Fullmetal Alchemist (TV series - 2003 to 2007)

Silly title aside, as a whole this series turned out much better than I expected it would. In its world the science of alchemy is mankind's greatest tool and weapon, and the law of equivalent exchange, where creation through alchemy must also yield equal loss, is the guiding principle. The show follows two brothers as they search for the mythical philosopher's stone, a tool said to allow an alchemist to bypass equivalent exchange entirely. Along the way they become embroiled in wars, politics, religious struggles, and a few old fashioned grand conspiracies. For its part, this show depicts both the best and worst of what anime has to offer. On the bad side it has a brutally slow start, obscure cultural cues, a few filler episodes, moments of nauseatingly introspective melodrama, and a neat pile of too-convenient coincidental plot devices. But the good far outweighs the bad, featuring absolutely outstanding character writing, a plot that manages to make good sense despite its near-Shakespearian complexity, and relevant and powerful metaphors about sin in science, the ongoing struggle between religion and science, and the army's conduct in dealing with opposing cultures. It's all very heady stuff, and most of it is extremely well handled. It also has the good sense to come to a close instead of being like so many endless anime soap operas out there (have some evil eye, Dragonball, Inuyasha. and Gundam!), meaning the story has a definable and easy-to-follow arc that lets the massive plot move forward to its close at a tolerable pace. There is a good bit of action in the series but it's far from the program's focus, preferring instead to hone in and develop on the 20 or so major characters. All of this is aided by remarkably competent voice acting in most of the English dub. As a whole, the series may not be perfect but its hard to argue when by the end of its 51 episode run I was genuinely and meaningfully touched by its melancholy conclusion.

8 out of 10.