Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala
Hawkeye
Two year ago, the Elric brothers were split apart, Alphonse remained at home while Edward was thrust through the gate onto Earth. Alphonse has grown up some, still missing the memories of the four years he spent searching for the Philosopher Stone with Ed. He’s become an incredible alchemist through Izumi’s teaching and has never stopped in his quest to bring Ed home. Edward, however, is trapped in a world without alchemy, and has spent his time studying rocketry with Earth’s version of Alphonse. It seems that nothing will reunite the two, until Edward discovers Envy trapped in a dragon’s body and becomes tangled in the schemes of the rising Nazis’ desires to take over his old world. Will the brothers be re-united without the horrors of another war being the cost?
The animation was spectacular, even better then the series itself in my opinion. The Conqueror of Shambala combines both traditional animation with 3D techniques and blends them together. The action scenes are also a bit more impressive, playing with cutting-edge camera angles and exceptional detail.
The original voice cast is back, which is a beautiful thing. Even those who didn’t like the dubbed version can at least expect consistency. The music, however, is all new, though I think I would have liked to hear some music from the series. I did particularly like the groovy gypsy music throughout the movie. The sound effects were very good per usual, including the machine gun sounds, which are often too generic in anime.
If you haven’t seen the entire FMA series, I wouldn’t recommend watching this movie. Not only would you be missing a lot of the irony and fun little things to notice, there are spoilers all over the place. That said, this is a definite must see for all Fullmetal fans. When the series the ended, I couldn’t believe they ended it where they did, so when I heard that the movie was continuing the story I was excited. I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. While having its own standalone plot of the brothers trying to reunite and the rise of the Nazis, it gave me the ending to the series that I’d been waiting for.
Entertainment: 9
The plot was good, the cameos and irony awesome, however the idea of the Elrics fighting Nazis kind of hurt my brain.
Technical: 10
The sound was great, as well as the animation, and the extras were really good. I also greatly enjoyed the booklet that came with the DVD that compared Technology vs. Alchemy in the movie.
Overall: 9.5
Definitely worth picking up even if you’ve seen it before.
DVD Extras: “The making of Fullmetal Alchemist- The Movie” 40 minute Documentary with director Seiji Mizushima and staff, Trailers, Production Art Imagage Gallery
