Fullmetal Alchemist

In hindsight, was this shounen manga deserving of all the praise?

Yes.

For once It's a shounen manga that doesn't suffer from unnecessary padding and not riddled with flashbacks so I would say yes.

I never cared about anything in this story and I'm still not sure why it's such a big deal.

Been a while since I've read it but in hindsight I'd wager it's still a good read, though it did profit a lot from the animu hype (both times), which let it garner more of a spotlight than the story ultimately warranted. Especially the first anime with its heavy melodrama slant made it well liked among the "look how mature those themes are, it's got war and rape and stuff!" crowd, that need public validation to like cartoons. Standout feature are the strong characterizations and the interactions of those characters, which Mori also showcases in Silver Spoon along with some nice heartfelt moments. I guess, another big popularity draw was the room for rampant speculation on the inner workings of Alchemy and the Homunculi as the manga was still ongoing. Without any wait between the chapters, it's just a good read. Kinda like Kekkaishi, though with a better overall arc of suspense and grander final payoff.

And by Mori I meant Arakawa.

Actually yes. I don't really care about it anymore but there's no doubt it was a great manga.

Yes, it's awesome.

watched the Brotherhood, it's a solid but nothing special. Still holds really well among the likes of Naruto, DBZ, Bleach and OP

It's definitely well thought and build. But it's not one of those that got me emotionally invested on a personal level. Looking back, there really is no characters I was fond of.

Only thing that really got me was Kimblee's mentality and what he did in his last moments against Pride. And maybe Greed/Lee. One of the few characters that made a saying about friends without being cheesy/out of context with it.

So yes, it "deserved" it. But as good as it is, I would probably rank higher some lesser acclaimed works because while they may lack FMA's overall quality, they got me to care more about their stories/characters.

Not really, no. It's consistent, but unless you have minimal exposure to manga, the narrative lacks punch.

Honestly, yes it was. Don't get me wrong, it had tons of problems but it's still one of the most satisfying endings I've read. Which is great because nips in general suck at endings. She also had the decency not to milk the series to death or make some "next generation" sequel starring Ed and Winry's children.

Slapping in a timeskip and showing Ed winning the Winry bowl does not make the ending amazing. The final fight was underwhelming and anticlimactic.

It's the best shounen by far.

Every shounenfag says this about their favorite.

No.
It was uttershit low quality despite being a monthly release.
The antagonists were all one dimensional strawman except for Bradley.

I'm not a shounenfag. But it's the best shounen because every one of its flaws are brought on by the fact that it IS a shounen.

10/10 or me, but I understand that not everyone feels the same way.

Not sure. I know my friends loved it but I was never able to get into it.

The plot looked super interesting and I remember that my friends used to talk to me about it and it sounded really cool but every time I caught an episode of it on Tv I would get bored. Maybe I was unlucky and I just saw the bad episodes? I honestly don't know but my friends seem to still like it a lot.

Not the absolute best, but it's pretty damn good.
Will re-read again.

Shounenfag logic right there. The exact same can be said for other shounen manga like Kenshin and Gash Bell.

Yeah. I dunno if it can be called the GOAT shounen, but it definitely is up there. On a side note, does anyone want to see Arakawa do a 4 panel omake SoL manga like Lucky Star? Her FMA extras are great and she's on record saying she wishes she could do nothing but bonus pages.

I really enjoyed FMA when I was younger, but admittedly never finished the manga.

I felt like after the great confrontation with Lust and Envy's true form that the homunculus kept going down too easily, and I sort of lost investment with the stakes of things.

I didn't' say it was amazing I said it was satisfying. There's a big difference. And yeah, the ending fight was shit, but most are. Look at Bleach, Magi, Shaman King, etc.

I just realized that I've never actually seen an action shonen through to the very end. I've always dropped them for one reason or another.

yes

>Mangaka knew where she wanted to go with it
>cast is well developed
>author not afraid to shelve the MC to develop said side cast
>good action
>good romance that was believable
>good art
Yep, it deserves to be praised.

FMA is good, great even, but I think it gets way overhyped by casual manga readers/anime watchers. Put in the context of manga as a whole, FMA is good, but nothing mind blowing, but if your only other experience with the medium is shit like DBZ (and yes I know Z is technically an anime-only distinction, shut up) or Bleach or Naruto, FMA is going to look godlike in comparison.

>if you kill him, you'll be just like him
no

This, god damn it's good to have a contained mangas that doesn't drag on forever.

>author not afraid to shelve the MC to develop said side cast
This is a good one.

I feel like nearly every shonen that has a really interesting cast ends up sidelining everyone for the sake of the obligatory powerhouse protagonist sooner or later. It was nice that the military characters in FMA had a solid ongoing role in things.

That's stupid. Writing quality shouldn't be affected by what magazine you in if you actually care about the story and want to do something different

That was a low point.

All I know is that Riza was best girl.

No. Arakawa is a hack.

I felt the comeuppance of the homunculus to be why too obvious.

>Called Envy
>Actually envied human beings

woah

I don't think it's the best shonen manga, but it's the one of the least flawed ones out there.

I wanted to kill myself watching this episode.

Low point of the entire series. I hate when that shitty "if you kill your enemies you're no better than them" trope is pulled. It's completely retarded.

If you have to compare something to Bleach to make your point, then you already lost.

Weird time to pull that after an entire military campaign and Mustang already absolutely destroyed Lust.

No. It's good but it doesn't deserve the holy cow treatment it gets here. It's probably nostalgia, I prefer SE to it for the same reason.

I also hate people saying that FMA is "not shonen" even though it's in a shonen magazine for reasons like it's "mature" and deal with the harsh realities of war. Those themes aren't exclusive to seinen.

And it ended with the main protag beating the main villain as per usual, Ed literally punching god in the face. I'm not saying this makes it bad but people wanks this show to high heaven when it has all the set pieces that are typical of other shows.

It would make less sense if those were just random names though.

Pretty much. Though the fault lies on the author for picking such a bland theme for villains. So obviously based on the deadly sins that you know all there is to know about them before they're all even introduced.

Does that apply to Greed or Wrath? They had a bit more character depth than the others, which made it surprising. I think that's what they were trying to go for.