Plot Synopsis: “Redline: the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. Only held once every five years, everyone wants to stake their claim to fame – including JP, a reckless dare-devil driver oblivious to speed limits with his ultra-customized car. Meanwhile, organized crime and militaristic governments want to leverage the race to their own ends. Amongst the other elite rival drivers in the tournament, JP falls for the alluring Sonoshee – but will she prove his undoing, or can a high speed romance survive a mass destruction race?”

It’s Redline. Everyone’s buying it, as they should be. You go buy it too.

Purchase Redline Blu-ray at RightStuf

Also available on DVD though really you should be watching it on Blu-ray

Well, today, I have a new one. This time, I will be comparing a Chinese game I did not play with two western games. Why did I not play a game I am going to be talking about? Well, I played both games it shamelessly ripped off, and American IP addresses are blocked from playing the game. Frankly, if I need to learn IP address routing so it seems like I am in another country to play a game, it isn’t worth it. It’s okay to have you work towards a goal in a game, as succeeding at it brings a feeling of accomplishment. But having to do work in real life to get to play it, not get some reward? Not worth it.

For those that cannot read Chinese, the game they made is called Final Combat. The games I will be comparing are Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield Heroes.

First, a little bit about each game.

Final Combat is a class based multiplayer online first person shooter. Classes include the Fatman, a fishmarket guy with a minigun and a kukri. There is also a sniper, who has a gun labelled ‘Sniper Rifle’ and carries a stun gun (not a Taser,  they are a brand.)It is quite fitting, seeing as she is going for the sexy librarian/sexy secretary look. There is also ‘The Rocket’ who, quite fittingly, uses a rocket launcher. Finally, there is a clown who wields a flamethrower.

Battlefield Heroes is a class based online multiplayer third person shooter. It has a simple cartoony environment and three main classes. A gunner, who uses a large machine gun or rocket launcher. There is also a soldier, who uses lighter automatic weapons and moves faster than the gunner. Finally, there is the commando, who uses knives and sniper rifles, and is the fastest class.

Team Fortress 2 is a class based online multiplayer first person shooter. There are nine classes: The Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Enginner, Medic, Sniper, and Spy. It has a cartoony aesthetic to the characters and environments. It has several main gameplay types: territory control or capture the flag. You also have a choice of playing those in either a desert environment, an industrial environment, or for a change of pace, a desert industrial environment. Classes here are pretty easy to guess what each does. The demoman blows stuff up, the pyro lights stuff on fire, the heavy is a big guy with a big gun, the scout is light and fast, the medic heals people, the sniper snipes people, and the medic heals people. Each class has a basic weapon loadout that every first time player gets, but playtime, monetization, and achievements will give you all sorts of new gear. Needless to say, the continued release of new gear and the chance to get it keeps people in the game.

Final Combat basically takes all the environments from Battlefield heroes, but without the vehicles. Fine. I do not think I really need to cover it much more, as the core gameplay was taken from Team Fortress 2. To start with, I am not going to ridicule Final Combat for ripping off team Fortress 2. I am here to give it an unbiased and fair look. To strt with, Valve is considered by many to be one of the best western game developers. Which means that you can expect knock-offs, and really, knocking off one of the best western developers is a wise choice. What better way to examine how a good game is made (if you want to make a game) than to examine a game from a good developer?

My only criticism is that too much was taken straight from Team Fortress 2 (and Battlefield Heroes) that Final Combat lacks potential. Oh, it would still be fun, but by not really trying to break out and be different while still the same means it is a clone. That is what really bugs me about it: if Final Combat had been different enough to the point where it was Team Fortress 2 gameplay (not just Team Fortress 2 with a different look) but its own unique ideas added as well, it could have been something I would have loved to go play, at least to try.

Here, have some videos. Final Combat even copies the ‘Meet The Team’ videos, but without he dialogue that really adds to the characters in Team Fortress 2. While Final Combat gets that the videos should be funny, like Meet The Team is, it lacks the characterization of the Meet The Team videos. Take a look below.

Meet The Rocket:

Meet The Soldier:

One of the earliest Team Fortress 2 videos. Oh, and before I forget, Team Fortress 2 was released in about 2007, I think.

Notice in those two videos, however, that both go for the comedy sort of thing. the Soldier is an over the top stereotypically patriotic American soldier. He’s a parody. The rocket, however, seems to die from a hornet sting. While that is funny, the Rocket lacks the characterization that makes him as a whole, funny

Meet the Fatman:

Meet the Heavy:

Much better job this time. The Fatman, while he doesn’t ever speak, still conveys a sense of his character. He sits back and dreams of past battles (I presume past battles, and not just imagined battles) while listening to music. He also seems to lack the upper body strength that one would need to lift a minigun. Heavy Weapons Guy, however, likes shooting things, likes his gun, and isn’t very bright. He also is a perfect example of Mother Russia Makes You Strong.

Meet the Sniper:

Meet the Sniper:

Again, Final Combat doesn’t reveal to us anything about the sniper, other than she is female, and she shoots people. Meanwhile, the Team Fortress 2 sniper is Australian and has a personality. He has a job. We see him drive a vehicle (he even uses his turn signal.) In short, the Sniper has been written about to the point that he is a believable character. He could exist. While the Final Combat sniper could exist, we know absolutely nothing about her, while we know the Sniper doesn’t get along with his parents.

Meet The Striker:

Striker seems to be Final Combat version of the Scout.

Meet the Scout:

A perfect tie! Perhaps the scout makes up stuff due to an inflated ego, but all we know about these two is that they both hurt people. What I can also tell you is that an assault rifle in a game with lots of other weapons is a game breaker, or utterly useless. Assault rifles are accurate over all distances. While they have none of the precision or long range aiming of a sniper rifle, they can still kill someone with just a lot of bullets fired at them. They are a game-breaking weapon, and horrible to balance. Just keep that gun loaded with enough ammo, and most everything will die very easily. On the other hand, the Scout is well balanced. His scattergun can kill someone quickly at very close range. But his very low health means getting that close generally means you die. Back to the assault rifle. Balancing one out to be fair to gameplay, due to the sheer power of one, means you end up with a gun that isn’t very good in any situation. And the thing about class based multiplayer is not choosing your favorite class, but choosing the class that will best benefit your team and will be best for the situation. In a map with no water to extinguish people, a class that lights people on fire is a good choice. In a map with lots of chokepoints, a class that builds defense turrets or sentries is a good choice. If your enemy has defense turrets or sentries, a good choice may be a class that can sneak behind enemy lines to sow chaos and destroy the buildings is a covert way.

I would grade Final Combat vs Team Fortress 2 in the other remaining class (Final Combat hasn’t even released all of it’s classes yet) but Team Fortress 2 has not made a meet the pyro video (they seem to prefer the mystery around the character, partly due to the in-game actions of the character.)

So, for the laughs, I present to you the Meet The Sandvich, an item the Heavy Weapons Guy can eat in combat to restore his health:

In the end, I would suggest Team Fortress 2. It has a full release, and is balanced. It supports its community by allowing you to make and submit hats, items, weapons, or maps. Hats, items, and weapons may get sold in the store, which you will receive some portion of every sale for. Maps you can make money from if it becomes an official map, and is someone buys a map stamp. Final Combat, however, is a pared down not yet even finished Team Fortress 2 ripoff set in the Battlefield heroes maps.

So, which Should you get? Well, it depends on where you live. Both games seem to be free to play. Final Combat blocks American IP addresses, an is only in Chinese, but Team Fortress 2 is in pretty much every major language. However, if you live in a place where Final Combat isn’t blocked, seeing as you can play it with half the classes released, I suggest getting that one and joining in. Try to abuse every expliot you can find, and be active on the forums with suggestions. With that, a game that seems to be in public beta may move away from being a shameless rip=off to a more inspired by. And really, if Final Combat becomes its own recognizably different game, I would suggest getting it. Until then, get Team Fortress 2 if you like the shooters. You can dress the pyro up in a woman’s tea hat and purse, and hand little shoulder angel pyro dolls on him too.

Final Verdict: If you can get and play Final Combat, do so. See if you can help to shape it into something new and original. If you can’t get Final Combat, or don’t speak Chinese, get Team Fortress 2. Did I mention either game is free? In that case, there is no harm in trying either one of them out.

Now, if you don’t like shooters, even ones made in China (or Japan, but they didn’t make this one) then feel free to play whatever games it is you like, or if you don’t like games, do whatever else it is you enjoy. Feel free to ignore this article if you dislike videogames.

Final Combat can be downloaded from the official site here: http://fc.xunlei.com/

Team Fortress 2 can be downloaded through Steam and the official website at either of these links:

http://www.teamfortress.com/

store.steampowered.com (then search for team fortress 2)

And because I totally forgot, I need to mention the gameplay. Well, if Starcraft is any indication of how games against people from Korea are, and seeing as people from Korea and China will be playing Final Combat, you are pretty much going to lose as soon as the round starts. Not even the rest of your team. Just you. it will be ’round starts in 3-2-1 YOU FAILED!’

Team Fortress 2, on the other hand, is full of people who thing they are playing Me Fortress 2 and can’t work together as a team, so you will probably lose, but just at a slower rate. Also, you need Steam to play it, and Steam sales are like a vampire that will latch onto your credit card and suck it dry. And with all the unique items and item sets, most of which give some benefit in combat (one soldier set gives you reduced damage taken from sentries) the chat channel is full of people trying to trade stuff. Or you can buy it for real money at the Mann Co store. And that hat to complete your outfit that gives some great benefit? Up to $13 for a virtual hat for a virtual character.

So, really, both suck in the play department. Instead, buy Monday Night Combat, as almost nobody is playing it anymore (it is actually good though) so you can claim to be one of the top 30 players of the game. Which is easy, since only about 30 players (a little less actually) are still playing it.

Or, buy Deus Machina Demonbane, a very fun sci-fi Visual Novel with some sprinklings of the Cthulhu mythos and a 1940′s detective film noir feel. Did I mention Demonbane is also an anime, available for free on crunchyroll?

In the absolute end, it doesn’t really matter which you choose. Final Combat has shooting. Team Fortress 2 has shooting and trading. Either way, you will find someone who complains about somebody swearing, even though both those games seem to be rated M for Mature (17+)

April 3rd

Black Butler Season 1 Complete Series DVD/Blu-ray Combo
Black Butler Season 2 Complete Series Limited Edition DVD/Blu-ray Combo
Okami-san and Her Seven Companions Complete Series Limited Edition DVD/Blu-Ray Combo

April 10th

Oh! Edo Rocket Complete Series DVD
Sekirei Season 1 DVD/Blu-Ray Combo

April 17th

Legend of the Legendary Heroes Part 1 Limited Edition DVD/Blu-Ray Combo
Legend of the Legendary Heroes Part 2 DVD/Blu-Ray Combo
Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles OVA Collection DVD (S.A.V.E.)
Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles OVA Collection Blu-Ray (S.A.V.E.)

April 24th

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Collection 1 DVD
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Collection 1 Blu-Ray
Fullmetal Alchemist Sacred Star of Milos DVD
Fullmetal Alchemist Sacred Star of Milos DVD/Blu-Ray Combo
Jyu-Oh-Sei Complete Series DVD (S.A.V.E.)

Plot Synopsis: “Universal Century 0079. The rebel space colonies of the Principality of Zeon launch a war of independence against the Earth Federation, using humanoid fighting vehicles called mobile suits to overwhelm the Federation Forces and conquer half of Earth’s surface. Months later, the Federation has finally developed its own prototype mobile suits at a remote space colony. But when the colony suffers a Zeon surprise attack, these new weapons fall into the hands of a motley crew of civilians and cadets, and fate places a youth named Amuro Ray at the controls of the white mobile suit Gundam…”

Something you’ll notice this week is that pretty much everything is from Bandai. About 30 seconds after they announced they were effectively shutting down I said, “Well shit, better get all that stuff I was considering.” So yeah. I’ve already seen the compilation movies for this series, and I honestly prefer it that way, but I still felt like getting the original series on DVD just for the sake of having it.

Purchase Gundam 0079 Collection 1 at RightStuf

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing – Collection 1

Plot Synopsis: “Thousands of People live on giant orbiting space colonies called “Sides.” However, the Earth Government, which rules the colonies, is unjust and cruel. A group of revolutionaries builds five robotic Gundams and plans to send them to Earth to begin their fight for independence. Piloted by five young men, their hopes and dreams of freedom of the colonists with them as they descend to Earth to begin Operation Meteor!”

If you were to ask me for one thing that defined my childhood I’d shout Dragon Ball Z at you pretty much instantly. If you asked for another I’d say Gundam Wing. I loved this show as a kid, and as an adult I can honestly say it kinda sucks. It’s not that it’s terrible, but it does that Gundam thing where someone spouts a horrificly stupid line and it takes it completely seriously. Like anytime anyone says Gundanium. Regardless, I loved the show as a kid, but it was on after my bedtime so I’d have to tape it off YTV. YTV, for all of you who aren’t Canadian, was where you watched anime if you lived in Canada. We didn’t have Cartoon Network, so we didn’t have Toonami. I’m not even really sure what a Toonami is. Anyway, it was part of my childhood and I kept putting off getting the DVDs until now. The set ended up having two floaters because of Bandai’s shoddy packaging. The discs still worked though.

Purchase Gundam Wing Collection 1 at RightStuf

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz

Plot Synopsis: “The year is After Colony 196, and for one year the Earth and its colonies have experienced an unprecedented age of peace. No longer needing their weapons of war, the Gundams are jettisoned into the sun. However, even in the silence of space, the drums of war can once again be heard. Rallying behind a new leader, the Barton Foundation has once again risen to threaten the peace of the Earth Sphere. As the conflict spirals towards its climax, the pilots must recover their Gundams before they reach the sun, and put an end to the conflict.”

Had to get this since I was getting the series. Saw this on YTV too. Well taped it, because it was also on too late for me to watch. I honestly didn’t even realize this was originally an OVA until I bought this DVD. So that’s neat.

Purchase Gundam Wing Endless Waltz at RightStuf

Outlaw Star Complete Collection

Plot Synopsis: “Gene Starwind and his partner Jim Hawking run a small business on the backwater planet of Centinel 3. But all that changes the day that Hilda hires them for a bodyguard job. Now, thrust into a mystery they don’t fully understand, they’re on the run from the cops, the pirates, an angry alien, and a mysterious assassin. But they’ve got one thing going in their favor – they have the galaxy’s most advanced ship!”

Have been putting off getting this for a year or more. It’s an old show that people used to like, so I was interested in it. It’ll probably be kind of mediocre, but whatever.

Purchase Outlaw Star at RightStuf

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Complete Collection 2 (Anime Legends)

Plot Synopsis: “The White Base is the target of constant attacks by Zeon, and Amuro and the others have offcially become soldiers of the Earth Federation Forces. They return to space to fght in the fnal campaign, and here Amuro meets the mysterious and beautiful Lalah Sune.

As the war builds to its conclusion, the final battle pits Federation against Zeon, brother against sister, and Newtype against Newtype. The Federation is weakened! Zeon is in turmoil! Will the Zeon fortress of A Baoa Qu stand or fall? It all ends here!”

I wanted to get last set for this show and TRSI had it on sale back in December so I decided that would be a great time to pre-order it

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Complete Collection 2 (AL) is available from Right Stuf

Complete Collection 1 is also available

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Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Complete Collection (Anime Legends)

Plot Synopsis: “On August 10th of the year 2010 the Holy Empire of Britannia began a campaign of conquest, its sights set on Japan. In the span of one month the island nation was conquered. As a dominion of the Empire the newly acquired territory was renamed Area 11. The rights of its citizens were severely limited and an economic depression followed for the Japanese, now known as Elevens.

Just as things seemed at their bleakest one man chose to stand up and fight, the masked crusader Zero. Leading his Order of Black Knights, Zero instigated a full scale revolution against Britannia culminating in one final battle, the Black Rebellion. Heavy casualties were seen by both sides but ultimately Britannia stood the victor resulting in Zero’s execution. And thus was history written.

The year is now 2018. With Zero dead and the remnants of the Black Knights being swept up by the Britannian forces, a forced state of peace settles over Area 11. The rights of the Elevens remain limited but with no one to lead them and the defeat during the Black Rebellion hanging over them, the Japanese people remain under the boot of Britannian oppression with no hope to overcome.”

I liked the first season of Code Geass and with Mobile Suit Gundam listed above TRSI had this on sale back in December so I wanted to pre-order it and have it for my collection

Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Complete Collection (AL) is available form Right Stuf

The complete collection of the first season is available from Right Stuf

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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time BD

Plot Synopsis: “Makoto Konno is having one of those days. After getting up late for school she’s hit with a pop quiz. She started a fire while cooking in her home economics class and then she gets knocked down by some of the guys while they wrestle. How much worse can this day get? While performing an errand for her mother, Makoto loses the brakes on her bike and barrels headlong down the street into an oncoming train. This would have been the capper for a horrible day, but for some reason something strange has happened. Time has suddenly stopped and moved her backward.

With her newly discovered ability to literally leap backwards in time, Makoto finds that tests become a piece of cake, embarrassing situations are corrected and she can have her favorite food anytime she wants. Unfortunately, her care-free time traveling has adverse effects on the people she cares for.

With every successful leap Makoto somehow alters the fate of those around her. This wasn’t supposed to happen! As she races back in time to fix everything, she notices that her abilities are not limitless, but with every successful jump she’s one step closer to discovering the most wonderful secret in her young adult life.”

I never watched this film before, but with Bandai Entertainment pulling out of R1 I thought that if I wanted to watch it, I should just buy it now instead of trying to buy it another time and have the prices be over the MSRP.  Buy.com had it for cheaper than TRSI so grabbing it from them was a no brainer.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time BD is available from Right Stuf

The DVD Version is also available

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High School of the Dead GN 5

Plot Synopsis “Takashi and his fellow students join up with a band of survivors who have barricaded themselves inside a local mall. Though the shopping center seems a well-stocked place to hide from the undead lurking outside, the policewoman in charge is having a hard time maintaining peace within. The group from Fujimi High would rather not get involved in a power struggle and tries to stay under the radar until they are ready to set off again. But with so many attractive, buxom girls among the students, it may be nearly impossible to avoid unwanted attention of the worst kind…”

I pre-ordered this back during the last Yen Press sale at TRSI since I am a fan of the series in both the anime and manga form.

High School of the Dead GN 5 is available from Right Stuf

The absolute first thing I have to say about it is that the PV is VERY misleading. Secondly, the description and title are a bit misleading. Judging by what we see, one would be forgiven for assuming it is another slice of life anime with some craaaaaazzzy situations that we have NEVER seen before (and by never I mean every other slice of life anime did so.) And third, I cannot get the image to post.

But, if anything, you should watch the first episode. I gave it a chance, and it ended up getting awarded for being much better than expected (and I would have given it anime of the year 2011 had I though to have an anime and a manga award. Hindsight is 20/20.)

The first episode starts with a girl with a wind up handle in her back running down the street. Fine, only a little bit out of the ordinary. Then she runs into a guy, as she can’t stop in time. Been there, done that more times than I care to count. Then there is an explosion, with a tokeshi, an akabeko, and a salmon fillet flying through the air. I did NOT see that coming.

Next, we get introduced to two of the main characters, high school girls by the name of Aioi and Mio. Aioi is subsequently struck in the head by the objects. After the second item hits, she remarks that she is lucky that at least no raw meat hit her in the head. Three guesses as to what hits her next.

Wikipedia has the best plot description there is, so enjoy it: “The series follows the lives of a group of high school students and their school. Various oddities and absurdities abound, such as a robotic girl made by a scientist who is an eight-year-old girl, a boy who rides a goat to school with his butler, a girl who can procure various guns out of thin air, a cat that can speak and a principal who has wrestled a deer. Despite its bizarre settings and characters, the students still lead normal lives.”

Well, the last sentence isn’t ENTIRELY true. Many, many semblances of normality appear, but with the absurdity of the series, even some things that are quite common become wholly original and amusing.

The weird thing is, I have evry little to say about Nichijou, apart from I spent most of the time being highly amused by it, and not in a negative way. It is really genuinely GOOD. And to be honest, I don’t say that easily or often.

If you like somehting that is more romance or action or basic slice of life, this will not be for you. If you like seeing genre lines blurred and reality slightly twisted into the comically absurd, then this is for you.

I would honestly like to say more, but I am watching it again for around the third time, and I would rather go back to that. Also, saying any more, while it would all be complementing it on everything it had done and discussing it all, it is genuinely good enough that I do NOT want to spoil ANY of the plot if possible. And yes, there is an underlying plot that ties together all the separate stories and characters.

I will admit that I was going to review this earlier on, but I do not like to review series that are ongoing (until a certain point) as they can take a sudden rise or fall in quality, and I don’t want to say a series is the best ever if it goes and undoes everything in the next episode.

Afterthought: While the girls in the show all wear very short skirts for school, there are absolutely no pantyshots. Finally, a mature series that doesn’t use its high school girls bodies to sell itself.

Score: 5/5 very good

Pros: One of the best and most amusing animes I have ever seen. Also, it DOESN’T sexualize its characters.

Cons: most people do not enjoy genre blurring, they like their slice of life to be only slice of life, not comically absurd slice of life

What you should do: it is on crunchyroll, and it  is free. Go and watch it. I sincerely doubt you will not enjoy it.

Issei Hyodo is your average perverted high school student whose one wish in life is to have his own harem, but he’s got to be one of the unluckiest guys around. He goes on his first date with a girl only to get brutally attacked and killed when it turns out the girl is really a vicious fallen angel. To top it all off, he’s later reincarnated as a devil by his gorgeous senpai who tells him that she is also a devil and now his master! One thing’s for sure, his peaceful days are over. In a battle between devils and angels, who will win?

Funimation will simulcast the series, with a DVD and Blu-Ray release to follow at a later date.

Whoever said little girls grow up in the most delightful ways wasn’t Yuta Segawa!  He wasn’t happy when his sister married a man who already had two children.  But given that Yuri raised Yuta by herself after their own parents’ deaths, what kind of brother would Yuta be if he didn’t take in their THREE children when Yuri and her husband Shingo’s plane disappears?  Of course, the fact that Yuta’s only a nineteen year old college student, living in a tiny apartment, and the fact that he’s now living with three GIRLS, two of whom aren’t related by blood and one of whom is only five years younger than he is, is bound to cause some issues. Especially when the eldest girl, Sora, is harboring a secret crush on him and would be quite happy if Yuta’s social life revolved around the ‘family,’ while middle sister Miu is starting to make noises about ‘older men’ as well. And did we mention that it’s a really, REALLY small apartment?  Add the girl Yuta actually likes, Raika, as a smoldering fuse and the question isn’t IF Yuta’s home sweet home is a powderkeg, but rather one of when and how often!  Some family ties bind, others may need restraining orders in LISTEN TO ME, GIRLS. I AM YOUR FATHER!

Crunchyroll is currently simulcasting the series, and Sentai Filmworks will release a subtitled DVD later this year.

Mei Misaki was cute, athletic and one of the most popular girls in her school.  Why should a little thing like death change that? Now, 23 years after Mei’s mysterious demise, a new transfer student discovers that not only is his school’s student body one corpse short of a full roster, but that some secrets never leave high school.  And what’s more, all of this may somehow be tied into his own family past.  What is the secret and how does it all connect?  And even if Kouichi does figure it out, will that knowledge help save him?  As the school bells toll a deadly dirge and students begin to die, things that were never properly buried come back to haunt the high school of the damned in ANOTHER!

Another is being simulcast by Crunchyroll, and Sentai Filmworks will release it on DVD and Blu-Ray later this year.

When a prisoner with only a few months left on his sentence breaks out, the Elric brothers set out to track him down. Their search leads them to Table City, a city on the border of Amestris and Creta. When the pair saves a young alchemist named Julia from the escaped prisoner they get caught up in a rebellion to restore the nation of Milos to its former glory.

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos follows in the footsteps of movies like Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Trigun: Badlands Rumble. All three are movies for series that had endings that would be hard to follow with a sequel, so they end up being random filler that takes place sometime during the series itself. This means the movie has no bearing, and really no connection at all, to the actual story from the series.

The movie really goes out of its way to hammer this point home by practically taking place in another country and having next to none of the major characters from the series returning. Winry is there, but all she does is worry about Ed, then fixes his arm. Mustang is there, but he just reads documents most of the time and kills a couple chimera’s offscreen. Hawkeye is there, but all she does is shoot a gun out of a guys hand towards the end of the movie. Aside from Ed and Al, no characters from the series really participate in the story.

Instead the story is centred around all new characters. Of the new characters, only Julia and her brother are really given any amount of backstory, with everyone else just kind of doing their thing, usually until they die. Julia, the main character of the story, is the daughter of two alchemy researchers who were killed when she was young. She lives with the other Milosians in a valley underneath Table City, helping with the rebellion to retake the land that used to be theirs. There’s not much to say about the villains, though truthfully the movie doesn’t even have a villain until the climax when one reveals itself, and then another one reveals itself with about 20 minutes left in the movie. Neither one has a real goal. The second one is angry and wants to destroy everything, and the first is just kind of a prick I guess.

The actual story is pretty straightforward stuff. There are two groups, the Milosians and the corrupt Amestris military in Table City, who want to get the power of a Philospher’s Stone (which is known by another name in Milosian mythology but it escapes me at the moment) for their own reasons. The Milosians want it so they can reestablish the nation of Milos, and the Amestris military wants it for no established reason. It’s a Philosopher’s Stone, so why wouldn’t they want it I guess? Ed and Al, knowing how a Philosopher’s Stone is made, are intent on stopping anyone from trying to make one. Stuff happens, plots are twisted, and ultimately the crisis is averted and nothing substantial has changed in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist. It’s a 90 minute filler episode, essentially.

The movie does pull off some noteworthy things though. First of all, there’s not a single short joke in the entire movie, which is great because those are tired and played out. There are also no points where someone mistakes Al for being the Fullmetal Alchemist due to his armour. The movie actually handles all of its comedy better than Brotherhood could ever hope to. Most of the humour comes from visual gags that are never explicitly called out and are just there for you to enjoy. As opposed to Brotherhood, which takes its gags, waves them in front of the camera and shouts, “SEE THIS? IT’S WACKY!” The movie does slightly falter at the very beginning, where it has the eye-roll inducing title drop scene. You know the one, it’s in every Fullmetal Alchemist animated thing. Ed’s shirt and/or pants get torn by bad guy, bad guy sees Ed’s automail arm/leg and says, “Automail limbs… you’re… the Fullmetal Alchemist!”

A big change between this movie and the previous two series is a dramatic change in artstyle. People were complaining about this when the first trailer appeared, because people are stupid. The change in style comes from the new director Kazuya Murata, who has previously directed episodes of Code Geass and Eureka Seven, among other things. I honestly prefer his style over the previous series. It does have some goofy looking attempts at walking and running, but during fight scenes the loose style allows for more stylish looking action. The only times it really suffers are when characters are far away, where they tend to lose most of their detail. I’ve seen it described as cheap and ugly, but I think it looks better than either of the series and lends itself much better to the kind of action you get in Fullmetal Alchemist. But it’s different, and people hate change, so I see where the complaints come from.

Funimation obviously brought back the old cast for returning characters, so I’ll not dwell on those. Suffice to say, they all have a great amount of experience with the characters and handle them as well as they ever have. New additions to the cast are Alexis Tipton as Julia Chrichton and Matthew Mercer as Ashley Chrichton, both of whom give good performances, though neither role is particularly challenging. Julia has her share of emotional scenes, and Alexis Tipton handles them great, but this isn’t the kind of role that’s really going to draw out a great performance. Mathew Mercer doesn’t really get a chance to shine as Ashley until the climax of the film since the character is fairly calm and composed most of the time, but again he gives as good a performance as is necessary for a fairly shallow character. Patrick Seitz also shows up as the villain near the end and shouts about being angry and wanting to destroy the world for 20 minutes, and he does as good a job as anyone could really.

If what you love about Fullmetal Alchemist was the emotional captivating story, you’re probably going to be disappointed with Sacred Star of Milos. It has none of the engaging story and is basically just a 90 minute filler episode. But if all you want to see is your favourite Fullmetal Alchemist characters (assuming your favourite characters are Ed and Al and no one else) going on another adventure, it’s a fine movie. It may not be emotionally engaging in any way, but it is a nice last hurrah for the franchise.

It’s better than Conqueror of Shamballa at least.

Score: 4/5