Short review: Fullmetal Alchemist is little step up your average shounen action-adventure series, creating a unique world with memorable characters, lore, and legend. Following two young heroes, the story grows and our characters get entangled with creations and monsters beyond their imaginations. Not forgetting to pack the comedy (and a little bit of romance), the series mixes everything into a beautiful tale that will always be great to go back to.
Full review:
Warning: review contains spoilers
I’ll have to say that out of all the manga I’ve read, Fullmetal Alchemist is so far the only one where I feel like every event is really connected to the others. From the beginning where everything is set up, instead of a linear direction where you feel like you’re following one hero up and down a path, FMA gives me that feeling of sitting on large bird that flies up slowly and reveals the entire landscape. I can hardly find faults with the plot - it’s not too fast paced, and it knows when it needs to end. There is never a moment you will be bored, and it’s exciting to uncover the bigger picture along with the protagonists.
From the beginning where we have Ed and Al and the introduction of our basic concepts - The Philosopher’s Stone, transmutation, equivalent exchange - everything is weaved together in a way where things are not revealed too quickly for us to stomach, or too slowly that we would get bored. I think that what the manga has over both the 2003 and 2009 series is that here Arakawa tells the story how she likes - and that greatly gives us the pace we need. We get to feel every loss and every discovery with equal parts terror and wonder, making each reveal more and more interesting.
One more of the best things about the series is the scope. We may begin our journey with a fourteen and twelve year old boy, but by the end we are witnessing the story of an entire nation. And all of this is revealed so artfully, letting us know bit by bit about the homonculi, the nationwide transmutation circle, and Father. This is told to us not only through Ed and Al, but eventually with the help of the Mustang Unit, the Briggs team, and even people from another country, Xing.
Speaking of the characters, Arakawa did a great job of writing fleshed out ensemble characters. For such a large group, as a reader, I still ended up appreciating more than enough of my share of the cast. Maybe because Arakawa is a female author writing a shounen series but I felt the significance of most of the main characters in such a way that other mainstream shounen titles are unable to pull off. There is depth and growth in the love interests, the parent figures, and the villains. The lack of flat side characters makes Fullmetal Alchemist so refreshing. This is probably a personal preference as well but Arakawa writes some of shounen’s best female characters. She has stated that she grew up in a tough family and surrounded by strong women, and the influence shines in the characters such as Winry, Riza, Lan Fan, Izumi, Olivier, and Mei Chang.
An issue I have with some manga is when the art style gets so similar I can’t tell characters apart. That is not an issue with FMA. Most of the characters are memorable and distinct, and the art showing us Amestris is beautiful as well. One thing that stands out in FMA is the humor - it has the usual shounen formula of injecting comedy to lighten the tone, and FMA has some of my favorite chibi versions of the characters. The balance between jokes and serious topics is not too wishy-washy, you feel the seriousness and humor in the right times.
Overall, I’d recommend FMA in a heartbeat to anyone. It touches on heavy topics while keeping the perfect tone, has adorable comedy and art, lovable and relatable characters, and an exciting story that will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire way. Not to mention the ending doesn’t feel as dissatisfying as a lot of the endings of other big name anime. FMA is smart, but it never lacks in heart. It’s not that lengthy, but you will be investing quite some time on it. No worries, though, as the principle of equivalent exchange states, you’ll be getting something in return. I promise you, what you’re going to be seeing is worth it.
Plot 10/10
Art 9/10
Characters 10/10
Overall 10/10
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