This post contains SPOILERS…SINCE THIS IS THE SPOILERS SECTION thus if you have not seen the series or the movie then why the heck are you still reading this?! GO WATCH ALL OF FMA
Also I want to say that this post contains rants and raves as well….I did warn you!
I have seen a number of really good/great anime this year. Gilgamesh, Samurai Seven, Gankatsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Fruit Baskets, and FMA…none of which ended the way I thought they should have. However that doesn’t ruin the series as most of them had reasonable endings even if they were different then what they should have been (meaning it varied from the source material or manga it was based on).
Others showed even though it did not end exactly like I thought it would…when I stopped and thought about it…I had to say “man that was creative.” Then there are those that showed the Japanese producers lacked intelligence for or just had poor planning when it came to the ending.
This FMA Movie unfortunately was one where they failed IMO. I had heard so much hype on how this was a “perfect” ending to the series that I actually against my better judgment believed it…going into the movie. THIS IS WHERE THE SPOILERS START IF YOU ARE DUMB ENOUGH TO KEEP READING WHEN YOU HAVEN”T SEEN THE SUBJECT MATERIAL IT IS NOT MY FAULT. I WILL BE EXPLAINING THE PROBLEMS WITH THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE AND SERIES.
While I did love the alternate world idea I did not care much for the whole Nazi/WWII theme of the alternate world…but I was prepared for that since it was evident from the last few episodes of the series that the alternate world was laid out as such. Not a big deal…the use of alternate characters in this alternate world that Ed kept running into which resembled or were copies of their “Shamballa” counterparts at first was enjoyable but then seemed to get a little old at the end.
The overall story was ok and worked as a medium to offer a conclusion to the series but the actual way it was concluding the series is were things started to go sour. The killing off of the homunculus (use of them to invoke the transmutation circle) as a means to open the gate permanently was a creative idea and it worked for me. Even if Hohenheim was killed by Envy as well (which totally blew)…but given Envy’s purpose in life was to do so since Hohenheim rejected him after being brought back to life by Hohenheim…I can deal.
It was awesome when the bridge between the worlds was established and getting to see Ed and Al reunited in “Shamballa.” Also (the manga had this a lot more predominate then the series did but…you can still kind of see it) Winry had the hots for Ed and vise versa so her getting to see Ed again gave the impression they may become an item...finally. Then as an extra…to really hook the fans Gen. Mustang came back with a vengeance along with the rest of the gang and they all defeated the bad guys! Yay!...everything is happy in neverland…right….?
Now how is any of that bad? Well from here on is how they mucked it all up…Ed decides he has to destroy the gate from the other side…ok I can understand that…but then Al decides to tag along and gets his memories back in the process…ok cool…but now they are stuck on the other side and while Al has his body back… Ed is stuck with automail forever…no regaining his arm and leg like Al wanted to do the whole series. Also his only way of having Winry is by having her automail as a token of her love? And since Winry “knows” he is never coming back she is just giving up on her feelings? Al & Ed are happy to just live in this alternate world forever now with no way back?
WTH…BUT I could accept this given Al & Ed are together and they “had” to destroy the gate…BUT there is a big problem…THEY AREN”T STUCK THERE which is why I hated this was the ending they came up with as it makes no sense. It was Ok if Ed and Winry never hook up…ok that Ed doesn’t get his arm and leg back…but there is ZERO reason they all couldn’t be together in “Shamballa” which is the perfect ending IMO…I will explain why.
In the series:
When Ed first came to the alternate world because “Dante” sent him through the gate…like episode 50 or 51 of the series...Ed sees Hohenheim (if you remember some time in the series Hohenheim explains to him that the reason they can use transmutation without the use of circles is because there is a little gate inside of them and once they actually see the gate they can use the gate from within to directly draw the power…ok cool…) so the scene is that a bomb blows up the building Ed is in and he is trapped under some debry…OK…
So what does Ed do? He puts his hands together (claps) and presses them to the ground just like he always does and what happened next? He opens the gate and gets spit out back in “Shamballa” where he was just before getting sent to the alternate world. From there you know Envy kills him…Al uses the stone and brings Ed back to life…Ed uses a transmutation circle and brings Al wholly (not in the armor) back and some how winds up back in this alternate world…end of series…
What is my point…? Well Ed used the gate from within to transport himself back to “Shamballa” once before…why the heck can they not do it again and return? Why are they stuck in this alternate world? Yes…they destroyed the “bridge” between the worlds but they DID NOT destroy the gate. Just have them do it again using the little gate inside of them and all could have been right with the series…but no…they just left it as if they were stuck there and everyone is ok with it…BS…and why this movie sucked balls…unless they use this as a prop for another movie…but I don’t see that happening…cause they hate me like that…thus Hammer =
