Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Specials

Series experience:

I watched Brotherhood a few years ago, and I read the manga earlier this year, watched everything else recently

Short review: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s specials are beautifully told short stories that serve to enrich the history of Amestris and those of the characters that we know and love.

Full review:

Warning: review contains spoilers

There are four short episodes to this OVA and they mostly serve as backstories to some characters. They all come from gaiden/extra chapters in the manga with a little additional content.

The Blind Alchemist: When I read this in the manga, it moved me a lot. The animation is no different. This is just a side story but it still serves as a powerful reminder of the taboo and it’s disastrous effects. Still, in the end, the way the family hid the effect of the transmutation from Jude reminded me of how FMA characters really emphasize family and caring. I suppose this short also reminds us that we only know three people (Ed, Al, and Izumi) who committed human transmutation and this widens our scope, telling us that maybe Father just doesn’t know about some others who continue to live this way.

Simple People: Simple People is a really simple story, and yet I found myself thinking about it a lot after I read the manga. I love how Winry and Riza, as parallels of each other, respect each other a lot. It’s true that people have the simplest reasons for things. This short episode shows us how profound the storytelling in Fullmetal Alchemist could be at times.

Tales of the Master: I like Izumi so I liked this story. It gives us insight as to why she dumped the Elric brothers in a remote island for a month, and also as to what (or who) plagued Briggs’ reserves for a while. Pretty funny but badass at the same time. The little anime-only ending of how Izumi met her husband (you dropped your bear!) was adorable!

Yet Another Man's Battlefield: Most of the backstory in this one is anime added, and done well. The audience is once more reminded of just how much the soldiers went through in the Ishvalan War. Seeing Roy and Hughes make an Ishvalan friend and have to face him again as an enemy is painful to watch. Heartfelt and angsty (for those who missed the dark side of FMA). Always good to see Hughes as well.

There are times that OVA are absolutely useless additions to anime, with only fanservice or random non-canon stories. I was surprised that these OVA really served to give us more Brotherhood. We learn more about character motivations and backgrounds, and the episodes are pretty much as engaging as real ones. Recommended for fans of the Brotherhood series.

Plot 7/10

Animation 9/10

Characters 8/10


Overall personal enjoyment 8/10

Thank you for reading!

Review for the 2003 anime adaptation: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Review