Michael Burke                                                                                           September 22, 2014

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

                  

            Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is an anime series about two brothers Edward and Alphonse Elrich who are experienced in the science of alchemy. It is the second series of the Fullmetal Alchemist body of anime based on the Fullmetal Alchemist manga written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The manga first appeared in Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine between August 2001 and June 2010. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood was produced by Bones anime studio in Japan. The screenplay was written by Hiroshi Ōnogi, and the director of the anime show was Yasuhiro Irie.

            Fullmetal Alchemist was a very successful television series that was popular with anime fans. But it digressed from the storyline in ­­­­­­­­­­­Arakawa’s manga series, because the studio did not want to wait for the completion of the manga which would cause the show to drag out. They did get Arakawa’s permission to do this. However, so the fans could have an opportunity to see the original manga story set to film, it was decided that the second series, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, would more closely follow the storyline of the manga series.

            Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood came out as a TV show that aired in 2009 and 2010. There were five seasons with a total of 64 episodes. The anime began airing in the United States on February 13, 2010 on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. The TV series was followed by dissemination of OVAs such as The Blind Alchemist, Simple People, The Tale of Teacher and Yet Another Man’s Battlefield and a movie entitled, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos which was released in Japan in 2011. Video games, novels, a collectible card game and action figures and other merchandise were also created from the series.

            Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood would be classified as a shonen anime as its targeted audience would be young males. The main characters are teenage boys attempting to right wrongs in the world. The pace is fast and there are many scenes where they use fighting to resolve conflicts. But, the series is not just an action-packed show, it also has an excellent plot.

           Ed and Al lived with their parents in the village of Resembool in the country of Amestris. The boys’ father Van Hohenheim disappeared when they were young and they were raised by their mother Trisha until she died years later from an illness, leaving them orphans.  Their father had been a talented alchemist and the boys developed an interest in the field. After their mother dies they are taken care of by their friend Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako. They work to improve their alchemy skills and decide to attempt to bring their mother back to life through human transmutation, a forbidden practice where the alchemist tries to create a human being. They fail to do so, and in the process Ed loses his left leg and Al loses his body. Ed then sacrifices his right arm to bond Al’s soul to a suit of armor. The series revolves around the two brothers trying to get their bodies back to normal.

Ed and Al

            After Ed receives automail, a steel automated prosthetic, to replace his missing arm and leg, the brothers go to the capital where Ed becomes the Fullmetal Alchemist for the state military in hopes of finding a way to get their bodies whole again. As part of Ed’s research under the direction of Colonel Roy Mustang, the brothers begin a search for the Philosopher’s Stone, which they believe can increase their powers of alchemy and can get them back their full bodies.

            During their journey, Ed and Al learn about a major government conspiracy involving the Philosopher’s Stone, their own dad and the homunculi, artificial human beings created by the leader of the conspiracy. They realize that this conspiracy could destroy their nation and they work to prevent this.

            In the first episode Ed and Al face off against the Freezing Alchemist, Isaac McDougal. He is an alchemist who uses water based alchemy. Ed and Al are ordered to go after him by Colonel Mustang because McDougal is trying to freeze the capital city, with a citywide transmutation circle, in order to kill Führer King Bradley. He claims that great deeds require sacrifice and equates what he is doing to alchemy’s law of equivalent exchange.  His motivation for doing this is his hatred of the military, which developed because of the Ishvalen war of extermination that he was forced to take part in as a state alchemist. The purpose of that war was to wipe out a specific race of people called the Ishvalens. The leaders of the military were secretly using the people that were killed or captured to create philosopher's stones, but the brothers do not know this at the time. I think Isaac McDougal is supposed to be an example of someone having a good goal but going about it the wrong way. I believe he knew that there was corruption in the military and was trying to take the military down by any means he could.

Isaac McDougal

            During their second fight with McDougal, the brothers become suspicious that he is carrying a philosopher’s stone, a legendary item that is said to amplify one’s alchemic ability. The brothers have been searching for one as a possible way of getting their bodies back to whole again. In the end when he dies in his fight with Bradley, McDougal drops a red stone that disintegrates when it hits the ground.

            Episode one is an original addition to the story of the manga.  This is the first time we meet Isaac McDougal. Episode 1 touches on a lot of important points in the series without giving too much away. It reintroduces characters from the first series in a good way, and we learn much more about them. It also ties very well into the manga storyline. The soundtrack does a good job of furthering the emotional tones that are being experienced in the show and the style of animation works with the series as well. It is bright and crisp and helps to keep the audience on edge. The soundtrack and animation style both are serious enough to match the somewhat dark storyline. The voice acting is spot on. The voices are exactly the way you would expect the characters to sound.

            Since the second half of the original series, Fullmetal Alchemist, did not follow the original storyline of the manga, the Brotherhood series could not just build on it. Therefore, a lot of the events in the first series had to be retold in a condensed way to cover a lot of material. Because of this, several of the early episodes in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood each include compressed retellings of events from multiple episodes in the first series (Thirty episodes were condensed into thirteen). While the action scenes are excellent, these episodes in Part 1 are a little too fast paced and do not sufficiently allow for the development of the story or characters. The later episodes in the series more than make up for this though. As the pace slows the characters become very well-developed. In what can be unusual for a shonen anime, even the minor characters are memorable.

            I think the anime did a good job of getting its messages across. As the brothers travel around, they see firsthand not only the amazing possibilities from the use of alchemy, but also the moral issues involved. I think the alchemy in the series represents the scientific changes in today’s world especially in the areas of genetics and cloning. In the anime, human transmutation is not allowed and the boys’ attempt to use it resulted in serious consequences. The message is that the creation of human beings is not an area that man should experiment with.  We now have the possibility to create living creatures and to alter traits in living creatures, and we have to think about the moral dilemmas that could arise if we aren’t careful about how we use this information.

Homonculi - Lust(left) and Envy (right)

            The homunculi are artificial people created to further their leader’s goals. They must serve the purpose of their creator.  We have become so dependent on technology and do not think about the repercussions if we take this too far. Like the brothers who lost parts of their bodies, we have to worry about losing our humanity if we depend too much on science and technology.

            Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood was well received and is considered by many to be better than the original release. It is known for its depth of story and character development. For these reasons, I would strongly recommend this series to anyone interested in anime. It is available for viewing on Netflix and Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMw9OdKv-uY