As the synopsis suggests, the story centers around Ed and Al, two brothers seeking to not only right their wrongs but seek the things which led them to commit those wrongs in the first place. A typical quest to find a legendary item turns into an unraveling of a scheme that can shake the foundation of the entire world. For spoilers’ sake, I won’t speak on any specific events and will focus on the general direction and pacing. The general aura of suspense and mystery begins right from the onset and unravels consistently up until the final battles at the end. Of course, there’s lots of action, with a lot of the specialties in the fights coming from the alchemy system. While it is easy to fall into traps of magic systems being too convoluted for their own good, the system here is relatively simplistic. Though the more it lays on top of itself, especially towards the end, the power scaling goes a bit haywire and things do start to get a bit confusing.
Lots of other events occur throughout the story, leading to that journey being a long game of sorts, with all 64 episodes tying into one contiguous story with very little stoppages or breaks. These other events have good variety. Many are political, some are more intimate to the cast viewers come to know, and many are a mix of both. This is the biggest strength of the story. Even with all the storylines moving in tandem, events remain coherent and mostly engaging most of the way through. The way events are portrayed, viewers can easily pick up on how each pocket of characters as well as the world as a whole are affected. With how much can go on at the same time, being able to steadily transition between different scenes is a key point in the direction and it is easy to notice care was taken in that regard. This is most noticeable at points where multiple fights are occurring at once, with those sequences being accompanied by smooth, creative transitions. The variety of the scenarios and how they mix up with each other and the main storyline is the secret ingredient to keeping things fresh throughout.
Though the general narrative is strong here, it is not perfect for two reasons that feed into each other. Firstly, the first third of the story is written in a way that prioritizes world-building, but that element of the writing is not necessarily noticeable in real time. A big factor that contributes to this early on is the timing of the humor, a point of contention for many viewers. A lot of the jokes and gags used are nothing too profound, but get the job done. An issue specific to this anime, however, is that the timings are very different from most battle shonen, and take some time getting used to at the start. In general, the early episodes sneakily give off an impression of being episodic, but they are not at all. Events that occur in the first 3 episodes are directly referenced in the last 3 episodes like they just happened an hour ago. This has benefits and drawbacks. The story is well-written in that it comes full circle, but that same approach becomes a problem in these moments for viewers. Many of those references lack any sort of elaboration, recollection, flashback, or other tool that helps viewers better remember events from 30+ episodes ago. Secondly, since world-building is the focus early on, with the sub-plots taking a lot of time in the middle third, the main narrative itself reveals slowly, which can make said middle-third feel like a drag somewhat. Many of the big reveals made in the middle third of the story are strangely not as climactic as those in the beginning or closer to the big climaxes at the end. That is not a predictability issue exactly, but more so because the reveals are built up across a few too many episodes, lessening the impact of when those moments finally arrive.
As varied the stories and scenarios here are, the same effect is noticeable with this cast of characters. While the main plot itself is not directly driven by the characters, a lot of the sub-plots that come and go through the series are. Ed and Al are an interesting duo, and the depth of their relationship sets a tone for the rest of the cast. Their relationship feels very grounded in terms of them actually being brothers. They push each other a lot, butt heads a good amount, and move independently at many different phases of the story, but because of what they went through as kids, they are very close and like how the past does not change, that aspect of their relationship does not change. All of that said, your mileage may vary in terms of getting to know them early on. They come off as quite immature at the start. To some, they may even be quite annoying. Still, they are written well in regards to showing visible and consistent maturity as a result of their journey and what they learn about themselves along the way. As for other characters, given the more political nature of events as well as other different avenues and events of their journey, many characters of different roles and races are introduced during the brothers’ forays. For some, it may feel there are too many to keep up with. The grounded approach to Ed and Al is also noticeable with many of the side characters. The concepts of ‘the good guys’ and ‘the bad guys’ exist, but, especially with common recurring characters, many of the characters’ actions and rationales are much more complex than simply following any sort of moral compass. A unique element to the character writing here is the prevalence of the seven deadly sins. This is particularly tangible at the angle of how those emotions have affected humanity throughout history, which can also be directly observed in a lot of the characters’ motivations on both sides of the various conflicts across the entire story.
Visually, things are good. The overall style stays consistent over the entire show, a difficult and very impressive thing to do in a long anime like this one. Colors are well-balanced, with saturation being used as a tool to supplement different scenes and environments. The style being natural and easy on the eyes helps, but that may also mainly be due to how generic many elements appear. As with the character designs, the different countries have motifs stripped straight from real-life. Amestris, the main setting, takes inspiration from 19th-century Western Europe (especially Germany). Xing, another country that gets a lot of focus, feels more than a little reminiscent of imperial China. Many of the human designs come off as generic, though such an approach is taken advantage of in how the anime ties racial relationships and conflicts into the story. The more fantasy motifs are also nothing not seen before, as they almost all take from classic steampunk aesthetics. The alchemy has good effects, but is not as colorful as one may initially expect, though it could also be argued that lessening the color helps maintain balance with other elements of the design. The real strength of the visuals is in the action set pieces. The fights are top-notch both in visuals and in choreography. With the many different types of fighting styles, including swordplay, guns, alchemy, and straight up hand-to-hand, and how they mixed up with each other, fight scenes felt very dynamic. There is CG sprinkled about here and there, but those scenarios are quite few and the CG use itself is consistent across those scenarios.
The sound design is also great. The music is top-notch. The orchestral OST is very strong, helping to cement the fantasy motifs as well as effectively moving with the ups and downs of the story. That said, there are a few too many points where scenes would have likely been elevated more if there was no music playing. There are 5 OPs and 5 EDs, rotated every 12 or so episodes. Opening 1, “again”, is an all-time classic and is instantly recognizable by many. As mentioned with the feel of the writing and characters, the voice acting does not have much extra embellishment to it, barring a few exceptions. Romi Park playing the role of Ed is a continuation of the trend of casting female VAs for male shonen MCs. The voice itself may take some getting used to, but her performance is strong in terms of effectively portraying the visible changes in Ed's character over time. She may not have the recognition of similar castings such as Masako Nazawa (Goku) or Mayumi Tanaka (Luffy), but this performance is not too far below that level. Moreover, while Rie Kugiyama is nowadays hailed as the ‘tsundere queen’, her performance of Al involves a different part of her range that viewers may not be used to hearing from her. Even still, her performance cannot be overlooked or understated. Some other performances that really stand out include Mamoru Miyano as Lin Yao and Kenta Miyake as Scar.
In the end, the consistency across so many of its aspects is what makes this anime great. In longer form anime that go past 24-26 episodes, it is a big ask to keep the viewer engaged across all the phases of longer stories. It is not perfect here, but is nearly as good as it gets in the medium. The visual style maintains good balance, hardly ever changes, and the quality very rarely dips. The story wastes no time at the start, takes its time without wasting too much, and wraps up nicely without overstaying its welcome. The cast continuously develops and grows in variety, with new characters being introduced even beyond halfway through the story, while still giving other characters their fair share of screen time. Even better, the characters seen a lot have a lot of depth and evolve with the story. Though this is a fantasy story, so much of it feels grounded and human, which in itself is not only a key theme of the story, but is also the story’s X-factor. With how cleanly executed many elements here are, it feels easy and natural to immerse in this entry and its events.It is a comprehensive package that keeps the viewer on their toes from start to finish, though your mileage may vary a bit at some of the middle arcs. It may not be the flawless relic it may be made out to be, but there are many elements here that are masterfully executed, especially in terms of the audiovisuals. Given that as well as the well-written balance of realism and fantasy in the story and characters and the impact it has had on the shonen genre to date, this is certainly an essential anime for any and all viewers of this space.
