I'll be honest, it's not easy for me to pick favorites. It just might be tacky to say this, but my favorite anime of all time is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The original 2003 series showed me the possibilities of what anime could be but Brotherhood solidified the idea that anime, just like everything else in this world, could be art. With that in mind, I simply cannot review this piece of art without spoiling the original series and at least a little bit of this one. So let this be known: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is one of my all time favorite things that exists and very well may be the best anime of all time. With that out of the way, I can talk about what makes this show so special.
For my first paragraph I would usually run down the general setup of the world and the characters and their motivations. I don't feel that I need to do that here. If you truly do need this then I recommend you read my FMA 2003 review. For this post, however, I am mostly just going to go over the differences between the two series.
For starters, the humunculi have changed slightly from their 2003 counterparts. The biggest change is their creation. The 2003 series had the humunculi being created from the people that had tried the taboo of human transmutation. I did like this idea because it gave each humunculus a connection to the characters but it didn't capitalize on this fact like I hoped it would. Brotherhood gets rid of this problem completely by having each of the humunculus being created by Father, who is a way more sinister bad guy than Dantes from the original series. Some of the humunculi's names and forms have been changed as well. Instead of Sloth being a liquid version of Ed and Al's mother, he is now a gigantic monster who is actually quite sloth-like. Pride is no longer the Fuhrer. Instead, the Fuhrer takes the name of Wrath.
I feel like these changes, even though they existed first through the original manga, are welcome as their names correspond more to their individual desires. In the 2003 series, Pride wasn't very Prideful, Sloth wasn't slothful, and so on. With these new identities, they each have to deal with the fact that they are based on the seven deadly sins and it makes me even feel bad for them at times. Especially Pride, Wrath, and Greed who all get more screen time then I ever would have expected.
The first twelve episodes of Brotherhood are equivalent to the the first twenty-four episodes of 2003. I have heard this as a complaint as some characters like Hughes and Shao Tucker don't get enough screen time but, to be fair, they don't get a whole lot of time to develop in the manga either. After the first twelve episodes, Brotherhood takes off into a whole new never-before-seen arc and introduces two new Brotherhood-only characters: May Chang and Ling Yao. If you've seen 2003 as many times as I have, these new characters and new surroundings come as a breath of fresh air. Later in the series we get even more characters and even more buildup to the eventual epic battle with Father.
In my FMA 2003 review, I mentioned on how amazingly emotional the soundtrack was. I am very proud to say that Brotherhood does not disappoint as it breaths new life into the music that the series is known for. We don't have the same standout tracks like Bratja but we do get a lot of new and unique tracks to take their place. With that being said, I do like 2003's soundtrack more because of Bratja. That one song is enough to tip the scales for me personally and I do truly wish that Brotherhood had included it at least once in the series.
I didn't mention the English voice acting in my 2003 review, but dang is it impressive. Every single voice actor does their absolute best in Brotherhood. Most of the talents reprise their roles. Alphonse's voice actor was too old for the part so Funimation went for a female actress and Scar's voice actor was replaced for one reason for another. Honestly, though, it's hard to tell. Al's very first line of the show is very noticeably a girl's voice but by the fourth episode sounds exactly like the actor from 2003. Scar sounds exactly the same from top to bottom. And, of course, Vic Mignogna returns as the voice for Edward Elric in quite possibly my favorite performance in any animated show ever.
As for the animation of this new re-imagined series, it is leagues better than anything that 2003 had to offer and I already thought that show's animation was really good. There are just so many moments of pure sakuga in this show. Any battle that involves Ling and the entirety of both the fourth and fifth seasons are just astonishing to look at. The one thing that I do think the show lacks, however, is its color palette. It seems like 2003 knew exactly what it was doing one-hundred percent of the time regarding the lighting and palette of each of its scenes. Brotherhood, on the other hand, wasn't as good. It is still far better than most shows out there even today, though.
Go watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Just do it. It is my favorite anime of all time and I know that so many others feel the same.
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is breathtakingly and believably beautiful.
For my first paragraph I would usually run down the general setup of the world and the characters and their motivations. I don't feel that I need to do that here. If you truly do need this then I recommend you read my FMA 2003 review. For this post, however, I am mostly just going to go over the differences between the two series.
For starters, the humunculi have changed slightly from their 2003 counterparts. The biggest change is their creation. The 2003 series had the humunculi being created from the people that had tried the taboo of human transmutation. I did like this idea because it gave each humunculus a connection to the characters but it didn't capitalize on this fact like I hoped it would. Brotherhood gets rid of this problem completely by having each of the humunculus being created by Father, who is a way more sinister bad guy than Dantes from the original series. Some of the humunculi's names and forms have been changed as well. Instead of Sloth being a liquid version of Ed and Al's mother, he is now a gigantic monster who is actually quite sloth-like. Pride is no longer the Fuhrer. Instead, the Fuhrer takes the name of Wrath.
I feel like these changes, even though they existed first through the original manga, are welcome as their names correspond more to their individual desires. In the 2003 series, Pride wasn't very Prideful, Sloth wasn't slothful, and so on. With these new identities, they each have to deal with the fact that they are based on the seven deadly sins and it makes me even feel bad for them at times. Especially Pride, Wrath, and Greed who all get more screen time then I ever would have expected.
The first twelve episodes of Brotherhood are equivalent to the the first twenty-four episodes of 2003. I have heard this as a complaint as some characters like Hughes and Shao Tucker don't get enough screen time but, to be fair, they don't get a whole lot of time to develop in the manga either. After the first twelve episodes, Brotherhood takes off into a whole new never-before-seen arc and introduces two new Brotherhood-only characters: May Chang and Ling Yao. If you've seen 2003 as many times as I have, these new characters and new surroundings come as a breath of fresh air. Later in the series we get even more characters and even more buildup to the eventual epic battle with Father.
In my FMA 2003 review, I mentioned on how amazingly emotional the soundtrack was. I am very proud to say that Brotherhood does not disappoint as it breaths new life into the music that the series is known for. We don't have the same standout tracks like Bratja but we do get a lot of new and unique tracks to take their place. With that being said, I do like 2003's soundtrack more because of Bratja. That one song is enough to tip the scales for me personally and I do truly wish that Brotherhood had included it at least once in the series.
I didn't mention the English voice acting in my 2003 review, but dang is it impressive. Every single voice actor does their absolute best in Brotherhood. Most of the talents reprise their roles. Alphonse's voice actor was too old for the part so Funimation went for a female actress and Scar's voice actor was replaced for one reason for another. Honestly, though, it's hard to tell. Al's very first line of the show is very noticeably a girl's voice but by the fourth episode sounds exactly like the actor from 2003. Scar sounds exactly the same from top to bottom. And, of course, Vic Mignogna returns as the voice for Edward Elric in quite possibly my favorite performance in any animated show ever.
As for the animation of this new re-imagined series, it is leagues better than anything that 2003 had to offer and I already thought that show's animation was really good. There are just so many moments of pure sakuga in this show. Any battle that involves Ling and the entirety of both the fourth and fifth seasons are just astonishing to look at. The one thing that I do think the show lacks, however, is its color palette. It seems like 2003 knew exactly what it was doing one-hundred percent of the time regarding the lighting and palette of each of its scenes. Brotherhood, on the other hand, wasn't as good. It is still far better than most shows out there even today, though.
Go watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Just do it. It is my favorite anime of all time and I know that so many others feel the same.
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is breathtakingly and believably beautiful.
