Review: „To create something, you have to sacrifice something of equal value”; this is the law of equivalent exchange in a world where alchemy is among the biggest fields of scientific research. Yet, only few people are gifted with an alchemist‘s power to, when understanding the structure of matter, break it down and rebuild it at will. Very early the two Elric Brothers, Edward and Alphons, learned how to use that miraculous power, which reminded their mother of her husband, who left the family without a trace years ago. When she died of illness, in their sadness they committed the big taboo of trying to create a human through alchemy in trying to revive their dead mother. A miserable failure in which Edward lost an arm and a leg, while Alphons lost his whole body living now with his soul attached to an iron armor. The law of equivalent exchange, or the iron law, how it is often called, might as well be how this whole world works; or at least that’s what they thought when they burned down their house and left on a journey to regain their bodies, leaving their hometown and friends behind.
Fullmetal Alchemist – Brotherhood is a completely new remake of the earlier highly successful 51 episodes long Fullmetal Alchemist series. Both series are based on an original manga of the same name. When the previous series caught up to the story of the manga, which released only 1 chapter each month, the animation crew did a pretty good job in continuing the story their own way, while picking up some elements of new chapters here and there. All in all it was a well designed and well animated shounen action-adventure that deserved its success. Basically there is little need for a remake of a series that’s almost perfect to begin with. As in the anime-industry success alone very often is not a sufficient indicator for sequels, my early guess was that this time they plan to stick closer to the original manga story and present it in an even better animation quality. It is worth watching for everyone who did or did not see the first series.
Rating: 10
Friendly Otaku 