It has been a long time coming back to this manga since my childhood, but I still find Fullmetal Alchemist to be a very interesting read. The story starts off with two young boys by the name of Edward and Alphonse Elric who wanted to find a way to bring their mother back to life. However, their method would fail and would cost Edward his left leg while his brother lost his entire body. To try and save his brother from losing his life, he would in turn exchange his right arm and reclaim his brother’s soul. He then would take Al’s soul and bound it with an empty suit of armor while Al took his brother to obtain a prosthetic arm and leg which was a really grueling and painful experience for him. After their tragedy and growing up into their teenage years, Edward, later on, became a State Alchemist with the help of another alchemist by the name of Roy Mustang. Together, they both have to set out in the world in order to find the philosopher’s stone which is said to help them restore themselves back to normal.

I really love and appreciate Arakawa Hiromu’s art style so much. It is very simple in design when it comes down to their characters. However, they would design them with different body proportions that make each of them really unique. This coupled along with the very dynamic yet exaggerated facial expressions makes this a very funny and enjoyable read. Even the comedic moments work in many instances but manages to have a good grasp and understanding of storytelling and pacing where everything is slowly starting to piece together just right. The characters in this also all have unique personalities to them that don’t make them seem one-dimensional and boring. Even the way they’re introduced in each chapter of this manga is nicely paced as well since introducing too many characters at once is too much for a reader to grasp.

The manga is easy to read overall and it’s clear and to the point where it keeps the readers, such as myself, wanting more. Other than the dynamic expressions, they would use different panels that don’t have any kind of repetition in them, but rather a lot of variation than having just the same regular square panel. Square panels could work for certain other graphic novels and comics, but in this instance, it really helps along with the array of camera angles that they would use in order to make a scene and character seem very powerful and dramatic in a sense. I would like to say, if you really appreciate a good manga that is adventurous, impactful, and hilarious, I can’t recommend this series/manga enough.