Does Full Metal Alchemist Deserve a Sequel?
An Open Ended Question Leading to More Questions
The storyline was involving and evolved over a period of 51 episodes coming to an anti-climactic conclusion. In the first 10 or so episodes the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric attempted a transmutation on their mother who had passed. During this transmutation Al(Alphonse Elric) was lost in the gate to the other side.
Once Edward realized what was happening, he abandoned hope and in a fleeting attempt to save his brother, he traded his arm for his brother's soul. After trading his arm Edward bound his brother's soul to a set of armor before losing consciousness.
And so the story began with Elric brothers journeying to save their mother. The one thing that could give them the power was hidden away in an unknown location, the philosopher's stone. The boy's journeys didn't end there though. In their search for the philosophers stone Edward joined the military and Al tagged along.
This set the stage for the war against the people under the tyranny of a corrupt government. Edward soon realized that in order to move about freely and obtain the information he needed, he would have to do the military's bidding whether he liked it or not.
By episode 20 the creatures from the other side (Humunculi) began appearing, these creatures where primarily human and created through human transmutations that went awry. Ed and Al had discovered that the key ingredient to the philosopher's stone was human lives and nearly gave up their quest.
Episodes 20 through 30 covered a range of battles between Ed and these humunculi. Ed and Al explored the origins of these creatures to later find that they were created from human transmutation and one of the creatures was their own mother.
Now for the anti-climactic conclusion, Edward attempts a human transmutation giving his life for his brothers and finds himself n the other side. When he wakes up he finds that he no longer has the power of alchemy, it doesn't work on this side of the gate.
Meeting his father Ed realizes that his father must have attempted a human transmutation as well and the scene portrays a war zone surrounding them. Al on the other side of the gate with his life back and in flesh and blood, has no recollection of any of the events after the attempted transmutation of Ed and AL's mother.
The open ended question here is "Will Edward ever be reunited with Al?" This deliberately left an an open ended question, and a whole new world they could continue the series in. I for one felt that the series finale was not very final and that it should start up again. However, they made a few movies and left the unanswered questions unanswered.
For a complete episode guide visit the link below.
Published by Nicholas Ward
From the time Nicholas Ward was old enough to hold a screw driver Nicholas Ward has been taking things apart just to see how they work, and as Nicholas Ward got older, Nicholas Ward found he could repair the... View profile
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7 Comments
Post a CommentI know that Shambala was "suppose" to be the end of the series, but in my opinion it left a lot of questions... rather than sealing the series like it should have. I'm up to episode 32 of Brotherhood now ^^ it's actually pretty good once you get past the first 6-10 episodes. Still waiting to see if it ends with some closure though. Either the main character should die, or it should have a happy ending, you know ED reunites with his father who ever the twin is dies and everything goes back to normal... I actually wanted to see more of ED "without" his alchemic abilities I thought that would have made an interesting continuation of the original series, but they didn't go the length.
I dont get it. Didn't you see a movie called "Fullmetal Alchemist: The conqueror of Shambala"? (or something like that). That's the end of the first series. Brotherhood it's the same maga's story, and it was finished at nearly the same time as the manga. Give Brotherhood a try. I liked more the first one... but's good anyway.
Yeah thanks Joe I'm working on it now ^^ I started watching once before, but I thought it was the same thing all over again you know that feeling of a rerun and all... I'm still working my way up to the end though to see if it is more settling then the first was ^^
apperently, you guys aren't up to speed with what's happening (actually it already happened, brotherhood is complete in japan). When the first series was made the writer hadn't finished the manga, so instead of making filler they adjusted the story. The movie "conqueror of shamballa" is the sequal to this series and closes the story. Since then the manga has been completed and Brother hood is a "remake" which follows the real story. The beginning is similar but is totally different at the end. The storyis epicly better. You can watch the whe series (with subs) on funimation.com
watched the first half of brotherhood and it felt like a re run... I'll be watching all night tonight to see if there are any major differences. From what I've read on the Wiki it's just that a rerun the first half basically follows the timeline of the original but the second half has some variances. I'm curious to see what they are and how the Brotherhood series ends. I will possibly make some edits after that.
Yeah I'm slightly confused myself apparently the Timeline in brotherhood shifts somewhere around the middle of it "Brotherhood" is slightly different Oo? I''m going to be watching an all night marathon tonight to see where it changed.
wait..isn't this from the original first anime series timeline~?