Like FMA was the first time around, the new FMA will be one of the top anime to watch out for in the states.If there’s one genre anime is associated with the most in and beyond Japan, it’s shounen - stories made for teen males. These are what make the new FMA an instant new-age classic. A better developed story and characters, superior animation, and fantastic details. In a sense, it even feels like a new anime, and by episode 13, it has gone in a completely new direction. Bones took everything good about the original series and threw out all the bad, replacing those particulars with higher quality details. Likewise, all the charm is here as well, from the more serious scenes that fans will remember to the humor which is consistent and still funny. All the action is displayed and wonderfully animated. We aren't subjected to single shots or poorly edited sequences. The action is fantastic and looks great, as it always did. It's hard not to like anything about this new FMA. Five years after the original series ended and the manga has had time to grow, this new FMA is better looking, paced better, and follows the manga, expanding the plot in a better direction. For most series, this would be pointless, but for FMA, it's very much welcome. As many series do, it took on its own form and story, and it was at that point that it started to lose its charm. And yet, for all it's greatness, it began to flounder in it's second season.

Such was what I discovered when I first laid my eyes on the original FMA series. Few series achieve such a perfect balance of mainstream entertainment and gut wrenching drama and tragedy. There is a great deal of tragedy and some moments are even frightening and memorable. And yet, for a mainstream series, it manages to continually surprise with a very mature and serious tone. These are all common staples of long running anime series that lean towards a more commercial and public appeal. It is very much a mainstream series, with the appeal of a huge cast of unique characters, action that commonly involves special powers, a fairly straight forward story with some mostly obvious symbolism, and a mix of comedy, action, drama, and even some romance. Fullmetal Alchemist is, in a way, unique.

Fma b episode list