Customer Ratings & Reviews

For the past several years, I had considered the original Full metal Alchemist to be my favorite anime of all time. It featured everything that I loved most about the genre: driven young protagonists, a fantastical and vibrant fictional world, a coherent set of combat mechanics, dynamic fight sequences, gorgeous animation, a well-thought-out and complete plot, and darker, more mature themes. Thus, when I heard that the series was being remade to more closely reflect The original manga series, I was excited to see the result. Could the full story written by the creator of the Full metal Alchemist universe manage to outdo the already-phenomenal anime that was more loosely based on her work? The two answers to this question, I am happy to declare, are yes and hell yes. Although it gets off to a slightly uneven start, Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood manages to surpass the quality of its predecessor by a healthy margin. It is one of the best television series I have seen, and it fulfills the promise of modern anime in a way that no other title has. For those who are not familiar with either series, a brief plot synopsis is in order. Brotherhood follows the journey of two teenaged boys, Edward and Alphonse El rich, as they travel in search of the legendary philosopher's stone. Their world is a bit like Europe in the early 1900s, but with a significant twist: humans can tap into the power of alchemy, a mysterious science that enables its practitioners to reshape and reconfigure matter. In order to achieve their goals, Ed and Al must contend with their country's dangerous military, ambitious foreigners from the Far East, a revenge-obsessed serial killer, a traumatic past, and seemingly immortal foes with deadly supernatural powers. One of the greatest strengths of this series is that, whereas the original Full Metal had a more direct and tightly-knit feel to it, Brotherhood is vast, open, and sprawling. The world is bigger, features a much larger cast of characters, and involves conflicts that are far greater and more earth-shattering in scope. The main characters seem to get more done, cover more ground, and learn more about the world around them. Even though Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a mere 12 episodes longer than Full metal Alchemist, it feels as if it explores a great deal more content. This becomes especially satisfying when one reaches the massive, perhaps 15-episode-long, concluding arc. In this, all of the story lines and motivations of all of the characters converge for one massive, epic face-off, building towards a final resolution which--despite a touch of anime cheesiness--is legitimately emotionally powerful. Another quality that makes Brotherhood so outstanding is its superb animation. I consider it quite tragic that many modern anime (Last Exile and Ergo Proxy come to mind) cut corners when it comes to the animating process, using numerous still shots and barely allowing the characters to move at all. Fortunately, Brother Hood stands in stark contrast to this trend. The series favors acrobatic battles, detailed movements, and impressive light effects, providing a genuine feast for the senses. The fight scenes deserve special praise here. There are dozens of excellent fights in Brotherhood, and in them, the animators succeed in conveying a magnificently kinetic, gravity-defying, and hard-hitting style of combat. If you aren't watching these sequences in all of their widescreen, blu ray, high definition splendor, then you are absolutely missing out. The only bad word that I have regarding the series' animation is that its backgrounds do tend to be underwhelming. Which brings me to the few downsides of Brother Hood. To begin with, viewers who have already seen the original Full metal Alchemist might be bored during the earlier episodes of Brotherhood, since both anime start by following the manga rather closely. They made an effort to distinguish Brotherhood by presenting scenes differently and introducing some new characters, but to me, the first 13 episodes were something of a slog. Additionally, the beginning portions of Brother Hood contain a bit too much in the way of corny Japanese humor. I would be comfortable with this fact in and of itself, but the real issue is that the characters frequently switch over to goofy comedy mode in the middle of serious moments, such as the protagonists' first interaction with the main villain. Thankfully, this stops being an issue perhaps halfway into the show, after which point the humor is confined to separate, nonessential scenes. My final complaint is that the series' music was lackluster overall, consisting of only a few extraordinary tunes that were repeated often. Some of it was alright, and the songs for the starting and ending credit sequences were almost all great, but I think that Brotherhood would have been more dramatic yet if it had featured a stronger soundtrack. Having said all that, I believe these issues are negligible on the whole. The bottom line is that you should watch Full metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, period. It's exciting, smart, long, original, expansive, satisfying, and visually stunning. In many cases, anime series tend to be overrated; indeed, it is extremely difficult to find one with an amazon rating lower than four stars. Brotherhood, however, actually lives up to its hype. Anyone seeking a great, high-budget modern anime--or just a beautiful, character-driven story full of loss, struggle, and triumph--need not look any further than this masterpiece.

I have always loved this series, both the older anime and this one. I is hard to find it on certain video streaming sights, so I decided to buy it on here while it was on a good sale. This is a show I wish for my children to watch, it is a wonderful display of character development, friendship, forgiveness, and is extremely relatible to the world we live in today.

This series from Manga was long over due. The story is just so vivid and mind blowing. Though most characters roles from season one has been switch around and from series one do not make a return. The writing and incredible voice acting makes up ten fold from whats been taken away. Well balance of humor, action, and emotional sad moments. Overall there is enough going on in this anime to keep you keen and drawn in. A must have for collectors and anime lovers.

Collection 2 continues the story of the Elric brothers with a very satisfying and complete ending that follows the manga story. If you enjoyed the first half of brotherhood then this is a must watch conclusion!

The original Fullmetal Alchemist was great, but few shows compare to the epicness that is FMA Brotherhood. It's filled with action, comedy, and much more plot driven than it's original counterpart. This show is also much closer to the manga series. Overall a great box set just because the art work all over the DVD. An anime that you can watch over and over again.

I didn't think I'd like this show, but I saw it on Adult Swim and really enjoyed it.

This is a very good series. I would recommend watching both parts at one time.