Name(s): Fullmetal Alchemist / Hagane no Renkinjutsushi / FMA / Full Metal Alchemist / 鋼の錬金術師
Format: TV series (51 24-minute episodes)
Studio(s): Bones
Related: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa (2005)
Original Publication: N/A (unknown)

What a trip. As I write this, I’m finishing up the process of importing every anime review I ever published on MyAnimeList. By sheer poetic coincidence, the final entry I import is the first-ever anime I obsessed over. Well, okay, it was Dragon Ball Z, but that doesn’t fucking count. That was practically required for anyone who grew up in the early 2000s.

As for this jam, I recall putting on my big boy pants and staying up late to watch random shit on Adult Swim. Current generations probably can’t understand this, but anime used to be a very rare thing. It was extremely uncommon for anything to reach western syndication, and if anything was localized, it was often only distributed via insanely overpriced home video releases at hobby shops. Adult Swim put its chips down on bringing over more contemporary productions, and of these the most successful was probably Fullmetal Alchemist. Some of the first episodes I saw were The Other Brothers Elric and The Man With the Mechanical Arm. I was blown away by the animation quality, the fun-yet-believable older characters, stellar voicework, and the overall maturity of the whole thing. I sought out those insanely overpriced home video releases in addition to the manga that would begin being officially translated soon after, and the rest was history.

I make it no secret that I’m a big proponent of the original FMA series, despite its negative reception due to deviating from the source manga. Brotherhood is fantastic in its own right, but this is such a tonally phenomenal anime. The heavy Gothic atmosphere this show gains as it goes on brings to fore more dramatic storytelling and creates one of the most affecting, somber moods I’ve encountered in a show. The music and animation quality utterly eclipse Brotherhood‘s as well.

Honestly, a lot of the original concepts not taken from the manga are bunk, but Brotherhood has its share of unnecessary story additions as well. The only difference there is that Brotherhood‘s are mostly canon. Heh heh. Some ideas this series introduces are such natural inclusions, like with Sloth and Wrath building off of previous character arcs, that it’s hard to believe they weren’t thought of for the source story. There’s a strong understanding of the base material here that makes even the filler captivating, and it’s no surprise the original mangaka gave praise to some of the original story concepts. The bond between the brothers is (ironically) stronger than Brotherhood, and is constantly being built and reestablished in the filler episodes, many being quality one-off stories that stand up on their own merits. It never feels like the filler is being used an excuse to not give a shit or cut down on the animation budget, which is nearly unheard of in a shonen anime. Anyway, read what I wrote on Brotherhood and Shamballa for some more comparisons.