Sanctioned by Shane: Fullmetal Alchemist

So I've decided to take a break from translating my Jordan Journal onto the blog and start a new segment: Sanctioned by Shane. Here I review/talk about shows, movies, books, and other types of entertainment. Today I'm going to talk about the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. I have been aware of this show for a couple months and it seems to be the casual anime watchers anime of choice. For those of you who don't know, anime is a style of cartoon animation practiced in Japan. Most of American anime is brought over from Japan and simply re-voices everyone, fixing the animation for the new voices, and editing for culturally inappropriate scenes.

As of this post, I've watched the first six episodes of FMA so far and I have to say, I've possibly fallen in love with the show! [warning spoilers may follow, depending on your definition of spoilers] The show is about two brothers who practice alchemy  a type of science where one can turn one thing into another as long as all the ingredients are there. Taking trees and water, you can instantly create a papermache hot air hydrogen balloon. These boys' mother die and they attempt the forbidden practice of human alchemy to bring her back but in the procces the younger brother, Al, loses his body and his brother. Ed, loses a leg. In order to save Al, Ed sacrifices his arm to put Al in a suit of armor for a body. The show continues showing their quest to get their bodies back. 

The concept of alchemy had me worried at first because it has a very close association with witchcraft, however, the show pushes very strongly the science of alchemy and the many things that alchemy can't do. However, there does seem to be a mystic element slowly creeping into the show. For one, there are three "things" that appear to be demons or something. they are called lust, gluttony  and envy. They can do amazing feats of alchemy, or magic?, and clearly relate to the seven deadly sins of the catholic church. Ed himself can also produce amazing feats of alchemy that has yet to be explained so we shall see. 

This show excels at humor. I have laughed out loud multiple times and have had to stop it before so I could calm down. What's best is that the action and drama work with the drama rather than against it. Everything is perfectly timed and the animation really works well with both. However, I don't like how obvious the bad guys are. You meet a misguided or evil alchemist and you instantly know that he is evil or is causing harm, even when it is supposed to be a surprise for later in the episode. My favorite part, however, is a running gag on the show. Ed is consistently made fun of for being short... I can relate to that.

I really look forward to watching the rest of the 51 episodes, and I'm actually going to start #7 right now. Bye everyone!!!!