Fullmetal Alchemist : Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: One of the
best, if not the best, anime, ever created. But before going into the details,
let me make one point abundantly clear- Its NOT a cartoon! It’s an ANIME! Yes,
there is a difference. Tom and Jerry is a cartoon. So is The Looney Tunes. FMA
is not. An anime has high quality animation and a complex storyline which is
not usually seen in most cartoons. Many anime, including Brotherhood, are based
on comics called manga. So now that that’s out of the way, let me get to the
actual review :
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| The Main Heroes : Edward and Alphonse Elric |
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| The Transmutation Circles |
Brotherhood is set in a world, where the
dominant science is one called “Alchemy”, which the process of transforming an
object into something else using special symbols called Transmutation Circles.
The main rule governing this is the Law of Equivalent Exchange, which is
basically conservation of mass. The series follows two brothers, Edward and
Alphonse Elric, in the fictional country of Amestris, who commit a grave taboo
in trying to bring their mother back from the dead using Alchemy. This is
forbidden, since the human soul has no equivalent. As a result, Ed loses his
right arm and left leg, and Al loses his entire body, with his soul being bonded
to a suit of armour. FMA follows their journey as they attempt to return their
bodies back to normal, with the help of a legendary object called the
Philosopher’s Stone, which lets a person bypass Equivalent Exchange. Along the
way, they encounter supernatural creatures called Homunculi, and also learn shocking
truths about the very nature of Alchemy in Amestris.
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| The Philosopher's Stone |
The entire series, is , to put it simply,
absolutely brilliant. By far the best anime I have seen, and I have seen quite
a few. The themes of love, brotherhood, and courage that are portrayed are
really touching. And I don’t mean it in a cheesy way; you get attached to the
characters fairly quickly, and the way they overcome the trials they face,
while at the same time, putting others before themselves, is really nice to
watch. To ensure that it doesn’t get too serious and depressing, there’s plenty
of comedy in between as well. The story builds up very steadily, and is not
rushed through in any way; you can watch 5-6 episodes together without it frying
your brain the way Death Note does :P . At the same time, the story doesn’t
proceed so slowly as to bore you *cough* DBZ *cough*. The complex , but interesting, storyline ,
will keep you interested throughout the 64 episodes. Quite a few “shocking revelation”
moments. There are plenty of cool fight sequences too. Yep, Brotherhood, is pretty close to
perfection.
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| Homunculus |
When I say close to perfection, I mean
there were a couple of things I disliked about the series. The nature of the
comedy, which is pretty standard for anime, does make some scenes appear more
kiddish then they should’ve been. Also, there are a couple of sub-stories which
are reeeeally depressing. But there’s not much for me to complain about. Like I
said, it’s still pretty close to perfection.
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| The characters in FMA |
There are actually two separate series:
Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood. The review so far was
for the latter. The former follows the manga for about the half the series and
then deviates, whereas FMA:B follows the manga to the end. Both are good, and
worth watching. But the original series comes nowhere close to FMA:B.
Brotherhood is in a league of its own, with a better storyline, better fight
sequences, more characters, and a way better ending. FMA seems to end a little…
prematurely. The storyline also becomes a little random towards the end. The
only sector in which FMA is better than FMA:B, is the music. FMA has some very beautiful instrumentals.
Overall, though, I’d choose Brotherhood anyday. The storyline is just… more
complete and well-rounded. I’d like to elaborate a bit more, but that would
probably mean including a few spoilers, so I’ll stop here. Brotherhood is certainly
a must-watch for all anime fans. It’ll probably convert most non-anime fans too
J
-- Contributed by Deepak Dilipkumar
