Anime 430 Fullmetal Alchemist The Conqueror Of Shamballa Reviews Filter Check 3

After watching and enjoying Full Metal Alchemist the series, this movie was a major disappointment. It almost felt like watching a strange AU fanfiction made into animation. The film has many plotholes and never really feels complete, plus the characters you got to know from the anime didn't seem "in character", giving the whole feel to the series a touch of awkwardness. The animation is also a little "weird" compared to the series and the ending felt far from satisfying ((but then again, the whole movie was far from satisfying)). The action is purposeless and there's not many entertaining moments.

I wouldn't even recommend this movie ... to fans of FMA since it doesn't really make sense within the realm of the series and feels like pointless, useless filler, but I also wouldn't recommend the movie to newcomers to the FMA world since the story takes place after the anime is over. As a conclusion, there's nobody to really recommend this movie to.

I've talked about Fullmetal Alchemist before, both the first anime and Brotherhood. It was largely positive, with both series having a lot of good elements. Well, the original series had a film based on it and that's what we're looking at today, Conqueror of Shamballa. Does it live up to the rest of the franchise, is it an embarrassment? Let's find out.

Story:

The film opens with a scientist showing Alphonse his new bomb, mistaking him for the Fullmetal alchemist. What a novel idea, we've never seen that before. He wants a State Alchemist to help him present his bomb to their higher ups. Alphonse refuses and ... the scientist gets angry and attacks him. Which is just a bad move on his part. You'd think he'd be better off finding a State Alchemist who would listen, but that would show common sense and not result in an action sequence. Ed bursts in and the brothers manage to fight off the scientist. Who uses human transmutation in a last ditch effort to stop them. This results in him going through the gate and never being seen again. We cut ahead to Edward in a world very much like ours relating the story to someone who looks very much like his brother, who laughs it off since the idea of alchemy as a legitimate scientific practice is absurd. Which is a bit head scratching since his world has people with unexplained psychic and magic powers.

The two join a group of Roma going to the carnival in order to show off their rocket. Ed excuses himself from the demonstration just in time to see a young Roma woman named Noah being chased by a trio of thugs. He steps in and manages to rescue her. Which results in him coming to the attention of the Thule society, you may remember them from your history as a group of occultists who sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was reorganised into the Nazi party. The Thule society is trying to open a gate into Edward's original world, which they call Shamballa under the pretense of gaining an invincible army so that the Nazis can take over Deutschland and then the world.

Let's start with the things that are wrong with the film, shall we? The big one is that a lot of the plot points don't make much sense. The Thule Society's plan is patently stupid. They've had three people cross over from the other world, Edward, Hohenheim & Envy. Two of them are ordinary people who don't even have alchemy in their world and the third they manage to capture with no trouble whatsoever. So, how exactly is this world supposed to give them an invincible army? Of course, the woman in charge has a different plan and it is even dumber so there's that. We also get some real plot contrivances. For instance, Winry shows up to bring Ed a new automail arm and leg, knowing exactly how much he's grown so that she could compensate because she read ahead in the script. There's also the issue of the gate itself. In the series proper we saw that opening the gate has terrible consequences for just about everyone who does it. In this they open it several times without a bloody thing happening, save for that initial incident with the scientist. Some characters die, but they all die of reasons un-related to opening the gate. The closest connection we get is that some of them die as a result of someone else opening the gate.

Now on the positive side I do like the idea of these two parallel worlds and how people on both sides can share an appearance. I also do think there was potential in Edward's story arc about learning to live in the world he's in instead of dwelling on the world where he was even if this film doesn't handle it well.

Characters:

You get to see pretty much the entire cast of major characters from Fullmetal Alchemist. Of course, the film screws some of them up. Roy Mustang in particular. Apparently between the ending of the series and this he decided to take a demotion and go off to a remote area to be emo. Yeah, that makes sense for a character who took his angst from a war and channeled it into strength to try to grab political power. Then we have the original characters. They're a pretty one-dimensional group with flat motivations. Maybe that's why our villains are Nazis. Since you don't really have to try to give them motivations or fleshed out personalities. You can just make them evil and everyone will nod and say “yes, that's how Nazis are.” You win this round, Conqueror of Shamballa, but I'm still calling it lazy. And it could have fleshed out Noah and some of the other non-Nazi original characters.

Art:

I will give the film credit, the visuals are really good, mostly. The character designs are just like the ones in the series and the backgrounds are detailed. What's more mixed are the action sequences. They use some effects that don't really work, sometimes giving them a jarringly different animation style. Some of the fight scenes are kind of badly done too. The fight between Wrath and Gluttony is just weak and there's also the pathetically easy way that Envy is captured early on.

Sound:

The original cast reprise their roles and they all do well. No worries there. There's nothing wrong with the acting whatsoever. The music is good too, at least the instrumental stuff. Some of the lyrical stuff is outright badly done.

Ho-yay:

There really isn't any in this film.

Final Thoughts:

Conqueror of Shamballa is the worst thing I've seen from Bones. It's not a bad film, but it is definitely weak with a lot of story problems and some characterisation & art issues. In the end, it's a weak and disappointing way to end the original anime series. My final rating is a 4/10. Next week I'll look at the second 3x3 eyes OVA. For those of you who are curious about when the Gintama review will be up, expect that on the 20th.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a PROFESIONAL reviewer I’m only a anime fan trying to give feed back to other anime fans with that said one to the review.

This is probably on of the worst endings ever nothing is resolved WTF it left so many plot holes opened, first of all the whole parallel universe theme was actually really good and I kinda liked it, in some way they could of used it to better the story instead of trashing it.

Now this did have some sad moments in it and I liked seeing how Al had grown and what he became in the alternate universe but ... it still went Al, I didn't like seeing Ed get put through all of this of having your brother with u=you but he's not you actual brother or not knowing if he's alive, I mean come on the point of an ending is to pull at your heart but in a good way not I'm going to put your favorite characters through hell.

theres not much I can say about this except that it was bad it didn't add anything to the story it made me hate envy even more then I already did like if that was even possible and overall it just sucked DON'T WATCH THIS IT WILL RUIN FMA FOR YOU.

The Conqueror of Shamballa plays out like a poorly written fan fiction whose only purpose is to turn the gun sideways to kill shot the series. It's not the ending that FMA fans deserved. It's not an entertaining movie. It's only purpose was to finish off the series once and for all.

Note. Before we get into it I have not seen Brotherhood to date. Also, I give the FMA 03 series a 9 out of 10. It's almost a masterpiece outside of the unfinished ending.

The problem with this movie is it's plot. The ending of FMA left a lot to be determined. Certain main antagonists ... still deserved development. Instead because of this movie you are forced to accept the lazy explanation for the way certain characters bowed out. Instead this series introduces new villains. The main villain of them is just terrible. With a little more work she might of turned out okay, but as it stands things come off too rushed. They don't make you believe in the character enough. She is just evil because she is dumb.

The setting obviously takes place in the world that the original series left off. Which is cool, but also lame at the same time. If this was a one time movie that led into more anime than it would be nice. However, this makes the series more or less finish off entirely in a foreign setting with foreign(ish) characters. It doesn't even fit thematically with the rest of the series.

Then the ending of the movie makes it's purpose clear. The ending they shaped was designed so no more of the anime could take place in its familiar setting. It was the kill shot to the series. They wanted it to end with no way that it could ever come back.

The music is good. Art is good. Fight scenes are good. All other aspects are just a let down. I know some people like this movie, but I simply cannot see it. I would rather the anime end on episode 51. The only thing that needed to be wrapped up wasn't wrapped up anyway.

This movie is horrible the only thing that saves it from being a 1 is the art. This movie tramples on every message established by the end of FMA. I guess the point was to give the story a more satisfying conclusion, but they couldnt even manage to do that. The ending of this movie is 10x more unsettling than the series'. Its so stupid that I have a hard time convincing myself I didnt make it up and that people actually approved of this garbage. This movie has an obsession with killing off important characters from the series and replacing them with the most ... forgettable pillocks known to fiction. The main female support is very insufferable, this is because she herself is a raging troglodyte and also because she's a ripoff of Rose, who nobody has ever liked. The main "villain" is also stupid, she's introduced last minute with no real motivations and poses no threat compared to the old antagonists in the series. I can think of at least 5 characters that would be more suited for her role had the movie not randomly killed them off. Tldr this movie is bad. The only interesting part was when they made Hughes a nazi but that is never touched up on afterwards.

First off, may I say the art is very good. It is beautiful and is an upgrade from the series. Also the voice acting is very good. The original Japanese voices are good (although they might throw you off if your used to the Brotherhood voices). The dub is good although the german characters do not have german accents which is odd. Also the soundtrack by Michiru Oshima is beautiful as well. Now I will get to the unpleasant part.

I do not understand why anyone would like this movie for any other reason besides the beautiful art, the good voice acting or to hear the ... beautiful soundtrack. The movie is awful! The original anime series was amazing. The character development for the brothers was great. The other characters (Winry, Mustang, Hawkeye, Izumi, etc.) were enjoyable and good characters. To be honest I liked the ending to series. I LOVE german history, especially in the 1920's to WWII.

Now in Conqueror of Shamballa we are introduced to the most bland characters Bones could think of. Say what you want about Rose but she was a decent character in the original anime. So instead of giving her a role in the movie (she had a big role in the anime) we get her cardboard cut out alter-self. Also instead seeing more of Alphonse (the second most important character) we get his cardboard cutout too! I mean this is pathetic, Edward just replaces his brother! Also the villain! She was so bland in comparison to Dante.

Now on to the returning characters, Mustang is turned into a woobie for no reason. The anime set up that his character was going to move on and help the new government. He looked happy. He was going to progress past what happened in Ishval. Instead he just regresses. Also we wanted more on Ed and his father, right? No, Daddy just abandons Ed again! Their relationship gets no closure. Then with Winry, she is carrying around automail for Ed on the off chance that she will see him. How did she know the automail would fit? This is pathetic. We know Winry is good but not that good. Also by the end of the movie, Winry is tossed to the side like trash.

Look I am going to be honest, if Bones wanted to do this alternate world twist than they should have done another 50+ episodes. A movie is not going to do this story justice (especially considering the large cast). My favorite fanfiction of all time (He Who Searches For Himself by Yuuki Hikari) is a beautiful example of what bones could have done. Edward could have gotten a better relationship with his father. He could have befriended people who weren't cut outs of his friends from home (Rose, Al, Hughes, etc.). There could have been a compelling story about his journey home. We could have seen Al become a fine alchemist in his own right.

Bones messed up. This movie is not good. I feel like it's sole purpose was to make the future remake (Brotherhood) look better. If Conqueror of Shamballa had been a good sequel than I would rank the original higher than Brotherhood. I can't though because of how this movie takes a beautiful series like FMA and just destroys it.

The ending of FMA (2003) was very compelling and this movie was pretty much just missed potential. It doesn't do anything but present a bland plot and ruins all our favorite characters (in favor of introducing cardboard cutouts!). I am sorry but in comparison to the two series, the manga, the light novel's and Milos, this movie cannot compare. Bones has made some great animes but they have also made some duds.

After watching the dissapointing ending of FMA, I was in high hopes that they would make the movie into a masterpiece. I was wrong in my hopes. To put the main part of the problem with the movie simply, putting NAZIs into the movie won't make it good, espically when you make certain characters apart of it (we all know who).

Since they were not underbudget, the quality of the movie was not bad, the direction was). Setting up the plot into two different universes can be interesting, but only if they are introduced at different times. Would you agree that the show might be interesting ... (if only a litte) if it started off with Alphonse trying to find his brother, unlocking the gates to head to the other side, upon entertering, he realises that Edward will die soon if he doesn't stop the NAZIs trying to kill him etc.

The use of Nazis comes to me as a failed attempt to pad out the movie. If you want an enemy to fight and you don't want to put much effort into it, choose something that everyone universally despises like the use of NAZIs. My point is that you cannot give a good depth to a story when you are cutting corners on the plot.

Unless money was the motive, there was no real need for this movie to be made, the filler ending of FMA wrapped it up so we could move on with our lives. Sadly, a hook got us by the neck and dragged us to watch this.

Review in brief: The Conqueror of Shamballa attempts to be its own thing while being a sequel to a show with loose ends and completely fails to succeed as either. It's almost as though this movie was initially a failed standalone pitch before being shoehorned into FMA as the 2003 anime was reaching its end. As disappointing as FMA '03's ending was it's far better than anything The Conqueror of Shamballa has to offer.

**This review assumes you've watched FMA '03.**

Review in full: Anyone who finished FMA '03 knows that its ending was just a setup for a sequel. Aside from ... the implicative final scene there were still a number of lingering questions regarding specific details from the show that were left unanswered. This movie serves to end the anime-original storyline, but nothing more. It has no desire to answer the questions the series left open and instead seeks to stand on its own as the final arc of the story. This in itself raises serious questions about the validity of its setup (FMA '03's finale) but considering how much of the series' rules this movie forgets they may as well have just forgotten about what they had done before. This is especially true when it comes to "the gate", the means by which alchemy acquired its energy to function in FMA '03. The TV show went to great lengths to show that transmutations had a cost (except the last one that got Edward & Envy to Earth, apparently "the gate" stopped caring). Now "the gate" arbitrarily lets people switch worlds (either freely or at a cost) so long as they can open it. The old rules simply don't apply anymore, nor are they cared about as the ending similarly tosses chunks of the remaining system out the window.

Even within its own story, this movie features an unending torrent of plot holes & conveniences. Many of these revolve around characters (and most of the characters at that) doing things not because it fits their presented character or because it's a sensible thing to do but simply because otherwise the plot would not have moved forward. This wouldn't bother me as much if it wasn't the excuse for such events as Edward cheerfully deciding to miss the public unveiling of his past 2 years of work for a quick snooze because it was apparently the only simple way to set up the next scene, or Fritz Lang using his indestructible 1920's automobile to crash the Beer Hall Putsch (and I do mean crashing into the beer hall where the putsch is just kicking off) because he magically knew Edward would be there, or just about everything Hohenheim does. The whole movie is like this too, in fact it's difficult to give examples without giving spoilers. There's more hole than plot and it's not even funny.

Nearly all of the characters (including the new main characters) are cardboard cutouts who are either only present to push the plot another step or enforce a stereotype to hammer down its broken attempt at a moral lesson. This movie could have had a solid central message if it understood or remembered what it was doing with its characters (much less had any actual characterization) but instead its failed effort only drags the sorry display down further. The few characters with any meaning to them derive all of it from the TV show, so while Edward has clearly matured since his state alchemist days and Alphonse (Elric, that is) has become bolder (and can fragment his soul to control objects now, no reason given as usual), none of the development is actually shown and rather is just what we're given from the get-go, which means that most of what they do is just set up to push the plot forward as well. Meanwhile you have characters like the main villain who attacks people she's supposed to ally with (because how else is someone who leads the antagonists going to look evil?) and Maes Hughes who has been reduced to a laughably shallow "evil nazi" stereotype.

It's frustrating considering how little the setting has been tapped into by general media. Weimar Republic Germany was a time of wild uncertainty with revolts and movements of just about every kind that would have been possible during the Interwar period. Many of the important events and people associated with World War II were already set in place during this time, and Germany was at the center of it all. The Conqueror of Shamballa does tap into its setting (though events revolving around "the gate" and the antagonist Thule Society are the main focus) and provides an interesting (though hard to believe, mostly due to poor execution) theory regarding the Beer Hall Putsch. However, even if it succeeded at building a story around this, it has nothing to do with Fullmetal Alchemist and would have likely worked much better as a fully separate entity. What few elements that were brought over from FMA almost all appear shoehorned in to remind the viewer that this is in fact a FMA sequel and certainly not something completely different. FMA's world could have been swapped out with any other fantasy world without any other change.

Finally, this also isn't a movie that features worthwhile production values. The sound is merely alright with passable music, forgettable effects, and (in Japanese anyhow) voice-work that only could have gone as far as the flat characters who were speaking to begin with. While the animation quality is generally slightly better than the TV show it also features highly dated CGI and plenty of stilted moments. There's definitely worse but there's something to be said when a 2005 movie can't truly improve over a 2003-04 multi-cour TV series.

Verdict: It's the FMA '03 finale and it has so little to do with FMA that it's painful. If you want a sequel that cleanly ends FMA '03 rest unassured that there are no answers, just holes. If you want a good standalone movie set in the Weimar Republic then I regret to inform you that you won't find it here. Those are the only two things this movie attempted to be. You can skip this movie without missing anything worthwhile, in fact I wholeheartedly recommend avoiding it.