Based on the popular manga, the anime is doing wonderfully on Cartoon Network and has found its way onto DVD. Fullmetal Alchemist tells the tale of two brothers in search of something 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 saved their lives, but that prize came with a cost. Ed now sports a couple of metallic limbs and his younger sibling Al's soul got melded to a suit of armor. Unfortunately their mother is still pushing up daisies and to make all of these wrong doings right, the two search for the stone. The last volume saw Ed on his first quest as a State Alchemist and wrapped up with a fateful meeting with another pair of alchemist brothers.

There are four episodes on this release: Fullmetal VS Flame, The Destruction's Right Hand, The Ishbal Massacre and That Which is Lost.

This volume has the brothers reporting back to the eastern headquarters about the transpirings of the previous volumes. It seems that most of the officials are leaving Central because a man named Scar is killing State Alchemists and in the meantime though Al hides a kitten in his empty cavity. Ed's assessment is up and in order to be able to stay a State Alchemist he has to square off against Mustang the Flame Alchemist.

After learning about a man named Marcoh in the last volume (the guy that had the ability to cure the sickness from manufacturing a false Philosopher's Stone) Ed and Al find out some more information about the guy. That prompts a small quest to track him down and once they find him they learn about the horrors of Ishbal. What they find though is a confrontation with a dangerous man and another possible lead to the Philosopher's Stone.

This fourth volume features a great amount of background information for many of the show's characters. It really fleshes out the world that the Elric brothers live in and their bond seems to be strengthened with this installment. 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 overbearing fan service anywhere in the show. One thing that gives the show as much charm as it has comes from the balance between humor and serious story telling.

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 but there is a little bit of grain in some parts of this volume. 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 fourth release of Fullmetal Alchemist features a forced preview when you load the disc for Samurai 7, 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 a few character profiles which have little snippets of information about the person. The disc also includes the first episode of the Spiral series to take a look at (which is a pretty smart marketing tool, but not really a special feature) and a preview for the Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir for the PS2. Last but not least is a L'arc~en~Ciel music video of Ready Steady Go and a commercial from TOFU Records.

Fullmetal Alchemist seems to be the show that has it all, even though it's only up to volume four so far. It's unlike any other anime I have seen before and features a perfect balance between action, comedy and sentiment. While it doesn't offer a widescreen presentation, the visual quality is very good 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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