Review posted by Chris Easton (Anonymous User, Search for other reviews) on December 12, 2004 at 10:21 AM.
This review applies to 1 - 51.
Total Score: 19/30 (63.33%). Story: 7/10 (70%), Animation: 6/10 (60%), and Sound: 6/10 (60%).

Overall:

      This is a really good anime, from a Ratings point of view with the system it doesn't appear to be, but I recommend it if you're bored and looking for something new. No ecchi moments really so don't really worry about that if your parents or girlfriend walks in. The story is pretty interesting and I was hooked till the very end. It is currently showing on Cartoon Network in Adult swim, which is how I happened upon it, but I didn't watch it and instead got episodes from another source. I always wonder what happens after the endings of some animes and this one doesn't disappoint in that category I hope they make an OVA or something.

6.3/10

Story:

      Full Metal Alchemist is set in a world of alchemy, which is magic basically. The story is set around two brothers, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric, who are students of alchemy. But after their mother dies they decide to use their alchemy knowledge to try and revive her, however, human transformation alchemy (as it is known) is illegal, and for good reason, their mother is not revived, except in a screwed up way, and something else. Edward loses his leg and his arm while his brother is killed and Edward manages to tie his soul to a suit of armor. After that Ed gets some "auto-mail" which is just a robotic arm and leg and the two head out in search of knowledge about a "philosophers stone" in order to try and get Al's body back and Ed's arm and leg back. Trouble ensues and Ed becomes a state Alchemist or "dog of the military" to get access to books. Will they find the philosophers stone and get their bodies back? Yes and no really, watch it to find out the twists and turns. The story was very good, little to no sidestories that didn't lead anywhere to fill up time, but near the end the story had to pick up and got a little to condensed as pretty much a whole lot of story had to be told. But still good.

7/10

Animation:

      The animation is top notch, I did see some nice looking effects with alchemy that I would liked to have seen more of, the blue lights work awesomely. Some computer-aided stuff to fill in the ground and such, nothing new, just works well. Lines crisp and colors vibrant and fitting. Some painted non-moving scenes with no action but that's common in anime. 6 because its mediocre with nothing new, but not crappy.

6/10

Sound:

      The sound was really good, however some of the dubbing for the japanese voices looked a little off. The voice cast for the japanese dub was very convincing, however one of the characters sounds like a girl but is in fact a guy, and Al the armored brother does sound like a little kid, but they're supposed to be about 12, but it sounds like he's younger. The dub was alright as well, seemed to fit a little better with the son, I didn't get to hear the character that sounded like a girl, but alright. I don't really recall any music that was striking, the intro and ending credit ballads are some 80s sounding punk rock, but it works. Sound effects really good, nothing that was repeated too many times and they were convicing. 6 because of some discrepancies but nothing REALLY bad.

6/10

<< Go back to the Fullmetal Alchemist page.