Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa
is a theatrical feature that premiered in Japan in
July 23 2005, and acts as a continuation of the
Fullmetal Alchemist television series. The Japanese DVD was released on
January 25,
2006, including with it a limited edition with a special box, English subtitles and a series of other extras. The U.S. version is scheduled to hit theaters
August 25,
2006[
1], and the DVD release is scheduled for
September 12,
2006.
The movie's story is set two years after the events of the
Fullmetal Alchemist TV series's last episode. Dragged from his homeworld to this world,
Edward Elric lives in
Munich,
Germany, in the year of 1923. Stripped of his alchemical powers, he has spent all this time researching
rocketry together with
Alphonse Heiderich, a young man who resembles his own brother.
Not only Alphonse, but as Earth appears to be a
parallel world to his, Edward encounters some people whose faces are familiar to him. After lending a hand to
Noah, a troubled
Roma woman, Edward is thrown in a series of events that can open him a path to return to his homeworld, but also eludes a conspiration that can bring serious consequences to both worlds.
Aloof to Edward's situation,
Alphonse Elric ventures deeper into the mysteries of alchemy in search of a way to reunite with his older brother.
Edward Elric - The movie's
protagonist. After bringing back the body and soul of his younger brother from beyond the gate at the series finale, Edward finds himself on the other side of the Gate, Earth (the premise being that the world of Amestris and Earth are
parallel universes). He befriends a young man named Alphonse Heiderich, who looks like his younger brother Al but is not his parallel, and the two follow an interest in rocketry and travel to Romania. Edward shares tales of his previous life with Alphonse. Edward leads a rather calm life for the next two years, until he comes across a young Roma girl, Noah, and the Thule Society.
Alphonse Elric - "Al" is Edward's younger brother. After being resurrected by his brother in the anime, he lost all of his memories of the events following his and his brother's attempt to resurrect their mother. Since then he studied alchemy as a student of
Izumi Curtis once again, and after her death he started walking his own path hoping to one day find a way to reunite with his brother and retrieve his lost memories.
Alphonse Heiderich - A rocket engineer that bears a resemblance to Alphonse Elric and befriends Edward in the movie. When Ed talks to him about his travels around his original world, Alphonse feels a bit doubtful because although he finds his stories interesting, he can´t believe in the fact that Ed came from another world where alchemy is real, and his brother looks like him. He's studying under the father of modern rocketry, and wants to prove the scientific worth of his fellow Germans by achieving a rocket that can actually be ridden. He also has his own reasons to do it as fast as possible. Throughout the course of the movie he seems to be afflicted with an unspecified disease causing him to cough up blood. Alphonse speculates that this is caused by prolonged exposure to rocket fuel.
|
The Elric Brothers reunited |
Noah - A
Roma woman whom Ed befriends. She had been sold by her own people to the Thules and Edward helped her escape. She is a restricted and introverted person, because she has the ability to read people's minds (an ability so accurate that makes people be afraid of her), and due to her
Roma origin, she is an outsider everywhere, always being discriminated against. Noah's dream is to find a home for herself. She is likely the Earthly counterpart of Rosé although this is not explicitly stated, the two girls share similar appearances and personalities, and both have lived a life of tragedy.
Dietlinde Eckhart - The movie's main
antagonist. She occupies an important position as an occultist in the Thule Society. After obtaining information regarding the legendary
Shamballa (Amestris), and the mysterious powers of its inhabitants, Dietlinde, with the help of other Thule Society members, developed a plan to open a gateway to Shamballa and invade it, in order to learn its secrets and claim its power. While she claims to be interested in helping the Nazis in their plan to overthrow the German government, her real intent is to reach and plunder Amestris for her own ends. Her plans are supported by real-life Nazi members like
Rudolf Hess and
Karl Haushofer.
See also
Characters of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Huskisson - Huskisson appears only at the beginning of the movie, and serves mostly as an introductory element to Edward's quest as a State Alchemist and alchemy and its principles. He is a pretentious physicist who despises the science of alchemy, and tries to surpass it with his own work. He presents his invention, a fission bomb made from uranium, to Edward and Alphonse, but upon their rejection of his accomplishment he attacks them with his machinery. At the end of the battle, he attempts human transmutation and is pulled into the Gate. His final fate, whether trapped within the Gate or beyond it, is unknown. However, by the end of the movie, his uranium bomb seems to have reached the other side, and Edward and Alphonse thus set off in search of it.
The Travelling Circus - It is a carnival wherein Alphonse Heiderich demonstrates his rocketry. Numerous Romanians and Germans alike populate the Circus staff, many of whom parallel characters in the series. Noa's family worked for the Carnival, but Noa (the resident fortune-teller) was sold to the Thule society by her fellow Roma and a less-than-sympathetic ring master. Among the spectators are the Earthly counterparts of
Lt. Colonel Frank Archer (the ring master) and
Loa,
Dorchett,
Biddo,
Barry the Chopper (sporting a blonde goatee) and another (nameless) member of Greed's gang of misfits as assistants to Alphonse Heiderich. At the end of the movie, the Elric brothers and Noah hail a wagon resembling one of the wagons seen at the Circus, which is driven by the Earthly counterparts of
Lust and
Scar.
Officer Hughes - A Munich police constable, Officer Hughes is the Earthly counterpart to the late
Mäes Hughes of Amestris. Unlike the rather care-free Hughes, however, he is somewhat more stern and a tad cowardly, although he has a soft spot for the local inn-keeper Gracia (Earthly counterpart to Mäes Hughes' wife). He is a staunch
Nazi party affiliate, though his reasonings and views for it are left unexplained.
Mabuse/Fritz Lang - A resident Jewish filmmaker, Mabuse is the Earthly counterpart to Führer King Bradley (thus causing some minor confusion on the part of Ed), although he only captures the Führer's more eccentric and sympathetic traits. Mabuse is a polite, self-humoring man who is traveling through Germany in search of a fabled Dragon within an ancient castle. He confronts the Thule Society, who knock him out and leave him. He is intrigued by Ed's description of his world, and is eventually moved to help Ed interfere with the Thule Society's plans (his ethnicity also played a role in that decision).
Mabuse later identifies himself as filmmaker Fritz Lang when he invites Ed to the set of
Die Nibelungen.
Roy Mustang (the "Flame Alchemist") - Mustang has lost his left eye during the events around his battle with Führer King Bradley (Pride), and now ironically wears an eye patch as Pride did. As he now has a mental blockade against using his flame powers, he is degraded and assigned to a remote outpost. First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye revealed signs of an attraction for Mustang as she conformed to what he likes in a woman in the finale. The situation didn't develop any further as Mustang is now a Corporal and lacks the cocky confidence he once had. When Mustang returned to aid his former comrades, Riza Hawkeye appeared happy to see the man Mustang used to be. When he hears that Edward could be returning to their world, he returns to Central and commands their former subordinates in the battle against Eckart and her army. After the Elric brothers' departure to Earth, he destroys the transmutation circle in the underground city to prevent passage between the two worlds.
Envy - After traveling through the Gate to Earth with the intention of finding and killing his creator,
Hohenheim, at the end of the anime series, Envy is stuck in the serpentine, dragon-like form which he assumed in the Gate, because his shapeshifting power is nullified in our world. He was captured by the Thule Society (possibly with Hohenheim's help) and ironically placed in the shape of an
ouroboros around a transmutation circle, in hopes of using him to gain access to "Shamballa". Hohenheim was fed to Envy and in his final moments he insisted Ed shouldn't save him and that he's trying to open the gateway so that Ed may return to his own world. Hohenheim then encouraged Envy to crush him and Hohenheim's blood helped activate the transmutation circle.
Alex Louis Armstrong (the "Strong-Arm Alchemist") and
Rosé - Both are participating in the rebuilding of Lior. They also appear at times near three children, with whom Armstrong is playing.
Wrath - Wrath has apparently been wandering around since the events of the anime series. He is in a weakened state, most likely from expending the energy from the red stones that he digested during the time period prior to the movie. He also seems to have become emotionally tame, and seems depressed over the passing of Izumi, whom he previously detested. He has also aged physically into a young teenager and bears a greater resemblance to his mother. He winds up offering help to Alphonse in opening the Gate. As the anime stated in episode 51 by
Winry Rockbell , Wrath has an
automail arm and leg, as where Edward's original limbs were. Wrath's desire to return to his mother motivated him to assist Al and they returned to the underground buried city to transmutate a portal to bring back Ed. In the process Wrath engaged in a losing battle with Gluttony. Wrath took some of the red stones bled out from Gluttony to give him temporary strength, but in the end Gluttony ate him alive right above Al's transmutation circle. Wrath's final moments was to tell Al to transmutate him and Gluttony. In the medium gateway the door opened and Wrath found peace with his loved one.
Gluttony - Gluttony makes an appearance in the underground city which Wrath lead Al to. Due to Dante's alchemy at the end of the anime series, his mind is lost solely in his hunger. Gluttony no longer displays any signs of intelligence, only the desire to feed. In their last encounter (which ends in a cliffhanger) Dante is stuck with Gluttony in the elevator she tries to escape in. It is assumed that Gluttony ate Dante and also digested her philosopher's stone, which has malformed his body into an enormous humanoid shape sporting extra legs and several tentacles with faces on their ends. Due to the fact that the philosopher's stone is much more powerful than the imitation stones, which the Homonculi eat to survive, his body is so oversaturated that it bleeds out red water. His body is capable of taking many shapes and can extend parts of himself at long distances. Gluttony engaged Wrath in which he was lured into the transmutation circle to act as a catalyst to open the gate to the other earth realm.
Lust and Scar - An unscarred Scar and the human version Lust appear for a moment at the end of the movie. They are with a group of gypsies, which fits with the movie's theme of paralleling that group with the Ishbalis.
Hermann Oberth - The rocket scientist/teacher of Edward, Alphonse Heiderich and others who is mentioned in the final episode of the series. He also apparently sold a book, which made his work popular calling forth a large crowd at the carnival and demonstration.
Unnamed Characters - Three unnamed characters show resemblence to
Biddo,
Doletto and
Roa where they are co-workers of Alphonse Heiderich of the (Oberth's) rocketry project.
The movie is expected to premiere in English August 25th in select theaters by
Funimation Films. The movie trailer was shown to a group of about 300 persons at
Shiokazecon in Houston, Texas on April 27th, 2006.
Vic Mignogna, the English
voice actor for Edward Elric, has been heavily promoting the film at
anime conventions.
According to a press release from
Funimation and the
SPJA, the first official screening was shown at
Anime Expo on Monday, July 3 at noon. The session was presented by Seiji Mizushima (the original director), Mike McFarland (U.S. version director, and voice of Lieutenant Havoc) and voice actor
Vic Mignogna (Edward Elric's voices for the original and English versions respectively).
Romi Paku was supposed to attend but she did not because she was refused entry into the country. Another screening of the movie occured at
Otakon 2006.
|
Cover of Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa Original Soundtrack |
; Opening : "Link" by
L'Arc~en~CielEnding : "LOST HEAVEN" by L'Arc~en~Ciel"
KELAS [LET'S-DANCE]" - the song performed by the
Roma women while Edward Elric and Alphonse Heiderich hitch a ride. Composed and guitar by
Ferenc Snétberger, with vocals by
Tayo Awosusi.All other songs composed by
Michiru Oshima.
Track List
01. Scientist of the Alchemic World
02. Fullmetal Alchemist
03. Weapon of Mass Destruction
04. Castle of Science Goes Kablooey
05. Sibyl
06. KELAS [LET'S-DANCE]
07. Creeper in the Shadow of Time
08. Darkness Looms Upon Her
09. Automated Right Arm
10. Burden of Her Past
11. Her Dream
12. Vanishing Existence
13. Thule Society
14. Seeking a New Thrill
15. Dragon - Unlocker of the Gate
16. Road to Shamballa
| 17. The Alchemic World - Two Years Thereafter
18. Citizen of the World
19. Stranger from Another World - the Young Alchemist
20. Beyond the Light......!
21. Search for the Professor
22. The Incomplete Alchemic Circle
23. Dietlinde Eckart
24. A Temporary Reunion
25. Harmonized Feelings
26. Parallel World - Another Self in an Alternative World
27. The Lord of Shamballa Shall Reign Over the World
28. Shadows Surrounding Her
29. Soul Slides Away
30. To the Vanished City
31. Shadows Swallow Her
32. Other Side of the Gate - Shamballa
| 33. Overture of Destiny
34. Evanescence
35. When the Gate of Destiny is Revealed
36. Beyond the Gate - Conqueror of Shamballa
37. Reunion - Dear Beloved Place
38. Invasion of the Intruders
39. Guardian of the Motherland
40. Destruction of Shangri-La
41. Guardian of the World.
42. Reason of War
43. Sad Resolution - Separation
44. Unceasing Lunacy
45. Requiem
46. KELAS [LET'S-DANCE] [Instrumental Version]
|
The film won in three categories in 5th Tokyo Anime Award competition at the Tokyo International Anime Fair:
*Animation Of The Year
*Best Original Story (Hiromu Arakawa)
*Best Music (Michiru Oshima)
It also won the 2005 Animation Grand Award prize in
Mainichi Film Awards.
