Fullmetal
Alchemist:
Brotherhood
Number of episodes: TBA
Production Studio: Bones
Fansub Release Viewed: Xincode
Likelihood of US Release:
Licensed and streaming
by FUNimation
Studio Bones remakes the iconic anime series to more closely follow author Hiromu Arakawa’s popular manga.
Episode Summary
This series is available streaming for free on Funimation’s video page. I have just used the fansubbed version in order to get screen captures.
Edward Elric, the youngest (and shortest) State Alchemist of them all, and his brother, Alphonse, are given a mission to bring in the Ice Alchemist, a former State Alchemist gone bad. The Ice Alchemist, not surprisingly, is able to transmute water to suit his purposes, alternately freezing and boiling the water in the bodies of his adversaries. Edward is able to briefly detain the man, before he uses some nearby puddles to manufacture his own escape. After a visit to a former comrade in jail, it seems that this Ice Alchemist is on some sort of revenge mission. Ed and Al, after their failure, are invited to stay with Maes Hughes and his beloved family for the night.
The next day the streets of the city are cleared and the manhunt for the Ice Alchemist begins. After a brief rooftop confrontation with Roy Mustang, the enemy retreats to an alley where he has a transmutation circle drawn on the ground. When he activates this and many others around town, the water in the atmosphere begins turning to ice and becoming an ice wall that’s headed straight for central command. After battling with Ed and Al atop one of the moving ice walls, the Ice Alchemist begins using his own blood as a weapon, only to be taken down by King Bradley in an alley.
Thoughts
I went into watching this episode with few to no expectations because, and I’m sure those of you who know me won’t be surprised, I watched a couple episodes of the original and did’t really see what all the fuss was about. Fortunately I think this puts me in the unique position of not bringing any baggage to the table — it’s way easier to keep from making unfair comparisons when you don’t have much to compare to.
Unfortunately, the structure of this episode had other ideas, since it is essentially a fanservice-laden bonus episode for fans of the previous series. Just to be clear, by “fanservice,” I’m not referring to panties and boobs, but more to the inclusion of recurring gags and multiple characters that fans of the original are bound to enjoy. There are an abundance of height jokes at the expense of Ed, which get old extremely quickly (much like the flat chest jokes at the expense of Lina Inverse in Slayers — hate me all you want, but that crap is obnoxious and irritating). Favorite characters, as well as their odd character traits, pop up all over the place. Armstrong takes his shirt off to show off his muscles, Hughes squees over his cute daughter, you get the idea. While the preview for the next episode seems to suggest that it may serve as an actual introductory episode, I’m still put off by the fact that, much like the new Mazinger Z reboot [ed— review coming soon], the creators seem completely clueless to the fact that there might be newbies watching this show, and spend the first episode, inadvertently or not, alienating anyone who never saw the original.
The animation is great, to be expected from Studio Bones. I’ve heard rumblings from the internets about many people not being able to get used to the new character designs or that people seem to think that the animation isn’t as solid as season 1. Again, I can’t speak to those comparisons, but if there are people who expect animation much better than this for a weekly shounen series, then they are just too darned demanding. The character animation during fight scenes is extremely well done and smooth, and the scenes of the ice walls traversing the downtown streets are executed convincingly. And personally? I honestly don’t think I could tell the character designs from either season apart from each other, based on just what I’ve personally seen (no, really — I just did a Google image search and they still don’t seem dramatically different to me).
Overall I’m not certain that such a recent series was due for a remake so soon, since perhaps the only new thing it will have to offer will be a more manga-centric storyline. However, cash flow is important in these tough times, so the reasoning behind the decision to animate more of this extremely popular story is easily explainable. I’m sure fans of the original will enjoy this version as well. As for me, the jury is still out on that one.
Pros
- Excellent Studio Bones animation
Cons
- Once again, a studio is arrogant enough to begin a series assuming everyone is up to speed
- A remake? So soon?
