Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

Review By Kamal K

This movie is a direct continuation of where the first TV series leaves off and it's STRONGLY suggested you watch the TV series first in order to understand this movie, and to see this movie as a complete closure to it as well. A good portion charms I feel of what defines the TV series are still present, and the returning characters do have presence, but not to their fullest use in my opinion. Mustang does his thing, but I think in some way they could have still developed his character. But for general character development with Ed and Al as well as their relationship, it really does the job which I feel you have to see for yourself on how that pans out.

Yes, it does give closure, but some of the movie does have some unsolved questions. Such as it doesn't explain why Noah has the power to see somebody's life just by touching them. And outside of that, she really has no use to the story though her presence does symbolize that gypsies were scorned by the Germans just to make emphasize the history going on in Germany at that point. Another factor I didn't like was how little significance the opening becomes after that. It's supposed to be something important and you get an idea of what it's supposed to be (based on your knowledge of science and history), but after that, it really has no overall contribution of the story, nor did I felt it really established anything.

Take what I said about the TV series and times it by 2, and you perfectly get the quality of the art and animation of this movie. The moment that Ed's mechanical arm first appears, it's so detailed and rendered and yet syncs perfectly with the 2D art. The designs of the characters are simply for the sake of theatrical quality, but of course shows maturity to the features as well. Specifically, not just Ed by growing taller, but by placing his pony tail closer to the crown of his head to symbolize that he's an adult and to make him more scholarly looking. And my thoughts on the environments and action sequences still remain the same and the qualities are still there, but obviously better.

The voice acting in both English and Japanese is still a quality that I consider a standard to look up to. In addition to new characters, we got new seiyuus.

The music is just incredible. If you've already seen the first TV series, then it's a highly likely possibility you've watched this already. But if you haven't the TV series and have been meaning to watch it or currently watching it, then naturally you're going to watch this anyway. In the extras, it is revealed the original first draft was going to be between 2 to 3 hours long and I felt that a 95 minute movie was really too short to really give this installment of Fullmetal Alchemist a little too small of a conclusion.

The ending was disappointing in my opinion. I won't say what happens, but I was really enjoying this movie being a fan of both TV series and the manga until this movie ended. I mean, really, the ending is everything to a movie. The greatness of both anime series is almost beyond words, and it's up there on the list with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gin Tama of top twenty anime series of all time.

So why did the ending of the movie leave me unsatisfied and somewhat depressed? Because it was unsatisfying, I wonder what the writers were thinking?

Well, I'm done complaining about the ending, now for the positive: the story is STILL good in my opinion (until the ending), and the animation is awesome and seems to improve from the first series (please note that this movie is a finale to the first animated series ONLY and is in no way associated with Brotherhood) animation. Seeing the characters grown up a bit was neat and the plot revolving around two alternate worlds is always good if it's done right (which it was, until the ending), without being too damn confusing to follow.

Now, for the basic outline of the story: Ed and an alternate world Al are now studying rocket science, since in that world alchemy doesn't exist. But then a certain 'nice' lady wants to open up the portal to Ed's original world where alchemy DOES exist to find the legendary Shangri-La, opening an opportunity for Ed to get back home.

Overall, 7/10. If it wasn't for the ending it would get another point added.

As a devote fan to the series, I got very excited when hearing that there was going to be a movie made. Part of me was worried that it wouldn't be made with the same meticulous perfection that the series was created with...I shouldn't have worried.

The movie itself is absolutely awesome. I found it very enjoyable and (unlike a lot of anime movies) find myself able to watch it over and over again.

And to those who complain about the ending. If the end of the movie had been *any* different, it would not have been FMA's style. I thought the end was brilliant. So, check it out!

Now I won't spoil anything for anyone, only that "FMA - Conqueror of Shambala" is worth looking into. Thankfully the characters are pretty much the same. Anyway, it starts off with Ed and Al visiting this one scientist who has discovered Uranium (kinda sub-plot) and he ends up on the other side of the gate. The rest of the story picks up were the series left off; and takes place both our world and Ed's world. The overall plot was fairly good and and the director and writers did good job paying respect for the characters and the series. And the animation out does the actual show, there were some instances were they used CG (and looked bad) but that doesn't ruin the viewing qualities at all. I liked it, but don't take my word for it. Try it for yourself and be your own judge. I like said, it's worth taking a peek.^_^

I remember this movie was widely criticized back then: The fans of the original manga which disliked the plot changes of the original "Full Metal Alchemist" anime considered this movie made the ending even "worse", and those who liked the ending of the original television series considered this movie "ruined" a perfectly satisfying conclusion.

I personally liked a lot the final episodes of the original Full Metal Alchemist show, to the point I prefer it to the super-happy conclusion of "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood", but I liked this movie too.

Maybe the fans were expecting a "Happily-ever-after" perfect type of ending with Edward reuniting with Al and Winry, but such type of resolution would feel totally out of place in comparison with the rest of the series.

My only complaint is that the antagonist was a little bit underwhelming, and the final confrontation lacked the epic feel a story of this kind should have.

But other than that, this movie does a good job adding some closure to certain loose ends frm the original television series, not "ruining" it as some fans claimed, but fullfilling it instead.