Note though that I have not seen the 2003 anime nor have I read the manga ; I bring this up because a lot of people who are fans of the 2003 anime bash on Brotherhood for either being a rehash of the mythos and not having as much 'impact' as the 2003 one. I don't exactly know what they are going on about as I'm not a fan of the 2003 version but I respectfully disagree with them. That aside, why do I think FMAB is one of the greatest anime of all time? Because it gets literally everything that a good story should have right and more.
For one thing, it is an epic, epic story. A lot goes on in every episode and the scale of the journey is big, spanning a whole continent plus some of its neighbors. Its one of the few modern works of fiction that deserves to be called a saga (saga means heroic journey of great length) and its world is really unique, original and actually pretty believable. Sure, alchemy is unrealistic. Sure, it does not exist. No, that doesn't really make 'realistic' anime better than FMAB. Haven’t you guys heard of suspension of disbelief?! As long as a world sticks to its own rules and FMAB does just this, I devour a work and its world.
Whenever I search out any work of fiction, the first thing I look for are great and compelling characters and when it comes to character, FMAB hit it right out of the park; it has some of the most inspiring, unique, compelling and relatable characters ever, be they villains, heroes, allies or even minor characters. Edward Elric never gives up no matter how much crap he goes through (yeah, sound familiar? kenshinhimuragutskenzotenmagokuetc... hey, that’s not a bad thing, it's actually a very good thing). He is a bit whiny when it comes to his pride and height but not when he goes through actual bad stuff. No, when he does you can be sure he'll try to fix it by any means possible. Al is also a very great character; looking up to his brother and helping him out with his quest to gain their bodies back and honestly, can you imagine FullMetal Alchemist without Alphonse? The two complete each other with their brotherly love and companionship and this companionship helps them out a ton in their journey.
The rest of the Elric allies, I will not mention as there are too flipping many. However, they are all very fun, likable and when some of them do die, it's heartbreaking and haunting. Yes, even the death of THAT character that died in episode 20 or so of the 2003 FMA but died in episode 10 of FMAB was very tragic and haunting. I could not believe it and the rest of the series became really suspenseful because of that.
The villains are also great. Scar is mysterious and interesting, the Homunculi are for the most part fun and even scary and Father who turns out to be the big bad is a fascinating, horrifying and a really effective villain. One thing that did bother me though and the next sentence is a minor spoiler for a character death, was that the homunculus Lust was killed off too quickly whereas according to the stuff I read, she was a much more interesting character in the 2003 version. It did bother me a little but not by much because the Homunculi Wrath, Pride and of course, Greed more than made up for any loss of her character. I think my most favorite villain in Brotherhood ha to be Wrath. He's just really scary and a very real threat to our heroes and I won't spoil who he is but it's really surprising. And then there is Envy. Biggest. Bastard. Ever. Well, except for Griffith. And Johann. And Dan'Ichiro Sanka. And Hitler. What, only fictional characters count?
FMAB also has without a doubt the best depiction of women in all of fiction. Sure, there are the usual tsunderes in this anime like Winry and Izumi Curtis but they still come out as fully fledged characters and despite Winry being an engineering nerd and Izumi and Riza always moving and being utterly badass, THEY STILL COME OFF AS FEMININE. Finally, a work of fiction where a (relatively) well adjusted woman can actually be herself and acts all girly but at the same is still very competent instead of always needing to be rescued. No women pretending to be like men as if their femminity was a disease needing to be wiped out, nor are there any dumb blondes who get themselves captures or whine about being rescued!
And then there is the Father of the Elric Brothers. I won't spoil his character but trust me he's really compelling and great.
Does FMAB have flaws? Well yes, but some of these 'flaws' aren't really flaws. A criticism I often heard for Brotherhood was that it didn't pack as much punch as the 2003 version. I disagree so much with this reasoning because FMAB is one of those very rare anime that brought put all of my feelings: it made me cry (those war scenes, oh my gosh...), it made me think (war is bad but can it be used to do good?), it made me angry (Envy you bastarded son of a...), it even made me happy and elated. I, an 18 year old man at the time, found myself cheering for the characters out loud when they were doing something awesome as if I was watching my favorite football team scoring a goal. No other anime or manga, not even Berserk made me do such things. Then there were the times where I was really disturbed. I think Brotherhood is one of the most violent anime out there. It's not Berserk levels in its blood and gore but it's fairly graphic especially when the Homunculi themselves are getting beaten up. However, those scenes weren't really disturbing and to me, episode 4 of the anime was one of the saddest moments I've ever seen. I did not see that moment coming and when it did, I was speechless and felt really empty inside. So to me, the idea that Brotherhood didn't pack a big punch is a non-sensical argument as it really did get a lot of different feelings from me.
The comedy was also pretty nice. Edward despite being such a badass is hysterical when he's all angry about his own height (IF YOU PRAY, YOU'LL DEFINITELY BECOME TALLER!) and the funniest joke involved Winry actually KILLING Edward with her wrench. That scene came out of nowhere and the fact it was never mentioned again made it all the more hilarious. The comedy never takes away from the mood though and like the Higurashi anime, the comedy made the characters seem closer to us and friendly; comedy when done well can actually give characters a ton of depth. Edward may never give up and he's still really smart but he's still impulsive and stubborn.
Someone else told me that FMAB doesn't stand on its own, meaning you have to watch it from the beginning in order to understand the plot instead of picking it up 20 episodes or so in and starting from there. While I am someone who thinks that works of fiction like books or films in a series should stand on their own, to me it doesn't count for TV series animated or not. TV series have a huge advantage over films, animated or not, in that they have much more time and narrative devices to explain their story and in my opinion, this should be taken advantage of. Not every series has to have an episodic format (like Cowboy Bebop which I didn't like) especially if the story doesn't call for it and why would anyone watch any series with only 64 episodes 20 episodes or so in? While it's true that episodic anime are more mainstream and probably bring in a bigger audience, the fandom that you bring in with a non-episodic anime will still be big and it will be a dedicated fandom always analyzing and dissecting your work.
If I had to name a real flaw Brotherhood had, I do think the first 10 episodes were a bit rushed. Oh they were still deep, well written and compelling but compared to the rest of the anime I agree that they were rather rushed. Sometimes the animation does look a bit off model and a character in the last episode does look a much older than he really is due to off-model animation. However, none of these flaws took away from my enjoyment of the anime and I find the story to have very little flaws. There was really only one moment where I didn't quite buy that a character would do such a thing because I always thought that this character was way smarter than she really is. Also, what on earth happened to my dear Sheska?! I want to know more about her even though she is as minor as you can get with a character!
Either way, the plot is as close to perfect as you can get. Hell, for such a complex system of fantastic science (alchemy is not magic. Even the Catholic Church studied alchemy in the middle ages, look it up), I understood and believed everything so that when the characters did search and discuss the different forms of alchemy, I understood what they were saying and was never confused.
My final verdict for FMAB is a 10/10 for masterpiece. It is a definite must watch and while fans who saw the 2003 version may dislike Brotherhood's early episodes, I've seen just as many fans love both equally so it's highly, highly recommended. It has something for everybody, is relatively free from fanservice and it's really fun and awesome in the end.
PS: About FMAB being the greatest anime ever. Lets be realistic now, while it certainly is one of the best, no anime or manga that is truly great is better than another. FMAB is part of the pantheon of great anime, those anime that have alot of influence on the world and are also very well written. I won't name them but FMAB is definitely one of the greatest ever.
