Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a Japanese anime television series, serving as the second animated adaptation of the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa, after the 2003 anime series. Produced by Bones, the series was directed by Yasuhiro Irie and written by Hiroshi Ōnogi, with music composed by Akira Senju. It was conceived to create a faithful adaptation that directly follows the entire story from the original manga, as the first anime adaptation strayed away from it to create a story exclusive to that series after running out of published manga material to adapt.
Production for Brotherhood began in 2008. The series aired a total of 64 episodes on MBS, TBS and its affiliates from April 2009 to July 2010. It was originally licensed in North America by Funimation and broadcast English dubbed on Adult Swim in the United States from February 2010 to September 2011. In March 2016, Funimation's license for the series expired and it was transferred over to Aniplex of America.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has received acclaim since its initial airing and is regarded as one of the greatest anime series of all time, with praise given to its faithfulness to the manga and its incorporation of characters and plot details that were not present in the 2003 anime series, either due to unpublished manga material or creative changes to accommodate the former; the climactic episodes were also lauded for both their action sequences and moral messaging.
Plot
Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric are raised by their mother Trisha Elric in the remote village of Resembool in the country of Amestris. Their father Hohenheim, a noted and very gifted alchemist, abandoned his family while the boys were still young. While in Trisha's care, Ed and Al began to show an affinity for alchemy and became curious about its secrets. However, when Trisha died of a lingering illness, they were cared for by their elderly neighbor Pinako Rockwell and her granddaughter Winry Rockbell, the boys' closest friend. Ed and Al traveled the world to advance their alchemic training under teacher Izumi Curtis. Upon returning home, the brothers desperately decide to try to bring their mother back to life with alchemy. However, human transmutation is a serious alchemical taboo, as it is impossible to do so properly. In the failed transmutation, Al's body is completely disintegrated, and Ed loses his left leg. In a last attempt to keep his brother alive, Ed sacrifices his right arm to return Al's soul and binds it to a nearby suit of armor. After Edward receives automail prosthetics from Winry and Pinako, the brothers burn down their house, symbolizing their determination and decision of "no turning back", and head to the capital city to become government-sanctioned State Alchemists. After passing the exam, Edward is dubbed the "Fullmetal Alchemist" by the State Military, and the brothers begin their quest to regain their full bodies back through the fabled Philosopher's Stone under the direction of Colonel Roy Mustang. Along the way, they discover a deep government conspiracy to hide the true nature of the Philosopher's Stone that involves artificially-made humans known as homunculi, the alchemists of the neighboring nation of Xing, a scarred serial killer from the war-torn nation of Ishval, and their own father's past.Voice cast
Production
In the 20th volume of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, released in August 2008, series author Hiromu Arakawa announced that a second anime adaptation was being produced; the previous series, Fullmetal Alchemist, had debuted in 2003 and featured an anime original story direction midway through its run after exhausting manga content to adapt. The Japanese title of the second adaptation is Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Fullmetal Alchemist, including the English translation as a subtitle to differentiate it from the 2003 series, while the English release uses the subtitle Brotherhood.Bones produced and animated Brotherhood with Yasuhiro Irie serving as director, Hiroshi Ōnogi as writer, and Akira Senju as composer. Voice actresses Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya reprised their roles as Edward and Alphonse Elric, respectively. Unlike the first adaptation, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood faithfully follows the complete story of the manga. Irie faced the difficulties of making the series as appealing as possible, and due to his large popularity within the fanbase, Irie had to properly focus on the character of Roy Mustang. When the manga was nearing its completion in May 2010, Irie announced that the Bones staff was already working on the final episodes adapting the ending and expressed shock at the series' conclusion.
Brotherhoods music was composed by Akira Senju. The first CD soundtrack from the anime was released on October 14, 2009. The second CD soundtrack was released on March 24, 2010. The third CD soundtrack became available on July 7, 2010. Fullmetal Alchemist Final Best, a compilation of opening and ending songs, was released on July 28, 2010. On June 29, 2011, the original soundtrack of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, composed by Taro Iwashiro, was released.
The respective opening and ending themes for the first 14 episodes are "Again" by Yui and "Uso by Sid. From episodes 15–26, the respective opening and ending themes are "Hologram" by Nico Touches the Walls and "Let It Out" by Miho Fukuhara. From episodes 27–38, the respective opening and ending themes are "Golden Time Lover" by Sukima Switch and "Tsunaida Te" by Lil'B. From episodes 39–50, the respective opening and ending themes are "Period" by Chemistry and "Shunkan Sentimental" by Scandal. From episodes 51–62, the respective opening and ending themes are "Rain by Sid and "Ray of Light" by Shoko Nakagawa. While episodes 63 and 64 do not use opening themes, they use "Rain" and "Hologram", respectively, for their endings.
Release
In March 2009, it was announced that the official English title of the series was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and that it would receive its English-language premiere on Animax Asia, with Japanese audio and English subtitles, at 8:30 p.m. on April 10, 2009. On April 3, 2009, Funimation announced it would stream English-subtitled episodes four days after they aired in Japan. Madman Entertainment would also stream it "within days" of the episodes airing in Japan. The series premiered in Japan on April 5, 2009, on MBS–TBS's Sunday 5:00 pm JST anime block.In May 2009, Funimation suspended the release of new episodes for a few weeks because of an incident in which an episode of One Piece was uploaded before it had aired in Japan. However, the episodes were later made available on the Funimation website and on the official Funimation channel on YouTube.
In August 2009, Aniplex began releasing the series on Blu-ray and DVD volumes; the first release included two episodes and an original video animation. Two more OVAs were included in the fifth and ninth volumes alongside four episodes. Other volumes feature four episodes and no OVAs. Sixteen volumes were released, the last one in November 2010. In September 2009, Funimation announced the cast for an English dub of the series, which featured much of the cast of the 2003 series dub reprising their roles. On February 14, 2010, the English dub of the series premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block and ended its run on September 25, 2011. Funimation began releasing the episodes on Blu-ray and DVD in May 2010; each release contained thirteen episodes. Five volumes were released, with the last one in August 2011. In the United Kingdom, Manga Entertainment released the series in five DVD and Blu-ray volumes during 2010 and 2011, and later in a two-part box set.
Funimation lost the rights to the series in March 2016. In July 2016, it was announced that the series' rights were transferred to Aniplex of America and that it would be streamed on Crunchyroll. Netflix debuted the series in the United States and Canada in January 2018. Aniplex of America released the series on two Blu-ray Disc box sets in November 2018. In November 2019, Funimation re-licensed the series for its streaming service. Madman Entertainment distributed the series in Australia; it was broadcast in Canada on Super Channel and in the Philippines on TV5's AniMEGA anime programming block.
Reception
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood received near-universal acclaim and is widely considered to be one of the greatest anime of all time. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 100% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critic consensus reads: "With impeccable world-building, rollicking action, and emotionally intelligent themes, all the elements come together to make this Fullmetal Alchemist reboot a pristine distillation of the shounen genre." It was the top-rated anime on MyAnimeList, Anime News Network and IMDb, until being overtaken by Frieren on MyAnimeList and Anime News Network.D. F. Smith, writing for IGN, noted the short time-span between the releases of the 2003 series and Brotherhood, which he deemed peerless among other anime. Smith judged the pace of the first 14 episodes to be quicker than their original-series counterparts, which he interpreted as the series presuming the viewer is already familiar with the characters. Smith also observed that while this approach enables reaching the more "exciting" story elements faster, it does exclude enjoyable moments with supporting characters, such as Winry and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, found in the first anime series adaptation.
The first 14 episodes of Brotherhood were initially criticized by members of the Anime News Network staff, who said that repeating events from the first anime series led to a lack of suspense. Mania Entertainment's Chris Beveridge said that the entertainment in these episodes lay in the differences in the characters' actions from the first anime series, and original content which focused on the emotional themes of the series. Beveridge praised the new fight scenes and the extra drama, which made these episodes "solid", while Smith found the action scenes unexpectedly "compact".
Megan Gudeman of CBR called the relationships in the anime "dynamic and memorable". Chris Zimmerman from Comic Book Bin said the series "turns around and establishes its own identity" because of the inclusion of new characters and revelations absent from the first anime series, increasing its depth. He said the animation was superior to that of the first anime series; his comments focused on the characters' expressions and the execution of the fight scenes. Critics praised the conclusion, finding it satisfying; Mark Thomas of The Fandom Post called it a "virtually perfect ending to an outstanding series". Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Charles Solomon ranked Brotherhood the second-best anime of 2010 on his "Top 10" list.