Mostly spoiler-free review!

I know there's a fair amount of debate as to what the "correct" way to watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is. Some insist you have to watch the original series, while others say you don't. Since there was a lot of contradictory information floating around the internet regarding this, I decided to take my brother's advice and just watch Brotherhood as is. That is to say, this is a review coming from someone who has only seen Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

First off, I enjoyed it. But while I will concede that it may have been the cream of the crop for its time, I don't think it holds up by modern standards (in regards to both storytelling and animation quality). As is the case with other cult classics such as Death Note, I think Brotherhood suffers from its own success. A lot of people, myself included, come in with high expectations when a series such as this receives recognition to this degree, and are subsequently let down when the series doesn't turn out to be the life-changing experience that everyone has been hyping it up to be.

Now, with that little preamble out of the way, let's get into the nitty-gritty.

As far as the story goes, the overarching plot and the motivation of the main characters were interesting enough to get me hooked right from the beginning. I was rooting for Ed and Al to get their bodies back the whole way through and I was genuinely interested to see how they would achieve it when it's clearly established that any kind of human transmutation should be impossible. It goes against the laws of nature.

However, while a good story is fine and all, slow pacing or a plot that meanders around can seriously damage it. And I felt like that was exactly the case with Brotherhood. The main plot frequently takes a backseat to bore the audience with politics or history lessons from secondary characters that seem to have very little to do with the situation at hand. Exposition is also handled poorly at times, usually in the form of flashbacks that are placed in the middle of the story with no connection to the present. Meanwhile, most of the main bad guys are playing 4D chess off-screen somewhere.

So if you were expecting an "action-packed shonen" with lots of spectacular fights and intense moments, temper your expectations a little. A good chunk of the show is spent dabbling in politics (I have no idea why the author thought this was a good idea) and things don't really start happening until you're 40-50 episodes in. It's a shame, but I think the ending more than makes up for it, even if some of the plot developments didn't really make a whole lot of sense.

The cast was a mix of both bland characters and interesting characters, and there's quite a number of them so don't feel bad if you can't keep track of all of them. Some of them (four characters in particular) also seem to come into the story out of nowhere with not much of an introduction, but I just learned to accept it. These days most series tend to give secondary characters a little more backstory, but in Brotherhood most of the focus was on the main characters so you're left with a supporting cast that doesn't feel fully fleshed out. That said, some of them can be very likable and I did find a few favorites personally.

Overall, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was an entertaining ride with slow pacing and a finale that brings closure to just about everything you were wondering about while watching. Is it worthy of the number one spot? I wouldn't say so, I have watched plenty of shows that are far more deserving of it. Top ten, however? Yeah, definitely. Which is why I'm giving it an 85.