Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Thoughts

Whew, the long roller coaster ride for this impressive title temporarily ends. While I was aware of the good reviews received by Hagaren, it took me some convincing before I previewed the pilot. Since I had no prior knowledge to Hirumi-sensei’s manga and the title sounds too similar to Full Metal Panic!, I was afraid to even touch it. I am gladly wrong for all the misconceptions.

The deviation from the original storyline may have caused panic to those avid followers of the manga. The ugly track record of most companies regarding such transitions are enough to scare off loyal readers. However, the writers of the anime proved to be more than competent. Amazingly enough, the director and the staff members managed to pull of an impressive feat by focusing on a balance between character development, story advancement, and animation. Lest we forget, the series was fortunate to have excellent seiyuus to give life these unforgettable characters. As for the soundtrack… I can honestly say, I’m not much of an OST-kind-of-person, so I didn’t pay too much attention into it.

Since the manga’s ripe with colorful personalities, the animators were lucky to have such characters to work on. They succeeded on letting the audience sympathize with semi-villains such as Greed, Lust, Scar, Wrath, and Marta. But then, there were also misses. Hohenheim and Dante’s mysterious past wasn’t fully explored. In the end, Dante became to much of a cookie-cutter villain than when she was initially introduced. Although I have to admit, I loved that the god of death finally caught up with her. Hohenheim was another character which I had tremendous expectations on. As much to my dismay, we only saw brief glimpses of his thoughts and feelings regarding this whole family abandonment and Philosopher Stone issues. I was hoping for a confrontation and some closure between him and Envy, the first child he left. As far as annoying characters were concerned, I don’t believe to have encountered such an individual. Maybe, Archer? To be honest, I’m not truly sold with this Robo-Archer thing. It felt too much of a plot device more than anything.

The revelation of the two different worlds could’ve been a mixed bag for me if it weren’t the explanation of the using dead people’s souls to power-up alchemy. I like the idea of could traveling time and space only to be used as fuel. Harsh, but enough for me, plotwise. The penultimate episode and the finale had inconsistencies on where it stands regarding the whole equivalent trade issue. It seemed that the writers weren’t certain on which ‘truth’ they want to leave their audience. I’m hoping that the movie might flesh out more significant answers.

The death toll for the finale was very unexpected. With all the surprises we’ve been through, I was almost certain about Mustang’s fate. I was ready to take out my passport and book a ticket to Japan when we’re shown a bloody image of him. Can I just say how delighted I am to have him recovering from his injuries with Hawkeye by his side? The pair reminds me of a potential adult version of Ed and Winry. It’s probably just me.

Technically, Ed had literally joined the other side. But still, the episode manage to spin this supposedly depressing tidbit into a very hopeful and encouraging fate. After the journey to find the Philosopher Stone, he and his brother embarks on a new quest, this time to find each other.

I’m sure this series earned its place in anime history in terms of characters and storytelling. If the movie exceeds expectations, I promise to major pimpage to all my family and friends just to get them to buy the DVDs.