✦A longtime holder of the #1 spot in fan rankings, a rare complete, tightly-plotted story that adapts its manga to a definitive ending.
Synopsis
Two brothers try to bring their mother back with alchemy and pay the price the universe charges for that. They enlist to undo the damage and instead uncover a national conspiracy with receipts. Sixty-four episodes, zero filler, an ending that closes every thread it opened. The whole medium keeps trying to repeat this and mostly can't.
Alchemy has one law, equal exchange. Two boys break it trying to bring back their mother. One loses limbs. One loses his body. They join the military that made their country's sins. Sixty-four episodes. No filler. Alchemy's first law, applied to storytelling.
When someone asks me where to start with anime, this is the answer, every time, no follow-up questions. It's a complete story with no dead weight and a finale that pays everything off, which is rarer than it should be. Brothers, body horror, a military conspiracy that goes to the top, and characters I'd take a bullet for. It balances comedy and grief like it's showing off. I've seen it three times and the ending got me all three.
Universally beloved media is usually hiding a flaw the fandom agreed not to mention, so I went in looking for it. Sixty-four episodes later I had nothing. The plot is airtight, the villains have actual philosophy, and the ending cheats exactly zero times. I'm telling you the hype is simply accurate, and as a professional hater, that costs me something.