#Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood series#

#Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood series#

With such a well established environment for the story to be set in, the rest of the series can focus on the emotional journeys of the rest of the large ensemble cast. Worldbuilding is something that is so regularly underappreciated in media of all kinds, but Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of the few pieces that proves it’s integral to a show actually being good. Information is only revealed as needed, and there isn’t a single thing that you learn about Amestris and the rest of the world around it that is unimportant to the story. The Elric Brother’s home country of Amestris has a rich history, and it isn’t all immediately shoved in your face in the first episode.

When you look at the bones of the series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has the advantage of an incredibly well developed world, and unlike the first attempt to adapt the manga that aired in 2003, the story was completely finished when the series was produced, meaning that any creative liberties that were taken still ultimately led to the same ending. The brothers are pulled into a deep-rooted conflict that reaches back hundreds of years, and while this is the force that drives the action of the series, the overarching theme deals with grief, loss, and trauma in incredibly complex ways. The anime adapts the story of Hiromu Arakawa’s 27 volume Fullmetal Alchemist manga, following alchemist brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric as they journey across the country of Amestris with the ultimate goal of finding a way to get Al’s body back after a botched transmutation. Having watched the 64 episode series several times over the last 10 years, it is undoubtedly one of the greatest stories ever told in the animated medium, and is up there with some of the best television shows of all time, period.

While it wasn’t the first anime I ever watched, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is always the first show I point people towards when they want to start their foray into the world of Japanese animation.