There are some shows that when people find out I haven't seen them, they go nuts. There are a lot of shows that are so legendary, so fantastical, have made such a huge impact on the world that we live in, that it would be considered a crime to not watch it. 2015 was a pretty amazing year for me, in terms of the anime I watched. I knocked out some pretty big titles during that year. One of them being the 2003-2004 adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist. And, to sum up my enjoyment of that show in one sentence, I'll just say this. I WATCHED ALL 51 EPISODES IN JUST 2 DAYS. Ya.
I cannot believe that it took me that long to watch this show. But despite how ridiculously quick I fell in love with this show, I didn't wanna immediately jump into the 2009 adaptation known as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I wanted to take some time, so that I can watch Brotherhood with a fresh mind and relive the memories of the show I loved so much. Brotherhood is 64 episodes long. And I finished it in 1 week. So if you want my short and sweet opinion on these shows, I'll just say it right here. Fullmetal Alchemist AND Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are some of the greatest anime, no, some of the greatest worlds, characters, stories and overall greatest experiences I have ever had in my entire life. And yes, I think that for both of them.
For the longest time, I was hesitant to start watching Fullmetal Alchemist because I was a bit confused on the whole original VS Brotherhood thing. For those who aren't aware, when the original Fullmetal Alchemist was being created, the anime actually caught up to where the manga was. And instead of waiting for the manga to get finished, the manga creator gave the animation company permission to go on and create their own version of the story, without any source material to go off of. A little after episode 25 in the original Fullmetal Alchemist, the story branches out in a direction created entirely by the production company, Bones. A lot of people weren't too pleased about this, and by popular demand, Fullmetal Alchemist was brought back in 2009 with a new anime called Brotherhood. For the first 13 episodes of Brotherhood, they pretty much recap the first 25 episodes of the original anime in half the time. Episodes 14 and onward, are all new material, completely based on the story of the manga.
So when I was trying to get into this franchise, and I asked people which version I should watch, whether it be the original, Brotherhood, or both, I NEVER heard a single person recommend watching both of them. On top of that, I never heard a single person even like both of them. They would always either say that the original is amazing and Brotherhood is awful, or vice versa. Well, I went ahead and watched both of them. I watched them a year apart from one another, to keep a fresh mind and opinion on them both. And you wanna know what I think. I 100% believe that it would be an ABSOLUTE CRIME to only watch one of them! Both Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are absolute masterpieces in their own individual ways. Not only do i recommend this show to everyone, but I cannot in good conscience recommend you only watch one of them, and not the other. So let's go over why that is. Also, for the sake of simplifying things, from here on out, I will refer to the original 2003 anime as FMA, and I will refer to the 2009 anime as Brotherhood.
So. Why do I recommend you watch both? The main reason for that is the pacing. As far as I'm aware, FMA was originally intended to follow the manga's story, from beginning to end. The only reason they didn't, was because they caught up to the manga, before it was finished. But because they had planned to follow the manga, those first 25 episodes of FMA are REALLY spot on and well done. The pacing is perfect, going slow enough to fill the world with so many fantastical elements and to enrich the characters and their personalities. But at the same time, this isn't a multi hundred episode anime like One Piece. So stuff actually gets accomplished, each episode. Which is really good. FMA's first half does its job perfectly. It tells the story at a perfect pace, while also adding in some filler episodes to just further develop this already spectacular universe. Brotherhood, on the other hand, doesn't do this as well.
Like I said, Brotherhood covers the entire first half of FMA in half of the episode amount. So stuff is really rushed and some stuff outright gets taken out. On top of that, the half way point of FMA is where one of the biggest plot twists of the entire series gets revealed. In Brotherhood, this plot twist gets revealed IN EPISODE 1! I am not kidding. I know Brotherhood was made for the people who had already seen FMA, and that's why the first 13 episodes are so rushed in the first place. But if you're watching Brotherhood as your first introduction to anything Fullmetal Alchemist, it makes a lot less of an impact when something that big gets revealed in episode 1, as opposed to halfway through the series. Brotherhood also leaves some questions left unanswered, if it's the only Fullmetal Alchemist thing you decide to watch. Stuff like how certain characters got connected to each other, how certain characters got to certain locations, why certain events are taking place, etc. Keep in mind, this is not problem if you've watched FMA beforehand. But if you're only watching Brotherhood, it can get a little confusing.
So I recommend you watch both. And I VERY much recommend you watch FMA before Brotherhood. For two reasons. One, because, like I said, FMA does a MUCH better job at introducing the world and characters and has much better pacing for the first half than Brotherhood. And two, because it's genuinely really interesting to see these two different storylines. The two are VERY different from each other. And I am honestly very glad I wound up watching both. You may feel a bit overwhelmed and confused with all I'm saying, but trust me. I was confused, going into it, as well. I had a very hard time understanding what everyone meant when they said that the two shows have completely different story paths. It became SOOOOO much simpler when I just went and watched it. And in the end, I got one series with two shows that were had completely different outcomes and both were VERY incredible to watch, from beginning to end. If you outright refuse to watch both, if you demand that you only watch the episodes that are based off the manga, then here's what you should do. Watch episodes 1-28 of FMA. And then continue to watch episodes 13-64 of Brotherhood. That will give you the most complete, and enjoyable experience of Fullmetal Alchemist's original story.
But like I said, I still 100% recommend you watch both shows, in their entirety. And that's not exactly a difficult or annoying thing to do. First off, both shows are finished now. You don't have to wait for one episode a week, you can watch as much as you want, on your own time. And on top of that, you don't have to watch both shows, back to back. In fact, I encourage you to take a few weeks, months, or even wait a year after watching FMA, before you start Brotherhood. And again, you CAN do that, no problem. Both shows are entirely complete and released. So you can watch them as quickly or as slowly as you want. And besides, if you watch both shows, you just get to watch more Fullmetal Alchemist. And more Fullmetal Alchemist is a GOOD thing. The only other thing I can tell you, before going to watch both of them, is tell you a bit about the movies. Both FMA and Brotherhood have one movie, each. FMA's movie is actually a finale to the entire show and is the closing act on Bones' ending. So that is an outright requirement to watch, immediately after finishing FMA. Brotherhood has a movie which is pretty much a non-canon side story. It's honestly not the greatest thing in the world and you won't miss out on anything by skipping it. But now that I've given my reasons on what I like about both shows and why you should watch both shows, lets get into the nitty-gritty of what makes Fullmetal Alchemist so great.
So where do I even begin? Fullmetal Alchemist has one of the most engaging stories that I've experienced in a LONG time. It's really incredible, the things this show was willing to do, and able to pull off so masterfully. It's really something you need to see for yourself to believe. I cannot stress enough how confident I am that you'll love it. Something I'm really happy about is that I wan't spoiled about ANYTHING, regarding these shows. I knew about the split story paths and I may have seen a picture of the show's main protagonist, here and there. But other than that, I knew literally NOTHING, going into it. And I am SOOOO happy about that! That's why I wanted to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, because this show was just so incredibly powerful and surprising, every step of the way. Even in things that you think everyone in the world knows about at this point. I didn't know about it. And I am so glad that I got to experience every bit of it, in the show, and not from just general knowledge you can't avoid, by simply being in the industry.
The characters are absolutely perfect. Every single one of them. There's seriously not a single character in either show that I didn't like. Such a diverse cast that you get attached to VERY quickly. You love seeing them be themselves. You cry when one of them is crying or suffering. You feel genuine anger when a villain gets their way. This show does an amazing job at developing its entire cast, and I would honestly rank it up as having just as great and diverse of a cast as the entirety of One Piece. The animation for FMA is pretty much at the top of its class, for the year it was created in. It's certainly not anything mind blowing, nowadays, but it's most definitely nothing I would consider bad. Transitioning over to Brotherhood, you're blown away at just how beautiful the world has been recreated. It's such a great feeling to see a show you love get remastered like this. And so well, on top of it.
As for the classic sub vs dub debate, both of them are really spectacular. However, like Cowboy Bebop and Baccano, I believe Fullmetal Alchemist is one of those shows that sorta needs to be watched in English. The characters and world are just much more well suited in the english language, in my opinion. The only thing I'll warn you of, however is that some voice actors get switched between FMA and Brotherhood. The most/least critical one being Alphonse. And I say most/least because you'd think him getting his voice actor switched would be a big deal, but in all honestly, you probably wouldn't of noticed that they were different, if I hadn't just brought it up, right now. In FMA, Alphonse was voiced by a young boy who was roughly the same age as the character. But when Brotherhood came around, five years later, Al's original voice actor kinda went through puberty and wasn't able to voice Alphonse, anymore. So they had to get a new voice actor for him, and I seriously cannot believe how spot on his replacement voice actor was. It's even more impressive when you find out that his replacement voice actor had zero knowledge of anything Fullmetal Alchemist and also had never even seen the original dub, before dubbing Brotherhood. And she still nailed it perfectly. So that one isn't really a problem. There are 1 or 2 other characters who get different voice actors in Brotherhood, and it might be a bit bothersome to you if you watch Brotherhood immediately after FMA. But for me, it was no problem at all, and I actually kinda preferred the new voice actors for all the characters that had them. So ya, if you generally don't watch dubs, I can promise you that this is a show that is pretty much in complete agreement on being one of the best dubs out there. The Japanese is great, too (And no, I'm not just saying that because Alphonse is voiced by Iori from The iDOLM@STER). But like I said, Fullmetal Alchemist is just much more suited to an english speaking cast.
And of course, the music is amazing. So many memorable tracks that stick with you and do a perfect job at adding to the emotion of every scene. The only music I wasn't too crazy about were the show's openings. Like most long anime series, they switch out the opening theme song every 15 or so episodes. FMA has 4 different opening and ending themes, while Brotherhood has 5. And honestly, I only really liked one opening from both of them. For FMA, I really only like the first opening theme song. I always listened to it and enjoyed it, but I only ever watched and listened to the other openings once. As for the endings, I didn't like either of them, and skipped them after the first viewing. For Brotherhood, I at least like the first ending theme. I like it a lot, actually. It's one of the few ending themes that I never skipped. But for the rest of them, I always skipped them. As for openings, while I guess I can say that they were better than FMA's openings, but I still only liked to listen to Brotherhood's first opening. But that one opening! Let me tell you, that was one of the best stinkin openings I have ever heard in any anime I've ever seen! Visually and musically, it was phenomenal! I listened to that song like 100 times before watching Brotherhood. And I'm still listening to it like crazy, right now. In short, both FMA and Brotherhood have fantastic background music, but I feel that only the first opening of each show are deserving of being attached to this legendary show.
Man... as you can tell, i cannot praise this show enough. I seriously can't comprehend how so many people are completely one sided with which version of Fullmetal Alchemist they like. For me, I like FMA's first half, but prefer Brotherhood's second half. Ya, I like the original manga story more than Bones' story. But I still don't think FMA is bad, in the slightest. For me, it was a really interesting experience, seeing how vastly different the two of them were. And I am so glad I watched them both. If FMA 2003 was the only Fullmetal Alchemist material that existed in the world, I would be completely happy with that. And I feel everyone else would be, too. But when I got to see Brotherhood, it was so exciting getting to see all the characters I loved again, but seeing them on a completely different pathway than I had seen them go, beforehand. The entire story changes. The entire outcome changes. People's goals are different. Different people are good. Different people are bad. Different people live. Different people die. Everything you previously knew about Fullmetal Alchemist gets completely turned around and gives you another exciting show that tops the original one, that was already so stinkin good!
I absolutely loved them both. They were absolute masterpieces. I can't believe it took me this long to actually see them. As of now, there are 3 anime series that I believe to be a requirement for everyone to watch, at some point in the life. There's The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Cowboy Bebop, and Fullmetal Alchemist. I promise you you'll love it. I'm honestly not sure how much I love it, to be honest. Part of me was seriously tempted to let it dethrone One Piece as my favorite anime of all time. I think One Piece is still number one for me, but MAN Fullmetal Alchemist comes so stinkin close! My top 5 favorite anime series (One Piece, Haruhi, Clannad, AnoHana, and FMA + Brotherhood) are all kinda tied, to be honest. I seriously can't put them in a specific order of which ones I enjoyed the most. Maybe one day. But for now, I'll just leave it at this. Fullmetal Alchemist is an absolute masterpiece from beginning to end. Both versions have their worth, and both should be experienced by everyone. If you still haven't seen these shows yet, then I am VERY excited for you. Go out and experience one of the greatest stories this world has to tell.
Fullmetal Alchemist AND Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood BOTH get a score of 10/10.
