Our Fullmetal Alchemist series enters its ultimate phase as we review Brotherhood, the 2009 anime that starts fresh to adapt Hiromu Arakawa’s original manga in full. With a new crew, a new animation style, many new cast members, and a largely new story, Brotherhood is extremely different than the 2003 anime – and in many ways, it’s also a different beast than the manga, especially in this first half. While the show has come to be canonized as one of the very best anime ever made by Western fans, initial reception was more mixed, and this first half certainly shows some growing pains, with some poor structural and adaptational decisions and inconsistent animations. But it also has one of the best voice casts ever assembled, with A-list Seiyuu from top to bottom, and while it fumbles in some moments, it soars quite high indeed in others, and even in this first half delivers several iconic episodes that have already proven to stand the test of time. It’s a lot to talk about, and with a whole half of the series left to go, we’re only just scratching the surface.
Enjoy, and come back next time for Part 2 of our Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood review, where we’ll finish the 2009 anime with episodes 33 – 64!
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