Finished the FMA manga. I'm glad I was able to go into it virtually spoiler free somehow. An impressively tight story that almost never missed a beat along with a very well rounded cast. Some post read thoughts

Really enjoyed the various group of characters. I'll always love the exploration of non-human entities becoming more human like as they try to find their meaning in life. For that reason Bradley and Greed were some of my favs. Both just excellent.

It was also great to have a nice roster of adult characters. Not making the plot solely rely on kids really helped with my immersion of the world. They were all strong characters that brought their own ideals and personalities to the world of FMA.

Promised day was a final arc that truly exceeded my expectations. Everything came together precisely and tied everyone's character arcs with a nice bow on top. Nothing felt contrived and I'm always satisfied with a happy ending.

I do think however that the tightly written plot was a bit of a double edged sword. While the writing was consistently excellent it didn't have the peaks that would make this a true favorite for me. It felt on the cusp often, but never quite reaching peak for me.

Outside promised day I was a little disappointed with the character moments (not including ED's). Backloading majority of the payoff to Promised day did diminish some of it for me since none of the moments had the time or space to shine for a long period of time.

Overall though this was definitely an enjoyable experience and a story I'll want to revisit in the future and in other media forms. Arakawa's love for the medium was on full display and between FMA and SIlver Spoon she is firmly one of my favorite mangakas.