FullMetal Alchemist

I finally managed to get enough time to make it through all 51 episodes of the first season of FullMetal Alchemist. While my time has been fairly limited, this is one of those shows that I would get home from work and look forward to watching.

Without giving away too much about the story, the show is predicated around Edward and Alphonse Elric, two brothers who are infatuated with the use of alchemy. After their mother dies, the two brothers begin practicing forbidden human alchemy to bring her back. With the laws of equivalent exchange that alchemy teaches the cost becomes their bodies. After realizing their mistake, the brothers begin on a quest to correct the past.

The elements of this series that kept bringing me back episode after episode are the character development, story, artwork, and music. It is very rare that an anime series hits all four sections on the mark for me.

Overall,I would highly recommend checking out FullMetal Alchemist if you are looking for an anime that delivers on drama, action, comedy, and slice of life. I'll be checking out the second season, Brotherhood, soon so stay tuned for the review. 

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes

The story centers on Ryner Lute a lazy person who bears the alpha stigma; a powerful cursed eye that gives him the ability to understand others magic and also leads to the slaughter of many people when he loses control. Ryner Lute lives in the county of Roland and is great friends with the emperor Sion. It is Sion who sends Ryner on a quest to find magical hero relics alongside an extremely power woman named Ferris.

The series is based on the Japanese light novel series under the same name by Takaya Kagami. As with many anime based on light novels there isn’t a satisfactory ending. The series ends and many questions are left unanswered. I haven’t found a translation of the light novels yet but I did find a manga adaption which is still in progress. I haven’t read it yet but am hoping this manga will answer the questions the series left me with. 

 

If you have seen Chrome Shelled Regios, this series about on par in animation, though it has better graphics in the fight sequences and also in my opinion the character designs are superior.  The soundtrack fits the series and the voice actors did a wonderful job. I watched the English dub by Funimation and really enjoyed it. The series is a mix of action, drama and comedy. I found it was well balanced and that the action was far bloodier than I had originally expected with this series. The comical parts made me laugh out loud a few times and that is rare for me these days with most anime.  

 

I loved this series and plan to purchase the recently released blue-ray edition. I highly recommend it as series; I feel that both men and women would enjoy the series. I will warn you though that the last three episodes are very fast paced and add a lot of story that threw me off. It felt as though they were trying to explain some things very quickly before the series ended and only left me more confused.  I am really hoping for a second season but haven’t seen anything to date that one is planned. Overall this is a great series with a little bit of everything in it. If you enjoy sci-fi, action and/or comedy series I think you’ll enjoy this one.

Pom Poko

Pom Poko is yet another one of the great works pumped out by Studio Ghibli. While it has been a while since I last watched this film, it is easily one of my favourites and more memorable in the Studio Ghibli franchise.

The story in Pom Poko is quite unique, in that it uses a fairly straight forward and simple plot to address very important and realistic concepts such as respect for nature, respect for others, and working toward mutual compromise. The themes are approached in such a way that the messages resonate with younger and older audiences alike. To summarize the plot, the expansion of Tokyo is causing humans to cut down forests for development land. One of the forests being expanded into is inhabited by a clan of tanuki (racoons) with posses the ability to transform. In order to protect their home, the tanuki use their transformation abilities to scare off the humans and make them believe that the forest is haunted. When the humans start to realize that there are no spirits haunting the forest, they move ahead with cutting down the trees for the expansion. The tanuki have to move to move to extreme measures in order to protect their home, which ultimately involves fighting for survival.

Its very clear from the plot summary that the story is very simple and does not leverage complex elements to keep the viewers attention. By using such a simple and straight forward story line, there is greater room to elaborate on the themes, without worry of the messages getting lost in translation.

One of the factors that drew me into this film was the character design. By personifying the tanuki and giving them more anthropomorphic properties, they became more relatable, making the film feel less like a kids movie about talking racoons. The use of colour was vibrant, while still maintaining the texturing of an older film, making a lot less overwhelming than some of the new computer generated anime on the market today.

While I am always listening to Joe Hisaishi and Studio Ghibli soundtracks on a daily basis, I have to say that the soundtrack for this film is not sticking in my mind the same as others classics like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, or Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke). The soundtrack is still quite enjoyable, just not as memorable as others.

Overall, I highly recommend checking out Pom Poko along with many of the other Studio Ghibli titles. While the film appears on the surface to cater to a younger audience, adult anime fans will also find meaning in much of the story and content. If you are like me and regularly into anime with heavier action and drama, this is a good light hearted change of pace.