Review of Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (2005) by Eric W — 31 Jul 2007

Fullmetal Alchemist is my favorite anime series, tied for first with Bleach. The mange is very good also. Most FMA episode, especially later in the series, were great, and the movie acts as a great conclusion to the series.

The movie centers on Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist of the series name, as he tries to get back home to his world. As his journey continues, he gets involved with the Thule Society before WW2. The plot is more complicated than that but brings in a lot of good characters, including some familiar faces from the series (in more ways than one), such as Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustance, Riza Hawkeye, Wrath, and Envy, to name a few.

The movie is fast paced, with good action and character development. My problems with the movie are the side characters aren't involved very much, and though it was most likely because they don't actually contribute to the plot, I still would have liked to know what happened to them in the aftermath.

The other problem I had was the villain, though evil, was not suited for the role, but did the best she could. Anyone who was a fan of the FMA series must watch the FMA movie, or even if you're just a fan of anime in general.

The movie does a good job of recapping the major parts of the series and is the best anime movie based on a series I have seen.