DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionHagane no Renkinjutsushi
OVA ComedyHagane no Renkinjutsushi: PREMIUM COLLECTION

REVIEWS

• 

  TK8878

  19/100
  Don't watch this after FMA '03. Or Brotherhood. Or at all.

  

  This review contains unmarked spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist 2003.

  It does not spoil Conqueror of Shamballa itself.

  Review in brief:

  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.

  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 crashing the Beer Hall Putsch 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.

  _By "crash the Beer Hall Putsch", I do mean Fritz crashed his 1920's automobile into the beer hall where the putsch was just kicking off._

  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.

  _Conqueror of Shamballa's graphics are quite standard for GameCube titles of its time._

  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.

  Related reviews:

  # <- [Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)](https://anilist.co/review/3772)
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• 

  xandorito

  72/100
  It falls flat in a lot of places, but the Elric brothers reaching a satisfying conclusion make it worth a watch

  I have mixed feelings with the Conqueror of Shamballa. While I feel like it adds a satisfying conclusion, it feels flatter in a lot of parts of the film that make it at most a good film, but nothing as good as the original series it's based from.

  

  Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa is a 2005 movie that serves as a sequel and the final conclusion to the alternate timeline that is Fullmetal Alchemist 2003. Without revealing too many spoiler points I’m gonna go through what it does great and what it does wrong.

  First I’d like to start with the world building for this film, as it is incredibly interesting. I like how they built the country the majority of the film takes place in, it’s got a dark feel to it, and the aesthetic and art style really convey that. It isn’t the same place in which FMA took place in and the saturated colours really bring this idea across. Unfortunately though the people from this country usually have very bleak personalities and their motivations seem very withered, they never feel real or come across as justifiable, it's usually explained in a sentence or two with nothing to follow it up at all. They also suffer from the movies length as because of the lack of screen time, being put next to these characters we've spent 51 episodes with, they feel even more poorly done than they actually are. Thankfully though they don’t make or break the film. I feel like that decision comes with the Elric brothers.

  

  The Elric brothers in this film are very enjoyable to watch, I don’t feel as they suffer at all because of the change in the media from anime to film. They still feel like their authentic characters and the decisions they make within this film make sense. A lot of the other characters appear in the film for a few minutes, they don’t get too much of a spotlight, but for a film that really is mainly focused on the brothers, that makes sense. The story this movie tells when focusing on the brothers feels satisfying and if you're a fan of the 03 series watching this for that alone is worth it. Watching it for the villain or the actual threat of the film… not so much.

  

  Since the villain originated from said country, we barely understand who they are or what their motivations are, heck I don’t even know if we were ever told their name at this point. They were really just a plot device and for a show that usually focuses on characters, it was honestly quite a let down. But then again it allowed for the ending of this film, which to me was at least quite good.

  I won’t spoil anything but the conclusion to this film at least to me, was satisfying, it wasn’t completely happy and it wasn’t absolutely depressing, it was bitter sweet, and I feel like that fits with the overall darker tone of FMA 03.

  Overall, this film falls flat in a lot of places. Personally I enjoyed it for the Elric brothers and how their relationship was continued in this film and I’d recommend it to anyone who has finished FMA 03, just don't expect the same quality as the series, think of it as a side story, a epilogue in a sense.

  
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• 

  infinitely

  63/100
  A strange ending to the classic series that almost puts to waste the progress made by our protagonists

  Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa

  Series experience: I watched Brotherhood a few years ago, read the manga earlier this year, and saw the 2003 series before this

  Short review: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa, which serves as a sequel to the 2003 series, Fullmetal Alchemist, attempts to provide us with a full-circle ending for the Elric brothers, but ultimately ends up as a less-than-satisfactory watch. It almost feels like an alternate universe fan fiction, forgetting the characters that shaped the journey.

  Full review:

  Warning: review contains spoilers

  The ending of the original Fullmetal Alchemist was not that rewarding - it almost felt like sequel bait. This movie was released as the last chapter to the tale of the Elric brothers, and it left people with more questions than answers. The beginning of the movie was not bad, actually, going the way an anime movie of a large franchise usually does, with a short adventure to introduce first-time watchers to what the series is about and lay down the rules of the universe. This part was fun, as we get to see Ed and Al in all their usual glory, beating out bad guys, joking about height, and just blowing stuff up as usual. However, when we move on from this intro, we see Ed depressed with his situation as he is stuck in [our world], which in the FMA universe, is "the other side of the gate".

  From here on out, the tone changes, and we are introduced to a world completely new to series watchers. We are aware that Ed is stuck here in the end of the series, but a few years have passed and the situation is just too dire. A few things are set up to draw watchers closer to the parallel characters of the world Ed is in, mirrors of the characters we came to love in the original series. An issue with this is as the movie attempts to do this, it is also introducing so many odd plot twists and characters that are from our reality, it takes from the experience of being something distinctly Fullmetal Alchemist. Placing the story smack dab in the Third Reich is awkward and it just feels strange to see historical figures of the time clash with Edward and the others.

  Once Ed manages to return to the FMA world we were initially introduced to, he gets really short interactions with the other characters, and after some intense battling and the main dilemma of the movie being introduced as a dictator who wants to take over the FMA universe, Ed decides to return to [our world] and close the gate - trapping him in it forever. This effectively ends everything with Ed firmly stuck in a universe not his own, and Al is revealed to have followed him there. I don’t know what other viewers feel about this ending, but I personally was very disappointed as this felt like it was going against a lot of what all the characters stood for. On a side note, the brothers’ bond still is a shining gem when it comes to this series and at the very least, the writers stuck to that.

  Ed and Al started their journey relentlessly pursuing the philosopher’s stone to get their bodies back. Finding out the ingredients, they never gave up and always decided there would be other ways. The ending given to them in this movie just shuts their spirits down as two kids who suddenly realize there’s no other way. They suddenly abandon their dreams, their world, and the people they love. The development given to some of the side characters was also quite strange - Hohenheim was reduced to the tragic father lost for drama, and Winry just a pining childhood friend accepting her love’s fate. We’re given a new love interest out of nowhere that really felt like she was being pushed in the audiences faces, and the “human” equivalent of Bradley was such an unnecessary addition. It was nice to see some other characters again, but even Mustang, Hawkeye, and Envy weren’t given the spotlight they deserved. The little cameos of the characters dead in the FMA world - shown in the real world - were however nice little treats for the fans of the original series.

  Regarding the art and animation, there’s nothing too new. The action scenes were pretty cool, given that it is a movie release, but nothing that stands out too much compared to the original anime.

  Overall, I believe the ending was an unnecessary addition to the series. Open as Fullmetal Alchemist’s ending was, it still concluded with the much more believable stories for the characters. This movie not only renders a lot of growth we’ve seen as useless, it also tells us to basically forget a lot of the side characters as there are new ones they tell us to pay attention to. A lot of attempts were made, but I think for what is supposed to be a grand farewell to a beloved series, The Conqueror of Shamballa falls short.

  Plot 5/10
  
Animation 8/10
  
Characters 6/10

  
Overall personal enjoyment 6/10

  

  Thank you for reading!

  Review for the prequel anime: Fullmetal Alchemist Review

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