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(Note: as of writing this, I have not watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, or the manga. I will be reviewing this solely on its own merit)

Fullmetal Alchemist is a great watch with amazing characters and story. If you are thinking of watching it then I would suggest you watch this before you watch Brotherhood (my friends suggested this order). There are some problems with it that I will discuss below, but spoilers beware.

(Spoiler Ahead)

(The GOOD)


There is a ton to like about the show, so I will start with the world. In an anime landscape with tons of fantasy anime, this one stands out with its magic ... system, technologies used, and all around world building. Alchemy as a magic system has not been used as a main magic system to my knowledge, and it works well with the themes of equivalent exchange. I like the steam punk technology used such as with the cars and trains, and the era used as inspiration for the architecture, you don’t see it much in fantasy anime. The world building would have improved with more episodes, but what is there is very well done. I remember one conversation Al had with a random person who was in the war, and even though it wasn’t needed, it added an a feeling of the world existing outside of the characters we see, and the struggles they have. The history of the world is amazing, with wars that bring lasting world impacts, with personal stories with smaller impacts.

The story is great with many amazing twists that make your jaw drop, the mystery of the gate is a good example of this. Most of the characters are really distinct with unpredicted plot relevance, that enhance each character.

There is way more To like about this show, but those are what came to me first. Now I have to go to the bad


(The BAD)

There are some problems that I would like to talk about, the smaller of which is that it drags a little around 60-70% of the way through. This may be because I binged the show, so take that issue with a grain of salt.

The major problem I have with the show is the ending. If they had more episodes to focus on the end it might have been better, but the ending is really rushed. The person who used the homunculi (aka the master mind/ main antagonist) dies offscreen (maybe), and she barely holds any resistance. Envy just yeets out of the scene without showing where they end up, and we barely see wrath in the epilogue. The epilogue also left a lot to be desired seeing as a lot of characters don’t appear in it.

On top of all that, the goal of “getting their bodies back to normal” is left unaccomplished and unchanged. If anything, they stray farther from their goal, and they basically accomplished nothing. I know some probably like this ending more than a normal happy ending, but it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth after watching. I would have been fine with Ed and Al staying in their forms and going off to find a way to get their normal bodies back, at least they didn’t lose progress.

Even though these seem like a lot of complaints, I did enjoy the show a lot, and hope more people watch it too. I don’t know how it compares to Brotherhood, but it’s a great show by itself.