1) This critic will be full of spoilers be aware of it.
2) I'll only talk about the manga, I didn't see the two adaptations.
3) If you don't agree on a point, come to my profile it'll be fun to talk about it

In the first place, Full Metal Alchemist (I'll call FMA now). Is a manga that I know for a really long time. It's the 1st manga I get in volume and the 1st series I complete.

What I think about it ? A masterclass at a lot of level. It's a manga which mix perfectly real alchemy elements (Ouroboros, Homonculus, really sign in alchemy, ...) and fiction and make in coherent and entertaining. A manga where there are, for a series of 27 volumes, a high concentration of great character with and equal number of male and female strong character. Taking that into account FMA have a feminist aspect that we can't ignore.

I can't talk about FMA without mentioning the brother Elric one of the best duo I ever see with Zoro/Luffy and Gon/Killua. They are brothers who live with their single mothers, A mother who die when they are still really young. For tempting to made revive her. They lost, for Alphonse(AL), his whole body, and for Edward(Ed) his left leg. This was taken by the verity, an entity which punished the persons who think to be as powerful of god. It'll take every time the things we need the most. For children who need to feel warm of a mother, it'll take body part, for a mother who want to see her baby it'll take her right to make baby and for the person who look too much in the future he'll be blind. That always fair and never too much. ED and AL are really great characters we can easily relate to, especially if you're under 20. They made mistake and they know it. They'll try to fix it without made their entourage be hurt mentally or physically because of them. We have the example of the philosopher's stone which is made with the murder of people, they don't want to use it because. They don't want to use the death of people to fix their own mistake. I find this way to think pretty intelligent, and it can be adapted to your own life.

Besides these 2 brothers, there are in FMA a lot of secondary character which are fascinating in their own way. As I say before there as much male than female strong character and I love it. I'll only talk about my favourite character of FMA but there are a lot of average to pretty good character. 1st, and by far, Winry. The childhood friend of ED and AL. She is also the mechanic of ED for his arm and his leg. Winry is the closest person of the Elric brother they know each other since their birth. They support each other when winry's parent leave and die at the Ishbal's civil war and the opposite too when the brother lost everything. One of the best (for the beginning) friendship and love after with ED. For me Winry is one most important character for the brother. They want to find their original corpse for them but also for the persons who help them. They don't want Winry to worry about them and finally eat together that apple pie which is one of the goals of this manga. She is also the only character who can provide a power-up to ED, I'll talk about it after. Another great duo of this manga is Mustang/Hawkeye. They need each other to exist in this manga. They can't be dissociated. Mustang who learn the fire alchemy by the father of Hawkeye. He leaves all his search to Hawkeye with a tatoo on her back. We can't talk about them with mentioning the death of Hughes, which gave to us some really sad scene and give to mustang a will of vengeance really strong which almost lost him if Hawkeye was not there to save him of the madness which is contained in the fire alchemy. I can also talk about King Bradley, Olivia Armstrong or Lin which is super great character which we can talk about them hours and hours. I also wanted talk about Greed, for me have the best development in the ""bad guys"" team.

One of the things I love the most is the fact that the manga never stops and shows us in each chapter a new character or story element. I have never had the feeling during my multiple readings that the manga turns on itself. The reveal and plot twist of the plot is often very often done well, and the main villain (s) change very regularly helps a lot with that feeling. At first the main villain is Scar, then the various homunculi we meet on the trip to Amestris after that is Kimblee during the briggs arc, then the father at the end on the promised day. Another thing that accentuates this feeling is that the manga adds a new character with new information at the right time. I particularly think twice. 1st, volume 8. After the incident in the 5th laboratory. Ed's automail is broken, and then they have to go back to Rush Valley so Winry can fix her automail. At this point, we meet Lin and his bodyguard: Ranfan and Who. They are from Xing and they are also looking for the Philosopher's Stone to have Eternal Life. At the same time we also meet May, who also the Philosopher's Stone, who will join scar quite quickly. He adds a new great character, adds to the manga what he didn't have at exactly the right time. They also bring a new way of looking at alchemy, as for now, we're only seeing how Amestris uses alchemy for military or personal purposes. The second is the briggs bow, one of the best bow for me, an bow that brings a lot of new information to the reader. (father's plan, the last homunculus : sloth, all the major military authorities are with the father and want to sacrifice the population for their own sake). This arc will feature Olivia Armstrong, Miles: an Ishbal who is in the military or even Buccaner. During this arc we also have a new villain: Solf.J. Kimblee, who was introduced during Ishbal's Civil War flashback.

When I talk about FMA, I'm also talking about major scenes, important enough to be known to everyone, even those who haven't watched / read FMA. The 1st scene takes place in chapter 5 where Shô Tucker, to pass his exam, transforms his daughter and his dogs into a chimera. For me, this scene traumatizes me almost as much as berserk (volume 13 you know). The dialogue between ED / AL and Shô tucker will remain in my memory for a long time. The second scene is the death of Hughes, Mustang's best friend with the funeral. These two deaths even if it is not the death of the "main" character will remain in memory during all the reading whether it is for the characters or for the readers. Hughes' death will be significant enough to drive Mustang into the madness of revenge.

The only main flaw I can say to this manga is Edward's lack of development on a physical level (yeah that's little flaw but I need to find at least one xD). Edward often loses his fight and on my first reading I still think he would learn the alchemy from Xing to counter Father's power. I have the feeling that it is the same since the 1st volume. His only real power-up is during the briggs arc where Winry made him an automail made for the cold, it's not really much, you can agree. At this level, Alphonse beat him. I try to find other fault but I can't see any. Did you see another negative point?

In conclusion, a must to watch or read. Lots of crazy characters with real character development: ED / AL, Scar, Mustang or Greed for the most impressive. A not too long manga that can be read in 3 days if your fasting and maybe want to enjoy more in 1 month it can be done easily. Great plot twist. A pure classic for me.