Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist:  Brotherhood is an action, adventure, drama, comedy, romance, romantic comedy, tragedy, fantasy anime series. It's based on a manga series written by Hiromu Arakawa and published by Enix from 2001-2003 and Square Enix from 2003-2010. It originally fran from July 12, 2001 to July 12, 2010, and lasted for 12 volumes in total. The anime adaptation was directed by Yasuhiro Irie, written by Hiroshi Onogi Shoutarou Suga, musically composed by Akira Senju, and produced by Hiro Maruyama, Noritomo Yonai, Ryo Oyama, Nobuyuki Kurashige, and Studio Bones. It originally ran from April 5, 2009 to July 4, 2010, and lasted for 64 episodes in total. This was the second anime adaptation of the manga, which had the ending of the manga unlike the original adaptation.

Plot
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood adapts all 27 volumes of the manga, unlike the first television series. 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, and while in Trisha's care they began to show an affinity for alchemy. However, when Trisha died of a lingering illness, they were cared for by their best friend Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako. The boys traveled the world to advance their alchemic training under Izumi Curtis. Upon returning home, the two decide to try to bring their mother back to life with alchemy. However, human transmutation is a taboo, as it is impossible to do so properly. In the failed transmutation that results, Al's body is completely obliterated and Ed loses his left leg. In a last ditch attempt to keep his brother alive, Ed sacrifices his right arm to bring Al's soul back and houses it in a nearby suit of armor. After Edward receives automail prosthetics from Winry and Pinako, the brothers decide to burn their childhood home down (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 discover the nature of 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 the homunculi, the alchemists of the neighboring nation of Xing, the scarred man from the war-torn nation of Ishval, and their own father's past.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It is very faithful to the original manga, even more so than the 2003 adaptation.
 * 2) Incredible animation, especially during the fight scenes and the dramatic scenes.
 * 3) Good voice acting in both the sub and dub; this series retained the voice actors of the original series in both languages.
 * 4) Very appealing art style and character designs.
 * 5) WINRY ROCKBELL!  A big advantage that this series has over the original adaptation is that Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell actually end up together in the end.  That didn't happen in the 2003 version because the manga wasn't completed yet and this occurs at the very end of the series.
 * 6) Amazing, fast paced, intense fight scenes.
 * 7) Speaking of the fight scenes, the final fight between Edward Elric and Father is one of the best fights in all of anime.
 * 8) Great music and soundtrack.
 * 9) Phenomenal conclusion, far better than the 2003 adaptation.
 * 10) While Father isn't a great villain, he's still way better than Dante was in the original series.
 * 11) Excellent cast of characters, most of them being interesting, deep, getting character development, or at the very least being fun to watch.
 * 12) The character development is very good in Brotherhood.  The biggest standout is Edward Elric, who undergoes such a huge transformation from the beginning to the end of the series.
 * 13) The finale was incredibly long and awesome; it lasted a total of 14 episodes.
 * 14) Tones of well-written, tear-jerking drama.
 * 15) This series has OLIVIA ARMSTRONG, an excellent female character who wasn't in the original show.  She's an incredible beautiful, badass, strong, and interesting sister of Alex Louis Armstrong.
 * 16) Very heartwarming ending where Edward Elric gets his arm and leg back and Alphonse gets his entire body back.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While Father is a better villain than Dante, he's still not horribly interesting or complex. The only good things about him are his voice acting, (in both languages), his character design, and his fight scenes, especially in the end.
 * 2) The origins of the Homuncuili was more interesting in the original series. In this show they were just detachments of Father's soul, whereas in the original series they were the products of failed human transmutation, which fit very well within the themes of Fullmetal Alchemist.
 * 3) This version of the story abridges the first few arcs, which were elaborated on more in the original adaptation. The reasoning was probably becuase they were already adapted and thus many viewers have already seen them, but for those who saw Brotherhood first, those story arcs won't have as much of a punch as they will in the original show.

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