Concept: 9.7
Beginning with the concept, the show had a really brilliant and rather unique concept to start with, which is the Alchemy of course, and through it, introduced more like the concept of Homunculus, the Truth etc. The series never deviated from this base, and throughout, the concept was well brought out and nicely laid down. There were hardly any contradicting theories told, or rarely was there any exceptions to the original concept introduced to explain certain events. I didn’t give it ten because the concept of Parallel Dimensions was also there, and while it was a good thing in its own, it certainly didn’t hold out much.
Storyline: 9.8
The storyline gets a huge score, because from the beginning till the end, it kept its originality. Midway through the series, the story deviates from the original manga, but still the ending was equally acceptable and justified. There were no gaps, and all the events were explained well enough, and everything seemed perfectly connected in a flow.
Characters: 10
Truly speaking, the characters in the series were the main reason for the show’s huge fandom. Not just the lead characters, but even the villains of the series were well thought of, and each had their own back stories and purpose of what they wanted to achieve. Every relevant character in the series was given so much depth, that after a certain time, they all seemed so much connected with us, that any tragedies happening shocked us emotionally. From the Elric brothers, Maes Hughes, upto Riza Hawkeye, and all the way till Lust and Wrath, you are going to love each and every character.
Tragedies: 9.6
Speaking of tragedies like deaths and loss, then this anime had its fair share of tragedies. In fact, it had few of the most sudden and unexpected deaths throughout the anime. Of course I won’t reveal them here as they might be spoilers, but the deaths of certain characters were so horrifying, that you would be definitely in grief for a few days. But yes of course, after a certain point, death of certain characters became evident while the losses of the lead became minimal.
Pace: 8.4
Most will agree with me here, that FMA certainly at times became a bit slower and lost its momentum here and there. I, for one, thought the pace to flicker a lot throughout the show. In the beginning, the first few episodes just flew by, giving just insights upon the main characters and with no progress in the storyline whatsoever. Somewhere around midway, events start to happen one after another, keeping viewers on the edge, then suddenly, the speed just drops and the continuity between episodes appears to be lost. Then around the end, things start to pick up again, but before we can even feel the intensity, the show ends. And the series definitely had some fillers too, but in all those fillers, something or the other was told, which was key to a certain character’s behaviour or explanation to some other events. But again, I still felt, things like those could be explained in a much more smaller time interval, rather than having one complete episode built just around it.
Soundtrack: 9.0
The soundtrack for this anime was pretty nice too, and the opening and ending themes were good to watch and listen too. People may or may not agree with me here, but what I felt was that the soundtrack just did the job it had to do, it couldn’t create any lasting impact that other anime sometimes do. We certainly felt the heat of the moment, and that’s perfectly fine, but once the moment ended, that song in our memory ended as well, and it could never create a deep impact upon us.
Real Life Values: 9.7
I guess most of the anime score high in this aspect anyway, but nevertheless, this show had its own ethics and principles to narrate and all of them were too beautifully shown. The show’s very first event tells the desperation of two sons to see the smile of their deceased mother again. The inner resolve of Mustang reflects a lot about the struggle one goes through when he wants to change the entire system. The lives of the military dogs, the consequences of civil wars, the thought of not having one’s own identity and memories, FMA really gave us a lot to think about.
Content: 9.6
Well this show was both funny and emotional in exact amount. The ‘pip-squeak’ joke never appeared as a drag any time, because it was never overused more than what it really had to offer. Armstrong was funny too in his own ways, and that never seemed repetitive either. And from the emotional side, this show had a remarkable depth to it. Winry, Lust, Hughes, Tucker’s daughter, all gave us some remarkable emotional moments. Last, talking about the action scenes, well there were plenty, and though they might not be that intense (the show is more than ten years old), they were not mild in any way either. Thus, content wise, the show had a lot to offer, especially in all the three major aspects.
Animation: 8.5
It is average in animation, but its mainly because of its age. But then again, a review done in the present year will only compare it with modern day thresholds. From that perspective, yes it might take you a while to accustom to, but you will definitely never hate the series because of it, and I am sure of that.
Climax: 9.0
Every story have its own climax, and this one had one too, but to be honest, I didn’t feel it much intense than I had expected it to. Things were quite slow during the mid, until of course the creation of ‘the thing’, and when one could expect things to heat up more (it was essentially the climax point of the series), it took a detour, went slow, and then started rising and before it could reach some peak, show ended.
Final Score : 9.33
And the final score sums up to 9.3 which I consider optimal for this series. It is certainly one of the top picks among the anime. A remake with a slightly different ending and with better animations aired in 2009. It was FMA: Brotherhood, and since I watched FMA first, I decided against comparing the two in this review, although I might do that in future in a separate post.
