Nivenus at the Desk IX: Fullmetal Alchemist and A Wizard of Earthsea

[nivenus]

Ah, sweet rest at last! As summer did, winter vacation kept me more than busy between buying presents, starting my novel, writing my 4e D&D campaign, and dealing with financial issues. But you know all about that, from my last post. Now that school’s started again (in the optional Winter semester) I, ironically, have time to do these reviews I’ve

Comments

Glad to hear you like it

[nivenus]

Like I said about the opening music - it's an acquired taste. Since about three years ago when we had a Japanese exchange student living in my house I've been exposed to a ton of anime (though what I've been exposed to is still a miniscule fraction of what's actually out there) so I've sort of developed an attachment to the wacky style common to anime music. That said, some music is better than others and I'd easily take Bebop or GitS:SAC's soundtrack over Fullmetal's any day - it's not the main reason I like the show.

Miyazaki's also unusually talented, though I don't like all of his stuff (I wasn't a big fan of Howl's for instance), so it's not a surprise that anyone who normally avoids anime like the plague would enjoy his work. He's rightfully the giant of the industry.

Anyhow... back to Fullmetal. The sibling relationship, as I said in my review, is one of the best parts of the show, as well as how the characters develop. While I can say there are hints of romance it doesn't develop any further than... let's say... the romances in TSL. So there won't be any great confessions, professions of love, and the story hardly focuses on the inferred attractions at all (with a few exceptions... mainly in the case of villains).

Anyhow, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. Just a warning though - be prepared for the plot to slow to a crawl somewhere around episodes 20-30, at which point it speeds back up. Why it does this I'm not sure, but I imagine it has something to do with the fact that the anime diverges substantially from the manga (from what I've heard anyway) around this point.

Anyhow, enjoy.