A long time ago two brothers embarked on a journey in search of what they had once lost. The elder was called Edward Elrik, the younger Alphonso Elrik. They fought, the cried, they gained and they lost. Made friends, made enemies,shaped a whole country, and maybe even the world.
Most of you know, that it’s not the first anime serialization that was made. Between 2003 and 2004 Fullmetal Alchemist aired with 51 Episodes. However, at that point the manga was still ongoing and with the blessing of Hiromu Arakawa Studio BONES wrote their own ending.
Eventually the manga progressed to a point, where a new interpretation was simply needed, so in 2009 the first of 64 shiny new Episodes met its audience: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was born.
The first episodes naturally followed the same events as the last installment. But soon the story line separated and the viewer was thrown deeper into the secrets of alchemy and the journey of the Elrik-Brothers.
The main story starts with the brothers are left all alone after the death of their mother. Edward especially can’t accept this fact so they begin studying the works of famous Alchemists and try the one thing that is forbidden: The Human Transmutation- the creation of a human. Things go wrong, badly wrong.
Edward loses one arm and one leg while his brother his whole body. His soul from that moment on is bonded to a huge armor. So Edward has only one goal in mind: To regain the body of his brother with the help of the Philosopher’s Stone, a mystical power that can grant anything without being bound to the law of equal exchange. They leave the home they have known, and manifest their determination by burning it down. They have no place to return to and just have to keep going.
The first goal is becoming a National Alchemist, a dog for the army, so they can access the many resources the army can provide. But something shady is going on in the country. Shadowy figures emerge from the depth of ones nightmares.
It’s the beginning of one of the best told anime and manga in the last few years because the whole time, you just don’t see what’s coming.
True at the beginning it’s hard to follow the events, because the adaption plunges the viewer right into the heart of the story, without much introduction. For the fan-boy who knows the original series or even the manga, it’s no problem, however anybody new will have a slight problem to adjust at the beginning.
Soon the storyline of the original and the new adaption part ways and never get back together again. It is important to consider that the end of the first show is totally made up. I don’t say it’s a bad ending as it suits the show and it’s pace. However, Brotherhood is faster. The Studio had more material to draw from and you can see that. More characters, more places, more plots, more secrets. Not far into the story the pace gets even quicker and soon it feels like running alongside the brothers on their wild chase through the country.
You can say the anime doesn't do silence and the moment of stillness well. There are a few isolated moments where I beg to differ, but overly it’s true. The anime doesn’t take a breath and allow us to really look back over the past events and let us gather our energy for the next jump into the darkness of the human mind, but everybody needs to decide how that works for themselves. I didn’t mind, because the rest of the show works as it should be.
We get a good insight into the characters, their motivation, their development and they are believable in the context of the story. And with the development of the story that works just fine.
But still the best part is, that we don’t have a real evil villain. True, something sinister is going around, but it’s more the greed for power then the intention to do harm that motivates the figures in their actions against others. And that makes the anime different at the end because everyone in it needs to make choice for what they want to fight and on which side they stay.
Nothing is heroic in a war that is fought with everything you got.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime you can watch again, and again and again. You will enjoy it.
Taury’s Rating: 8.5/10
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Episodes: 64
Aired: 2009-2010
Creator: Hiromu Arakawa
Director: Yasuhiro Irie
Music: Akira Senju
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 1 (Episodes 1-13) and Part 2 (Episodes 14-26) are avaible on DVD, Part 1 and Part 2 also on Blue-Ray.
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