Full Metal Alchemist : Brotherhood

Don't know if you've heard, I probably mentioned it before on my blog, but I'm a huge Full Metal Alchemist fan. The first series kinda rekindled my anime interest at the time, the characters where interesting the story was suspenseful and the world it created was simply awesome. It was kind of a bitter sweet feeling when the series ended, even after they release the movie to wrap up the series even more I still wanted a little more. I found that kind of weird because usually I believe that everything should end milking it never brings anything good to a franchise. Lately there has been the trend of remaking series but more faithful to the manga versions, since well that's where it started. Never completely understood the need for that because I would prefer having two different adaptations as opposed to a single one but in different medias. But I do enjoy that trend at the moment because I don't read any manga.

So one that I'm naturally keeping a close eye on the weekly releases is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the new adaptation closer to the anime than the first series; from what I hear anyways. Everything is quicker the animation is better and it flows much better without any filler. I find it hard to figure out if it's a huge fan service from the constant online bickering of the community, either way I don't care I get my FMA fix. Although with the first episode, which is like action packed by the way, they kinda throw you into the world in the first second of it, for a first timer I could believe that whole situation could be somewhat confusing. They removed the whole start of the first series instead going for the flashback effect from time to time to be able to piece it all together. But again from someone who has seen the first series of the manga should be able to follow with ease, as for the new comer it could be hard. Still anyone familiar with anime can piece it all together just fine.

The pacing is a double edge sword from what I hear from other people, my group of friends as do I really like it. Things that took the original series 17 episodes to get too, took the new one only 7 episodes. It also keeps surprising me, character development which seems so scarce at first, creeps up and surprise me in later episodes, completely redeeming themselves. Best example would be Barry the Chopper, he was one twisted cross dressing killer in the first series and provided one of my favorite scenes. Then in Brotherhood he seemed like a total comic relief at first but he totally kicked me in the balls afterwards for thinking that. Each characters also seems to peak then overpeak themselves, having multiple Crowning Moments of Awesome. There is one particular, where I come into work and both me and my friend look at each with this dumb grin and simply say, with knowning exactly what we are talking about, "That was the most badass thing I ever saw"

I can't predict where it's either, it's already at episode 21 and I can't see it finish at the regular 26 episodes. The series is building up for something huge, I can see it coming, but I can't predict it. All I know is that there is something huge coming soon, the keep adding more and more new elements to the grand equation of it all and I simply don't see them fit together. Characters haven't been explained their roles yet they're just as important as the rest. It's usually up on sundays so I'm still eagerly waiting this moment refreshing the page every hour or so, can't wait to see what happens next.