Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

**Fullmetal Alchemist:  Brotherhood** is an action, adventure, drama, comedy, romance, romantic comedy, tragedy,

   fantasy anime series.  It's based on a manga series written by Hiromu Arakawa and published by Enix from 2001-2003 and Square Enix from 2003-2010.  It originally fran from July 12, 2001 to July 12, 2010, and lasted for 12 volumes in total.  The anime adaptation was directed by Yasuhiro Irie, written by Hiroshi Onogi Shoutarou Suga, musically composed by Akira Senju, and produced by Hiro Maruyama, Noritomo Yonai, Ryo Oyama, Nobuyuki Kurashige, and Studio Bones.  It originally ran from April 5, 2009 to July 4, 2010, and lasted for 64 episodes in total.  This was the second anime adaptation of the manga, which had the ending of the manga unlike the original adaptation.

## Plot

*Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood* adapts all 27 volumes of the manga, unlike the first television series. Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric are raised by their mother Trisha Elric in the remote village of Resembool in the country of Amestris. Their father Hohenheim, a noted and very gifted alchemist, abandoned his family while the boys were still young, and while in Trisha's care they began to show an affinity for alchemy. However, when Trisha died of a lingering illness, they were cared for by their best friend Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako. The boys traveled the world to advance their alchemic training under Izumi Curtis. Upon returning home, the two decide to try to bring their mother back to life with alchemy. However, human transmutation is a taboo, as it is impossible to do so properly. In the failed transmutation that results, Al's body is completely obliterated and Ed loses his left leg. In a last ditch attempt to keep his brother alive, Ed sacrifices his right arm to bring Al's soul back and houses it in a nearby suit of armor. After Edward receives automail prosthetics from Winry and Pinako, the brothers decide to burn their childhood home down (symbolizing their determination and decision of "no turning back") and head to the capital city to become government sanctioned State Alchemists. After passing the exam, Edward is dubbed the "Fullmetal Alchemist" by the State Military, and the brothers begin their quest to discover the nature of the fabled Philosopher's Stone, under the direction of Colonel Roy Mustang. Along the way, they discover a deep government conspiracy to hide the true nature of the Philosopher's Stone that involves the homunculi, the alchemists of the neighboring nation of Xing, the scarred man from the war-torn nation of Ishval, and their own father's past.

## Anime Movies

1. Fullmetal Alchemist:  The Sacred Star of Milos

## Why It Rocks

1. Incredible animation, especially during the fight scenes and the dramatic scenes.
2. Good voice acting in both sub and dub; this series retained the voice actors of the original series in both languages.
3. Very appealing art style and character designs.
4. WINRY ROCKBELL!  A big advantage that this series has over the original adaptation is that Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell actually end up together in the end.  That didn't happen in the 2003 version becuase the manga wasn't completed yet and this occurs at the very end of the series.
5. Amazing, fast paced, intense fight scenes.
6. Speaking of the fight scenes, the final fight between Edward Elric and Father is one of the best fights in all of anime.
7. Great music and soundtrack.
8. Phenomenal conclusion, far better than the 2003 adaptation.
9. While Father isn't a great villain, he's still way better than Dante was in the original series.
10. Excellent cast of characters, most of them being interesting, deep, getting character development, or at the very least being fun to watch.
11. The character development is very good in Brotherhood.  The biggest standout is Edward Elric, who undergoes such a huge transformation from the beginning to the end of the series.
12. The finale was incredibly long and awesome; it lasted a total of 14 episodes.
13. Tones of well-written, cry worthy drama.
14. This series has OLIVIA ARMSTRONG, an excellent female character who wasn't in the original show.  She's an incredible beautiful, badass, strong, and interesting sister of Alex Louis Armstrong.

## Bad Qualities

1. While Father is a better villain than Dante, he's still not horribly interesting or complex.  The only good things about him are his voice acting, (in both languages), his character design, and his fight scenes, especially in the end.
2. The origins of the Homuncuili was more interesting in the original series.  In this show they were just detachments of Father's soul, whereas in the original series they were the products of failed human transmutation, which fit very well withint he themes of Fullmetal Alchemist.
3. This version of the story abridges the first few arcs, which were elaborated on more in the original adaptation.  The reasoning was probably becuase they were already adapted and thus many viewers have already seen them, but for those who saw Brotherhood first, those story arcs won't have as much of a punch as they will in the original show.  The worst example of this is the arc that has to do wtih Nina and Tucker.

## Reception

The first fourteen episodes of *Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood* received criticism from members of the Anime News Network staff, who said that repeating events from the first anime led to a lack of suspense.[41] Mania Entertainment's Chris Beveridge said that the entertainment in these episodes lay in the differences in the characters' actions from the first series, and original content which focused on the emotional theme of the series.[42] In another review, Beveridge praised the new fight scenes and said the extra drama which made these episodes "solid".[43] Chris Zimmerman from Comic Book Bin said the series "turns around and establishes its own identity" because of the inclusion of new characters and revelations not shown in the first series, increasing its depth. He said the animation was superior to that of the first anime; his comments focused on the characters' expressions and the execution of the fight scenes.[44] Writing for *The Los Angeles Times*, Charles Solomon ranked *Brotherhood* the second best anime of 2010 on his "Top 10".[45]

Much praise was given to the climactic episodes for the way action scenes and morals were conveyed; many reviewers found them superior to the conclusion of the first *Fullmetal Alchemist* anime. Critics found the ending satisfying; Mark Thomas of The Fandom Post called it a "virtually perfect ending to an outstanding series".[46][47] In April 2010, the journal *Animage* listed it as the sixth best anime launched between April 2009 and March 2010.[48]. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has been considered by some to be one of the best anime series of all time, due especially to the quality and consistency of its story. It has ranked the first place as both the "MyAnime.List" top-rated anime series in history and on "IMDB", with "Watchmojo.com" placing it as the best anime series of all time in both of its lists from YouTube.