A friend raved about this anime, so I took a cursory scroll through it and found nothing worth noting. It just seemed so homogenized. The art didn't stand out. The characters seemed to be cookie-cutter determined types out to save the world. Even the name "Fullmetal Alchemist" seems completely avoidable with magic being the status quo in much of anime. I borrowed a disc anyways and watched it. I begged for the other discs in advance.
Fullmetal Alchemist has superb flow. 24 is the only thing in recent memory that has a comparable flow and that's only because that show supposedly happens in real time. In FMA, you have multiple reasons to continue each episode but the focus is not lost. It's always centered (unless if very appropriately not centered) on the two Alric Brothers who share perhaps the strongest bond in all of anime. This bond may be broken at any time, mainly because FMA takes place in a very dynamic world. A war may possibly re-surge. Fellow soldiers we meet rise in ranks and there are casualties. But amidst all this is a very pervasive mystery to which no one is safe. We are as blind to this mystery as the brothers and it's unnerving to stop watching, knowing that unseen forces may encounter our heroes at any time. Prepare to marathon. It's a continuous narrative, unlike that Cowboy Bebop crap.
Above all, FMA is a parable. We're told about the principle of equivalent trade, which is yin yang in other words, but we get much more than this taoist tidbit. We learn to deal with death. People do grow old and die. People do die for a reason. People do die for no reason. Some people may call FMA needlessly dark for a children's anime, but rather it's brutally honest. It's likely you will feel real pain. It's unlikely you'll forget the pain. Anyone we meet to whom a great misery befalls is so uniquely focused and blindly determined that the mechanics of his/her devastation become very clear. They seem proverbial, as though the Brothers Grimm were revived to create some of these characters. The series has enough fluff to get us through grim reality, but most of the time, it's really an opportunity to show how much heart many of the characters possess. It may seem odd for an anime centered around some teenage boys to have no sexual connotations whatsoever, but that'd just get in the way of the very strong emotions expressed in this anime. Friendship is the greatest form of love, and the one between the Alric Brothers is perhaps the greatest friendship in all of anime.
Concerning the Technical aspects once more, the animation is great where it counts (where there's action). Being a musician, I find it odd that I don't remember any of the music. It's definitely there and fitting, just not memorable. Doesn't matter. This anime could look and sound like crap and still be worth watching.
