"COMPLETE BEST" is a bit of an awkward title for this collection. Yes, it is "complete" in that this CD compiles the eight songs that opened and closed the credit segments of the anime TV series, but titling it "best" is a bit superfluous, since these are the ONLY songs to bookend the episodes. None of the fine instrumental music heard throughout the series is included here.
If you've watched the series on DVD then you should already be familiar with each of these songs but, if you're like me, and followed the show as it aired in the US on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (which only used two of the opening themes), then some of the music will be new to you. Your enjoyment of this CD will rest heavily on your tolerance for commercialized pop music, which for me, can be a bit of a challenge.
The CD is sequenced so that opening and closing themes alternate. This was a wise choice, as the opening songs tend to be up-tempo rockers sung by men, the closing numbers being mostly sweet or melancholic songs sung by women, and switching between the two in the linear fashion of playing the disc in track order helps to highlight the differences between them.
Of the four opening-credit songs L'Arc-En-Ciel's "Ready, Steady, Go!" and Asian Kung-Fu Generation's "Rewrite" packs the most punch (it didn't hurt that both were accompanied by well-crafted animated sequences). In this catergory Porno Graffitti's "Melissa" sounds out of step not just within the soundtrack, but the series in general, taking a sunny upbeat tone that clashed with some of the earlier episodes' darker themes that it shared (the "Mother" and "Night of the Chimeras Cry" episodes comes to mind).
The closing-credit songs served well as reflective meditations on whatever misfortunes the protagonists faced by episode's end. I don't play these as often, but Yellow Generation's "To The Other Side Of The Door" is, I think, the strongest in this category.
The cover of the booklet is the only place where artwork of the characters is featured. The interior contains the lyrics to each track (in Japanese only) and postage stamp-sized photos of each band/artist. A bonus DVD is included with a video of Nana Kitade's "Indelible Sin", but it's accompanying visuals has only vague themes that tie it to the series (and no FULLMETAL animation). The running time for the music disc clocks barely over 34 minutes, so I suspect the DVD was tossed in to justify a full CD's sticker price, making the whole package seem unnecessarily padded.
Final Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars (based on my enjoyment of the music alone)