I'd heard about this show for ages. Almost every anime fan around claims that it's the absolute best anime can offer. Also, as a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I'd heard many saying the two were of similarly high quality. So without further hesitation, I decided to give it a shot.
After finishing it, all I can say is that I was left immensely unsatisfied and painfully disappointed. Even around the halfway mark I considered dropping it but I decided to prevail, yet my thoughts were unchanged by the end.
First off, it's characters just come across as cardboard cutouts of the typical shounen tropes. Just goofy, over the top and annoyingly ecstatic. I couldn't have cared less about the two brothers and there struggle. Other characters that are meant to be sympathetic or whose deaths are meant to be impactful are hardly spent enough time with to have any effect on the viewer. Also there are just way too many characters, and unnecessary ones at that. You just feel overwhelmed at times by how many different characters are doing different things that you end up not really caring about them or the story.
The show's tone is arguably it's biggest downfall, in my opinion. It can just never seem to establish a consistent mood. Every tragic moment, every depressing moment, every epic moment, or should I say whenever moments like these are attempted, they're ALWAYS interrupted by some form of comic relief, a silly joke or a character making a chibi face. It's like the show goes out of its way to undercut every moment of tension. It's honestly really childish and the show loses momentum because of it.
Onto the villains. They're just MEH. Dumb and incompetent when the plot needs them to be, unthreatening and lacking any depth whatsoever. Sometimes they'll go out of their way to let the heroes win, even after supposedly beating them. They're just so impersonal, and even when this is attempted, it just seems rushed and completely out of nowhere. The Big Bad is your typical over-the-top shounen villain, so no surprises or nuance there either.
As for the animation, it seems too much like a western cartoon, and it's quality can sometimes be really inconsistent. The soundtrack is neither good nor bad, just fine. None of it will stick with me. It often felt as if four or five tracks were on an endless loop to the point of annoyance.
Overall Brotherhood is not a horrible show, it's just painfully mediocre. If you're looking for a better alternative, watch the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist, the one that every fan of Brotherhood will tell you to ignore because "it's not like the manga." but honestly what does it matter? I unfortunately listened to these people and watched Brotherhood first and then watched 2003's. Pretty much every flaw in Brotherhood was already rectified in that version. The characters are more sympathetic, there are less unnecessary supporting characters, the tone is darker and far more consistent, the humor is less ecstatic and appropriately placed and the villains are far more complex, and feel like characters rather than mindless obstacles for the heroes.
After finishing it, all I can say is that I was left immensely unsatisfied and painfully disappointed. Even around the halfway mark I considered dropping it but I decided to prevail, yet my thoughts were unchanged by the end.
First off, it's characters just come across as cardboard cutouts of the typical shounen tropes. Just goofy, over the top and annoyingly ecstatic. I couldn't have cared less about the two brothers and there struggle. Other characters that are meant to be sympathetic or whose deaths are meant to be impactful are hardly spent enough time with to have any effect on the viewer. Also there are just way too many characters, and unnecessary ones at that. You just feel overwhelmed at times by how many different characters are doing different things that you end up not really caring about them or the story.
The show's tone is arguably it's biggest downfall, in my opinion. It can just never seem to establish a consistent mood. Every tragic moment, every depressing moment, every epic moment, or should I say whenever moments like these are attempted, they're ALWAYS interrupted by some form of comic relief, a silly joke or a character making a chibi face. It's like the show goes out of its way to undercut every moment of tension. It's honestly really childish and the show loses momentum because of it.
Onto the villains. They're just MEH. Dumb and incompetent when the plot needs them to be, unthreatening and lacking any depth whatsoever. Sometimes they'll go out of their way to let the heroes win, even after supposedly beating them. They're just so impersonal, and even when this is attempted, it just seems rushed and completely out of nowhere. The Big Bad is your typical over-the-top shounen villain, so no surprises or nuance there either.
As for the animation, it seems too much like a western cartoon, and it's quality can sometimes be really inconsistent. The soundtrack is neither good nor bad, just fine. None of it will stick with me. It often felt as if four or five tracks were on an endless loop to the point of annoyance.
Overall Brotherhood is not a horrible show, it's just painfully mediocre. If you're looking for a better alternative, watch the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist, the one that every fan of Brotherhood will tell you to ignore because "it's not like the manga." but honestly what does it matter? I unfortunately listened to these people and watched Brotherhood first and then watched 2003's. Pretty much every flaw in Brotherhood was already rectified in that version. The characters are more sympathetic, there are less unnecessary supporting characters, the tone is darker and far more consistent, the humor is less ecstatic and appropriately placed and the villains are far more complex, and feel like characters rather than mindless obstacles for the heroes.