Full Metal Alchemist is a fantastic series. It’s hugely popular and for good reason. The story is complex and fast-paced, and the characters are compelling and distinctive. There aren’t a lot of manga that are as ambitious as Full Metal Alchemist or as expertly told. This is part of the major appeal of the series.
At the start of the story, we are introduced to Ed and Alphonse Elric who are brothers as well as alchemists. After an alchemy-related accident, Ed lost his arm and his leg, while Alphonse lost his body entirely and now his soul lives in a suit of armor. The story centers around the story of these two brothers as they try to find a way to restore their bodies.
The story gets more complex as new characters are introduced and with them, there are new plot lines. Don’t be worried if you feel like the plot is drifting because even the most seemingly insignificant plot point is tied back to the major story arc. There is a lot of buildup and mystery as well. The big reveals from one volume to the next never feel out of place and are always exciting.
I really enjoyed the characters, specifically Ed and Al. It was great reading a story about family and more specifically brother. That’s not a story I think I see told very often. Ed is a bit full of himself, but I find him funny a lot of the time and while he talks a big game, he often has the skills to back it up. So I appreciate that at least. Al is like Ed’s conscience. He’s most noticeably kind and calm. He’s also very logical and likes thinking things through, unlike his brother who can sometimes act too quickly.
I really enjoyed reading this series and I think it deserves all the credit it gets. If you have waited this long and still haven’t read it, what are you waiting for? It’s time.

The story starts to become amazing here, more details are now revealed and characters background is on the board.

yey.

5⭐️

I decided to give it five stars from the first 50 pages!!

Wholesome with a sprinkle of disturbing.

This one was definitely slower at first, but I enjoyed Izumi and I’m enjoying the background of how the boys came to be.

This is a review of the entire series.

Fullmetal Alchemist takes place in the fictional country of Amestris which is heavily based on the Industrial Revolution. Amestris is a unitary state under the rule of a parliamentary republic, run by state alchemists that serve the king utilizing the mystifying arts of alchemy. Alchemy is the power to alter the physical world utilizing its natural elements, performing magic and miracles in the form of science. Alchemy follows the law of equivalent exchange, you must sacrifice something that is of equal value to what you create. You must sacrifice a life to create a life, you must extinguish one flame to ignite another, you have to sacrifice one home to build another, etc...

After being abandoned by their father as children and subjected to watching their mother die, Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse once attempted to utilize the power of alchemy to bring their mother back from the grave, ignoring the dangers of creating a life by offering something of equal value. Edward loses an arm and a leg while Alphonse loses his entire body; his soul placed in a hollow suit of armor that can't feel the touch of others. As neither of them sacrificed their lives in their entirety, the exchange failed and the boys created an abomination in place of their dead mother.

After burning their own home down and dealing with the abomination they created, Edward and his brother enlist themselves in the military to atone for their sins and learn more about the many secrets of alchemy; potentially learning how to recover their original bodies in the process. While serving in the military, the brothers begin to realize how the wonders of alchemy can be abused for nefarious purposes. Immortal life can be gained by sacrificing hundreds of innocents souls, wars can be staged and foreign nations can be annihilated under false charges, human experimentation aided by alchemy can lead to unnatural mutations, the world of alchemy is more dark and dangerous than either of them could've bargained for.

Fullmetal Alchemist grew on me the longer I read it. When I first started reading, it seemed like it was going to be generic shounen material, but it gets deeper and darker the further it goes on. The way it handles political and religious corruption, the dangers of advanced states abusing their technology and resources at the expense of foreign nations caught in the turmoil, and the sad futility of revenge are all very well done.

The characters all bear the weight of what alchemy is capable of. Edward and Alphonse carry the burden of abusing alchemy for selfish purposes. Their master Izumi loses her womb after attempting to resurrect her dead child. Scar takes many lives after his entire country is desecrated and gets trapped in a pointless cycle of revenge. Roy and Riza endure the regret of committing brutal war crimes for the sake of protecting their own nation. Alchemy creates and destroys in equal measure and no one is free from the consequences of tipping the balance.

The fight scenes are flashy and exciting without being too over-the-top because of the dangerous limitations that alchemy involves. The law of equivalent exchange keeps the power scaling in check and adds plenty of tension to the action. The female characters are especially well done, all of them are strong and unique in their own way. The lead heroine being a skilled mechanic, Riza being an honorable warrior of the military, Olivier Armstrong as cold and vicious as the snowy fortress she guards, and that's just a few of them.

The villains are an interesting parody of the seven deadly sins. Each of them represent the darkness and regrets of each of the main characters and they can only be conquered by coming to terms with their own flaws and sins. The characters having to overcome their personal demons to take on the greater demons trying to overthrow the world from the shadows made the struggles of every single person in the story feel personal. Every character, no matter how minor had their moments to shine. Everyone had a vital role to play and the camaraderie between friend and foe alike never felt cheesy of forced.

Unlike most shounen series I've read, the final arc was my favorite. A lot of long-running shounen series have a habit of being dragged out, losing touch with what made them great or breaking their own rules in messy, plot-hole-filled final arcs that leave a lot to be desired. Fullmetal Alchemist has no lose ends, all characters have complete arcs where they learn and grow from their dark pasts, the romance and comedy are handled well without relying on cheap fanservice, the action scenes are great but they don't overshadow the plot and the final chapters tie everything together beautifully. It's not my favorite manga by any means as I usually tend to favor seinen, but it's definitely one of the greatest stories to ever come out of the shounen demographic in my opinion. The ending is a tearjerker but it left me in good spirits.

***

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Tons of backstory...and Winry ❤️ You go girl!

I feel like this is where the story picks up for real - going away from the main plot for a while, the future concerns, instead drifting back into the past and the origin stories and the brother's alchemy teacher. There's some good life lessons here, and heartwarming moments, and Rush Valley is the first reasonably imaginitive fantasy locale in the series.

It's also the first time, I think, where the anime did genuinely worse than the manga. I didn't much like its need for having Izumi outright hunt down her students, nor the additional angst to Winry. Why am I constantly comparing this to an anime that I haven't seen in more than fifteen years? Don't know.

Anyway, it's good. The best so far.

The back story of Ed and Al when they were still kids and innocent.

Also, the appearance of Izumi Curtis!

n   3.5 of 5 starsn