Beyond the Gate - The End of Fullmetal Alchemist

Watching the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist in highschool was - for sake of sounding overly cheesy - a brillant and amazing expierence. I was pulled into its wondrous world of alchemy with rules and loved all the characters. The tragic tale and adventure of brothers Alphonse and Edward Elric moved me.

Now, it's over.

The original 2003 series ended at 52 episodes {and also a movie) while the recent 2009 series ended at 64. The manga is also over.

It's over.

Edward and Alphonse Adventure is over.

Excuse me, I think I need a tissue.



Fullmetal Alchemist was a wonderful, well-rounded anime series - a series any anime fan should love to watch. Regardless of whether you watched and became a die hard fan, casually watched, or did not watch at all (<- wait, WHY!?), Fullmetal Alchemist is the stuff of animated dreams. For starters, Alchemy has rules. Therefore, the series was already realistically grounded even though alchemy itself is not realistic. Alchemists are not superheros who have a weakness, they are extrodinary humans bound by rules that have dire consequences. Of course there is a way to bend these rules, but, even then, choose to bend those rules can be downright evil.

There is also the wonderful cast of characters in the series. We have are main two characters, Edward and Al, who have lost parts (or all) of their bodies trying to bend those alchemic rules. There is also several other characters that stand out in the series including Roy Mustang, Winry Rockbell, Major Armstrong, and the villians, Homunculi, named after the seven deadly sins.

I certainly can not forget the amazing animation that both series have. Of course Brotherhood, the recent 2009 series, is "better" in terms of animation because it's newer, but both animated series offer brilliant sequences - especially any scene using alchemy.

The musical score throughout the series is captivating. I personally loved all the openings and endings.

The 2003 follows a path of its own while the 2009 follows the manga very closely. After having seen the 2009 series in completion, i simply love it more. The twists and turns, the brilliant animation, the fighting scenes, the subplots, the complexity. Its a better series. That does not mean the 2003 series was not brilliant in its own way! It's just that the 2009 series has cemented Fullmetal Alchemist to be one of the favorites!