Oct 17, 2020
Why do people give this such a high rating!
I saw FMAB because of the high rating and amount of praising. I was skeptical to see why it was rated highly. So, I watched it out of curiosity assumed that I would enjoy it because everyone else did. But, It’s so basic in writing that I feel bad for saying that. Also, I feel bad for saying this but FMAB fans just do anything to keep this anime #1 and they only say it’s good because everyone else says it’s good. when others animes with the same aspects of FMAB have way better storylines, characters etc.
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So anyways, I came in with no initial thoughts didn’t look at reviews ignored the rating even though the score was quite high and look at what it was offering. Now for what it truly offers and it’s not a memorable experience. Not to say fmab is bad but it wasn’t as great as I expected it to be. After I finished I looked at the score and baffled at why the score was even this high.
Pros: Great ending.
Pros: Some characters are very well written.
Pros: Simple animation and art style.
Pros: English dub VA’S match characters voice.
Pros: Great hand-to-hand fighting choreography, When there is hand-to-hand combat.
Cons: Basic story without strong story aspects as other shounen.
Cons: Underwhelming suspense/ Breaking point.
Cons: Comedy moments in serious moments.
Cons: Lots of caricature’s with 1 personality instead of multiple.
Cons: Pretty repetitive, Boring and predictable.
Cons: Underwhelming story for a long length shonen.
Cons: A lot of Uninteresting anticlimactic fights.
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Story: 5
Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood’s story feels disguised as complex but it’s really simple. Now don’t get me wrong the premise is very interesting, “It is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the law of equivalent exchange; the basis of all alchemy.”
Now the story is about 2 brother’s that lose there mom (Alphonse and Edward) So they use a alchemy technique called human transmutation a forbidden alchemy technique to bring there mom back from the dead without knowing the consequences. Alphonse loses his whole body while Edward loses a leg. Since Alphonse’s whole body is gone. Edward tries to bring his brother back by sacrificing his arm and placing a transmutation on a suit of armor. They are traumatized by what happened. They’ve lost their bodies and are in search of the legendary philosopher’s stone to get there bodies back. Now as bad as there poor suffering sounds.
The story becomes so predictable because of Edward he is literally a beta male (too kind person) can’t blame Alphonse for following him. Besides he’s the younger brother anyways. They’re too kind to take risks for what they truly want. Since they don’t want anyone to suffer. Really hypocritical for them to continuously say that how they’d do anything to get there bodies back. Then someone sacrificed there life and they were still the same characters throughout the series WHY?? There were so many instances where they’ve could’ve got there bodies back. If i’m correct the brothers had contact with a philosopher’s stone over 5 times. But, Since the philosopher’s stone is made out of basically already dead souls and humans wanting to die the brothers just denied it because they don’t want suffering souls to suffer. That brings me to another point the story changes midway because of there betamale act. They give up on finding or trying to use the philosophers stone. They now want to go find another way to get there bodies back so then Alphonse gets memories of being dead and in “the gate truth” this randomly got brought up midway and they want to perform a stupid complicated way to get there bodies back. Also there was lots dumb tropes to keep the MC alive for instance. MC was on the verge of death because he was in a fight and the fucking villains said “Aye I think the kid is badly hurt let’s save him”. What an lazy way to add a trash filler character.
The climax is handled so poorly that it’s like eating rice and bread this one villain reveals himself and the person he revealed himself to (without getting to much into spoilers) was like “Oh yeah so you were the villain?” Then the person goes tells others about the villain they have the most predictable boring reaction. Now a Anime becoming predictable is not a bad thing. But, the way FMAB predictable aspect is handled makes The story becomes bland and uninteresting as shit because tension, suspense, Turning points are poorly handled that it just isn’t at all emotional it’s bland and once you think there is emotional moment it just lands a anticlimactic feeling after that. This just makes the story uninteresting. because there is no connection with how the characters are reacting.
Also, for the fairly long length of the anime it could’ve focused on Ling’s and all the other clans struggle deeper and made him more interesting. But, They barely explored his struggle which is unfortunate because it was interesting.
Sound: 7
The english voice actors match really well with the characters my compliant but the voice acting feels monotonous which I normally don’t notice in dub but I noticed here, Great Ost and soundtrack are played alot but I don’t really notice anything at all some ost’s are great I guess. But emotionally wise they ruin it with dumb comedy during dark moments or beautiful ones making it lose suspense while the series is playing and the jokes consist of the MC being short. Charming at first and quickly got repetitive. Some examples were a baby was getting born this is a beautiful moment. Yeah let’s throw a fucking side gag.
Characters: 6
The characters are done so poorly they are basically like caricatures
They represent litterally one personality except Homheim and homucolus they are actually very great characters but they got bad character treatment. Still very amazing characters. For the sheer length of this anime they could’ve explored many characters. My compliant about Edward Elric has something very traumatic happened to him yet he doesn’t have a realistic side to him he just stays a betamale no development or change. That’s really unfortunate could’ve made a great MC because of what he went through. Also there were some characters used for Roy mustang’s development. But it was used in a lazy way that didn’t build character tension. Also Winry is probably one of the most poorly written characters. Anyways i’ll list off some caricatures:
Maes Hughes: “LOOK ISN’T MY DAUGHTER SO BEAUTIFUL”
Izumi Curtis: “I’M NOTHING BUT YOUR EVERYDAY HOUSE WIFE”
Alex Armstrong: Says Armstrong generation in every line.
Edward Elric: Beta male.
Barry the Chopper: A “I’m a evil villain” that’s goofy and can’t be taken seriously.
Art/Animation: 7.5
The art style is simple which i admire. As for the animation i didn’t notice anything wrong or bad. It was consistent but not flashy kinda of underwhelming because bones always has very amazing animation. for other series like MHA, Noragami and Mob psycho 100 Coloring looks neat. not much to say except it’s overall good
8/10 for art style and coloring
7/10 for animation.
Enjoyment: 6
Now I was bored of this series 6 episodes in it’s just so predictable. suspense and tension couldn’t even covered this because it was handled so boringly. it’s not fun to watch or gets you on the edge of your seat it’s a dreadful experience. Some parts are fun to watch sometimes the comedy can be funny. Animes and manga rated under 9.22 are way more entertaining to watch then this and have way better story aspects then FMAB. I kept I watched this anime just alone no other anime to distract my watching experience and took me about 3-5 months to finished. I found it mediocre and over scored.
Overall: 6
This had some potential if it wasn’t a shonen a seinen more like it. Throw the side gags away, Expand more on the concept of alchemy make Edward a character that would truly do anything to get his body since that’s already a realistic goal. Make more interesting characters. They’ve could’ve did already interesting characters and their triats much better. Like Armstrong family history, Ling’s struggle, Make Izumi more realistic, Edward.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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