Full Metal Alchemist (again)

A

Animated FatCat

Student Council President
I decided to delete my post after the Vol.2 review and start a new FMA reccomendation thread. I'm quite a way into the series, but this is what I thought. It is a reccomendation though, even if just to see what all the fuss was about.

I'm currently watching my friend's old fansubs on dvd-r (downloaded while it was unlicenced! I currently own volume one, and may buy the more interesting later vols.) and its such a weird series. I honestly didn't think much of the opening 10 or so episodes (the first was good though).

It improves when the brothers went on their 1st mission, but it sort of goes from being very interesting and good to being quite boring and uninteresting, with huge doses of schmalzy brotherly stuff.

For every good episode theres about 3 so-so ones. It stops and starts. The only consistent good run pre ep 29 seemed to be the 5th Laboratory episodes.
But I'd say that around episode 29 or so (yes, that late into it), with the introduction of Wrath's character it seems to maintain a good, consistent level, and the events starts coming in thick and fast, like the much vaunted 'rollercoaster effect'. At the moment every episode is really quite good (35).
 
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Hmmmm gotta say I've seen the whole series and loved it from start to finish. Possibly the best series I've seen. Not sure I agree that it was boring and uninteresting - I have only seen it once but when I did watch it I probably watched like 4 or 5 in a row.

It's not supposed to be all action - the brotherly love stuff is there for a reason. I guess each to their own though. Check out some of the FMA sites and read up on the eps - it is a much more complex and interesting series than you may realise.
 
I think you've missed my point. I'm not neccessarily saying that it only gets interesting when its action-packed. I can easily see a lot of complex, subtle things going on in the series, and I applaud it for that. But its not always done well.

The way its handled at times is so heavy handed, and I have to say quite dull and sometimes too obvious. You can learn intriguing things about the characters, but often its done in such a way that makes it seem forced and pretentious at times.

eg.the brotherly love is good, yes, but its so OVERDONE to the extent that I begin to care less and less every time they force the points into your face. Subtlety would have been good for that.

I personally think it could have done with culling, there's a lot of unneccessary episodes that seem to pad things out.

But when its good, it can be very good.

That's what I mean with it being such a weird series, for example with something like Stand Alone Complex, every episode seems worth viewing, they're just bang on brilliant. FMA is up and down for me, as I've said.
 
I nearly quit watching FMA after the first 10 episodes but something kept me watching and I was thoroughly engrossed around the point that (MASSIVE SPOILER) Hughes was murdered. Although on occasion the story can be a bit too blunt in trying to manipulate the viewers emotions, I loved Fullmetal Alchemist for the relationship between the Elric brothers and how they stick together through everything. Their "loss of innocence" is tragic and the more you watch, you more you want them to succeed. There is something quite sad and heart wrenching about them and I assume the fact you refer to it as "schmalzy" means you aren't really feeling their situation.

I agree FMA is a slow starter, but it gradually builds up into becoming something really quite special.
 
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Animated FatCat said:
I think you've missed my point. I'm not neccessarily saying that it only gets interesting when its action-packed. I can easily see a lot of complex, subtle things going on in the series, and I applaud it for that. But its not always done well.

The way its handled at times is so heavy handed, and I have to say quite dull and sometimes too obvious. You can learn intriguing things about the characters, but often its done in such a way that makes it seem forced and pretentious at times.

eg.the brotherly love is good, yes, but its so OVERDONE to the extent that I begin to care less and less every time they force the points into your face. Subtlety would have been good for that.

I personally think it could have done with culling, there's a lot of unneccessary episodes that seem to pad things out.

But when its good, it can be very good.

That's what I mean with it being such a weird series, for example with something like Stand Alone Complex, every episode seems worth viewing, they're just bang on brilliant. FMA is up and down for me, as I've said.
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Ok fair enough. Guessing that you don't quite feel their situation as Paul suggests too. I admit it is quite hard but guess I'm a tad sentimental and felt for them right from the start. It will all become obvious in time why it's like this though I think. I quite liked it's length and only felt one or two episodes were unnecessary really. The end is totally worth it though.
 
I like Fullmetal Alchemist. It has a vibrant and colourful cast and a good storyline. I feel the series takes a turn for the better during the second half of the series, where the episodic nature of some early episodes is lost to a more story-focused approach. It's true the anime tries often to play with the viewer's emotions in perhaps not the most stuble way, but it works and causes the viewer to emphasize for the characters. It's perhaps a depressing anime by nature; the lighter parts only serve to mitigate from the darker premise.

I have to say, however, that I think the manga is better, with more a focus on the plot. Plus, characters like Roy Mustang get a larger, less sidelined role and are more important to the plot, while powerful events occur earlier and the plot moves constantly foward.
 
Chomolungma said:
I feel the series takes a turn for the better during the second half of the series
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Like what others have been saying, thats true. It gets more consistent. I've been watching more of it (ep 40 now), and it definitely maintains its consistency after ep 29, and becomes really, really good.
 
*sighs* I have all the R1 DVD's released so far, I'm on epIosde 16, I NEED more FMA.It's started to get really intresting and can't wait to see what happens next.
 
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