Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa - Reception

Reception

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

During the "9th Japanese Media Arts Festival Winners," the film was listed as "recommendable anime." 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). 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." It also won the "2005 Animation Grand Award" prize in Mainichi Film Awards, and "Best Animated Film" prize in Fantasia International Film Festival (Montreal, Canada). During the American Anime Awards, the film was also nominated in the category of "Best Anime Feature." 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. In the NEO Awards 2007 from Neo, Conqueror of Shamballa won in the category "Best Anime Movie."

Critical response to the film has generally been positive. It currently holds a 91% rating among the Rotten Tomatoes community. 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. Although Dani Moure from Mania Entertainment did not find the story to be very original, he still favored 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."

It also received praise by IGN's Jeremy Mullin, who gave it an overall 9 over 10, having had good opinion of the graphics 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 actors lacked accents. 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. 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."