Full Metal Alchemist 1 - The Curse (Animated) > Reviews > FULL METAL ALCHEMIST!!!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Unmemorable
Soundtrack	Average

Advantages:	Brilliant concept and story line
Disadvantages:	The animation isn't really the best I have seen

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Introduction:

The Full Metal Alchemist is a show about people that can change matter of different objects, rearrange this matter and make something completely different, this is the science of alchemy. The show is based on the law of equivalent exchange which states... "Human kind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain something, something of equal value must be lost."

The Full Metal Alchemist was origionally a Japanese show which has been dubbed in English. Usually dubbing of Japanese TV shows and video games are terrible with over eggsagerated speech and voices you wouldn't necessarilly put with the characters, but I am pleased to say that this series has got the dubbing perfect, with believable voices and enough emotion to not be over the top.

The story is about a young prodigy of Alchemy called Edward Elric and his little brother called Alphonse Elric and their quest for knowledge and their old lives back.

As this is only the volume 1 DVD there are only 4 episodes

Episode List

Episode 1: Those Who Challenged The Sun
Episode 2: Body Of The Sanctioned
Episode 3: Mother
Episode 4: A Forger's Love

DVD Extras

Textless Songs
Production Art
Japanese Commercials
Image Gallery
Character Profiles

Episode Outline

Episode 1: Those Who Challenged The Sun

In this episode we get to learn all about alchemy as a concept and the main characters are introduced. At the beginning of this episode it sets up the whole journey for Ed and Al and the reason they are searching for the philosopher's stone (Its a bit like it was in Harry Potter being a way for people to live longer but it wasn't taken from Harry Potter as the stone has its own myth and legend). In a desperate bid to bring their mother back from the dead Edward and Alphonse delve into the deep taboo of human alchemy. In doing this they unleash such awesome power that both of the brothers bodies are detroyed. Edward loses his right arm and left leg while Al's soul becomes entrapped in an ancient suit of armour. They need to find the stone to restore their old bodies. They find a clue in their search and come across a town where a man claims he can preform miracles using a mysterious red stone....

Episode 2: Body Of The Sanctioned

This episode continues on from where episode 1 left off, with Ed and Al confronting the miracle man claiming he is in fact a fake and is using alchemy and not miracles as he claims. A fight breaks out which you could probably guess would happen. The fight scenes in this show are very interesting as anything can happen and any objects can be turned into weapons, for example an umbrella can be turned into a sword. Also there are many magical creatures such as Chimeras which are crosses between Humans and Dogs perfectly alchemised at the core.

Episode 3: Mother

This episode is all the background knowledge of Ed and Al's life in more detail, describing how their mother died and exactly what they did afterwards.

Episode 4: A Forger's Love

This is probably the first real episode so far without it being about the boys past. This episode is in the classic formula of stumbling across a town and encountering a certain problem they have and then finding the truth behind it. In this case Ed and Al come across a town which is being haunted by a ghost-like figure of a girl who died many years ago...

Overview:

The good points about this show is that it is like one big movie totalling to about 50 episodes with a full motion picture movie at the end of it all, so I think if you like the first four episodes it will be worth watching to the end. Although as there are only four episodes on each DVD this can and will get very expensive that's probably the only downside I can think of apart from the animation not being the best around, although after you get into the story you can easily look past that.

I recommend this show for anyone really especially for people who like the Anime style for starters, but also anyone who likes sci-fi movies and stuff or anyone who just wants to try something new.