I will say, however, that most of you are making yourselves look like idiots. In the end, you’re not going to change the other guy’s mind. All that’s going to happen is that you escalate into ALL CAPS SWEARING RAGE and therefore make yourself (and fellow FMA fans) look like an immature brat. That goes for FMA haters too.

Things are mainstream for a reason, guys, and FMA is one of those cases where mainstream isn’t bad. The plot is highly original (I have no idea where you draw resemblances to other series) it’s easy to connect with most of the characters, and all around it’s believable. Arakawa did her research.

Humans often dislike what they can’t understand.

I hate this because not only the first anime sucked as hell, but the rest of it’s seasions (forgot what it was called) were just spinoffs and lies from the actual manga story! WHAT A SHAM! It’s a waste of my time and their money! Making an anime early while the manga is only like 2 volumes, IS POINTLESS!

You’ll just find yourself overleading the actual manga story and then saying ‘OH WE’RE FUCKED!’ and then your gonna have the author shove metal. . . .things up the producer’s ass and have you, the animator and script writer, to have to finnish what you started. In FMA case, Create a pack of annoying fuck’in fillers and grabbing other necessary pieces shit from their asses and serve them to us!

Next time I hope that ALL Animators would stop trolling us with their filthy shitty fillers, or worse the whole anime series itself like FMA, and just bloody ANIMATE the damn manga like what they’re paid to do.

Still with all of this out, I MYSELF HATE ALL OF FMA! that’s my opinion and I wont say more as all of my reasons are already taken by the people above me : /

It puzzled me that they were ‘attached’ to a main male character in some way made themselves weaker, like Lan-Fan to the Prince, Hawkeye to Mustang, Winry to Ed, Mei-Chan to Al, and Trisha to Hohenheim. But they also drew strength from it.

A far cry from animes.mangas that feature bad-ass women as smexy leather-clad well-endowed pinpricks that are somehow downplayed emotionally behidn their own egos anyways.

I got my hands on the original anime, then the second – the Brotherhood anime, which suited the mange mora so I am more fond of it. It was pretty rewarding to see the action and combat play out.

There was more ‘drama’ than I shall say ‘action’ but that I what I appreciate the anime for, is that you get to see the staionary frames of a 2-D manga paper you’ve been reading all the time, play out on the screen, in all it’s tecnhical, flashy, sound-effects, mood music, goodness.

The characters are unorthodox. Yeah… not every character or more so, main character, has to be alluring and knight-in-shining-armor to be appreciated or even relatable. The fact that he tends to be predicatable and falters make him, dare I say it? More human — more relatable.

I did not see what the big deal about Envy was either, but Envy was granted a prolonged role in the manga to a bitter and pitiful end, so the anime follows.

I enjoyed every episode. I related to some little thing in each of the characters – even some of the dual nature fo the bad guys.

I appreciate how the women were portrayed, especially Olivier as the Impenetrable Wall / Snow Queen, Hawkeye as the sniper, Winry as the engineer / mechanic, Lan-Fan as the ninja bodyguard, Mei-Chan the prodigy, Maria Ross the scapegoat, and Izumi Curtis as the sensei. << There's plenty shares of badass there if you wanna look it up.

Alphonse's character could have been more eveloped. Well… yes again, the invisible rules of aesthetics says even a walking hunk of armor need to be pretty and attractive, eh? Who cares????

His menaching armor and gentle personality is quite an oximoron in any case. That as the fact that only he has the temperament to be his brother's partner. I do appreciate the irony that the 'little' brother gets turned into a protective suit of menacing armor while the bigger brother remains the Red Shrimp, throughout the series until the end.

That fake "badass" thing you are referring to, is probably Edward's firey personality he really cannot help most of the time to get worked up over. He take the responsibility to restore their bodies and their lives, and forgive the fifteen (I think he was fifteen to sixteen) year old's quirks and spasms as he struggles through being a spoilt troubled guilt-ridden military dog while foguring our their restoration, and plunging into somehting apprehensively more complex and on a far more grander scale than them just restoring their bodies.

To everyone who is throwing insults at the writer of this article, learn to grow up. One of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that you can’t discuss likes and dislikes within the anime community without someone taking it personally. Take a lesson in maturity folks.

Having not read the manga (I ended up watching watching FMA surprisingly late through the years of watching anime), I was captivated. It was surprisingly dark, had some great twists (Homunculus being creations of failed human transmutations), some great characters (Mustang, Hughes, Ed), and had a pretty interesting and fun plot. I wasn’t too bothered by the filler episodes, and the lack of action didn’t bother me too much because I genuinely enjoyed the plot. That being said, I don’t see how there wasn’t ‘any action’. Even the glimpses of action (Ed vs. The Empty Shells at 5th Lab, Mustang vs. Pride, Ed vs. Greed, etc.) were a blast. Enhanced by great background music, a good script, and plot twists to keep you interested, I thought it was great, and didn’t take itself too seriously.

I read a comment about how comparing FMA to NGE is like comparing Titanic to Pulp Fiction. I enjoyed NGE at first, and it still holds a place in my heart, but to be honest, I see it more as Titanic than Pulp Fiction. Even the writers of NGE admitted that the Christian symbolism in that show meant NOTHING, and was put in there just because they were interested in it. While the show set a great mood, and had some great anti-stereotype characters, the execution (in my opinion) sort of fell on it’s face at some points (due to rushed production and stress). At the same time though, very powerful stuff came out as well (especially episode 24). I was one of the few people that actually loved the TV ending as well, but man oh man was “End of Envangelion” crap. NGE is the one that I find is praised without merit sometimes. It was really good, and I would put it in my top 7 or something, but it could’ve been better. IMO the FMA directed by Mizushami that strayed away from the manga, bested it, in my opinion. Watching FMA Brotherhood, which actually has the better plot, is proving difficult, because it feels like it’s lacking one thing: heart.

Regardless, everyone has the right to their own opinion. I just think that FMA is and always will be a classic and touching tale about KIDS (who act like kids) going through a lot of rough stuff while believing in the principle of equivalent exchange.

Can’t stand whiny, 15 year old protagonists, or sidekicks with the the voice of a 4 year old girl. Can’t stand pointless episodes that serve only to fill in time and plots that end in 20 minutes.

Can’t stand stupid protagonists that don’t use their powers intelligently. Why the fuck does he always make a dagger/sword instead of a gun like the bad guys? Sorry, but guns aren’t “evil,” the sword is only to suck in wapanese preteens who think swords are cool.

I’m lost.

Whenever I look for an anime I decide to watch it or not based on some standards.

FMA was always skipped on my list, because it didnt atracted me.
One week ago I run out of good animes to see and decided to see FMA. I watched all episodes. Then I thought…

“I didnt liked it. This is just lame.”
Whenever I liked something it wasnt intense enough, deep enough, further developed.
“They could have entered more in that…”
Then they change ambience/mood right of the bat… its ridiculous. How could they dont notice that sudden changes in the atmosphere is a big turn off. A big turn off. The main characters were like the guy descripted. One is a badly steriotyped protagonist. Clean of any originality. The other one, the guy in the armor is just ridiculous. I felt pity of myself for losing my time watching it…
Whats with the woman characters? I couldnt find one woman behavior that was reasonable. Action was out of place. And not enough of it. I mean… The guy who made it… I couldnt stop thinking how inferior the writter/creator was like a thinking being…

Its not my first anime…. I know sometimes good animes doesnt have good starts… But the protagonist didnt have any potential to attach me. Neither their objective seems interesting. Whatever obstacle they had to surpass was always too easy…

I dont like crap. Even if its popular. In order to compare what I think its good I will name some animes:

Naruto, Bleach,
Wolf’s Rain, Yuyu Hakusho, Saint Seya, Hellsing, Evangelion, Death Note, Hotaru no Haka/Grave of the Fireflies, Shura No Toki, Berserk, Record of Lodoss War, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Bastard…

Most of them are full of cliches (people saying things like “oh, he could do that special hidden technique using his left foot fingers…”, getting impressed easily to the point that they become lame and gay, bowing down to others will without having its own personality and feelings, being stupid as comic relief, woman behavior against man protagonist, etc…; every antagonist underestimate the protagonist; every evil guy laughs, etc… you know, cliches/steriotypes…

From the ones I mentioned, some are original, like the deep psychology of evangelion, or mind chess fight of death note, berserk, record of lodoss war (complete animes with everything), the sadness emotional state you get with the grave of the fireflies… or more of the same action animes with a few twists like saint seya, yuyu hakusho, samurai deeper kyo, bastard… but bearable, unlike dragon ball z and other animes.

full metal alchemist seem to be unoriginal and uninteresting, even the openings, no good soundtrack, no good action, no good characters, not any psychological or intelectual, the premise is lame, the world where they leave is blank… I didnt feel anything. And I found this site to be the answer for why such a popular anime doesnt fullfilled my expectations.

In other words, FMA is annoying. Unbearable. Uninsteresting. It doesnt add nothing, neither change a state of spirit. No creativity. Nothing…

Only when fans watch a handfull of animes they will be able to see through the crapyness of their beloved anime.

BEFORE I introduced FMA to her, she just used to hide and cry for ages in her room. She was off from school for 6 MONTHS.

Now, she comes out of the house to talk about FMA to me, but she still wont come to school, because people bully her for being an “orphan”.

NOW do you see why I say it? Without it, she’d proberyly be dead now.

You happy now? Good, because she’s been missing for 5 days now.

GREAT anime. Millions of fans cant be wrong.

“I always thought anime was a poor excuse of being independent since the fanbase around it is a complete turnoff both on the internet and in real life.”

enjoy your isolated and poorly supported opinions.

“while not being able to look at it objectively” -opening faggot.

hypocrite.

“For some people, heck, FMA is there life.” HAHAHA, you mean NO LIFE.

Sorry, anime-fanboy-nazis!

I think all you FMA haters should go fuck yourselves. Theres no reason for you to hate it, i think your just bored and need something to do. Get a life, why dont you? I have nothing agaist the people that dont like it that much and say there reasons, but its people like YOU, Mr. Podcaster, who make these shitty web-blogs to slam things that are well loved. Are you a dick-head or something? You think everyones going to agree with you on your “Speech” but only a couple of people do.

I LOVE FMA and im not afraid to say it. I love the anime. I love the manga. I love Edward elric. I love it all. Theres LOADS of fight scenes (maybe you should go get your eyes checked out, because i see them all the time and you dont) and the plot is something ive NEVER seen before. How can you judge something youve never seen before, you ass-hole?

Now, i know im talking about it like its real, but i can realate to alot of things in that program and it helps me get through alot of drama in life. For some people, heck, FMA is there life.

And then theres pussy-lickers like you, going around fucking slating one of the most greatest animes of all time.

So, in conclusion, i advise you go get yourself some fucking taste, you wanker, and leave the choice of animes people watch to them, because no-one cares what you think.

Love kitty. xxx

I always thought anime was a poor excuse of being independent since the fanbase around it is a complete turnoff both on the internet and in real life. However, my curiosity of Japanese animation was sparked when I watched this series. The characters, plot, and art of it all had an overwhelming warm effect on me and I immediately made it a priority to watch the series every Saturday night.

“The Characters SUCK”

The show provides a great amount of diverse characters. Of course it’s essential for the main character to be predictable and overratingly appealing to boys and girls because that’s what pulls in the viewer to understand the show and keep it interesting to watch. Edward has a cocky, predictable, and egotistical douchebag personality, I’ll have to completely agree with the writer, however as Fullmetal Alchemist winds down to its climatic half of the US second season he goes through a great self-realizing change and matures to the rank he deserves.

Alphonse’s contrast to his brother’s personality is the second main support of keeping this show together. Ever read the book “Tuesday’s with Morrie” by Mitch Albom? You could compare the two easily and tell how both aren’t afraid to show compassion and love and tell how they feel. Do you really think it was “god damn lame” when Alphonse thought he wasn’t really Edward’s brother? Did you not realize the consequences of having a just a suit of armor as a body (can’t sleep, eat, feel, etc., etc.)?

“The Action SUCKS”

Can’t say much here. IMO, action isn’t really everything. The “To Kill a Mockingbird” movie had a 30-45-minute court room scene of no action whatsoever and yet it’s prevailed to be one of movie’s most dramatic scenes of all time. Your opinion. Peace out man.

“The Plot SUCKS”

What

I’m not to repeat myself here again, but Fullmetal Alchemist was not “an easy ride”. The first half was nothing but drama with other characters, and did nothing but set the layout for the second half of the series. I dare say you could compare the first half of the series to “Trinity Blood” (which is a major disaapointment and wonder why Adult Swim chose to air it), but the second half is what everyone should pay close attention to.

“tl;dr summary”

In conclusion, FMA is a great show. The greatest? Not even close. Ebert and Roeper would give it a thumbs down and up, but it’s something worth showing your kids.

Penis penis penis~…