If you didn't realize it yet, Square-Enix was involved in the making of this series.
Plotline - Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric are two brothers that lived a happy life, that is until their mother passed away. Not wanting to accept this, the brothers decided to study alchemy. As the law of alchemy states:
"You can't gain something without sacrificing something else of the equal value. This is the principle of the equivalent trade."
After a few years of studying, they return and attempt to break the forbidden law of human transmutation, and tried to revive their mom. Not only did they fail, they failed big time. Edward lost his left leg, and Alphonse lost his entire body. Desperate, Edward fused his brother's soul together in a nearby set of armor in exchange for his right arm. Now the brothers have a new objective. To gain back the things they have lost... their original bodies.
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I have a lot of stuffs to say about this series, so bear with me. First off, when I started to watch this series, I had a very high expectation level for it, since it Square-Enix was involved in it, and it was just all the craze in the year 2003-2004. 5 minutes into episode 1, and I was already addicted to the plot and characters. I kept thinking "What the freak happend to them?". Eventually, all my petty little questions were answered. There were times when I was confused, times when I got teary eyed, and times when I laughed. This series has it all.
Let's start off with the cast of characters. Ed and Al are probably the best set of male character's I've ever seen. They're near the Sakura and Kero level, if you've seen CCS, except it doesn't have that kawaii feeling. I mean seriously, how can you not like a empty walking talking armor, who has a midget sized brother that gets annoyed easily? It doesn't stop there. This series makes you think in a way that no other series does. It makes you realize that they're only humans, and not somebody who can just kill everybody in their way because they're the main characters (*cough* Gatsu *cough*) . Ed may not be strong, but he has determination. The driving force of his determination pushes each episode forward, and it makes you think differently of him after each episode. I personally thought he was a evil greedy person pursuing his own selfish goals, but by the end of the series, I realized I was dead wrong. Al is just plain awesome, since he's almost indestructable. They do a really good job of exploiting the weaknesses too, throughout the series. My favorite characters would have to be either Roy or Al, since they're just awesome like that.
The next big part about FMA, is the amazing plot. The way they unfold the plot, the plot itself, and the whole idea behind it... it's just freaking amazing. I could tell already by episode 5, that they perfectly set up the introduction. Seriously, they couldn't have done better even if they tried. After that, the story just gets more exciting episode by episode. There's just so much more to FMA than the initial cover glance. The idea of it all is original, or at least to me it is, and it's really addicting. It's far better than any Final Fantasy type plot too, if you ask me.
As with any series that isn't humor or drama based, there needs to be action right? There's all kinds of things going on here. Alchemy battles are probably what most people are expecting, but there's far more than that. Mostly though, it consists of melee fights and small alchemy related fights. There's also the occasional "Holy crap, did that just happen?" type scene, which pops up every 10 episodes or so. Not really much else to comment on here... since pictures speak better than words.
And finally, like all anime series should have, there's the humor. They have the repeated joke humor they keep throughout the whole series, and then there's the funny type humor that happens every few episodes or so. Episode 13 is probably the only scene I can remember off the top of my head. Heh heh, Roy is such a dog lover.
I could probably go on and on, but you better just watch this for yourself and be amazed. This is the best series I've seen up to date in my 1 year of anime watching, and I doubt anything can top this series. I wanted to give it a perfect 10, but nothing is perfect. My ratings are all a little bit high, but it's only because most of the series I've listed are considered good. With the movie coming out in a year or so, I'll have to keep up with the manga to see if the ending is different. What are you waiting for? Go watch FMA and let it own you.
My Score: 9.8 / 10