!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
Ok, I'm going to talk about FMA: Brotherhood in a moment. If youhave not seen the last episode fo the series, or have missed some episodes along the way; STOP READING NOW!!!
You have been warned.
So, FMA: Brotherhood series is now complete. That means that adultswim is going to replay the hell out of it for the next two or three years or however long the contract says they can keep airing it. At the beginning of the series, like many FMA fans, I was hopeful and wary at the same time. It took me several episodes and I had to talk myself out of throwing up my hands in despair severeal times in the beginning.
However, it grew on me. The story and character changes are hard to adapt to when a reboot is done from the original version. The plot arch remained the same. Ed and Al lose parts of their bodies, or entire body, in the attempt to bring back their dead mother...which failed and caused the brothers to search for the Philosopher's Stone to get their bodies back. Several character and stroy points remained the same: Scar is out to kill every state alchemist he can find, the Fueher is King Bradley (an homonoculus), Wrath, Lust and company are the enemy and Col. Mustang and his cadre are also still around. And yes, Maes Hughes still dies....damnit.
The stroy point and characters start to change. We find out that the original homonuculus, Father, started the whole mess centuries before by tricking the boys' father into helping him. Teacher, is a love-smitten housewife, whose awesome line in FMA was bastardized from "pissed off" to "housewife" while wearing bathroom slippers. There's a whole other country involved; Shin. This country is a loose confederation of clans who send out representatives to figure out the secret to immortality; they are bad-ass martial arts fighters with their own version of alchemy. Maj. Armstrong gets a larger role in this series and does well with it, as does Havoc in the first part of the series. We are introduced to ANOTHER Armstrong sister, but instead of being cute and demure...she's hardcore and a General at the Briggs fort. There are so many differences at this point, it would be useless to list them all, so let's bop on to the end of the series, shall we?
In FMA, we are treated to a glimpse of Mustang's plan to tie up the Army while he and the brothers wage their last battle to prevent Central from being destoryed and turned into a Philosopher's Stone. We get to see Havoc go hardcare with a heavy machine gun and htat is all we get of the rebellion. In Brotherhood, Havoc isn't an active participant, but the rest are and you get to see a large scale attack on Central that lasts for several episodes and involves the use of a tank. Envy kills himself, the other homonoculi get beaten savagely by Mustang and the Greed/Prince of Shin combo (they share the same body) becomes a hero...moreover, Greed becomes a hero and dies satisfied...he's made friends. Father takes out the country, however, but he can't control the power and the survivors of the battle gang up on him with Ed delivering the final blow. Oh, over the course of two episodes, the brothers each sacrifice themselves for each other with the final outcome being, of course, they get their bodies back. Ed loses his ability for alchemy to get Al back.
We get a very sappy ending. An entire episode of a sappy ending. The boys' father dies at Trisha's grave, Ed conducts a retarded marrigage proposal to Winry. Both Ed and Al go in seperate directions to explore the world (opening up a new series or spin off possibilities). Mustang is blind in both eyes, but is an effort to redeem himself to the Ishballans. Havoc gets his spine fixed (oh yeah, halfway though the series he gets his back broken by Lust). And we are given, in the final ten seconds, a picture on the wall of the entire gang and we see that Winry and Ed have two kids, Al seems to be getting it on with one of the girls from Shin.
Deep breath.
I am not so much disappointed with the story, addition of new characters, changing of some of the regulars, but with how long and how clumsy it was told. It either went too fast, or took too long to make a point. The animation, despite my inital misgivings, was great, the English voice actors were great, I really liked the larger inclusion of the Armstrong family (especially the beautiful yet brutish additional sister), the story held great promise. The reboot, once I got past my love for FMA, held so much promise...but did not quite deliver the whole package.
And for those of you who enjoyed the subtle romance of Hawkeye and Mustang in FMA, I'm sure were as disappointed as I when it was merely implied at the nd of Brotherhood.
There were several smaller plot paths that I thought were good; the involvement of Shin, more of the boys father, the Armstrong family, Greed's own storyline (very, very good and ended well). There is much to like about this series. I DO reccomend watching it. But as an overall piece...it is lacking.
Interestingly, the current FMA movie is set in the timeline of Brotherhood. Those lucky few of us who got to see Fullmetal Alchemist: Sacred Star of Milos, were very much entertained. Whiel set up in Brotherhood, the movie is quite good and I hope you get to see it in the upcoming US theatrical release.
Sorry, no music tonight...sound card went out on me. Next time tho!
