Geeking out over Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Turn away now if you don't wish to hear someone gush about an anime they love. No hard feelings here, anime isn't for everyone. Neither is my rambling about why I like it... but I suppose you're still reading, so here we are.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (I shall shorten it to FMAB for readability and to save my poor fingers from typing it out every time) is an anime I fell in love with when watching it during the doldrums (also known as my high school years). It was, I think, the second anime I started watching after Soul Eater. A slim possibility exists that it could be the third after D.Gray Man - I really falter on the order.

I didn't even know what this "anime" thing was back then. My brother started purchasing these random DVDs and Blu-rays, all with cartoon characters on the boxes, and I couldn't help but be curious as to what the heck he was buying. Lo and behold and flip me sideways, I found myself enamoured with the shows. FMAB hooked me into the anime world and I haven't been able to let go since.

I don't know if I should write a little generic part where I share what FMAB entails to try and bring people into this world I adore and help give understanding to what the heck I'm talking about. At least, I feel it would be prudent to share a general summary to give people an idea. Firstly, FMAB is a remake of another anime which ended before the source material - the manga created by Hiromu Arakawa - had finished. It's about two brothers: Edward and Alphonse Elric. One of these brothers has a mechanical arm and leg, the other is a suit of armour. Weird, huh? By anime standards, that might be kinda normal. But for someone just getting into the medium, it's intriguing to say the least.

The magic system of this show, as it were, is Alchemy - the Law of Equivalent Exchange (there's a lot more to how they use it, but too much to put down now). There is a taboo among alchemists known as human transmutation. Put simply, bringing back the dead is a no-no. However, in their childhood, the two brothers were reading their father's alchemy books and learning the trade. When they lost their mother, they committed the taboo, resulting in one losing his leg, and the other losing his entire body. Sacrificing his arm, Edward bonded his brother's soul to a suit of armour.

There's so much more going on all over the place, but to cut it short: the main goal of the story is for our two scarred brothers is to restore their bodies back to normal. From a writer's perspective, that's great - their character goal is established early on. From a watcher's point of view, it's also great - you know what they're fighting for.

I. Love. This. Show! I've watched it three times now, and I'm sure I'll watch it again one day. I found it so compelling on the first watch, wishing to watch the next episode to see where it goes. It was a cathartic release to every day life, to enter this fantasy world with so many standout scenes and memorable characters. It pulled me in and it had me, and where a lot of shows end up falling short at the end, FMAB really ramps it up with an amazing final volume where it brings everything its been building together to a fantastic finish.

To start off, the animation has a fluidity to it which make the fights so entertaining, never minding the great choreography and the emotion behind the conflicts. The opening music is something which hit my ear like soft, gentle bricks. I had never listened to Japanese songs before. I was the impressionable teenager who liked shiny things, so of course I listened to more after discovering a love for "Again" by Yui.

And then there's the cast. Every character is their own person, and even the side characters have layers to them. Watching it through, I can see how pretty much every character contributes something to the story and helps bring about the end. That's how it should be! Every characters matters! That is something I aspire to do with my own writing when it comes to writing long fiction.

The story of FMAB is incredible with its intricacies and philosophies, but I would argue the cast is where it excels. They really help elevate the story to the greatness it can be - and is (IMO). I'd love to praise each and every character individually, but I'll only pick a handful to quickly discuss.

The female cast is fewer in number against the male cast, but the ones who are prevalent are fantastic. We have Riza Hawkeye: Lieutenant, sniper, soldier, secretly a Colonel-lover. She isn't just a killer, however. She shows care and consideration to other characters, she has moments of weakness and they really give her a human feeling (and she has a dog).

We also have General Olivia Armstrong. I think she may be a fan favourite. She is a badass, plain and simple. No alchemy; just a sword, her leadership, and her intelligence. In my opinion, this is a leader done correctly. She has faith in her soldiers, and they respect her.

We also have Winry Rockbell. She's not a fighter - despite smashing Edward's head in with a wrench or two. She's only into violence for the comedy. When it gets serious, she can't pull the trigger on a gun. Because that's not her character. She's one who saves and helps lives, not takes them.

Many anime tend to lean into fan service regarding their female characters. I've seen it so many times, I've now grown numb to it to the point where my mind glazes. But FMAB doesn't do it. It breaks the anime habit. Actually, tell a lie - Alex Louise Armstrong likes to show off his muscles; there's no way for him to do this other than making his shirt explode by the bulking mass of his body. The action of shirt ripping and muscle bulging has been passed down the Armstrong family for generations! Or something like that (watchers of the show would get the reference).

Now, moving onto some of the male cast, we come to Ling Yao - a character who comes off as comic relief. His first scene is him starving in an alley, basically collapsed. However, we soon see there's a bit more to him. He inquires about something serious, forcing a shift in tone, but shortly returns to being a goofy character.

But when things kick off, he goes from this:

To this:

I LOVE THAT! It brings layers of depth to character whose first showing was a comical one. While the anime has comedic moments, this show is far from a comedy. I love Ling. He's a character who changes and grows across the show, and he's definitely one of my favourites.

The penultimate character I wish to mention out of my adoration for FMAB and its large cast is Colonel Roy Mustang. He wields Flame Alchemy, summoned by clicking (igniting) his fingers with gloves holding the transmutation circle needed to summon his flames. It's thanks to this character that I click my fingers so much (still doing it to this day). This is a character shown to be strong, flawed, humourous, cunning - a bit of everything. There's a particular scene I love where he snaps and goes off the rails when confronting the killer of his best friend after hunting them down across majority of the show. I'm a sucker for rage moments - for scenes where a character completely loses it and goes all in on the anger - and this was one of the first tastes I had of such a scene. Is this the face of a man you'd want to piss off?

The antagonists of FMAB are homunculi - supposedly immortal beings who can regenerate any wound. This is who Roy Mustang is up against, so there's a lot of incineration involved. These beings are named after the seven deadly sins, and they pop quite frequently. I enjoy them as baddies, but I particularly love Wrath. His anger isn't really the shouting kind; it's more the composed kind. Makes it more intimidating, in my opinion. Young teenager Euan will always be in awe how Wrath took down a tank with a sword and a grenade and then complains about how his old body isn't what it used to be. He's such a cool character, a good villain, and he has a moustache.

Among so many things, this anime has helped shift my view on story telling. Characters are so important, especially for the longer stories. They need layers. They don't have to be likeable, they just need to know who they are, what they've done in the past, and where they're going now, and they need to contribute something to the plot.

FMAB doesn't kill off a great number of its characters (honestly, I'm thankful for that because I love them so much). I would argue it's a fair number and the right number. When writing serious stories where fights and battles are common, I always thought death should be frequent, otherwise what's the risk? I was wrong. It's not about the number of deaths or who dies, it's about the scene and what it does to the story and characters. Death may well come to a character, but that shouldn't be the first thought. It should be: "How the hell does this scene benefit the story?"

Anyway, that's about it for my rambling. Thanks for reading this far. I don't talk about shows or things I love often (fear of judgement, I guess?), so this was kinda fun.

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Author's notes:

Thanks again for reading. I wrote this for the amazing Angela Hepworth's wonderful challenge, which you can find here: