Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

After a horrific alchemy experiment goes wrong in the Elric household, brothers Edward and Alphonse are left in a catastrophic new reality. Ignoring the alchemical principle banning human transmutation, the boys attempted to bring their recently deceased mother back to life. Instead, they suffered brutal personal loss: Alphonse's body disintegrated while Edward lost a leg and then sacrificed an arm to keep Alphonse's soul in the physical realm by binding it to a hulking suit of armor.

The brothers are rescued by their neighbor Pinako Rockbell and her granddaughter Winry. Known as a bio-mechanical engineering prodigy, Winry creates prosthetic limbs for Edward by utilizing "automail," a tough, versatile metal used in robots and combat armor. After years of training, the Elric brothers set off on a quest to restore their bodies by locating the Philosopher's Stone—a powerful gem that allows an alchemist to defy the traditional laws of Equivalent Exchange.

As Edward becomes an infamous alchemist and gains the nickname "Fullmetal," the boys' journey embroils them in a growing conspiracy that threatens the fate of the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Elric, Edward Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Elric, Alphonse Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Mustang, Roy Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Hughes, Maes Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Greed Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Hawkeye, Riza Supporting

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Yao, Ling Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Rockbell, Winry Supporting

Takamoto, Megumi Japanese

Armstrong, Alex Louis Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Armstrong, Olivier Mira Supporting

Soumi, Youko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Yonai, Noritomo Producer

Ooyama, Ryou Producer

Reviews

Jan 29, 2026

Doc69

Recommended

No complaints, seriously. FANTASTIC.
Let's make one thing clear before I start this review, I have no experience with the previous incarnation of Fullmetal Alchemist. This series was my first foray into the world of FMA, & I must say, it is VERY excellent.

First off, the series has a huge cast of interesting & unique characters. They are each quite different from each other, and act in different ways. The way the series elegantly manages all the character's developments and story lines is a feat in itself. The series also has a fantastically crafted plot, filled with action, humor, & tragedy. Despite its mainstream appeal, it ... still maintains a mature tone that really grabs you.

The animation & art is top notch. You won't be getting any poorly edited sequences or grotesque looking art. The production values are great. I watched the series with the English voice track, and the dub did quite a good job. No complaints there. The soundtrack is excellent as well, particularly the opening & closing sequences that accompany each episode.

It goes on for some 64 episodes, & maintains your attention the entire time. It even manages to close everything up in a satisfying manner. A fantastic series. This show will make you laugh, cry, and even get angry a few times.

Loved it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 24, 2025

deereiss

Mixed Feelings

is Fullmetal Alchemist really a masterpiece?

Before I start I would like to make two premises:
- I don't think fmab is a masterpiece, although it's a very good anime, well written overall and I recommend it anyway, unfortunately I didn't find that spark of originality and genius that makes me think “wow, this is a masterpiece!”

- obviously what I’m saying is also be based on my subjective tastes, unfortunately for the most part this anime bored me, maybe because I've been consuming fictional stuff for a lot of time or maybe because I'm a little out of target, there were elements that piqued my interest, but ... nothing of what I saw really surprised me, I would have certainly appreciated it more if I had seen it a couple of years ago, when I had consumed fewer anime.

Characters:
A huge pro is definitely the fact that there is a woman's pen behind fmab and it shows in a positive way, the female characters are quite good, maybe they aren’t particularly original, but they have a nice personality, their own individuality, they do not depend on any man and are not sexualized. Unfortunately, however, most of the characters did not arouse my interest, the Elric brothers left me indifferent for most of the time, I did not find them interesting or innovative, the same goes for most of the cast, I liked Mustang during the last episodes, I loved Izumi and then there are Greed and Envy, who are the only thing in the whole anime that really captured my attention, they are well-made characters, not banal and have that extra complexity that I look for, their scenes (and the last 10 episodes) are among the few elements that did not bore me and genuinely piqued my interest.

Plot:
there are no plot holes or terrible flaws in the narration, but there are some points where I found fmab slow and for no reason, the narration times needed to be managed differently and comparing myself with some people, including some who loved fmab madly, they admitted that they also found problems with the narration times.
The plot is quite linear, nothing crazy and if it wasn't for the slowness I would have found it enjoyable, however the last 10 episodes were much more interesting and enjoyable.
One thing that I didn't like at all is the comedy, placed here and there randomly in an absolutely inefficient way, there are anime and manga in which comedy is used between serious scenes in a way that benefits the narration (like golden kamuy), but fmab doesn't do this well, I found really annoying the comedy moments in which Edward randomly screams because he's annoyed by something.
Speaking of the ending I have to say that I liked it, I would have preferred a more misanthropic and macabre twist, but this is something that depends exclusively on my subjective taste (I have a fairly pessimistic view of humanity), the ending is adequate for the work.
However, I must admit that I preferred Edward and Winry as friends, I liked their friendship because it was spontaneous and sincere and in general their relationship did not give me the idea of ​​a romantic couple, but of a solid and healthy friendship between a boy and a girl.
I would add that in my opinion the alchemy aspect should have been explored more, the magic system is really interesting, but all the potential that came from it in my opinion was a little wasted.

Do I think it's a masterpiece? no, but overall it does what it has to, I would define it as average/quite good, I definitely recommend it, but if you have been consuming fictional products and fantasy stories for a lifetime you might find it uninteresting, however I recognize that in the animanga universe it had its importance (but not as much as stuff like evangelion and madoka magica that deconstructed two genres or urusei yatsura that invented a way of doing comedy).
The message it conveys is positive, but I am definitely out of target to be fascinated by it.
I conclude this review by saying that what I saw was not what I expected from something that is described as an undisputed masterpiece, I can’t deny that I was disappointed.

P.S.
One of the things I like most about fmab is the fact that the protagonist has two prostheses, I think it is a well-made representation, especially because it’s shown the maintenance side of the prostheses and what is behind it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 16, 2025

kymaros

Not Recommended

Funny

Generic shounen anime with flat characters and childish moral distinction. Anything that has an ounce of grey is classified as unthinkable. The villains are bad, but killing them is even worse (even though they are literally trying to kill you right now).

No character growth because they are just caricatures. Every serious scene gets interrupted with unfunny chibi jokes.

A boatload of tertiary characters. Every single character in a scene has to comment something obvious and useless as infodump. There is no nuance to the relationships between conflicting personalities.

There is no story coherence and no sense of purpose, as the plot overextends the main objective of the ... MCs it ends up resorting to 'everything will be just fine'.

After the first reasonable death, having organs impaled, blood loss and spine-breaking contusions, all turn out to be non-lethal and non-incapacitating.

Alchemy is supposed to be scientific, but it is just magic used as plot device. For example, one time a character was literally dying for 5 minutes, but suddenly can use restorative alchemy to patch themselves, even though it has never been shown they can do that in any similar situation before.

The battles are tedious, just like most generic shounen anime: a lot of talk for no reason, commentary from non-fighters, the villain monologues something that gives a hint to their weakness, someone random irrupting, sudden powerups because fighting spirit and screaming righteousness heals the fist-sized hole in your lungs.

Background music is terribly used: the same eerie piano is used for thinking moments, shocking scenes, and a normal conversation, and the rest is just forgettable.

Brotherhood is the complete opposite of FMA.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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