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Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa
Directed by	Seiji Mizushima
Produced by	Seiji Takeda
Written by	Sho Aikawa
Music by	Michiru Oshima
Cinematography	Susumu Fukushi
Editing by	Hiroaki Itabe
Distributed by	Japan: Shochiku United States: Funimation Entertainment
Release date(s)	Japan: July 23, 2005 North America: August 25, 2006 Europe: September 17, 2007
Running time	105 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (劇場版 鋼の錬金術師　シャンバラを征く者, Gekijōban Hagane no Renkinjutsushi Shanbara o Yuku Mono^?) is a 2005 Japanese animated film directed by Seiji Mizushima and written by Sho Aikawa,^[1] and acts as a continuation of the first Fullmetal Alchemist television series. In the film follows the story of the alchemist Edward Elric who has been living in the parallel world of Earth for various years and has been searching to return to his own world, Amestris. Edward's search to find a way to return to Amestris attracts the attention of the Thule Society, who become determinated to enter Amestris in order to obtain new weapons to help them in an upcoming war.

The film premiered in Japan on July 23, 2005. A CD soundtrack has also been published featuring music from the film developed by Michiru Oshima and L'Arc-en-Ciel. It has been edited in DVD twice in Japan, with the second being a limited edition. In North America the film was licensed by Funimation and was featured in cinemas for a short time. The film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America.

Conqueror of Shamballa started development short time after the first anime's ending and most of the staff from the film had previously worked in the anime. As the original script was a hundred pages long, the staff had to cut until the film's length became 105 minutes. During its premier in Japan, Conqueror of Shamballa remained as one of the most popular films from Japan from the year according to the Japanese box office. Critical reaction to the film has commonly been positive with reviews praising the film's story and graphics used.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Release and distribution 4 Reception 5 Soundtrack 6 References 7 External links

Plot

Dragged from his homeworld of Amestris to a parallel world called Earth, Edward Elric lives in Munich, Germany, in the year 1923. Stripped of his alchemical powers and some of his limbs, he researches rocketry with Alfons Heiderich (アルフォンス・ハイデリヒ, Arufonsu Haiderihi^?) (voiced by Shun Oguri in Japanese, and Jason Liebrecht in English), a young man who resembles his brother, Alphonse Elric, thinking that if he uses a rocket, he can return to his world. Edward encounters many people whose faces are familiar to him. He rescues a troubled gypsy woman named Noa (ノーア, Nōa^?) (voiced by Miyuu Sawai in Japanese, and by Leah Clark in English) from being sold. As Edward takes Noa to live with him and Alfons, Noa starts having visions concerning his life in his country. Next day, Edward finds a man similar to King Bradley and attacks his guardians thinking he is the same homunculus who manipulated Amestris' State Military. As he realizes that the man is not Bradley, Ed is forced to help him in his search of a "dragon" supposed to be hidden in a castle. The dragon turns out to be homunculus Envy who attacks Ed until it is weakened and captured by members of the Thule Society.

Dietlinde Eckhart (デートリンデ・エッカルト, Dētorinde Ekkaruto^?) (voiced by Kazuko Katou in Japanese, and by Kelly Manison in English), a member from the Thule Society, discovers the existence of Ed's world and starts giving him hints to how he could open a portal back to Amestris. Once Ed starts opening the portal, Dietlinde kidnaps Ed's father, Hohenheim, to open the last parts of the portal using Envy as a catalyst. Dietlinde sends various armored soldiers to the portal with all of them thinking the other world is Shamballa. Back in Amestris, Alphonse lost all of his memories of the events following his and his brother's attempt to resurrect their mother. He was studying alchemy under their teacher Izumi Curtis, but after her death he began seeking a way to reunite with his brother and retrieve his lost memories. The soldiers who entered the portal from Germany appear dead in Amestris. Alphonse merges a part of his soul with one armor, which finds Ed when he was about to be killed by Dietlinde's soldiers. Alphonse's armor escapes with Ed from the soldiers, but his soul is later unlinked from the armor.

Some time later, Alphonse is guided by the homunculus Wrath to the underground city beneath Amestris' Central City to open a portal to Earth. They are attacked by the homunculus Gluttony, who brutally fights and captures Wrath between his jaws. Wrath asks Al to transmute the two of them so he can open the gate, Al complies. Meanwhile, Dietlinde contacts Noa, requesting her read Ed's mind to know to correctly open the portal. Noa accepts, thinking she would not be discriminated in the other world. Edward learns that the Thule Society plans to use the weapons from Amestris in order to help Adolf Hitler in his attempt to start a revolution, and heads to stop them. However, Hohenheim transmutes himself along with Envy at the same time that Alphonse transmutates Gluttony and Wrath. With the portal opened, Dietlinde shoots Ed, but the bullet hits his artificial arm. Dietlinde successfully enters Amestris, and becomes able to use alchemy in order to attack Central as her fanatical bigotry causes her to fear Amestris and it's people and therefore demanded it's destruction, as she never had the intention to help Hitler. Alfons rescues Ed and makes him pilot a rocket-powered plane to return to Amestris, but Alfons is shot by another member from the Thule Society after Edward leaves.

Ed appears in Amestris and is reunited with Al and his friend Winry Rockbell. The military manages to stop most of Dietlinde's soldier with the help from the alchemist Roy Mustang who has not used alchemy since the end of the anime series. After seeing Dietlinde's attacks Ed, Al and Mustang fight Dietlinde while the military defeats the army. Al transmutates his soul to a group armors, which attack Dietlinde, forcing her to retreat. Dietlinde appears in Germany, but she is killed by an officer similar to Maes Hughes. Ed returns the surviving men to Germany and to seal the gate, but to his shock, he finds Al hidden in a suit of armor. Al explains that Mustang is sealing the gate in Central, and he has also regained his memories after losing them at the end of the series. After Alphonse's' funeral, the Elrics and Noa leave Munich with the former wanting to destroy all the weapons meant to be used in Hitler's attack.

Production

Production of the film began shortly after the television series finishing its original broadcasting on Japanese channels, although pre-production started during the show's run in March, 2004. The film's production was led by director Seiji Mizushima, who also had directed the series as well. Mizushima allowed a camera crew and interviewers into the show's conference room at the Bones studios where he described how production went, as seen in a special feature on the DVD release of the film. The conference room was filled with every cut and drawing created for the show and movie, but it was eventually cleared out to make room for other projects.^[2]

The original draft of the film's script was a hundred pages long, making the film over three hours long. Sho Aikawa wrote the script. Mizushima and others had to cut a third of the script's scenes out in order to make the film an appropriate length. Some scenes and characters were removed from the final cut, including a character named Steiner who could see auras, and his role was similar to Noa's. A scene which was cut involved characters Roy Mustang and Winry Rockbell meeting in front of the late Maes Hughes' grave. It was a highly awaited scene from the perspective of the fans. By October, 2004, the script was completed and the pre-check storyboards were produced. The pre-check storyboards showed the movements of objects and characters in each shot along with the characters' lines. Production on the proper storyboards began in November of the same year, but the schedule in producing the film was immensely busy, so the directors of the film split the storyboards into six section, one for each of the directors to create.^[2]

The opening and ending scenes were drawn by Mizushima; the scene involving the debut of the film's villain was drawn by Soichi Masui; the middle section of the film was drawn by Shingo Kaneko; Edward Elric's return to his homeworld was drawn by Masahiro Ando; action scenes were drawn by Shinji Aramaki; and the battle between Wrath and Gluttony was drawn by Yutaka Nakamura. Mizushima was repeatedly harassed by the head employees at Aniplex to speed up work on the storyboards. The artwork for the film was produced once Kaneko was finished and cel-animation was used to produce several characters or items in the film. Seven-hundred of the film's animated frames had to be redone with only two weeks to the film's release.^[2]

A trailer was produced for the film in December, 2004 with Romi Park, the voice actor for Edward Elric, narrating it. Three posters were produced for the film, two teaser posters and a third for the release of the film. A "Fullmetal Festival" was held on December 26, 2004 to celebrate the show and film. Most of the directors finished their assigned storyboards by February 2005, except Shingo Kaneko, who was taking longest due to the general slow process, but his storyboards were nevertheless impressive.^[2]

Release and distribution

The film premiered in Japan on July 23, 2005.^[3] The Japanese DVD as well as the Universal Media Disc were released on January 25, 2006.^[4][5] On the same date it was published a limited edition including with a special box, English subtitles and a series of other extras.^[6]

The movie premiered at Montreal Fantasia's Festival on July 22, 2006.^[7] On February 27, 2006, Funimation annonunced that they licensed the film.^[8] The movie was premiered on August 25 in a small number of theaters by Funimation Films with little promotion. Some only ran less than 10 showings of the film. Some promotional activity was done after the film was already gone from theaters. The movie trailer was shown to a group of about 300 persons at Shiokazecon in Houston, Texas on April 27, 2006. Vic Mignogna, the English voice actor for Edward Elric, heavily promoted the film at anime conventions.^[9] On the movie's MySpace it was announced that the movie was going to be shown again in select theaters on September 20, 2007, but only for one day.^[10] During the 2006 Nan Desu Kan anime convention, the film was screened. Seiji Mizushima, director from the film, attended during the screening.^[11]

Funimation released the English DVD on September 12, 2006, while the limited edition was published on November 14, 2006.^[1] Similar to the Japanese version, the English limited edition features several extras such as interviews with the Japanese cast, a video explanation of the film's creation and 18-page guidebook featuring characters sketches.^[12][13] A special edition featuring extras, a book and cards was published on June 23, 2009.^[14] In May 2009, Funimation announced that the film would be released in Blu-ray format.^[15] It was released on November 17, 2009 and features the same special features on the limited edition minus the 18-page guidebook.^[16]

Reception

During its premiere, Conqueror of Shamballa ranked 3rd at the Japanese box office.^[17] In the second week, it fell to 7th.^[18] By next week, it ranked 10th, but it did not appear in the top ten from the following weeks.^[19][20] In the Japanese market, the film's gross revenue summed up to $9,712,635 during 2005.^[21] Overseas, it grossed to $10,197,984 during 2005.^[3] As of 2007, it grossed to ¥1.22 billion ($10.8 million) in the Japanese box office.^[22] It became the seventh most popular anime film released in Japan during 2005.^[8] In a theatrical chart from the same year, Conqueror of Shamballa ranked as the seventh best film from 2005 in Japan.^[23]

During the "9th Japanese Media Arts Festival Winners", the film was listed as "recommendable anime".^[24] In the "Tokyo Anime Fair", the film won in the categories "Animation Of The Year", "Best original story" (Hiromu Arakawa) and "Best music" (Michiru Oshima).^[25] In an Oricon's survey from 2005 the theme song from the film, "Link" by L'Arc-en-Ciel, sold 235,751 copies, ranking as fourth in the "Top 10 Anime Theme Songs of 2005".^[26] It also won the "2005 Animation Grand Award" prize in Mainichi Film Awards,^[27] and "Best Animated Film" prize in Fantasia International Film Festival (Montreal, Canada).^[28] During the American Anime Awards, the film was also nominated in the category of "Best Anime Feature".^[29] The first English DVD was the third bestselling Japanese anime DVD in the United States in 2006 with a sale ratio of 31 compared to the sales of the #1 title as 100. During 2007 the limited edition DVD from the film ranked 23rd with a sales ratio of 23.^[30] In the NEO Awards 2007 from Neo, Conqueror of Shamballa won in the category "Best Anime Movie".^[31]

Critical response to the film has generally been positive with Theron Martin from Anime News Network having found Conqueror of Shamballa as a very entertaining film "as it has all of the action, flashy magic, comedy, snappy dialogue, drama, and intrigue that made the TV series so great". The few negative points he found about the plot were lack of discussions of morality which were featured in the anime series and that "the writing and plotting just don't feel as sharp as they were for the series". He praised the additional content from the limited edition DVD as well as the English dub, but criticized the subtitles for having grammar mistakes.^[32] Although Dani Moure from Mania Entertainment did not find the story to be very original, he still favoured it due to its mix of themes, turning it into an entertaining film. He also praised the staff from the series, commenting they have done an "admirable job", making the film a "sequel well worthy of bearing the series’ name."^[33]

It also received praise by IGN's Jeremy Mullin who gave it an overall 9 over 10, having had good opinion of the graphic used during the film and how the film expands Fullmetal Alchemist's story. The film was compared to The End of Evangelion due to how both titles expand their anime's endings, resulting in a "proper ending" due to the characters' development featured in the film. Mullin also liked the audio from Conqueror of Shamballa, but added that some of the English voice actor lacked accents.^[34][35] DVD Talk writer Todd Douglass Jr. also liked the film as he was "pleased to report that the story was handled nigh-flawlessly. The inclusion of real world events helps ground the fact that Edward is in our world, but there was just something surreal about that after seeing it." He found the film's ending to be fitting for the Fullmetal Alchemist and said it will be well-received by fans from the series.^[36] While reviewing the special edition DVD, Douglass commented the extras featured in the DVD "are worth the price". However, he also added that "some people just don't care about the extras" and concluded that "this is a strong reissue that could have possibly been better, but is fine just the same".^[37]

Soundtrack

The film's music was produced by Michiru Oshima, who worked in the music of the anime. L'Arc-en-Ciel gave two of their new songs for the film's opening and closing credits, "Link" and "LOST HEAVEN", respectively. The film's orchestral music was performed by the Moscow Orchestra. "KELAS [LET'S-DANCE]", the song performed by the Roma women while Edward Elric and Alfons Heiderich hitch a ride, was composed by Ferenc Snétberger (who also played guitar for the song), with vocals by Tayo Awosusi. A soundtrack CD of the film, Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie Conqueror Of Shamballa OST, which contained forty-six tracks, was released on December 21, 2005.^[38] Singles CDs of the songs "Link" and "LOST HEAVEN" have also been released by L'Arc-en-Ciel near the film's premier.^[39][40]

References

External links

• SONY Music's Official Hagane Renkinjutsushi - Conqueror of Shambala site (Japanese)
• FUNimation Films site to Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala
• Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa at the Internet Movie Database

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