Based on the fantastic (and wildly popular) manga by Hiromu Arakawa, Fullmetal Alchemist the anime is hands down one of the best that you'll find on the market today. The show tells the tale of two brothers in search of the Philosopher's Stone to undo a big no-no from their past. When Edward and Alphonse Elric were younger the disobeyed basic fundamental rules of alchemy and attempted to bring their mother back from the dead. The process literally claimed the brother's lives but thanks to the magic of alchemy and some nifty machine work by their friend Winry the two pulled through.

Still though, the brothers found themselves incomplete. Edward lost his right arm and left leg forcing him to have them replaced with mechanical limbs called automail. Alphonse lost his body all together but his soul was saved (thanks to Ed) and fused to a nearby suit of armor. Up to this point in the series we have seen the Elrics come closer to their goal of redemption though the road hasn't been an easy one.

A lot has happened to the Elrics up to this point, but in particular the events of the last couple of volumes changed the pace of the show somewhat. The boys had a painful reunion with their teacher Izumi who has become a major player in their adventure. A couple of new homunculi were introduced and we learned more about their ilk than we did before. They feed off of philosopher stones, well, fake ones for the time being anyway. They are also really hard to kill, which brings us to the ninth (!) volume of Fullmetal Alchemist.

At the very end of the eighth disc Ed was beat down by Greed (the homunculi) and Al was kidnapped by his chimera cronies. Needless to say Ed goes off on a quest to find his dear brother. In the meantime Izumi and her big lummox that follows her everywhere discover what happened and track Al down. What takes place is a showdown between Izumi, Ed and Greed. It's not an easy fight to say the least because Greed's very being is a walking shield. As powerful as they are with alchemy, Izumi and Ed can't even dent the guy. Not yet anyway.

This volume also delves much deeper into the mystery surrounding the homunculi and it even goes into a little bit about how they are created. Lust's character gets fleshed out some (pardon the pun) thanks to a storyline that focuses on the character and some of her history. In the end you get to see just how evil she truly is. I can honestly say that this show features some of the most sinister villains I've seen in an anime. It could have something to do with the amount of development that they receive, but they definitely are worthy of loathing.

For my money, anime just doesn't get a lot better than Fullmetal Alchemist. This is a show that has everything you could ever want from an exciting story to well developed characters. The balance between action, drama and humor is phenomenal. Throughout my time with the series I have been left on the edge of my seat, almost brought to tears, and split my side with laughter. The latest volume holds the same quality as the previous ones and with the way things are left off at the end I can't wait to get my hands on the tenth installment.

Fullmetal Alchemist is presented with a 1.33:1 full frame ratio and features an absolutely amazing transfer. The image is very clean but there is a little bit of grain in some parts that appear in darker more shadowed areas as well as a tad bit of aliasing at others points. A couple noticeable spots of compression artifacts were visible this time around as well.

This is an extremely colorful show with some great character designs and insanely fluid animation. It is easily one of the more attractive anime to come along in a while and I can't get enough of the artwork. You can tell just by looking at a single episode that Fullmetal Alchemist had a large budget to begin with. My only wish is that the series was presented with an anamorphic widescreen transfer but you have to take what you can get sometimes.

There are three separate tracks to choose from, including Japanese and English 2.0 stereo and English 5.1. 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. Unlike other anime, I can honestly say that when it comes to this show I prefer the English dubbing over the original Japanese. That's usually not the case for me but the caliber of actors here is unbelievable. Overall the audio treatment for Fullmetal Alchemist is top notch compared to other anime. I particularly enjoy the musical direction for this show to the point that I actually wouldn't mind picking up the soundtrack.

This volume features the same style of alchemy book that the previous ones had and from the DVD menu you can access trailers, production art, character profiles, and textless animations. It's so nice to see a show that offers supplemental material, though it's funny that the book is probably the best part. I'd love to get another commentary out of the English cast like we saw in the earlier volumes.

I simply can't get enough of Fullmetal Alchemist. The anime has just about everything that I look for in a show and with each volume I find myself caring more and more about every character. I can't wait to see what becomes of Scar in the next volume and for that matter what the homunculi are cooking up. If you haven't checked this one out yet you're missing out on an amazing experience. Highly Recommended

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