The first one of my fave anime/manga notes takes or whatever I’m doing.

FMAB was not my first love—that was Naruto.

But it was, and still is, my most consistent one.

I first watched it around 14 years ago. I was literally that age. Half my age now 🤣

And somehow, it hasn’t moved.

It’s been in my top 3 for so long that I’ve started to see it as immovable.

Nothing has replaced it. Nothing has even come close.

From the very first episode, it steps into morally and ethically grey territory and never really leaves.

But what it does best isn’t just the themes.

It’s the precision of emotion.

There are moments in this show that capture feelings you don’t even have language for,

and just put them in front of you like they’ve always existed.

Also, Sho Tucker is a complete asshole.

Episode 4 genuinely traumatised me as a teenager.

And the core lesson that stays with me even now:

Shortcuts never work.

Because the law of equivalent exchange cannot be broken.

Shout out to Hiromu Arakawa for this one.

Not only did she complete a masterpiece with virtually no plot holes,

she built characters that feel structurally human.

Take Major Armstrong.

A man who embodies both strength and gentleness,

but you can feel that it isn’t naïve.

It’s shaped.

Refined through what he’s seen.

The Ishval War is where that really lands.

As a 14-year-old, this was one of the first times something genuinely broke the narrative I had around war.

Up until then, there was always this underlying assumption

that there are winners, or at least some kind of “right side.”

FMAB strips that away completely.

There are no clean sides.

No real victors.

The ones who suffer are always the civilians.