Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Series experience:

I watched this series around 9 years ago, and earlier this year I read the manga and watched everything else

Short review: Fullmetal Alchemist goes beyond your typical action-adventure shounen and weaves a tale of sacrifice, courage, and humanity. It may not be perfect, but it's pretty close.

Full review:

Warning: review contains spoilers

I haven’t seen anime or read any manga in around four years, and what got me to begin again was a post earlier this year about how Royai is canon (lol). I decided to read the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and here I am now, back in the game. I’ll do my best to be objective. Also, I want to write and post this review today, on October 3, as it is now a date I won’t forget.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a plot-driven shounen anime that has something for everyone - action, adventure, mystery, romance, comedy - I believe that people who see it would at least like it. The Brotherhood anime is the second anime adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa’s manga, and it follows the manga much more closely than its predecessor. There are tons of debates online about which adaptation is better, so I’m going to say now that I personally enjoy Brotherhood a lot more. This review is not just me out to defend why this is technically better (because I understand why people could like 2003 more), but I will be explaining why I personally enjoy it more.

First of all, I find the manga almost flawless. My review is linked below, and I believe that the manga is the best way this story is told. Brotherhood is pretty close. A lot of people have issues with how light the tone of Brotherhood is - I agree that the comedy was pushing it a bit for the first 10-ish episodes. The plot of the beginning is crammed a bit too, maybe because Bones decided not to reanimate some things. Either way, the Youswell mine is only talked about in a flashback, which I feel was a waste as it explains a lot about Yoki, Nina is given less screentime, which is a teeny bit less emotional, but I feel like the way they mention her throughout the series reminds us of her impact. Another big complaint people have is the treatment of the character of Hughes. I’ve seen all the other media, which is why I feel like Hughes role here is fine. Still, it’s true that the impact of Hughes’ death could be much smaller for one who has only seen Brotherhood.

Apart from the above-mentioned issues, I believe Brotherhood does spectacularly well in everything else. First of all, the rest of the plot is paced well. I believe the revealing of surprise twists are not taken for granted, and everything still ends up impactful. The episodes end on high notes that leave the watcher with a new fact, but also a new puzzle piece to add to everything. This is a faithful adaptation, so we don’t miss out on the scale of everything. As with the manga, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood starts with our brothers and expands in a way where you end up caring for a ton of protagonists and not just two people and some side characters.

The beginning has a filler, which is mediocre, but enough to reintroduce fans to the Elric brothers and the rules of alchemy, and is a decent beginner class for newcomers. From there, we follow the basic plot points from Liore to Nina to Hughes and though everything starts with the Elric brothers, we end up with Amestris, Xing, and the Truth. All of the characters in the manga are given justice in the anime, and people usually have more than one favorite. All the parallel characters seen in Xing and Mustang’s unit, as well as Father and the homonculi are fleshed out and given time to grow and shine. I like that even the anime follows the manga and does not oversexualize the women - we end up with amazing and strong male AND female characters, and I love Brotherhood for that. The voice acting is done really well too and adds a lot of character to everyone.

The characterization does not escape shounen territory too much, in that a lot of characters still talk a lot about how important nakama are and how it’s wrong to kill (well at least for our two protagonists) - but Fullmetal’s honesty makes it that you believe the characters and their reasons for sticking to their principles. Ed and Al don’t want to use souls? This goes all the way to the end and they never stop circumventing the laws that try to pin them down. Roy and Riza want to atone by fixing the country? Roy loses everything and his sight but never his vision. Ling and Greed prove that your principles rule your soul but the people who help you uphold your principles are just as important. In the last few episodes, I was crying my eyes out because of all the deaths, and yet I was really proud because the deaths weren’t useless. The investment in the characters will reap immense rewards.

One of the things I love about Brotherhood is well, everything in the second half. Once things gets real, everything starts to really get serious and the music and animation and tone just clicks. I know a lot of anime do this, but when Brotherhood’s endings start playing at the end while something big is being revealed, it makes all the songs so memorable and the scenes much more impactful as well. Go to SID’s Rain on Youtube and you’ll see a bunch of people crying about Brotherhood. The story ends where it begins, but still in the most satisfying way. Everyone gets endings defined enough but also open enough for fans to speculate, and the world itself doesn’t leave us with too many unanswered questions.

Overall, I’d recommend Brotherhood to anyone - anime fan or not. It has an engaging story which isn’t too long to tell, likable characters who grow and learn, and is an overall satisfying experience. The story manages to touch on some heavy themes but still maintain laughter and hope. Definitely a must-watch.

Plot 8/10

Animation 9/10

Characters 10/10


Overall personal enjoyment 9.5/10

Top 3 fave characters (mostly similar to the manga)

Ed - a protagonist you’ll really support!! his love for his brother is heartwarming but the way he really shines is how human he is despite his status as a prodigy, also I love Romi Park forever
Olivier - mom I love her :(( I think having her badassery animated is just a blessing. what a strong lady who still cares so much for her subordinates and family
Ling/Greed - can I put them together ? Greeling ? I love their parallels and how strong they both are. the pull to their subordinates is cheesy but I have to admit this bitch cried when Greed died (also mamoru miyano + yuuichi nakamura? i win)

Others: Scar, Envy, Roy, Izumi, Winry

Thank you for reading!

Review for the manga: Fullmetal Alchemist Review
Review for the 2003 anime adaptation: Fullmetal Alchemist Review
Review for the OVAs: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Specials Review