The Essentials

Name: Fullmetal Alchemist – The Movie: Conquerer of Shamballa, Gekijouban Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Shanbara wo Yuku Mono
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Episodes: N/A
Released: July 23, 2005
Based On: sequal of Fullmetal Alchemist anime
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Produced By: Aniplex, Shochiku Film
US Distribution By: FUNimation

Major Japanese Cast

Edward Elric: Romi Paku
Alphonse Elric: Rie Kugimiya
Noah: Miyuu Sawai
Fritz Lang: Hidekatsu Shibata
Dietlinde Eckart: Kazuko Katou
Alphonse Heiderich: Shun Oguri
Roy Mustang: Toru Ohkawa
Alex Louis Armstrong: Kenji Utsumi
Winry Rockbell: Megumi Toyoguchi
Riza Hawkeye: Michiko Neya
Rudolf Hess: Rikiya Koyama
Envy/Dragon: Mayumi Yamaguchi
Wrath: Nana Mizuki
Officer Hughes: Keiji Fujiwara
Karl Haushoffer: Masane Tsukayama

Major English Cast

Edward Elric: Vic Mignogna
Alphonse Elric: Aaron Dismuke
Noah: Leah Clark
Fritz Lang: Ed Blaylock
Dietlinde Eckart: Kelly Manison
Alphonse Heiderich: Jason Liebrecht
Roy Mustang: Travis Willingham
Alex Louis Armstrong: Christopher R. Sabat
Winry Rockbell: Caitlin Glass
Riza Hawkeye, Rose Tomas: Colleen Clinkenbeard
Rudolf Hess: Jason Douglas
Envy/Dragon: Wendy Powell
Wrath: Luci Christian
Officer Hughes: Sonny Strait
Karl Haushoffer: John Swasey

Scores

Animation: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 165/190 (91.7%)

Review

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie picks up where the TV series left off. Ed is in our world living with it’s version of Alphonse researching rocket technology. Meanwhile, the Alphonse in Amestris continues on his quest to find a way to bring Ed back to their world. Along the way, Alphonse arrives in Lior where Alex Louis Armstrong is helping to rebuild the city. However, suddenly a whole bunch of suit of armor pop out of a suddenly-created hole in the ground and start attacking, but Armstrong and Alphonse are able to beat them back.

Back on Earth, we find that the Nazi’s, in preparation to take over Germany via the ultimately failed Beer Hall Putsch, along with the Thule society are attempting to reach Amestris, which they believe to be the ancient fabled land of Shamballa, in order to take it’s power for themselves. (And indeed, the Nazis were in fact interested in discovering Shamballa – having sent several teams to Tibet to find it in the 1930s).

Meanwhile Edwards gets tangled up both with a gypsy named Noah, as well as an aspiring director called Fritz Lang which ultimately gets him entangled with the Nazi’s plot. Edward then must find a way to save Amestris from the eminent Nazi invasion.

The movie is primarily about Edward trying to figure out what the Thule Society is up to while Alphonse attempts to find away to bring Ed back. Unfortunately, both Edward and Alphonse unwittingly enable the leader of the Thule Society – the movie’s title character, The wannabe-Conquerer of Shamballa Dietlinde Eckart – to open the gate. Once open, it is up to Edward, Alphonse, and all of the state alchemists to defeat the intruders.

I thought this movie was pretty good, though given that most of it is set on earth, it is a different type of story than what progressed through the TV series. Sometimes I hate it when people mix a fictional story in the middle of historical events, but I think it worked well in this case, both because it took place during a little known event in pre-Nazi Germany known as the Beer Hall Putsch, and the fact that, besides the events of the story, the history of that event was, as far as I can tell, accurate.

I liked how they had a flashback to a story about Ed and Alphonse at the start to get people reoriented to the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, though admittedly, if you hadn’t watched the series, you probably wouldn’t understand much of what was going on anyway. Like the TV series, the movie has excellent animation quality and good music.

There isn’t much I could find wrong with this movie, though I do think that some of the leftover questions from the TV series weren’t sufficiently answered, and it almost begs for a sequal, even though there probably won’t be one. If you liked the Fullmetal Alchemist series, you’ll probably enjoy the movie. If you haven’t seen the TV series, watch that first, then come back to this.

First Watched: December 2006
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes