Why Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?

Years ago, I saw a meme on Instagram: a guy tearing his hair out, thinking, “Too much anime, not enough time.” It perfectly reflected my own thoughts, because for years I felt the same way. There are literally tons of anime out there. Some of them are genuinely masterpieces, while others are overrated. The best ones are able to touch human emotions and make people think about their lives and humanity. Especially long-running anime show us humanity’s darkest desires, biggest secrets, highest ambitions, as well as its hopes, kindness, and brilliance.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of them, which is why it is still considered a masterpiece. Some people watch it only for the action scenes, but it also explores very deep philosophical themes such as God, cost, power, death, and responsibility. It follows the story of two brothers, but at its core, it is about what it means to be human. It smoothly presents both the struggles and the wonders of being human.

This series consists of 64 episodes, each about 25 minutes long. In order to properly explore all these concepts—especially since each one is handled in depth—this will not be a single long review, but rather a series of 10 separate posts. A weekly format will also allow time to reflect on each aspect that I will discuss.

As I mentioned earlier, some anime are overrated. They may have great action scenes but lack character depth and are not thought-provoking. For example, the Fast and the Furious movie franchise is mostly about action, yet people still love it. Because of this, I had not watched this series until recently. However, I had a lot of free time these days, so I decided to give it a chance. I wanted to understand why this story resonates with so many people, and it turned out that it is truly a masterpiece.

This post is the starting point of a weekly analysis series on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. In the following posts, we will explore the concepts mentioned above in greater detail.