Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Review

Bones built this as a closed system, and the discipline shows: the Elrics' opening transgression sets a price, and the series spends sixty-four episodes collecting it without ever cheating the rate. Father's plan is legible from the shape of the country's borders in the first act, which means a rewatch turns the early comedy episodes into setup. The Ishvalan flashbacks give Mustang, Hawkeye, and Scar a shared war crime to answer for, so the political tier of the story carries the same weight as the alchemy, and Nina Tucker still works as the show's thesis in a single scene.

Animation is consistent rather than spectacular, with clean transmutation effects and a legible fight grammar that keeps Bradley's swordwork readable at speed; the Briggs and Promised Day stretches are where the budget concentrates. Akira Senju's orchestral score and one of the strongest opening-theme runs in the medium do heavy lifting on tone. Almost every named character gets a resolution that costs something, and very little else in long-form shonen closes this cleanly.