Reviews

Fullmetal Alchemist tells the tale of two young brothers, who through an alchemical experiment gone wrong damage their bodies seemingly beyond repair, the story covers their journey to find a method to undo the damage as they end up wrapped in conspiracies and intricacies far above their heads.

Fullmetal Alchemist is for my money the best anime ever made, a grandiose statement to be sure, but it's more than justified, the tone and direction are nearly flawless, the animation is impressively consistent, the music is gorgeous, the characters are remarkably well fleshed out and endearing, the antagonists are genuinely intriguing while remaining threatening, and the writing is routinely grounded and engaging. It isn't perfect. there are a few outlandish plot points late on and a couple of characters aren't utilised all that brilliantly but the pros outweigh the cons a hundred fold, this story can be enjoyed on so many different levels, Edward and Alphonse, our two protagonists really do FEEL like brothers, they bicker, they compete but they support one another with stunning commitment, even with that personal story this anime would be a masterpiece but it goes beyond it, as through Edward's efforts to accrue information he winds up as an integral part of his nation's military, a military with dark shadows and pasts lurking in every facet of their operations. the series plays itself very straight with themes of genocide, eugenics, historical censorship and militarism as the genuinely dark and fascinating world-building begins to form, to say much more would be too heavy in regards to spoilers but to say the least this story has real layers.

production wise it's exceptional too, with a clean, vibrant and consistent art-style full of character, excellent animation particularly in fight sequences and incredible music.

it hits every nail on the head. Go watch it.

Definitively, the worst season finale of the show to date. every single scene fell out of place barring the last, with the climactic battle of winterfell happening early on, followed predominantly by long winded discussions and shock value bullshit that completely contradicts the books, that unless I'm very much mistaken, the series is supposed to at least partially adhere to... more pointless deaths that don't happen in the books, more plot derailment, and a completely botched final scene, that- in the books was a far more subtle, vague and chilling chapter the changes made are nonsensical and moronic in terms of writing (in the books, Jon Snow's fate came at the hand of a few lower down the chain, not his effective replacement) and Myrcella's death is a bundle of utter pointlessness that just rendered an already middling plot line to be near enough POINTLESS. After four sterling seasons, it appears the show has completely lost its wits.

the number of things left totally up in the air, such as the fates of Stannis and Sansa are extremely cheap cliffhangers, and leave the episode feeling more like one that should have been at the middle of the season.

The worst season of game of thrones to date, signs out with its absolute worst episode.

Minor Spoilers below. Note: this review is only based on the original SAO, not the second season released in 2014.

The common line which carried SAO to it's popularity was that it was 'a sprawling epic with an inventive concept'

This is simply not the case... while the concept has some fun new twists it's hardly original, the 'if you die in the game you die in real life' is almost becoming a cliché, even more so since SAO increased it's popularity.

And while the animation and music are definitely up to snuff in regards to providing an epic and grandiose spectacle, the story and characters are certainly not.

the lead protagonist Kirito is perhaps the worst protagonist i've ever seen in any televised series, ludicrously overpowered to the point where he's seemingly able to break established world rules at his leisure with no prior explanation as to how. he also has quite bafflingly... no clear motivation for the entire first half of the series. there is simply nothing to him personality-wise either, he's cocky, but other than that there's not much there, he was made as plain and simple as possible to serve the purpose of wish-fulfilment. he's not a character, he's a skin for the viewer to wear.

as for the story, for the first half it's at the very least competent if uninspired it's heavily let-down by a few filler episodes and abuse of timeskips but it's at least bearable. but for the latter half? every mistake that could have been made WAS made, all tension was thrown out of the window as the consequences for in-game death were removed as was the sense of being trapped in the world. and the mysterious villain of the first half was thrown aside in favour of a new, completely flat, completely unintimidating moron.

In summary, the series is the closest approximation of a train-wreck that i can imagine, flat characters, schizophrenic pacing, a glut of rather creepy fanservice... the fantastic animation and music are nowhere NEAR enough to redeem it.

3/10 is being rather generous...