Pardon my French, but holy shit! I just finished watching the second part of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and…damn, I’m at a loss for words! Okay, maybe not a complete loss. After all that wouldn’t make for a very compelling review now, would it?

By and large, this second part of Brotherhood is better than the first. Hell, it’s better than the original series and just about everything else I’ve seen in the past decade. I was literally blown away by each and every episode on this 2-disc set. The story goes from one climax to the next with plot twists and incredible action tossed in for good measure.

Don’t know what Brotherhood is? Well, basically it’s just a reboot of the original Fullmetal Alchemist, but with the intention to keep things closer to the source material. If you want some more information you can check out my review for FUNimation’s first release of the title. To summarize the review, the first part felt a little static, though it was still damn good. This second batch of episodes, however, steers the ship on a new course from the destination of the first series.

So much happens in this installment that it’s extremely tough to talk about without revealing spoiler material. After all major characters die, revelations and truths come out, and pieces of history are revealed in ways that just weren’t there in the first series. That means whether you’re new to Fullmetal Alchemist or not, this is all new material. Unless you read the manga, I suppose. In that case…well, just watch the show.

This collection begins with the finale of the battle with Greed. Some things remain similar, but the path spikes dramatically at one point. The show moves forward with a few different plotlines that really expand upon the characters and world.

For the Elric’s part in all this they are still on the lookout for the Philosopher’s Stone, but learn that they are essentially the core of homunculi and discover the cost of life it takes to create one. Naturally they are disheartened by this, but not necessarily swayed in their pursuit of recovering their bodies. Heck, the volume ends on a humdinger of a tease to that end.

This installment also introduces the kingdom of Xing and Prince Lin. He’s looking for immortality as a way to rise to the top of his brethren and gain the crown. His path leads him to the Elrics and he quickly becomes a major player in some turns of events. He even tangos with some homunculi and lives to tell about it.

Scar is back in action and has another scuffle with Ed and Al. In the process some of his origin is revealed and we discover details about the death of Winry’s parents. Then there’s Mustang who sets things in motion that lead him right to the Fuhrer’s doorstep.

To be perfectly honest I don’t want to say much more about what happens. There are about five or six climaxes in these 13 episodes and the end result is the sensation of an anime rush. The action, the intrigue, and the mystery is a cut above the rest. I was wholly satisfied with what was here and quite literally was giddy with excitement when the second disc left my player. You know why I was giddy? I put the first disc back in and started it all over again. I haven’t done that in ages!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is presented on DVD with a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. The show stands out from the original in that sense, since that one was presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen. The quality of the video is very good with strong, bold colors, rich black levels, and hardly any grain or compression. There’s a little haloing, but it’s nothing glaring or disastrous by any means. The show is also presented with English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 for audio sources. The quality on both performs like one might expect, and the dubs are awesome on both accounts.

For bonus features there are two audio commentaries, clean animations, and trailers. The audio commentary tracks are for episodes 14 and 23. With regards to the clean animations I just want to throw it out there that I totally love the new opening and closing for the show in these episodes.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is epic. So far it’s the anime standard to which all others should be judged. Don’t think about watching it; just do it!

Review material provided by FUNimation

Tags: Action, Anime, DVD, FUNimation, Review