trying so hard to go beyond that. The main character is exactly like every average shounen hero before him, the “alchemy” aspect of the show pretends to be science but ends up being the same old shounen superpower (at least in the first 20-odd episodes I’ve seen), and too many episodes are based off the overused “save the innocent girl and the rest of the village from some guy who’s abusing his power” frame. The episodes do vary in quality somewhat, and I thought episodes 3 through 8 (the character’s backstory) were excellent; I would probably like the show more if it didn’t have so much wasted potential, but as is it’s hard not to imagine what they could have done with the premise if the genre wasn’t there to limit them.
Educated impression: Frustrating, but still worth a try. (NotHayama)
Additional educated impression: It’s true that when this show it’s good, it’s very good–but we can’t ignore the fact that when it’s bad, it’s very bad. I can agree that it’s worth a watch and can justify a large fanbase, but I’ll never see it as the “piece of anime brilliance” many fans (and even critics) claim that it is; Full Metal Alchemist jerks its audience around way too much for that. However, I will say that it has one of the most beautiful English dubs I’ve ever heard. What a treat to hear adults sound like adults and kids sound like kids! (And no, I don’t think Ed’s voice skewed too old, and Vic Mignogna’s performance was so brilliant that it doesn’t matter either way.) (Lianne)
Will you watch the rest? I promise you, it lives up to its name. I’m super-picky about anime (especially shonen) and FMA is a brilliant gem.
Everyone I’ve spoken to has told me the same thing, but the supposed brilliance of the second half of the series (and the moments of brilliance in the first half) still can’t cancel out FMA’s substantial flaws. That’s why I said the series can justify a large fanbase, but can’t in good faith be hailed as “The Greatest Anime Ever.” I’ll probably watch the rest someday, but there are plenty of things out there I’d rather read/watch that don’t take 50% of their episodes to get really good.
While I’m glad I saw the whole show, I’m also VERY glad I didn’t actually invest money in buying it, because I know I’ll never watch it again. Like Lianna said when it’s good it’s very good, but it shoots itself in the foot too often to reach “great” status.
But I’d still say that it _is_ worth finishing.
Urg. Yeah the anime is bad. But I wish you wouldn’t say this is a review for the anime AND the manga because the manga has a totally different plot line. I think around episode 7 the plot for the anime goes off in a sharply different direction and character development dies. Suddenly Al and Ed continually try to sacrifice their lives for one another (even though in the manga they’ve both agreed not to because without the other getting their bodies back is near pointless) Seriously the plot is TOTALLY different the bad guy becoming some woman named Dante and bringing in the modern world (wtf?!). It also brings dead/single chapter characters back to become largely involved with this plot (urg Tucker is DEAD and in bringing him into the story over and over again (relying on the success of emotional impact the short plot line had in the manga) KILLS the emotional impact the few manga scenes with Nina in them) . Also the anime really REALLY makes it seem like Ed is gay for his brother D: Which is TERRIBLE. I never understood the pairing until I saw the anime and the overplayed emotion between them -_-;
The manga still revolves around the humuculous and Roy’s plans of revolution and the authoress has made the military aspects so deep (planning each character/plot line out carefully beforehand and drops hints about each character FAR before we see them making it far more realistic) that it really becomes epic. Though I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it is a revolution of shonen manga like other people it is amazingly different then the usual BEAT BAD GUY THEN BEAT BIGGER BAD GUY aspect of the usual shonen and deserves to be both respected and not in any way related to the anime.
As the FMA MANGA livejournal states: “We don’t hate the anime, we just pretend it doesn’t exist”
You make a good point, Alexa–NotHayama and I have read very, very little of the manga. Usually we mention that in a Mini Review, and I’m not sure why we didn’t here. I’ll keep your comments in mind.
Well, I’ve read four volumes of the manga now, and although I’m not totally won over, I can say that I like it a lot better than the anime. This might seem like weird praise, but I found it to be one of the least annoying manga I’ve ever read. I felt that the anime suffered from overdone jokes and misplaced angst and moralizing, but the manga seems to have smoothed that all out. I’m not going to say I’m fully behind it — I don’t find the main villains terribly interesting, at least not yet, and some of the angsty bits didn’t make much sense (so Al thinks he isn’t real all of a sudden? Because a crazy murderer told him so? A guy who’s just a soul stuck in a suit of armor has so many things he could angst about, and this is what’s bothering him?)
I’m having trouble getting my hands on volume 5 right now, but once I read more of the manga I may have more to add to the review.
I agree. I hate the anime. But i absolutely love the manga.
The manga is way better than the anime, but I feel like there are some pacing issues with both, personally. I also dislike the tendency towards monologuing and odd metaphors (You’re pus? Really?) that a certain villain had last time I checked.
But, I haven’t read the manga in about a year, even though I was up-to-date with the Japanese releases then.
This is one of the few manga series that I read that is not shojo. Every single volume is no less than an A. Fabulous art, layouts, inking, characters, depth, and a thick plot. The graphic designer in me especially loves the layouts and inking. Fullmetal Alchemist is one of those series that is an A all around and I’m proud to have it sitting in between shojo manga on my shelves.