While the Fullmetal Alchemist series is doing wonderfully on the Cartoon Network, the DVDs are slowly trickling into stores across the nation. Volume four is being released just around the corner, before that happens though I suppose it would be a good idea to take a look at volume three, call me crazy.

Fullmetal Alchemist tells the tale of two brothers in search of an artifact called the Philosopher's Stone to undo something they did in the past. This world is ripe with alchemy magic and Edward and Alphonse Elric happen to be pretty damn powerful with it. As strong as they are though, they disobeyed some basic, fundamental rules regarding the skill's use and attempted to bring their mother back from the dead.

In the process Ed lost an arm and a leg and his brother lost his body all together. Quick thinking and action allowed Ed to save Al's soul and meld it with a suit of armor, plus make some new limbs for himself out of metal. Unfortunately their mother is still pushing up daisies and to make all of these wrong doings right, the two search for the stone. Their quest takes them from town to town and while last volume saw Ed become a State Alchemist, this volume we join the brothers on Ed's first mission.

There are four episodes on this release: Be Thou for the People, The Phantom Thief and The Other Brothers Elric Parts 1 & 2.

The first episode has the brothers being sent to the small mining town of Youswell to inspect the local mine. Things don't go as planned and the two find themselves in the middle of a power struggle between the town folk and a corrupt "dog of the military". After their task is completed there, Ed and Al make a pit stop in the watery town of Aquroya and soon become entangled in the exploits of a mysterious (and attractive) thief. These two episodes are sequential in continuity, but are really stand alone compared to the rest of the episodes up until now.

The last two episodes on the disc are part of a small story arc in which Ed and Al go to a small town whose gold supply has diminished and its people have become impoverished. Many of the residents have a strange cough and it's not long before the Elric brothers find out the source of it is from a red water that when crystallized can create an artificial Philosopher's Stone. The attempt at making a stone is being taken by a greedy man named Mugear and he has recruited a pair of young brothers that claim to be the Elrics. This two parter was my favorite part in this release and features the most character development and intriguing plotline.

Fullmetal Alchemist is proving to be one of those rare shows that takes a step ahead of the pack and instantly separates itself from any other anime out there. Everything about the series is different and you won't find any mecha, busty girls with guns or fan service anywhere in the show. Up until now, the progression of the story has featured some great character development and balance between action and humor, not to mention a great amount of sentiment.

With a style all its own, Fullmetal Alchemist is becoming one of my favorite release and a big part of that is because it breaks the mold of what an anime should be. If you haven't checked out this series, you are definitely missing out on a unique experience. If you're not sure if the show is quite your thing, just give it a moment of your time to catch it on Cartoon Network and it'll suck you in.

Fullmetal Alchemist is presented with a 1.33:1 full frame ratio and features an absolutely gorgeous transfer. The image is very clean with no noticeable grain, compression artifacts or flaw of any kind. Since the show was produced recently, I'm a little disappointed that there was no widescreen treatment, but I suppose you can't win them all. This is an extremely vibrant looking show as well with some great character designs, fluid animation and strong use of color.

There are three separate tracks to choose from, each with optional English subtitles. There are Japanese and English 2.0 stereo tracks as well as an English 5.1 for all your surround sound needs. The 2.0 tracks are competent enough if you don't have a home theater set up and the 5.1 option features some nice directional sound and distribution. Overall the audio treatment for Fullmetal Alchemist is top notch compared to other anime.

This third release of Fullmetal Alchemist features the usual textless opening and closing songs that is found on many of today's anime discs. It also features production art with streaming illustrations, line art and character model galleries for locations and people found in the episodes houses here. There are also nine character profiles which have little snippets of information about the person, but there's really nothing more than you'd be able to find out in the episode they appear in anyway.

There are also a handful of trailers and a forced preview when you load the disc for Dragon Ball Z Dead Zone.

Fullmetal Alchemist seems to be the show that has it all, even though it's only up to volume three so far, with four just around the corner. It's unlike any other anime I have seen before and feature a perfect balance between action, comedy and sentiment. While it doesn't feature a widescreen presentation, the visual quality is fantastic and the disc has some great audio to boot. There are a decent amount of extras and even though there's nothing landmark here, it's more than you see on other releases.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you are definitely missing out and my only problem is that the DVDs can't be released fast enough to quench my thirst. Highly Recommended

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