Determined to find a way to get their bodies, the older brother replaces his missing limbs with mechanical substitutes and signs up with the military, as a soldier. Thus begins a journey into the hallowed secrets of alchemy, and the schemes that resulted in the nation they serve.
This is the premise of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I feel that I should take the time right now to establish a few key points about this review. Brotherhood's English dub has not been fully released yet, and I do not generally enjoy watching a series in Japanese for various reasons. That said, while I did watch the latter half of Brotherhood in Japanese, I won't comment on the Japanese voice actors; I do not understand the language enough to truly grasp the emotion and meaning set behind actual words, and the only thing I have to go off of is the fansub group's interpretation of what characters were saying.
Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about Brotherhood. The plot of the show spans so many characters that it's a testament to the ability of the writers that they were able to keep consistency throughout the astounding and wonderful plot.
The show takes place in a fictional nation called Amestris, a place fully realized from top to bottom. Every territory's similarities to one another, and their differences, are intricately designed, and conveyed through actions, visuals, and dialogue, without ever being explicitly stated or exposited. But not just Amestris; at least two other nations are given screen time, and even one nation we never actually see, are conveyed as so different from Amestris, and yet it's clear that they're all in the same world.
Setting is great, but the characters are what make Brotherhood truly shine. I could go on about each of them individually, probably for hours on end. Each and every supporting character has their own story told, without ever dragging or detracting from the main plot of the series. Everything is woven together seamlessly, from beginning to end. The viewer is in the dark for most of the villain's plans and doings for most of the series, but by the end, it all makes perfect sense, and again, this is achieved without ever having the villains simply go on a ten minute monologue explaining everything.
Every minute of the series is spent developing characters, advancing the plot, and showing the audience what they should know when they should know it, all at the same time. Even the slowest parts of the series are kept fascinating throughout.
The English dub is being produced by FUNimation, with most of the VAs from the original Full Metal Alchemist series reprising their roles. At the time of writing this review, the English dub is not yet complete, and there are still some characters yet to be voiced, but from the first thirty-nine episodes, unless everyone absolutely drops the ball for the latter half of the show, I am confident in saying that the dub is fantastic. Every character is brought to life through a combination of excellent writing and acting, and it's difficult to tell which of the two is doing more to make them believable.
Mood and tone are very important in that as well. From all the praise I've been giving the series so far, it should come as no surprise that the soundtrack is beautifully composed and employed exquisitely.
Everything I've mentioned so far has been fantastic. So what about the low points of the series? What's done poorly? Nothing at all. Every plot thread culminates into something spectacular, no character is forgotten, and everything else is simply amazing. The only real criticism I could think of for the series is that "science" basically means "magic," but even that doesn't detract from the series being astounding.
Wonderfully paced, masterfully told, and expertly written, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is as close to a perfect anime as any of us will see for a very long time. I five it a five out of five, and a huge recommendation to anyone and everyone.
