Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Vol 1 (Eps 1-13) [Blu-ray]

Some time ago, Bones Studio created an anime called "Fullmetal Alchemist", based to a point on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa. However, the manga hadn't even reached its halfway point in the storyline yet, so Ms Arakawa generously conceded that the director of that anime could take the storyline wherever he and his creative team wanted to go with it.

This created a dual universe for Fullmetal fans... the one of the anime, and the one of the manga. There are probably more people familiar with the first anime just because it's very, very easy to get caught up in the world it creates. Also, it's always been simpler to watch a video than read, even in a medium that's loaded with visual imagery.

Until 2009, when a new anime of the story appeared, called "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" to clarify one from another. The new anime is very, very close to the storyline of the manga, although sometimes that's not "all that different". The Japanese voice cast has largely changed since the first anime's time, excepting the well-known Romi Park/Paku and Rie Kugimiya, who play Edward and Alphonse Elric respectively. On the English voice cast, it's largely unchanged, although noticeably puberty has robbed Aaron Dismuke of the Alphonse duties, giving the opportunity to Maxey Whitehead. "Brotherhood" starts with an adventure that tries to introduce everybody to the new series, even adding a new character that has been in neither the first anime nor the manga, but had been designed by Hiromu Arakawa herself. The first story gives a good feel for the new artistic style (similar to that from the first anime, but softer, yet including more manga-esque gags like chibi-heads) while also introducing the major characters smoothly for those with no familiarity with the Fullmetal universe.

The extras are not plentiful... disc one has a commentary "for Episode One" with ADR director and voice of Second Lieut Havoc, Mike McFarland, voice of both Riza Hawkeye and Rose, Colleen Clinkenbeard, voice of Col Roy Mustang, Travis Willingham, and the new voice of Alphonse Elric, Maxey Whitehead. They don't talk about the episode; they talk about their characters and how each character has changed between the first anime and "Brotherhood", and about how their families can watch entire episodes of anime they have done voices for without those family members recognizing the beloved relative. It's interesting as a look into the business of voice acting, but hardly more than that. The second disc has a similar commentary for Episode Ten, with Sonny Strait, voice of Maes Hughes, Laura Bailey, voice of Lust, and Caitlin Glass, ADR Director and voice of Winry Rockbell (they get very, very giggly during their chat session). It also includes textless playbacks of the opening and ending sequences of "credits" animation with the amazing music playing throughout.

If you liked the first anime, you'll probably enjoy this series. If you like the manga, you will NEED to buy this set as soon as each volume is released. And if you've never given anime a try, thinking it was for weird geeky people... just watch "Brotherhood". Welcome to the Dark Side... we have cookies!

This first volume of `Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood' contains the first thirteen episodes of this remake of the `Fullmetal Alchemist' anime. The anime is the story of the young State Alchemist Edward Elric and his younger brother Alphonse as they seek the Philosophers Stone in order to undo the terrible mistakes of their past and regain their full bodies.

`Brotherhood' differs from the original anime in that it attempts to stick to the storyline of the original manga as much as possible whereas the previous anime diverged a lot and eventually went off in a totally different path. This new anime does do a good job of sticking to the manga's story and although there are some differences in places (indeed the first two episodes are new and serve to introduce the series and the characters). These differences are nowhere near as bad as those in the original anime however.

Most of the original cast has returned for the English dub, although Alphonse is voiced by an new voice actor, and the animation is just as good if not better than that from the original anime. The storyline also advances at a far greater pace than that of the original anime and while that is quite nice in places, the series does feel somewhat rushed in places.

On the downside, the series does have a tendency to overuse super-deformed animation in places but this is also something I dislike about the original manga as well so it is consistent with the source material.

Overall these first few episodes of `Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood' are a good start for the series and while it is still too early to tell whether it will be better than the original anime (one of my top ten favourite anime series) it is defiantly shaping up well and I would give is a high four stars.

Having watched this show fansubbed online I can say now it is an awsome, well written and highly entertaining show, much like it's predessesor. Part remake/reworking of the origional series this one stays closer to the manga than the origional, these 13 episodes are mostly similar to the origional show (which I own) but will go off in a differnt and some may say better, direction as the show progresses. I'm still not wholley convinced of the merits of anime on blu-ray but if this does nothing for the show then i'll be proved right but it's certainly going to be worth the gamble as the animation quality is excellent as is the soundtrack and this is a definate must buy for fans of the origional, and those that missed the origional need not feel lost as this is a re-telling not a continuation.