Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

• 1. Introduction

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  Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood began with a notice printed in the 20th volume of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, released in August 2008. Its author, Hiromu Arakawa, used that volume to announce that a second anime adaptation was already in production. The manga had an anime adaptation behind it. So why would anyone return to the same story so soon? What could a second telling offer that the first did not? And how did this Japanese television series come to be counted among the greatest anime ever made? The answers begin with a problem that every adaptation of a running manga eventually faces.

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• 2. A Faithful Retelling

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  The first Fullmetal Alchemist anime debuted in 2003. Partway through its run, it exhausted the published manga and invented a story direction found only in that series. Brotherhood was conceived as the remedy. Its goal was to follow the manga's entire story from beginning to end, with nothing made up to fill a gap.

  Studio Bones produced and animated the new series. Yasuhiro Irie directed, Hiroshi Ōnogi wrote the scripts, and Akira Senju composed the music. Voice actresses Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya returned as Edward and Alphonse Elric, which gave the new version a link to the old one.

  Irie described the difficulty of making the series as appealing as possible. Roy Mustang was hugely popular with fans, so Irie had to give that character proper attention. In May 2010, with the manga nearing its own completion, Irie announced that the Bones staff was already working on the final episodes. He also said he was shocked by how the story ended. The story that shocked him starts in a remote village far from any city.

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• 3. The Elric Brothers

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  Resembool is a remote village in the country of Amestris, and it is where Edward and Alphonse Elric grew up. Their mother, Trisha, raised them after their father, Hohenheim, walked out on the family. Hohenheim was a noted and very gifted alchemist, and the boys were still young when he left. Both brothers showed an affinity for alchemy and grew curious about its secrets. When Trisha died of a lingering illness, an elderly neighbor named Pinako Rockwell cared for them, along with her granddaughter Winry Rockbell, the boys' closest friend.

  Ed and Al later traveled the world to deepen their training under a teacher named Izumi Curtis. After they returned home, they desperately tried to bring their mother back to life. Human transmutation is a serious taboo in alchemy, because it cannot be done properly. The attempt failed. Al's body disintegrated completely, and Ed lost his left leg. In a last effort to save his brother, Ed gave up his right arm to call back Al's soul and bind it to a nearby suit of armor.

  Winry and Pinako then fitted Edward with automail prosthetics. The brothers burned down their own house, a sign of their determination and their decision of "no turning back." They headed to the capital to become government-sanctioned State Alchemists. After Edward passed the exam, the State Military dubbed him the "Fullmetal Alchemist." The brothers set out to regain their full bodies through the fabled Philosopher's Stone, under the direction of Colonel Roy Mustang.

  Their search uncovered a deep government conspiracy to hide the true nature of the Stone. It involves artificially made humans called homunculi, alchemists from the neighboring nation of Xing, and a scarred serial killer from the war-torn nation of Ishval. It also reaches back into their own father's past. Every one of those characters needed a voice, and the series gave each one two.

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• 4. Voices And Music

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  Shin-ichiro Miki gave Roy Mustang his voice in Japanese, while Travis Willingham spoke the role in English. Megumi Takamoto voiced Winry Rockbell in Japanese, with Caitlin Glass in the English version. Vic Mignogna was Edward in English, and Maxey Whitehead was Alphonse. Keiji Fujiwara and Sonny Strait played Maes Hughes, and Fumiko Orikasa and Colleen Clinkenbeard played Riza Hawkeye. Scar was voiced by Kenta Miyake and J. Michael Tatum. Mamoru Miyano and Todd Haberkorn played Ling Yao. The role of Greed lists Yuichi Nakamura in Japanese and two English actors, Chris Patton and then Troy Baker.

  Akira Senju's score reached listeners on three soundtrack CDs. The first appeared on the 14th of October 2009, the second on the 24th of March 2010, and the third on the 7th of July 2010. A compilation of opening and ending songs, Fullmetal Alchemist Final Best, followed on the 28th of July 2010.

  The theme songs changed roughly every dozen episodes. The first 14 episodes opened with "Again" by Yui and closed with a song by Sid. Episodes 15 to 26 opened with "Hologram" by Nico Touches the Walls and closed with "Let It Out" by Miho Fukuhara. Episodes 27 to 38 opened with "Golden Time Lover" by Sukima Switch, and the ending song was by Lil'B. Episodes 39 to 50 opened with "Period" by Chemistry, and the ending song was by Scandal.

  For episodes 51 to 62, the opening was by Sid and the ending was "Ray of Light" by Shoko Nakagawa. The last two episodes had no opening themes at all. Episode 63 ended with "Rain", and episode 64 ended with "Hologram". All of this music arrived on television in the spring of 2009.

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• 5. Premiere Abroad

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  On the 5th of April 2009, Brotherhood premiered in Japan on the Sunday 5:00 pm anime block shared by MBS and TBS. Over the following months, MBS, TBS and their affiliates aired 64 episodes, the run ending in July 2010.

  In March 2009, the official English title was announced, along with an English-language premiere on Animax Asia. That broadcast carried Japanese audio with English subtitles and began at 8:30 pm on the 10th of April 2009. On the 3rd of April 2009, Funimation said it would stream subtitled episodes four days after they aired in Japan. Madman Entertainment promised to stream the episodes within days of their Japanese broadcast.

  In May 2009, Funimation paused new episodes for a few weeks. The cause was an incident in which an episode of One Piece had been uploaded before it aired in Japan. The Brotherhood episodes later returned on the Funimation website and on the company's official YouTube channel.

  In September 2009, Funimation announced the English dub cast, which featured much of the cast from the 2003 series dub. The dub premiered on the 14th of February 2010 on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block. It ended its run on the 25th of September 2011. Meanwhile, discs were already being pressed on both sides of the Pacific.

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• 6. Discs And Licenses

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  In August 2009, Aniplex began releasing Brotherhood on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan. The first volume held two episodes and an original video animation. The fifth and ninth volumes each added one more of these extras alongside four episodes, and the other volumes carried four episodes with none. Sixteen volumes appeared in all, the last in November 2010.

  Funimation began its own Blu-ray and DVD releases in May 2010, with thirteen episodes in each volume. Five volumes were released, the last in August 2011. In the United Kingdom, Manga Entertainment issued the series in five volumes during 2010 and 2011, and later in a two-part box set.

  In March 2016, Funimation lost its license for the series. In July 2016, it was announced that the rights had moved to Aniplex of America, and that the series would stream on Crunchyroll. Netflix debuted it in the United States and Canada in January 2018. In November 2018, Aniplex of America put the series out on two Blu-ray Disc box sets.

  Funimation re-licensed the series for its streaming service in November 2019. Elsewhere, Madman Entertainment distributed it in Australia, Super Channel broadcast it in Canada, and TV5 carried it in the Philippines on its AniMEGA anime block.

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• 7. Critics Weigh In

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  On Rotten Tomatoes, Brotherhood holds a 100% approval rating based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 8 out of 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." The series once ranked first on MyAnimeList, Anime News Network and IMDb. Frieren later overtook it on MyAnimeList and Anime News Network.

  Not every early verdict was glowing. D. F. Smith, writing for IGN, called the short gap between the 2003 series and Brotherhood peerless among anime. He judged the first 14 episodes to move faster than their counterparts in the older series, as if the viewer already knew the characters. That speed reached the "exciting" story elements sooner, he observed, but it cost enjoyable moments with supporting characters such as Winry and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes. He also found the action scenes unexpectedly "compact".

  Members of the Anime News Network staff initially criticized the same stretch, saying that repeated events from the first anime left it short on suspense. Chris Beveridge of Mania Entertainment saw it differently. He said the fun of those episodes lay in how the characters acted differently from the first series, plus original material on the emotional themes. He praised the new fight scenes and the extra drama as "solid".

  Megan Gudeman of CBR called the relationships in the anime "dynamic and memorable". Chris Zimmerman of Comic Book Bin said the series "turns around and establishes its own identity", thanks to new characters and revelations absent from the first anime. He judged the animation superior, especially the characters' expressions and the fight scenes. Mark Thomas of The Fandom Post called the ending a "virtually perfect ending to an outstanding series". Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times placed Brotherhood second on his list of the best anime of 2010.

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• 8. After The Finale

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  Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos premiered in Japanese theaters on the 2nd of July 2011. A film had been announced right after the final episode of Brotherhood aired. Kazuya Murata directed it, and Yūichi Shinpo wrote it. The story follows the Elric brothers as they try to capture a criminal in another country.

  The film had its own composer. Taro Iwashiro wrote the music, and the original soundtrack came out on the 29th of June 2011, just days before the premiere. Its Japanese title is Nageki no Oka no Seinaru Hoshi.

  Funimation licensed the film and released it in selected theaters in the United States in January 2012. Home video followed on the 24th of April 2012, on both DVD and Blu-ray.

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