I’ve been on an Anime kick lately, and this is the first series I’ve watched in quite some time. This is a great series where technology is used in a very different way from a classic sci-fi story.

It’s hard to describe, and it was also hard to understand at first. Basically teenagers use Dennou glasses to a virtual world super-imposed on the real world. The virtual world looks exactly like the real world, but sometimes it’s used to enhance reality. So the look of the show is not futuristic at all, on the contrary it just looks like a normal Japanese anime.

The main commercial use of the glasses are to possess a virtual pet. The pets look just like normal pets, but they only exist and can be seen with the glasses.

The stars of the series are all teenagers, and at first it feels like a teenage/high-school light-hearted comedy. But as the series goes on, it’s clear that something much more serious is at the heart of the story.

There is a commentary about using technology and having “fake” virtual pets, versus interacting with real people and family. But there is also the mystery of the world on the other side, or how souls can even interact with the virtual world.

I like the revelation of how the world on the other side was created, it connects many of the main characters of the series, and it’s also when things started to go wrong. It’s a well constructed plot and it didn’t take too long to get there. There are only 26 episodes and at the end everything is wrapped up nicely.

I appreciated both the use of the technology, the sci-fi aspect of this show, as well as the moral and emotional part of the story. The animation is very well done, it was crisp and clear as a virtual world should be. A very good series indeed.

Rating: 4 Stars

Full Metal Alchemist is a 51 episodes long anime series about a world of alchemists. The main characters of the series are Ed and Al, two brothers who lost an arm and leg, and a body while trying to resurrect their mother using alchemy. They learned that human transmutation is forbidden, and they go in search of the Philosopher’s Stone in order to regain their bodies.

If you think this is complicated, wait till you watch the whole series. This story is very broad, it contains many many characters and places, and situations, but in the end it all connects. Yes, I was very satisfied by this series.

Even though the main theme of the anime are very serious, there are always funny scenes or even episodes to loosen the tension and allow us to take a breath. Many of these scenes come from the fact that although Ed is the elder brother, he is very short, while Al is a huge empty armor.

As I said though, the main theme is a very dark and at times horrific. In particular I was completely shocked and almost scared when they found out that an alchemist combined his daughter Nina with their dog to create a chimera. And THEN, Scar killed it. Oh my…. I had a feeling of watching a horror movie like the Fly or something like that. Not for kids.

It was fun trying to guess the many mysteries this series presents you. Just when you thought you knew something, they introduce new characters or new information, and you have to re-evaluate your theories. Up until the very end, everything had a very clear explanation, so it was fun to find out what was the truth. But the last episode felt a little bit rushed and without a detailed explanation.

I think that if they had cut down the number of episodes, and maybe cut out some of the ancillary story-lines, this series would have been tighter and even more enjoyable. At times I felt like I was getting too many new questions and not enough answers. A little like watching Lost. I mean, I knew there was an ending, but it felt too far away.

At least until the last 10 episodes. From then on, it was a fast paced roller coaster full of revelations and “finally!” moments. As I said, the last episode (especially the last 5 minutes) are a bit rushed, but I still felt an emotional connection to the characters. And as with many good anime series, there is a message related to humanity, what it means being human, and what is life.

The soundtrack was both light and moody, depending on the scenes. For example, in the dark scene where they discover about the chimeras, the background music was just perfect. I also liked the opening songs: there were 4 in total, I didn’t particularly care for the first one, but the other three are very good rock songs. My favorite is Rewrite, it reminded me of another great anime soundtrack by The Pillows, FLCL.

It’s interesting to note that FMA is based on a manga series, as described in Wikipedia:

“As there was a limited amount of manga material available to adapt at the time of production, the storyline of the anime diverges from that of the manga around the middle of the series (around the end of book 6/start of book 7). The anime’s later story and conclusion by BONES is different from the manga, which is still ongoing. This divergence in story from the manga source material, however, was planned from the beginning of production, and was not done “just because” the anime caught up with the manga source material.”

I’d be interested to read the manga version, once it’s concluded.

A great anime series, the best I’ve watched since Evangelion.

Rating: 4 Stars

There is also a movie, which continues from the last episode of the series, but I didn’t feel it achieved the high quality of the series. The animation was awesome, thanks to a bigger budget, but the story itself is not comparable to the series. I still enjoyed it, because I am invested in the characters.

Rating: 2 Stars