Fullmetal Alchemist

                I know this is an old show, but I recently got sucked into it and watched it all (helped that it was all on youtube for free), so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it and see what you all think. In another vein, I now need another show to watch, so hit me up with some suggestions in the comments.

                Overall, I enjoyed the show. It was fun to watch, had some great characters like Roy Mustang, and most importantly a good plot. At some points in the show I was on the edge of my seat, watching episodes as fast as I could, at other points it was nice relaxing entertainment. It doesn’t have a ton of fluff episodes like some shows do, which often end up annoying me if nothing happens in the plot for a long time. However, there were some things that annoyed me. I heard that some of these are different in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, so I might check that out.

                Now, I’m probably now the standard viewer, but I like it when shows include the political aspects. When the show is introducing the world of the show and the conflicts in it (in this show, war), I want to know about other countries and they are different, and what their attitudes are. In FMA, there is lots of talk about wars with other countries, but almost none of it is shown (other than the Ishbalan war), and the name of another country is only ever said once. I like worldbuilding where I know more about the world than just what the characters experience. FMA did this somewhat, but I felt like there was a lot of promise that was never exploited.

                Something thing that annoyed me at first (eventually decided I’d be happier just thinking about the alchemy as being magic) was that they make so much fuss about the law of equivalent exchange, but it’s never really enforced. Again, I’ve heard this is better in Brotherhood and the actual manga. I also didn’t quite like that Al looses his memories in the ending, and that Ed got stuck in a different world than Al. It created new conflict, because Ed wants to return to his own world, and I felt that after all their struggles they should have been able to live together happily.