Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the second anime adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's manga Fullmetal Alchemist. It's the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who are prodigies in the science of alchemy. Alchemy is the art of understanding, deconstructing and reconstructing matter, and one of its fundamental laws is equivalent exchange; you can't create something out of nothing, and in order to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. The brothers disregarded this law in an attempt to use alchemy to bring their dead mother back to life, which led to Edward losing his right arm and left leg, and Alphonse losing his entire body and having his soul bound to a suit of armor. From there, they set out on a journey to find the philosopher's stone, which is said to amplify alchemy and should allow them to restore themselves to normal.
Prior to Brotherhood, Studio BONES adapted the manga into an anime consisting of 51 episodes and a movie titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa. This anime started out similarly to the manga, but diverged from the source material partway through the story because the manga was still very much unfinished. It became an excellent and well-received series on its own, but many fans of the manga were disappointed that the original plot never made it to animation. And so BONES decided to revisit the series with Brotherhood. This liveblog will focus on examining the show and its themes, as well as giving me a place to discuss my own opinions about the series.
Comments
