TheNameBrand
One of the best stories anime has ever told and even just one of the best stories ever told. It's exciting, the story elements make sense in world, almost no plot holes, and I'm sad that it ends but happy of how it did. Don't deny yourself the incredible experience of watching it.
hfkuhlman
Ok, so I was recommended this show by a friend. I've only seen Attack on Titan(great), One Punch Man(great), and Avatar the Last Airbender(I know, I know). I knew nothing about the show before watching it and was a little hesitant to start it, especially because I don't watch anime all that much. All I can say is, this is now one my favorite shows... ever(not just anime). I laughed, I was enthralled, intrigued, mystified, and I can admit cried. This show had ethos, pathos, and logos. From the first episode I was hooked and finished the whole series in two weeks(I was on break). Also it has so much to offer that any person can enjoy at any age(12+). The sheer amount of character development made every moment amazing. Family, friends, and brotherhood. What's not to like? I just finished it and was so compelled I had to write a review. If you watch it I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy it. 10/10 no question.
mccrillisnsiah
Brotherhood is practically nothing more than a show you see on Saturday mornings or overall just something you see in Marvel comics. It's filled with underdeveloped characters, Saturday morning cartoon villains, a huge cast made up of filler characters, random power- ups, characters defeating the villain with the power of friendship, teamwork, etc and everyone living happily ever after without making any sort of sacrifice. Basically, it's no different from typical anime shows like Naruto or Dragon Ball. The heart, soul and just all round effort put into the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime is clearly absent in the rebooted anime. The themes brought up were way more explored and the Elric brothers' relationship and love for one another gave more time to shine and bright. The 2003 show is not an anime, it's poetry. Brotherhood came out at a time where Bones was getting desperate, so they just thought "Hey, let's just milk one of our old successful series, except not put in half as much heart and effort as we did the first time around, but instead add in more mindless action and forced humor!" And apparently it worked. It's just a mindless kids show and nothing more.Brotherhood's one-note show-off pompous characters and excruciatingly loud, bombastic and optimistic atmosphere will make you drool with boredom. Ed and Al came off as more or less your typical Mary Sues. None of their actions ever had any consequences, and the narrative very rarely bothered to challenge and/or question their misguided idealism. And even when it did, their juvenile beliefs always triumphed. In the end, they were still very much the naive little children they were in the beginning of the story. Whereas in the 2003 series, the Elric brothers noticeably grew more jaded, broken and emotionally distant as the show went on, which is understandable if you witness all the stuff they go through. They came to realize the world ain't all sunshine and rainbows and that equivalent exchange is indeed complete dog crap. Very often in Brotherhood, the narrative options to bend the show's internal physics to comply circumstances to their favor. Ed and Al were just too much of fetishistic, moralistic and tone deaf idealists. Ed and Al had flaws in the beginning of the story. But as the show went on, they just became more and more Stuish. They started taking down their opponents with relative ease.There's nothing wrong with winning. However, if your protagonists win all the time within a blink of an eye, it just takes away all sense of tension and investment. There was never a single moment in Brotherhood where the protagonists were in actual legitimate danger. Thinking you can protect everyone is in all honesty, quite infantile. People around you are gonna die, no matter what, and sometimes there's little you can do to save them. Even when the protagonists lost in a battle against the antagonists, you knew they would always find a way to worm out of the situation, either by other protagonists making a dramatic entrance at just the right moment or through flat out dues ex ma-china. Just watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime from start to finish and you'll see how much more realistic, secretive, and overall thrilling the villains really were throughout that series. Yet in Brotherhood, they were all rather shallow and bland villains who lost their capability of rational thought whenever the plot called for it. If you watch Brotherhood more and more carefully, you'll see how much each and every major protagonist were shielded by plot armor just because the plot said so. Hell you even got faced-heel turn villains, most notably Scar, whose race was destructed by the military in the war, who also was shielded by plot armor till the very end and never pays for any of his actions earlier in the story. The original manga author became too much of a wimp to kill off major protagonists in later chapters after the death of Maes Hughes, a friend of the Elric brothers and Roy Mustang. She obviously gotten numerous fan letters telling her never to kill another main protagonist ever again. She became too concern with pleasing the mainstream public instead of actually trying her best to make a good story in her original manga. And by the end, her work became fully mediocre and isn't really worth reading at all after only the first time.The protagonists are noticeably more heroic and chivalrous in Brotherhood, as opposed to broken, depressed wrecks. Their actions very rarely stray into morally gray territory. This is a story about the military and the human beings are in it. It is suppose to be a drama and tragic series, along with it being somber and realistic. Not filled with cluster forced humor chi-bi faces every few minutes during a serious moment where the author wants you to be immersed in. Overall, her writing skills are sub-par at best and doesn't have any experience on the battlefield. No wonder why her work ended up being plain trash. Most of the background music featured in Brotherhood are not good either. In fact, some of them sounded pretty childish and were overall poorly used in most cases. It's okay to like Brotherhood, but it's in no way, shape or form better than the masterpiece that is the original anime. The original author added so much plot devices, plot armors and plot holes into her work. And don't even get me started on the ending. Words cannot describe how much I truly despise the ending to a greater degree. All I can say is that the author was just doing a rush job and never thought anything through at all. All Brotherhood has going for it is the new animation, the villain King Bradley aka Wrath, and some of the flashback scenes prior to the start of the show.
