15 Reasons To Watch Fullmetal Alchemist Anime And Read Manga

Fullmetal Alchemist: 13 Reasons Why You Should Watch It

Just to be clear, there are two Fullmetal Alchemist shows; the first is Fullmetal Alchemist released in 2003, the other is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, released in 2009. The 2003 version portrayed a small portion of its source material, the manga, but then diverges to tell its own story (still worth a watch due to its unique storyline).

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, on the other hand, stays true to the original author's work, thus making a fairer comparison between it and the manga. So, to help make the decision a little easier, let's look at the pros for reading the manga and watching the anime.

Manga: It's Quicker:

Plain and simple, the manga is faster to go through. If you aren't willing to invest a lot of time with the show, the manga would be the better choice. A page of the manga could be adapted to a five-minute sequence in the series, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea to see the story drag on too long. Before the show ended its run, the manga was the first choice for fans due to it being so far ahead from the series, but due to the manga's monthly outing compared to the anime's weekly, both ended around the same time.

The Format And The Black And White Images:

The format of any manga plays a massive part in its storytelling. The average per page is roughly three to seven images in a manga. But occasionally, if something significant were to happen, for example, a reveal or a huge event, you're treated to those stunning one to two image images of a character/event. Those large images are the most memorable and add a ton of weight to the situation. Similar to formating, the black and white imagery and the use of shadowing in manga can radically enhance the dramatic effect. It works exceptionally well in the sadder moments, and Fullmetal Alchemist has more than a few of those.

Your Imagination:

One of the most enticing reasons for reading the manga instead is the implementation of your imagination. Reading any comics, you subconsciously tag a voice to each character to what you feel is best suited for them. Another example is the sound effects and music that play out in your head while flicking through the story. Although you're reading through still images, imagination takes over, and you can roughly visualize their movements. This heavily applies when reading through any action sequences; the fight technically plays out itself.

The Volume/Chapter Covers:

This may be a small plus for choosing to read the manga over watching the anime, but Fullmetal Alchemist features many memorable covers. More of a treat for the fans, giving them an exclusive image by Arakawa herself. Occasionally Arakawa would leave a "thank you for the support" note after reaching a particular milestone, so that's always nice to read.

The Coal Mine Chapter:

This is a chapter the original 2003 anime adapted, but Brotherhood took a different route. Chapter three, Volume one, had Protagonist Edward and brother Alphonse journey to a Coal mine town. There they found the miners were working under the corrupt official, Lieutenant Yoki. Other than introducing the cowardly Yoki, there isn't much that happened here storywise. Still, the chapter did display how State Alchemists were seen as mere dogs of the military and selfish, but more importantly, it showed more of Edward's character being the bright and kind-hearted alchemist he is.

Anime: Dark, Mature and Complicated Plot:

One of the stigmas most internalized by the population regarding this type of entertainment is its childish nature, but this could not be further from the truth. As with the “life-action” series, each production has its recommended age, and there are quite a few that come to be recommended only for adults. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is not for adults, but it is It is only recommended for people over 16 years old, this mainly due to the maturity of its plot. This week on Explain A Plot Badly: Mustang's group and the Elric brothers discover a plot to kill millions of people and work towards stopping it. Sounds really simple when you put it this way, but the reality is it's got a lot more layers than you could even imagine. The beginning of the series is relatively normal, so much so that in many moments we will think that the age recommendation is a simple exaggeration, but this will not last long. From a certain chapter (which we will not take long to see) we will realize that we are not facing a simple series of action. The plot It will deal with issues as dark as political and military corruption, child abuse or xenophobia, all with a serial tone, with certain touches of humor that characterize the author of the manga on which this series is based.

Charismatic and Well-Built Characters:

We have already said that we are facing an anime series with a mature plot, as well as dealing with the darkest issues, but a plot is nothing without its characters. As much as the series will try to deal with the most interesting topics, and did it with great elegance and tying up all the ends (as this one does), if it did not have interesting characters it would end up boring the viewer. In this case, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood perfectly fits the bill. It's difficult to pick a favorite character in this series. Every person has an intricate background. You can understand why everyone makes any action they take. By the end of the series, you even understand why the villains interact with the world the way they do. Every character is very real and you can begin to predict what they will do based on their individual personalities. We are facing, possibly, the anime series with the most interesting cast of characters, this ranging from heroes to villains. All these characters (including several secondary characters) have their own personality, totally different from the others, as well as have their own motivations. In addition, most of these characters have a considerable evolution throughout the 64 episodes that the series has. The icing on the cake in this cast of characters are our protagonists: the Elric brothers, who despite being family have very different personalities. These they manage to make the viewer laugh or cry (as required by the plot), in addition to the fact that its evolutions are among the most notorious in the entire work.

Great Animation:

Unfortunately, some animes don't exactly live up to its source material, but Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood knocked it out of the park. The animators stayed true to author Hiromu Arakawa's art style, and the results are fantastic.

The Debut Episode:

The first episode from Brotherhood was made just for the anime as a quick and entertaining way to introduce our heroes and enemies. The episode introduces a new enemy, not appearing in the manga, in the form of the Freezing Alchemist, McDougal. A state alchemist who has gone rogue hatches a plan to encapsulate all of Central in ice, imprinting multiple transmutation circles to do so.

The Music:

Unless you're listening to the original soundtrack in the background while reading the manga, the music in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood shouldn't be missed. Perfectly capturing the tone of the show and fully immersing you into its world. This goes for both the 2003 and 2009 adaptations, but the orchestra behind Brotherhood's music went above and beyond to get fans feeling all the right moods at the right time. One that will especially stay in mind is the eerie Homunculus theme that pops up throughout the series.

Great Voice Acting Performances:

Whether you're watching the show in Japanese or English dubbed, the voice work is brilliant all-round, with the English dubbed voice work for Edward Elric as a standout. Multiple voice actors from the 2003 adaptation came back to voice their characters for Brotherhood. Reading the manga allows you to imagine how everyone would sound like, but the show nailed their voice casting to the point where it's hard to think of Edward and friends sounding like anything else.

The Intros:

Not having much to do with the story other than showing what's ahead (could also be seen as minor spoilers), but having a great intro tends to pump you up and pulls you into the world. It also doesn't hurt that the intro music choices for each season are excellent. The animations in the intro are done just as well as the episode itself. This, unfortunately, is not the case for many other animes where the intro tends to look better. Although a little spoiler-ish and misleading at times, seeing Edward facing off against Gluttony and Lust in the season one intro excites you for the battles to come. The soundtrack is, although it may not seem like it, one of the most important sections in any audiovisual work, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was not going to be less. We are facing an exceptional soundtrack, which manages to enliven each and every one of the key moments of the plot. From the most intense fights, to the saddest moments, we will always listen to a song that will remain engraved in our memory for days. Likewise, we can highlight the opening songs of each chapter, also known as “Openings”. In this series we have 5 in total, which are distributed throughout its 64 chapters, and each one is better than the last. We have from moved songs, more suitable for pure action series, to a melancholic song, which fills our hearts with sadness and unease when we hear it.

Flowing, fast-paced action scenes:

We have said that this series has a dark and mature plot, but at no point have we commented that it did not have action scenes. In this series there is room for everything, from the melancholic or sad moments, to the scenes with pure and hard action (although sometimes both types of scenes are mixed). These scenes turn out to be some of the most interesting and fun to watch in the entire series (without detracting from those that focus more on the narrative section). Fluid movements as well as showy skills they turn out to be a delight for our senses. This may seem insignificant for a person who is not very fond of this type of entertainment, but it is very pleasant to see these types of scenes.

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