Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – Beta Kappa AWESOME [Eps 1 - 12]
I’d forgotten what good shonen anime was like. Having eased gracefully into the battered house-wife role with Naruto the many joys of tight plotting, charming characterisation and taut action had become something of a distant memory, reserved for murky, wistful nostalgia and pangs of regret/bitterness. FMA: Brotherhood was like becoming a 13-year-old all over again, right down to the spazzing out during action scenes, getting so carried away I couldn’t help but punch the air and reenact every blow.
At the heart of the show is its two protagonists, the brothers Elric Edward and Alphonse. I state the bleeding obvious because ‘heart’ is the most apt way to describe their narrative importance. Both these boys are trapped in stasis and the driving force of the show, for me, is the pathos born from this fact. They’re young, but their emotional cores are even younger, held hostage by a traumatic event in their early lives. Both strive to start anew, resolve their pasts and forge ahead to a resolution that will give them peace and allow for growth. As it stands they’re still the two little kids crying over the death of their mother and the abandonment of their father, trapped by a childish mistake that cost one brother half his limbs and the other his entire body. In the present they suggest an image of capable maturity, possessing prodigious gifts for alchemy that’s world renowned, but frequently this front slips and their vulnerability peaks through resulting in major emotional pwnage of the audience.
Al, granted, is much more relatable than the gruff Ed because he’s so candid and honest. Truly innocent, he breaks our hearts with his naivety and downright adorableness at almost every turn. This is a major accomplishment because Al is a giant suit of supernatural armor. No physical body to speak of, just a sweet boyish voice echoing out an imposing shell of metal. Yet when he gets his wee notebook out, making a list of all the food he’ll taste when he gets his real body back, or when he touches the belly of a pregnant woman and marvels over the creation of life, he’s as alive and tactile as any of the other characters. At the moment, like many others I’d imagine, Al is my favourite. His good-natured melancholy causes all sorts of emotional thrums deep within my blackened husk of a heart and I’m complicit in the show’s manipulations because it’s done so damn well.
And a he’s a highlight amongst a truly excellent cast, main and supporting. Every character is likable, or at least understandable, regardless of how periphery. They’re all so uniformly great, developed enough to be worthwhile, that a setup one character receives that would otherwise immediately flag them as soon-to-be-dead completely passed me by until their untimely end. And it genuinely stung, feeling like a major loss. The only consolation is the knowledge that FMA: B gives so much attention to its characterisation that there’s plenty more to learn about the other cast members introduced to compensate. I’ll still miss spoiler-free-non-specific-dead-character. They were one of my favourites up to this point. The focus on Winry certainly mitigated the emo, but I’ll still miss them longtime.
Not to suggest that the plot is neglected in the face of all these charming characters. There’s not an inch of flab on FMA: B; its pacing is brisk and a plot point never outstays its welcome (nor does a character for that matter). I’m sure I said exactly the same thing about Naruto in the early days so I’m maintaining hopeful skepticism for the future, but at the moment it’s been a fantastically penned adventure. It’s very difficult to criticise anything about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brother at the moment, really. I’m sure if I’d seen the first anime iteration I’d be bawling like some of the fandom, but this has proven to be a brilliant introduction to the series and one I look forward to it every week.
July 1st, 20091:13 pm at
I wouldn;t agree that that character got enough time to be developed. They just didn’t have enough screentime before the “phone booth” ;_;.
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July 2nd, 20095:36 pm at
I agree that the scripting is tight. The problem is, this is take two. I watched the original and have read the manga. My issue is not that it is not faithful to the original anime, but rather that it really is just more of the same. Especially the earlier episodes are painful in just being complete rehashes of the manga and original anime. I suspect it’ll get better where the manga and original anime split, as Brotherhood ends up following the manga, but at this early stage it’s like deja vu squared.
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July 2nd, 200910:56 pm at
@Omisyth:
Ach, it was enough to make me go NONONO and Q_Q myself to sleep. Mission accomplished, BONES decree.
@kos:
Mm, I understand what you mean. I haven’t had any prior experience with the series so this iteration is completely fresh/new to me. If I had read the manga or seen the first series I’d likely have exactly the same attitude most established fans do. I mean, I avoid Naruto’s anime because it’s a direct retelling (filler not withstanding) of a manga I read weekly, and the plot lines are so far ahead that it neuters any potential drama I might get from it. With FMA, like I say, this is the first and only encounter I’ve had with it and I’m totally enamored.
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July 4th, 20098:20 pm at
[...] frustrating because depending on which reviews you read, FMA: Brotherhood is either a great, exciting series or just a terrible waste of time. I think it has been fine so far, but all the whining seems to be [...]
July 25th, 20094:10 am at
Yeah, you picked a good way to get into it. My only complaint is that after the first episode, the series’ animation just isn’t as atmospheric or detailed as the first series’.
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December 28th, 200911:24 am at
[...] becomes, uh, available. I’ve written at length about the reasons for my love of this series elsewhere, so I won’t go on about it here. Just know it’s one of the best shonen anime available [...]