Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

After a horrific alchemy experiment goes wrong in the Elric household, brothers Edward and Alphonse are left in a catastrophic new reality. Ignoring the alchemical principle banning human transmutation, the boys attempted to bring their recently deceased mother back to life. Instead, they suffered brutal personal loss: Alphonse's body disintegrated while Edward lost a leg and then sacrificed an arm to keep Alphonse's soul in the physical realm by binding it to a hulking suit of armor.

The brothers are rescued by their neighbor Pinako Rockbell and her granddaughter Winry. Known as a bio-mechanical engineering prodigy, Winry creates prosthetic limbs for Edward by utilizing "automail," a tough, versatile metal used in robots and combat armor. After years of training, the Elric brothers set off on a quest to restore their bodies by locating the Philosopher's Stone—a powerful gem that allows an alchemist to defy the traditional laws of Equivalent Exchange.

As Edward becomes an infamous alchemist and gains the nickname "Fullmetal," the boys' journey embroils them in a growing conspiracy that threatens the fate of the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Elric, Edward Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Elric, Alphonse Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Mustang, Roy Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Hughes, Maes Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Greed Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Hawkeye, Riza Supporting

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Yao, Ling Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Rockbell, Winry Supporting

Takamoto, Megumi Japanese

Armstrong, Alex Louis Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Armstrong, Olivier Mira Supporting

Soumi, Youko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Yonai, Noritomo Producer

Ooyama, Ryou Producer

Reviews

Mar 20, 2026

japaneseanime998

Recommended

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is a japanese animated tv series. It is one of the best Japanese anime television series. This Japanese anime television series has great world building, great chemistry between characters, great characterization and stakes within the story. The world feels real with living and breathing characters. This ain't a cardboard cutout like The Witcher Netflix tv series. It doesn't need adult content like Game of Thrones to trick its' viewers think that it is deep. This Japanese anime strongest point is the characters. It is the main course. The only cons are plot holes but they are tiny and unnoticeable. I give this ... show 93% percent out of 100. A 9 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 12, 2026

YS19

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Average show
Modern shows like Jujutsu Kaisen, chainsaw man far surpassed this in story, characters, hype, entertainment factor, fights everything.
The hype for fmab seems to come from it being everyone's first anime
As they say, before u have any taste u must first have no taste
So fmab is something I was recommended as my first anime as well
Thank God, I didn't watch it and watched toradora as my first anime and became a romance fan (When I was a teenager, those stuffs hit harder I guess)
Anyways
Then I watched like 300 anime of different and unique genres, and most of the well talked about anime that ... didn't hit mainstream popularity
then I finally watched fmab for the first time
Because of the constant pressure of how I haven't yet experienced the peak of anime that is fmab apparently
But turns out
and it was bland AF
I've seen better story than this, better fights, better well everything
it was painfully mediocre
but I didn't give up on it
had to see what the hype about it truly was
But it just couldn't kick in
just painfully Ubisoft Esque
besides the ep3 or 4 shock (which is only shocking to a baby at this point) this anime felt safe, generic and unimpressive

Which brings me to the conclusion
People say fmab is good, but if they had seen enough anime before watching fmab, they probably would find it as boring and bland as I did

But if I have to praise it
The openings and endings are a bomb
Opening 4 is one of my favorite ops of all anime
But that's kind of all I think about this anime

It's a 15-year-old finished anime at this point, nobody gives a huge shit about it anyways

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 16, 2025

kymaros

Not Recommended

Funny

Generic shounen anime with flat characters and childish moral distinction. Anything that has an ounce of grey is classified as unthinkable. The villains are bad, but killing them is even worse (even though they are literally trying to kill you right now).

No character growth because they are just caricatures. Every serious scene gets interrupted with unfunny chibi jokes.

A boatload of tertiary characters. Every single character in a scene has to comment something obvious and useless as infodump. There is no nuance to the relationships between conflicting personalities.

There is no story coherence and no sense of purpose, as the plot overextends the main objective of the ... MCs it ends up resorting to 'everything will be just fine'.

After the first reasonable death, having organs impaled, blood loss and spine-breaking contusions, all turn out to be non-lethal and non-incapacitating.

Alchemy is supposed to be scientific, but it is just magic used as plot device. For example, one time a character was literally dying for 5 minutes, but suddenly can use restorative alchemy to patch themselves, even though it has never been shown they can do that in any similar situation before.

The battles are tedious, just like most generic shounen anime: a lot of talk for no reason, commentary from non-fighters, the villain monologues something that gives a hint to their weakness, someone random irrupting, sudden powerups because fighting spirit and screaming righteousness heals the fist-sized hole in your lungs.

Background music is terribly used: the same eerie piano is used for thinking moments, shocking scenes, and a normal conversation, and the rest is just forgettable.

Brotherhood is the complete opposite of FMA.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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