First of all, the story. It starts out dark, atmospheric, and complicated, just like the first anime, but unfortunately the story loses most of that atmosphere about a quarter of its way into the story, where as FMA was able to maintain that feeling of brooding tension from beginning to end. The pacing is terrible as well, and the reason of this is also the main reason as to why the story loses its feel: the first act. Arkawa wrote the manga in a fairly clean three part story;
-the first act (which concludes with Greed's spoiler)
-the second act (Briggs)
-the third act (Promise Day)
The problem with the first act isn't in its composition, indeed, in terms of composition I'd say that that the first act is the best of the three. Its all in the manner in which the story is told. The entire first act is blasted through in about 15 episodes, followed by a choppy, confusing transition into the second part. The rest of the story suffers as a result, as the second act is entirely plot driven with little space for development with the main characters, which in turn leads to the feeling that you're not actually watching a story as much as you are just watching people you don't care about do things for hours on end. The third act is admittedly outstanding, but there is still a slight feeling of indifference radiated by several characters and certain events take an absurd amount of time to come to pass. There is a reason for this pacing problem, that problem being that the show seemingly expects people to have watched the first series and tries not to bore them with the first act. Which is completely and utterly idiotic given the unbreakable golden rule of adaptations: never assume that the audience has seen the original or read the book. The ending is a mixed bag as well. Its undeniably satisfying, but it is also far too simple and happy for such a complex series.
The cast of Brotherhood is a mixed bag, some characters (Ed, Alphonse, Scar, Izumi, Major Armstrong) are solid, but not as good they were in the original. Others (pretty much just Mustang and Winry) are better than they were in the original due to a higher level of focus and more interesting subplots. A few characters, unfortunately, are either boring archetypes or just plain useless. May Chang and Yoki have practically no purpose in the story other than to be love interests or comedy relief. There is no depth to their characters and no real purpose (May Chang does introduce a new kind of Alchemy to the main characters, but that could have also been done just as easily by Ling giving Ed a book or something), so when they get in danger or die, the audience has no reason to give a damn other than "Well, I thought she was kind of cute.". The worst character, however, is easily Olivier Mira Armstrong, and believe me (or hate me, which is probable) when I say that this character is the literal epitome of almost everything wrong with modern media. So many people these days fall in love with characters just because they subvert gender/racial stereotypes, which isn't even remotely close to being a reason to like a character (unless if you in turn are racist or sexist). Olivier Mira Armstrong isn't well rounded, has no character development other than a cliche growing of fondness towards her "weak" brother, and does absolutely nothing other than order others around and act like a badass (and by badass I mean backstabbing old guys and getting her ass handed to her by the dumbest character in the series). We never see Olivier laugh, cry, get scared, or do anything other. Good character my ass. As for the villains, there is some good and some bad. Pride and Kimblee are awesome, though I still prefer the orginal Kimblee. Envy is a decent one as far as generic psychopaths are concerned, and the Azula moment that he pulls against Mustang towards the end is spectacularly handled. Wrath on the other hand is a badass but forgettable, and his moment of goodness in the end felt horribly contrived. The big bad lead villain works, but is basically a less subtle Voldemort with a vendetta against God. Once again, badass, but forgettable.
As far as art goes, FMAB is okay. Some things look a bit too round (Mustang literally looks like a five year old) and Edward's hair takes even longer to get used to. The action, animation, soundtrack, and voice acting are all brilliant and help ease you through the story where the pacing and the tension fails.
Overall, Brotherhood is a pretty good series, as long as you don't think too much about the ending or tha pacing or the characters. Just enjoy the ride and don't expect the masterpiece that the MAL community might pressure you into believing it is.
