Full Metal Alchemist

This will not be done for some time as this anime has alot of things that it has taught me over the years

Perhaps what was my introduction into good anime, FMA began with a few crucial things.
-I didn't hate the characters Faces. I was used to stereotypical too large/shiney eyes and bodies that didn't make sense.
-The voice acting made me care
-Understanding that the characters understood the predicaments they were in.
-What you are trying to follow is not always so black and white in the real world.
-It starts off with Alchemy as pretty much the most ideal science ever. (Make whatever you want with scienced-magic)
-Choices

The Elric brothers are very close. They have to be as they are the only family they have left. Set in the 1900's in an alternate universe where alchemy is the most advance science, and technology otherwise revolves around steam-punk tendencies meant to draw influences the industrial revolution. Ed and Alphonse Elric have been teaching themselves alchemy since they were children becoming near geniuses in their material. Living alone with their mother after their father leaves them, they grew up with just themselves and their neighbor Winry. Their mother soon dies waiting for their father to return. Grief stricken, and empowered with their grasp of alchemy, the brothers plot how one might go about transmuting their mother back to live, the greatest taboo in alchemy, human transmutation. Their attempt leaves them terribly wounded. Al loses his entire body and is only saved when Ed gives his arm in payment to bind his brother's soul to a nearby suit of armor having already lost a leg from their experiment.


The topics that are discussed throughout this story range from actualized helplessness, ever changing idea of what is and is not moral, power of family ties, power to protect those you care for, the extent of pain that one must fight through for their goal, what does it mean to be human,etc (I'll add more when I think of them)
This anime is consistently rated as the best anime because of how smoothly the pacing goes along, amazing voice acting, great music score, and most importantly deep characters who contemplate realistically as they are forced to make choices.
It is really quite hard for me to pin down why I love this series because taking one part does not do it justice. The whole thing is beautiful. You will cry periodically through several of these episodes. Al almost always refers to Ed as "brother". This was strange, but it grew very quickly on me because of just how personal that term is. The entire story is personal. You make it personal as you watch these characters. The characters are what drives this show. All of them have a story. All of them relate to each other. All of them are intelligent human beings.

Apart from everything, FMA draws on a large color palette that never clutters. Something I found elsewhere online that is completely true is just how much care went into making each character look distinct. There is no cut/paste anime girl face in this show.