Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Rewatch | Manga Mondays #20

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! 

Over the course of the summer, I have been doing a rewatch of one of my favorite anime: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. It's one of the first anime I watched when I came back to the medium, so I first watched it back in 2018-ish. I've also read the entire manga, but that was also back then. So I had forgotten a lot about the show. 

But after my full rewatch, I'm ready to talk about it!

First, I loved it. Of course I loved it. As I said, it's one of my favorites. Everything about it is wonderful, from the characters to the plot to the music. What I found interesting is that I pretty much remembered the beginning of the anime, but the second half was really fuzzy to me. There were a lot of points where I had to pause and think "Wait, did that actually just happen? Was that always there?" It was almost like discovering it for the first time. 

Let's talk synopsis: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood follows Edward and Alphonse Elric, teenage brothers who are versed in the art of alchemy. When they were younger, they committed the ultimate taboo among alchemists: they attempted human transmutation in order to bring their mother back to life. Instead, Ed lost an arm and a leg to the process, and Al lost his whole body, his soul now bound to a suit of armor. They are on a quest to find a philosopher's stone, the only thing that could return their bodies back to normal. 

The official anime poster

That's a really basic summary, of course. They meet a ton of people and learn so much along the way of their journey, which gets sidetracked a lot with a bunch of different side quests. But that's the gist of it, if you're interested in starting it up. 

Okay, I'm going to be talking SPOILERS now, so if you haven't watched the anime/read the manga yet, I suggest clicking off and returning once you do.

First, I want to talk about the characters. The character work that the mangaka did is practically flawless. Each character is so unique, with their own backstories, and morals, and goals and motivations. You learn each as we go through the story, so by the end you care about everyone around you. And that is exactly the point of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. There are no true villains: there are antagonists, sure, but there is really only one character that you can point at and say "That's the bad guy." And even then, you understand their reasons for doing what they do. It's incredible. 

All that being said, my favorite character is Envy. Envy is technically an antagonist. They're a homunculus, an artificially created being with a philosopher's stone at their core. Envy has the ability to shapeshift, so they can appear as anyone around you. With this power, they caused a lot of hurt and anguish early on in the series. The reason Envy is my favorite character, however, is because of what we learn about them later on as the series progresses. Envy becomes someone you almost want to root for. They're so confused about everything, torn between loyalty to their family (the other homunculi) and the jealousy they feel toward human beings. Their arc is so sad, and I cry nearly every time their death comes on screen. 

Envy

I also really love Greed, another homunculus. Especially when he merges with Ling, a prince of another nation who came to Amestris looking for immortality. Greeling (as Ed calls the amalgamation of the two) develops an insane amount of humanity, and ends up fighting against the one that created him. He sacrifices himself for Ling's sake and ends up dealing their enemy a fatal blow. 

Greed/Ling

Is it weird that my two favorite characters are antagonists in the series? 

Another thing I wanted to talk about is the message of the story. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is a war story, there's no doubt about that. All the characters fight a war, some more than one. Edward is a State Alchemist, nickname "the dogs of the military." And most of the characters are part of the military proper. Before the timeline of the anime, there was a civil war with another country, and many of the characters fought in it. We see PTSD in so many people. 

This is a big reason why I say there aren't really any good guys/bad guys in this story. Who you might consider a "good guy" was a mass murderer during the civil war, trying to eradicate an entire race. They didn't do it out of hatred, or anger, or malice. They did it because they were military, and those were their orders. Fullmetal Alchemist really dives deep into the psyche of these characters, as well as the concept of war itself. It shows the atrocities in the realest, most stark way possible. In its entirety, it's a story of morally grey characters and concepts. It makes you think.

The central characters in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

I finished the anime on Saturday, and had a good cry fest afterward. The ending is so hopeful and happy, something you always wish for, but don't always get. 

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Hulu.

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Alright, that's it for this Manga Monday! Have you watched FmAB? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments, or tweet at me @AllyEmReads (if you want my anitwt, it's @SeijohSoul).

Until next time, friends!