At a young age, the brothers Ed and Al start learning alchemy by researching their father's notes of transmutation cirlces. Their dad left their mom around the time Al was born, so Ed still remembers and hates his father. One day, their mother falls on the ground of their home, she was sick for all the time that her husband was gone. On her deathbed, Edward learns why his mother loves watching the boys play with alchemy, it remained her of her husband. When she dies, Edward swears to learn more alchemy and use it to bring their mother back to life.
Of course, that's not the real goal of the story, as possibly predicted, bring someone back from the dead isn't just piling all the elements of the human body together, because there is something called the "soul." When the human transmutation on their mother goes horribly wrong, the "gate" appears before the brothers and pulls Al in. When Ed sees the monster that was suppose to be his mother, he reopens the gate and pays an arm and leg to attach his brother's soul to a peice of armour.
The story revolves around the brother's jouney to find the "philosiphers stone" which can be used to preform alchemy without obeying equivelant exchange, so all their mistakes can be solved and the brothers can be normal again.
The storyline was was very fixed, there were no fillers, only some bits of comedy relief (and what a relief they were). The simple little quest of a little red stone draws the brothers into darker and more dreadful secrests of the world, and their own father. And all the strings are pulled neatly back together with the ending movie, Conquor of Shamballa.
Art: The art is pretty fine for my belief, the blocky bangs of some of the males did annoy me a bit, but overall the art fit.
Sound: There were repeats of some bits of music but they fit the mood. To be honest I was too busy with the plot to listen to the music.
Characters: You can definatly see character devolopment from this. Edward turns from a selfish and more or less simple minded child to a mature and understanding adult. Other side characters didn't seem to change much, however their father had a bit of a change as well. Though we don't really see him in the past before his change. I was just a bit mad that Al just stayed much the same though out. He was always just, "I'll follow you brother!" and never really had a time to think himself. Edward however had some times where he put out a great joke, in a really bad time. It just lifted all the very much wanted tension!
Enjoyment: Overall very enjoyable, I spent about a week after finishing the story going back and finding all the themes. It really relates to WWI! Which it's suppose to because it was the same time that WWI was occuring in our universe.
Overall: This anime still deserves a 10 overall, the little bits that didn't fit well got covered up by layers of beautiful fabric storylines. So if you didn't already, watch Full Metal Alchemist!
