Ever since an accident took place while trying to resurrect their mother, Alphonse (Al) has been caught in a suit of armour and Edward (Ed) in mechanical limbs. Forced to use their unique power of alchemy, Ed and Al set out on a journey to find the philosopher’s stone-a legendary artifact which could give immeasurable powers to the possessor and help him defy the law of equivalent exchange in alchemy-in order to regain their lost bodies. Can the brothers find the miracle they are looking or will the will forces of the military and homunculi get the better of them?
Background History
FMA is a very rare kind of a story. It has action, drama, romance, fantasy and is still at times called science fiction because of the prevalence of alchemy in it. It was originally created as a manga (Japanese art of comics and graphic novel) by Hiromu Arakawa but because of its fast growing popularity it caught the eye of anime producers and was made into an anime (Japanese art of animation). The manga still continues and is published in the monthly Shonen GanGan (Square Enix) while the anime has ended with 51 episodes and a full length movie. In fact, because of the difference in the run-time of the two forms, the story diverges in the anime and manga at the point of the death of Greed (a homunculus).
Critical Appreciation
FMA defines a new unnamed genre of stories. Even though it contains everything from action to humuor, it is hard to say what genre it really is. It is neither a suspense, nor a romance or drama, and neither it is a story that preaches things in a very righteous style. The plot, the character development, the music and the animation blend very well into each other. The story is so well written and animated and the best part is that none of it is forced into it. It all naturally unfolds. It is neither very hypothetical nor is it so full of suspense and drama that one gets too burdened with it. Instead along with the characters being very realistic in the sense behaving all the while the way normal people, the writer has also maintained certain levels of fantasy which also make the story light-hearted. It is amazing to watch such a mixture of fantasy and true life behaviour of the characters, especially when you are watching the anime and out of blue you go all like, “Hey! That’s exactly what I did!” This is one reason as to why the anime and manga both became so popular. Apart from that, the story is very powerful. One moment, you are laughing your life out and with the wink of an eye, the scenes change and you are at the verge of tears. Like, for instance, there was a scene where the brothers were with their childhood friend Winry. And as it is animation, Winry is jumping up and down and jumping over the bed and it is a fairly humuorous scene when suddenly the scene changes to a graveyard and brigadier general Maes Hughes is being buried and his 3 year old daughter is crying out her life, “Mommy! Why are these people burying Daddy!” and it is so emotional that one begins to cry there.
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The characters of story are greatly versatile. From the heroes-Ed & Al- to people like the homunculi and their master, the military and its leader and dictator, the boy’s teacher and father, the chimeras, the countrymen, the thieves and murderers and even comedians. The story has them all and they constitute to the story in their own ways. The questions, their answers and the faults, the memories and everything the characters share become the driving force for them to continue working for whatever they want and all this helps the story to come to a conclusion. And even though the author has created a true life world full of fantasy, in the midst of all this realism, the author doesn’t forget fantasy. What I mean is that even though the T.V. series ends in a tragedy with the brothers separating and ending up in different worlds. Their adventure continues in the movie with the brothers getting a new aim in life-to reunite with each. In the last episode, where the brothers are separated, Al loses his memory in equivalency for his mind, body and soul, even though Ed trades himself in exchange for his brother. And throughout the movie he doesn’t regain it until they come through the gate to our world to destroy the portal (watch the movie for further information about the plot) that Al gets them back the moment the cross over to the other side. Ed concludes that it is because of equivalent exchange that the memories come back to Al. This is an example as to how the basic theme of the story that revolves around equivalent exchange is maintained through out the story. Also, the fans expected some romantic scenes between Ed and Winry since it is shown that Winry has a crush over Ed (though only in minor extents) but the writer maintains a consistency in the story and maybe these are the reasons to the popularity of the series.
The best part of the story is that we don’t see a portion of it, or just the happy bits or only the sad ones, we see all of it. From the beginning to the end. How it all began and how it ended.
However, there are places where there are some dialogue mistakes as well. Such as in the movie, Al mentions two comments about Ed which he couldn’t have without the memories he lost. But these are minor things and can be left aside to enjoy the glamour of the story.
In the end, I would like to conclude that this story is a must for anybody who wants to indulge into anime or manga and even text novels, video games, artwork etc. since the series has launched several of the above.
