I remember when I heard that Brotherhood was being made. I was quite excited, but also a little uneasy. Because I knew it was going to follow the manga and the original anime was so good that it was difficult to know if this could actually manage to live up to the original. Once you get into the new canon episodes in Brotherhood that quickly became a definitive yes. I've seen all of Brotherhood, because Funimation aired official subs of the anime when they were getting released in Japan. And Brotherhood is so much better than the original that I didn't think it was possible.
Everything that they do moves at a deeper and more intricate pace than the original. The original had a far bit of conspiracy and manipulation going on, but Brotherhood keeps that going throughout the entire series. Everyone's got plans and plotting. There is a lot of politics. Everyone ends up playing such a more significant role as well. All of Mustangs men end up doing a lot more in the series. They got a lot of fleshing out and screen time. The whole arc in Central with Barry and them trying to capture a humaniculus really made them all shine. Plus you really got to see Roy in a really great fight with Lust. Makes you realize how powerful he actually is as the Flame Alchemist.
When I started reading that they added Xing (Chinese) characters in the manga when it was still only in the middle of the series. I thought that they had gone a little too far adding new characters that far into the series. Plus it seemed a little strange just to suddenly had in that China is over there. Thought it was just going to be tacked on, but watching it they become so important to the entire series that it couldn't see it without them.
The only thing that I really didn't like about the series has been the new english dub. I thought the original FMA had a great cast and did an amazing job. Funimation is running both and they failed to get the same actors back for one. I can understand not getting Al's voice actor he was getting older. But the rest of the cast should have been simple. On top of that it felt like they were phoning in their lines during the first half of the season. They've started to improve finally now that they are in original territory compared to the first series, but still. For what is a superior anime, the dub was quite lack luster.
I think Ling is a very fun character along with Greed and they get even more so as the series goes on. Armstrong's older sister is really great and stands tall among a cast that is largely using supernatural powers. Which makes a very a strong and powerful woman. I really love what happens to Roy in the end, it was so poetic. I think Ed or Al was my favorite from the original series, but with the large and strong cast this time around it is a lot harder to actually pick someone. I'd probably go with Roy or Hawkeye, both are really fun characters.
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