When I saw the cover for this movie, I was left with a "Hmm... I don't know" sorta feel in my head. The ending for the original FMA series was well done and even the author of the FMA manga approved the ending for the anime adaptation, but fans were like "the ending is bullshit!" or "WHAT?! This ending is a disgrace to the series!!" when the series ended. So Studio Bones and the FMA series team decided to make a FMA movie that ended the series right and that answer was Conqueror Of Shamballa. The movie was loved by everyone and it become a cult hit among all FMA fans and was officially declared as a "true ending to the original show". Well, I decided to buy it and while it is a damn fun movie, it isn't the best thing I ever saw and for a FMA movie, it has some big flaws that many FMA fans missed on looking at.
Conqueror Of Shamballa takes place 2 years after the original series, as we see Edward Elric living in the real world in Munich, Germany and he is studying rocketry with Alfons Heiderich, who resembles a lot to his younger brother Alphonse and finding a way to escape this world and getting back into his world. That is until Ed rescues a gypsy woman named Noah, who has the power to read people's thoughts and dreams, who's being chased by a bunch of man who work for a Nazi organization called The Thule Society, who are led by Eckhart and Karl. They want to open the portal to find a place called Shamballa, which is a paradise with no war, death or even corruption in any way they can imagine. Meanwhile in Amnestris, Alphonse has been learning a bunch of new alchemy powers in order to find Edward, so he can recover his forgotten memories that he lost during the final episode of the series. And thus begin an adventure of a lifetime for The Elric Brothers once again and could this mean that they can be together without causing more destruction and bloodshed this time around?
The plot is good, but with some flaws. I like how the story gives these theories of science and alchemy like what if science and alchemy can be combined from two different worlds and how we can utilize it to make a change into this world. I'm no expert in science and alchemy (it takes years to study all those theories), but regardless, it gives very interesting stuff. Also, the new characters Noah and Alfons are surprisingly well developed in this movie. I cared for Alfons because he wanted to be a proud citizen of Germany and would do anything to make a difference in the war. As for Noah... Well, it's hard to describe, but for me, I think it's because she is a lonely and sad person, due to that people treat her like shit, because she is a gypsy and that they claim that gypsy's were a bunch of thief's in their time, but Noah is a very gentle person and all she wants is acceptance to live amongst the people in the world. Also, Fritz Lang, who you might know as the legendary German director for his famous film Metropolis from 1927, is also a very interesting character and I love the scene where he explains to Edward the portal to Shamballa.
The villains Eckhart and Karl are terrible. They weren't interesting, their motivations were beyond stupidity and the final battle with Edward and Eckhart was a huge letdown (BTW, Eckhart and Karl were actually real people from the history of World War II). The relationship with Alphonse and Edward, while still deep and memorable, felt extremely short. They have a happy reunion, a sad depressing moment, a battle scene and the ending and I was expecting the relationship of The Elric Brothers to be longer. Another flaw is the subplot with Hitler and really, how in the world did The Thule Society convince Hitler to use a magical portal that can take them to another world to use it and win the war? It's just not right and I'm surprised that Hitler didn't have a HOLY SHIT! response when he saw a portal that could take him to another world.
The action and animation is nice. While the action is kinda shorter this time around, at least it satisfying as hell and the fights are still well animated and the fight with Wrath against Gluttony is pretty epic. Hell, each fan favorite character gets their big moments in the film, unlike Sacred Star Of Milos (which I will review later) where all the fan favorites FMA characters were barely useful in the movie. The animation by Bones is still spectacular to look at, the backgrounds are gorgeous with fluid detail and coloring, the character models are still pretty to look at, while getting major upgrade on their coloring scheme designs and the art is still awesome as always. Voice acting is also a high plus, every original English voice actor from the FMA series is here and they all do a brilliant job in their performances, even Jason Liebrecht gives a very deep performance as Alfons. The music, while not as groundbreaking as the series tremendous music, it's still serviceable.
While it doesn't reach the heights of the FMA series, Conqueror Of Shamballa is a nice effort from Bones and delivering a fun experience while staying true to the source of the 2003 FMA series. Just don't expect this to be groundbreaking like the series or you will be extremely disappointed after watching this anime. Overall, If you're a FMA fan, it's worth the look.
