Overall thoughts regarding the series:
A great story concept with interesting, fleshed-out characters, both main and side, each of them chock full of flaws. Themes of morality, friendship, brotherhood, loyalty, and the alchemist's concept of "equivalent trade" are woven together to form a cohesive train of thought that steams through the overarching plot.
Edward Elric (blond kid in red and black) is a wonderfully whimsical and equally serious (read as: angsty) teenager scrabbling to become a fully realized The two travel the world looking for the Philosopher's Stone, a quest that is both a real as well as a metaphorical one for the two youngsters who, at ages 15 and 13, are only just learning to become grown-ups despite their fantastic abilities and wide-ranging experience.
Episode by episode, it seems as if the Elric brothers are simply wandering from town to town and solving everyone's problems on their quest for the stone
For 51 episodes plus a movie, this was a worthwhile jaunt through a well-honed universe.
Okay, now the downside:
As with all anime, the English-subtitled version is usually better than the English dubbed versions. I watched the series with subtitles and the Conqueror of Shamballa in English dub. Still, I'm not sure either translation would have saved the overly introspective dialogue.
It seems the bane of manga storytelling is to explain everything ad nauseum rather than rely on the viewer/reader to figure it out on their own. Ed often launches into the details of how he beat his newest foe...while still fighting him. It's not exactly a convenient time to give a show and tell.
Additionally, given the age and maturity of Ed and his brother, the two do an awful lot of thinking and angsting when they're in the middle of a crisis. Either we're looking at two exceptionally sensitive and insightful young men, or the series is suffering from what I'd like to call "writer's ventriloquism" where a rational adult with greater conscience has to speak for the characters in order to drive the story/theme onwards.
I can happily say that episodes aren't spent powering up with "the last of my strength", though some tete-a-tetes have spanned over more than one episode for dramatic effect. And at least there aren't cards and numbers and glorified cockfights involved.
Actually, the fight scenes are usually good to watch, blending lots of hand-to-hand combat with martial arts and shiny sparkly alchemy. And the skills and powers of each character seem to be fairly consistent throughout.
And there's blood. Lots of blood. And crazy, messed-up monster animals that end up having a lot more soul than you'd think possible.
Still, an editor's hand at these 24-minute episodes (reduced to something like 20 minutes after the extensive opening and closing credits) would have saved us a season or more.
Best thing about the series:
These guys. Ed's cohorts among the military are a great bunch to watch, each with a very particular personality and niche in the storyline. They really make subtlety an art form, compared to Ed and Al's constant begrudging and mewling about the world's problems.As "dogs of the military," they bring so many themes and issues to the front of the story, and endear themselves to us because, no matter how wrong the things they do are, they absolutely believe in what they do because they think the ends will justify the means. They're heroes and anti-heroes all at once, and we constantly want them to do what's right...but what's "right" gets so muddied, all you can hope for is guidance.
Also, I totally ship Mustang x Hawkeye (black-haired hottie in the centre and the blond chick.)
Psst...Keep your eye on Alex Louis Armstrong (big guy in the back). He's frickin' awesome.
Bottom line:
A great show, and well worth a couple weeks' viewing time. Definitely recommended for ages 14 and up.
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