Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos : Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Mirosu no Sei-naru Hoshi) is a 2011 Japanese animated film based on the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise. The film was first announced after the airing of the final episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Japanese premiere was on July 2, 2011.
Funimation Entertainment has licensed the film and will release in the United States in 2012. The film will be distributed by Eleven Arts for North America, showing at more than 100 theaters. In the UK, Manga Entertainment will screen the film at BFI South Bank on 8th June 2012, followed by a home video release on September 3rd, 2012.
PLOT
The movie begins with a girl dreaming on the day her family was forcibly taken from her home by some soldiers and wakes up at night beside her older brother who is studying their parents' alchemy books. Soon the siblings hear some strange noises and the boy went ahead to investigate, but the girl, worried about him, follows him to a room where she finds two bodies hung up and dripping blood before she faints.
Years later, a criminal breaks free from prison in Amestris, and the Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse join the effort to recapture him. The duo confronts the escapee who proves himself a dangerous opponent able to create ice and lightning from the alchemy circles drawn on the palm on his hands. Despite the Elrics' efforts to capture the criminal, he ends up escaping, and after some investigation with Edward's superior Roy Mustang and his assistant Riza Hawkeye, they learn that the fugitive, Melvin Voyager escaped despite him being weeks away from being released from jail. Among his belongings, they find a newspaper page with a part cut off, and comparing with an intact copy of the same page, they find that the missing piece is a photo of a young woman named Julia Crichton who was arrested while entering illegally in the remote Table City, set in the border between Amestris and Creta.
Intrigued by the alchemy used by the criminal and his connection with Julia, the Elrics board a train to Table City to investigate further, but the train is attacked by an unknown individual who transforms into a wolf-chimera and takes control of the locomotive.
NEW CHARACTERS
Julia Crichton (ジュリア・クライトン Juria Kuraiton?)
Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English)
The tertiary protagonist of the film besides the two Elric brothers. She comes from a family of alchemists from Creta, a country on the western border of Amestris, and uses a form of alchemy the Elric brothers are unfamiliar with, allowing her to heal injuries. She was taken in as a child by the residents of Milos, a slum located at the bottom of the trench separating Amestris and Creta, and occupied by Cretan survivors of the skirmish between countries, after her parents were branded as traitors of her country and killed, her brother Ashleigh disappearing. As a member of Milos's resistance against the Amestrian-occupied Table City, she believes the only way to achieve victory is by harnessing the power of the Philosopher's Stone, which she uses to protect Milos from Atlas, a villain posing as her missing brother, and later from her own power-mad brother himself. She uses the rest of the stone's power to save her brother from death by opening the Gate of Truth at the cost of her left leg.
Melvin Voyager (メルビン・ボイジャー Merubin Boijā?)
Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Matthew Mercer (English)
An escaped fugitive and alchemist who claims to be Julia's long-lost brother Ashleigh. He uses the same form of alchemy Julia practices, which he uses to crystallize water into snow. He is revealed later in the film to be an impostor named Atlas (アトラス Atorasu?), a former guard of the Crichton family, who murdered Julia and the real Ashleigh's parents and disguised himself as Ashleigh by grafting his face onto his own. He serves as the film's primary antagonist, using Julia to help create a Philosopher's Stone so he can keep it for himself. He is killed at the film's climax by the real Ashleigh.
Herschel (ハーシェル Hāsheru?)
Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)
The commanding officer of the Cretan army stationed at the border between Table City and Milos, and the film's secondary antagonist. He wears a white mask that conceals his disfigured face. He is revealed at the climax of the film to be Ashleigh Crichton (アシュレー・クライトン Ashurē Kuraiton?), Julia's long-lost older brother, who survived being attacked by Atlas using a Philosopher's Stone kept by his parents. He commands wolf chimeras to search for Julia, and kills Atlas out of revenge for his parents' murder. However, he also tries to destroy Milos out of bitterness for the city's betrayal of his family, which brings him into conflict with Julia. After he is defeated, Julia saves his life and heals his face by opening the Gate of Truth, and he leaves Table City to be captured by Milos.
Miranda (ミランダ?)
Voiced by: Sakiko Tamagawa (Japanese), Shelly Calene-Black (English)
A commander of the Black Bats, the rebel faction from Milos that aims to reclaim Table City from its Amestrian occupants. She is killed by Atlas, who uses her blood to help activate the transmutation circle beneath Table City designed to create the Philosopher's Stone.
DEVELOPMENT
The idea to create a Fullmetal Alchemist movie set during the second anime's storyline came from the series's producers. The movie's original plot was written by Yuichi Shinbo who also came up with the new characters' names. From there, director Kazuya Murata did research on India to develop Table City, intended as a contrast to Amestris, which was based on Germany. Because it was the only time in the series that the main characters traveled to another country, Murata had difficulties concluding it, wondering if it would have an impact on the canonical storyline. Therefore, the story was set during the time Edward realized Alphonse's human body existed somewhere, with the logic that knowledge would encourage him to travel to another area to do research. Hiromu Arakawa was not included as part of the staff but was still looking forward to the film.
The official theme song for the movie is "Good Luck My Way" by L'Arc-en-Ciel, which plays over the film's ending credits. The song is the band's fourth contribution to the franchise. On May 30, 2011, singer-songwriter Miwa confirmed that she would sing for the opening credits theme, titled "Chasing Hearts".
-SOURCE WIKIPEDIA-
