Story 10/10
Overall: Slow buildup nonetheless very coherent and strong story
minus point: first 15 episodes’ pacing problem and its comedy.
The story itself is VERY coherent and complete. It follows the original manga from start to end, so no fillers and every episode has some meaning and connection to its end. Brotherhood series is comparable to jigsaw puzzle that you get pieces from here and there and at the end, everything comes together as a beautiful picture conveying one message. But. there are few irritations mainly based on pacing and comedy placement. This is what original fullmetal alchemist attack most on its brother and it is true. The first 15 episodes or so is very rushed and comedy is a bit uncontrolled. But after that, pacing problem gets settled and comedy.... you kind of get used to it. Also another problem is that although finale proportion more than makes up for the wait, you have to get through first tens of episodes to get to the most intense part which is the last 10-20 episodes.
Art 10/10
Overall: Top notch quality. Unique character design and beautiful scenary. Rare deformed art.
minus point: Those who have seen original might not like it. Not to standard “MOE” art too. Well.. I could sum it up as personal preference(Although I prefer brotherhood, I like original art style)
Another point that originals point out about brotherhood. Personally I prefer original style because it just has more slimmer, cuter character design. But, once again, not much of a problem- the art itself is very clear, scenary well described and overall well-done too. Although it does stand apart from the standard “MOE” art. Quality is once again very top-notch and character design.. need I say more?
Sound: 9/10
Overall: Well going along ops, eds and some memorable ones too. Great bgm.
......maybe not as memorable as original though...
Once again in comparison to the original series. First op-YUI “Again”, First ed- Sid “Uso”/ Second op-NICO touches the wall “Hologram”, Second ed- “Let it out”/ Third op-Sukima Switch “Golden time lover”, Third ed Tsunaida – Lil'B/ Fourth op Chemistry “Period”, Fourth ed Scandal “Shunkan Sentimental/ Fifth op Sid ”Rain, Fifth ed “Ray of light”/ The op and ed are pretty well placed, especially second ending which had many episodes which literally needed some “letting out” and fourth op and ed. The most preferred op in brotherhood generally in western fandom is “Period”. I am from Asian country which also has many, MANY brotherhood fans and the best song of the whole series is considered to be Sid’s “Rain”. Not only good ops and eds, It has some amazing bgms too. The best example would be “Trisha’s lullaby” or “Main theme” from soundtracks. Especially, FANTASTIC JOB with placing “Main Theme”. If you watched it, you will know what I mean and if you haven’t why don’t you check it out yourself?
Though... there are lots of fans that in terms of soundtrack, original series did better.. and I kinda agree. Still top-notch though.
Character 10/10(maybe even more)
Overall: Right kind of growth to each and every character. 3d character that is independent of the show’s main protagonist and has his or her own goals.
I have seen many reviews that point out good character development, but usually they don’t point out “how” Because original series did a superb job on thinking about humanity and deep ptsds and mother complexes and such, the character development of brotherhood is considered to be shallow but if you really think that, you may have to rethink the meaning of “character development”
The main viewpoint is that how main protagonist “Edward Elric” who is child prodigy, goes on to learn what he believed to be the strongest merit of human being is actually not and learns what makes human really great. To further elaborate would be spoiler but after finishing the series, if you compare some of the attitudes he showed and some lines he blurted out from the start and the end of the series, you will see the distinct difference. And what protagonist gets to realize is actually the main point of the story.
Not only the main protagonist, Scar, Ling, Roy are the main characters that get very coherent and well character development throughout the story. It is very easy to miss how they grew and developed but if you pay attention to it, you’ll see how author gave them the right kind of hardship and epiphany in order for them to move foreward. I am actually going to elaborate on that point down below, but its gonna contain some major spoilers so you’ll just have to watch it if you want to see it.
Also, another main character gets highlighted but saying who it is may also be spoiler for you.....Let’s just say he just so strived to become human, and makes a nice contrast to another major antagonist.
Not only that, many characters, down to one-episode character has a chance to shine its value. While many shows highlights main character too much that other character’s fight and struggle becomes appetizer for the main fight, there is none of that.
Also, what I would like to point out is that many characters that plays major role to the story is not dependent on the main character’s main goal. All the major characters have different goals but in order to achieve there separate goals, they have to overcome something together, and that’s why although fullmetal alchemist brotherhood series is a series for Elric brothers, it could easily be another series seen from other character’s point of view... which is kind of realistic because well, all people are protagonist of their own life and has different individual goals right?
Enjoyment 10/10
Overall: Brotherhood is the series I preferred and many agree that plot-wise it is a bit more coherent and well constructed, but some of the elements are superior in original.. It all comes down to personal preferrences I suppose. Solely on its evaluation, it is great, in comparison to original, I believe it is superior too.
Now, this is the part where I get to the core point of the review. Will you like it? The answer is, if you like shounen, well-told coherent plot, opitimistic, a bit idealistic views, you will like it.
Now then, what is the difference between brotherhood and original series?
Brotherhood is a greater scale of story which focuses on not only the Elric brothers but other character’s development to convey a message about humanity as a whole. Its basically about seeking answers to “What makes human great” and it the process you will see many weaknesses of human itself and how each character overcomes it. Basically, much more oriented towards “what the anime tried to convey” I’ll get to that more specifically on spoiler zone.
Original story is a smaller scale of story which focuses more on Elric brothers and drives to the core question of humanity “Is human great?” And by which means, the atmosphere is uncomparably darker, and because it focuses more on side story and each character’s tragedy, although its shounen, it closely goes in area or Seinen.
Now what to watch?
If you like heartbreaking sorrowful story that focuses more on characters, I recommend original. If you like story that has greater scale and has fights and like hopeful atmosphere, I recommend brotherhood. While original has some fillers, it does has its own coherent storyline, so I have no intention of counting that down. Actually, it is one of the best original storyline animes ever had that deviates from the manga. But, despite the excellent job of original, I prefer brotherhood. Plot wise and the wrap-up of the brotherhood is more clean, and all wrapped up. Also, how the brotherhood places each and every elements and characters are poetic to the point you get to doubt “Is this really an anime?”
And now.. the highlight of the review-
Spoiler Zone-
What is this show trying to say and how it was conveyed.
The main point of the show is, as I have said repeatedly “What makes human great?” This is actually shown by so many symbolism and character development.
Character development
First, let’s think about Edward Elric, the main protagonist of the series. His father left the house when he was very young and his mother died too. Combined that with brilliance in alchemy, he became a person who was fiercely independent as to not relying on anybody to the point he was arrogant. He thought alchemy was the key to everything, even to the point he thought he could bring his mother back with his alchemy skills. Some might disagree with me, but although it was out of desperation it was also an utter, undeniable arrogance. Who does he think he is that he could bring a human being back solely out of its ingredient?
He has seen atrocity of alchemy at the start point of the show, but still at that point, he thought alchemy was answer to all and still was fiercely independent.
He slowly realized alchemy could not be answer to all by realizing the atrocity of it. He seems homunculus, he finds out philosopher’s stone, hell, he sees a small girl turned into a chimera with no solution whatsoever to turn her back. Experiencing all this, he sees, “Alchemy cannot possibly be answer to everything.”
Also, not relying on others and trying to solve everything by himself could be seen in the act of going to Lab 5 alone which he gets scolded from Ross “Why don’t you trust adults more?” He refuses to listen to Greed just because he was angered which also he was reprimanded by greed “Succumbing to anger, will you lose valuable information and your brother?” This makes a nice contrast when he agrees to go under homunculus greed to fight against father saying ‘he can’t lost valuable information just because of his pride.“ Also, at Liore he just said to the priest ”I’ll teach you the difference between you and me“ to facing father which come the same line replacing ‘I’ to ‘we’. This also relates to the final confrontation to the Truth which Edward says ”I was from the beginning a mere human, who couldn’t even save a little girl.“ After that he says ”It is okay because there are everyone“ He has found his answer that what makes human great is not alchemy but interaction between the human beings which is one of the important message of the story. Note that Ed was the one who killed homunculus Pride-creepy symbolism there
Summed up: An arrogant child who thought alchemy was the answer to everything killed pride, and had to give up his source of pride(alchemy) to bring back what he lost from pride.
Moving on to other characters, Scar is also a notable character. Consumed by vengeance, he just becomes nothing but a serial killer. But while doing that, what made him doubt his path was Winry and his memory of his brother. Although there were many instances that led Scar to turn to protagonist’s side, the most shocking moment was the dejavuu which he was in the position of Kimblee and Ed and Winry was in the position of he and his brother. It could be seen that what caused Scar to get out of the never ending circle of vengeance to the rightful anger was job of both his deceased brother and Winry. This is what I mean by what human makes human great is interaction between humans. After overcoming the blind anger, he was truly able to revenge the true culprit of his tragedy-King Bradley
Summed up : A human consumed by blind vengeance has to learn to swallow and control his anger and cooperate whom he hated so much(Amestrians) to really kill the source of his wrath-King Bradley(homunculus wrath)
Next is Ling. Ling although is portrayed almost constantly good character was one the verge of line which he could have been consumed by greed. At the first appearance, he demanded philosopher’s stone and questioned the secret to binding a soul. When he did receive homunculus greed, he was actually overwhelmed by it except when Ed mentioned Lan Fang and Fuu. He learned not to succumbed or consumed by greed, but rather work with it towards the end to achieve his goal- a rightful growth considering he had no experience of dealing with greed (unlike mustang who was controlling his greed on the path of careerist) and if he got to be a ruler of a country, a trait he must have.
Summed up: A prince consumed by greed had to learn to work with it than rather being consumed by it lost Greed and got what he had greed for(throne).
Next is Alex Armstrong. A big softy with no heart of steel to stay in the military to fight against it, nor rebel against it nor accept the duty ‘ran away’ from the cruel reality of Ishval war. Quite indolent compared to Roy, Riza or even his own sister. But after he chose not to be indolent, he stands together with his sister who reprimanded his indolency most to defeat Sloth and contributed to changing the military’s reality-something which made he indolent in the past.
Summed up: A soldier caught with indolency faced with cruel reality, overcomes it and defeats Sloth with his sister and contributed to changing the reality.
Finally, Roy Mustang, who was also in the line of succumbing to blind wrath and vengeance which was prevented by Riza Hawkeye.
Homunculus death
Wrath is killed by human(Scar) wrath and god(sun) wrath combined
Greed sacrifices himself to his greed(for companion)
Lust is killed by womanizer’s(Roy's) care(perhaps love) for his subordinate(perhaps lover)(Riza)
Envy is kills himself out of self loathe after his envy is exposed
Sloth gets killed fighting too hard.
Pride is diminished by Edward’s pride
Gluttony is eaten.
Main Theme
“We humans may be weak, but because we don’t give up and go forward, because we have other people to support us, because we know our weaknesses and struggle to overcome them, we are able to become great.”
Humans may be weak- it is told throughout the story borrowing homunculi’s lines, and the atrocity of humans. A child(Edward) consumed by arrogance was let down by his failure. A soldier(Roy Mustang) who tried to serve country had to massacre hundreds of people. Another soldier(Armstrong) ran away from cruel reality. Brilliant mind(Dr. Marcoh) was forced to commit human experiments. A priest(Scar) upon seeing his brother and people’s death became blind with vengeance. Humans were caught is some experiment and became something they didn’t want(Ling, Hohenheim.)
A weak human was just a mere human with no power to change anything.
But, amidst that, they couldn’t give up and went on. (Ed, Roy, Alex Armstrong, Ling, Hohenheim...etc.) In the process, they had many support. The child gained new arm and leg to walk with his own feet(Support from Winry). When succumbed by anger, there was someone to stop him from going rampant(Roy-Riza) The soldier caught with indolence had someone to reprimand him for it(Olivier Armstrong) The priest blinded by rage came to senses by his memory of his brother and a small girl(Scar-his brother and Winry) A man who became philosopher’s stone had the courage to go for journey to become human because he had support of his wife(Trisha) and power to go up against father by support by millions of souls(Xerxesians) The prince was able to keep himself being consumed because of his people(Yao clan and his people)
Final fight which Father is alone with no whatsoever back up and all humans go up against him and Edward’s statement toward god is a great confirmation to to message it was willing to deliver - Humans become great because despite many shortcomings, we do not give up and go on with people to support our backs. That is the core theme of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Simple but coherently delivered huh.
That’s why I love this anime.
