Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) Anime Review

Title: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Genre: Shounen, Dark Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction
Written and Illustrated By: Hiromu Arakawa
Synopsis: The Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse were living perfectly with their mother in a peaceful town of Resembool. They are both smart children and they excel in alchemy like their father. However, their mother died due to an illness outbreak and they were left alone. They know an alchemy in which they can resurrect a dead called "Human Transmutation" which is a taboo. Alchemy requires an equal value of exchange or called "The Law of Equivalent Exchange" to perform the transformation. In Human Transmutation, they need to give the most equal amount to resurrect a dead. They took the risk to perform this dangerous alchemy. As a result, Alphonse's body and Edward's limb were taken as an exchange and unfortunately the Human Transmutation is a big failure. Luckily, Edward was able to take Alphonse's soul back and placed it in an empty armor. In exchange of that, Edward's arm was taken. In order to take back Alphonse' body, they are searching for the Philosopher's Stone.

(Young Ed and Al before doing the Human Transmutation)

Thoughts:

Watching it once, I re watched it immediately and even though I already know the events of the story I still cried for the characters in this anime. This anime was being recommended to me for years but I only got the chance to watch this and immediately I included this anime in one of my favorites. Though I more like the plot of the first anime series, it's plot is still recommended to be watched. This anime moved me into tears most of the time. It never escaped the reality of the world. You can always see the desires of the people in this anime. Dark pasts of each of the character. Brutal killings and war against other places in one nation. Now who told you that anime is for kids only?

I appreciate the overall character development of Ed and Al in the story. Just imagine two 16 years old children fighting with their fate as the people who received punishment because of using the human transmutation while they are opposing the government because of their evil plan, killing everyone in their country and in order to achieve that they need to kill different kinds of people. I don't know how they can manage living doing that. Not just the two protagonist but a lot of characters in the story that has their individual dark pasts and dreams.

(Height difference from episode 9 to episode 46)

One more thing, there are no useless character in the story. Everyone has an important role except to that damn father who turned his daughter into a chimera. Nothing can be darker on that scene. Female characters are one thing as well. I really admire those female characters that has courage to fight like a man. Special mention: Olivier Mira Armstrong!! A Major General who can fight against homunculus though she only have her sword skills. She can fight like a powerful alchemist. 

(Izumi Curtis - Ed and Al's teacher)

(Major Alex Louis Armstrong and Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong)

Though this anime has a dark plot, the mangaka never forgot to give this anime some humors like Roy Mustang being the coolest and one of the strongest alchemist but he have so many running gags in the anime.

Comparing from the 2003 series, this series is better if we talk about the number of the fight scenes. If you watched the first series you can notice that the power of being an alchemist was not shown there rather it always telling us that they can fight using their brains rather that with their fight skills. But in this series aside from their smart brains, they fight using martial arts or any kind of fighting styles (for example: Lin using an Asian Martial Arts, Olivier using her sword skill) and that made me hyped for this anime series.

(Colonel Roy Mustang - The Flame Alchemist)

Animation: 10/10
First I was wondering, why does it look like a fight scene from Boku no Hero Academia and Noragami? Then I learned that it was BONES who did the animation of this anime! I was hyped! BONES always do a great job in animation!

(Colonel Roy Mustang and First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye fighting at the Promised Day)

Soundtrack: 10/10
Anime Opening and Ending songs are great! It makes me want to watch the whole series again whenever I hear it's songs on my playlist. Plus the meaning of the songs are so sad but hopeful that is really matching with the plot of the anime. KUDOS AGAIN FOR THAT. The original soundtrack is almost the same with the first anime series so I got no problem with that!

Overall: 10/10
Totally recommended to people who can take dark plots. But the ending is one of the nicest thing you will see in the anime world. Believe me.

A/N: Right now I am watching Dragon Ball Super to support for it's upcoming movie next year: "Dagon Ball Super: Broly" and reading he manga of Fullmetal Alchemist to know the difference of it from the two anime series.