Review for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Part 4 (2 Discs)

Introduction

Would you believe that part of me spent the last few weeks waiting for the hammer to fall? After trying, and failing to release both this, and two other multi-part anime series on Blu-ray, Manga Entertainment have gone back and tried again with the first series they cancelled, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. After this much time, they will no doubt come up against people who have moved on from the show, and people who just got tired of waiting and imported it. While their overheads might have come down, and the minimum print run is lower, there is the fact that these volume releases are for fans who bought volume 1 and 2 originally, while the real sales push will be behind the two series collection boxes coming out after volume 5 (It was supposed to be just one big series collection, but licensor stipulations have scuppered that at the last minute). But now, volume 4 of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is here on Blu-ray, leaving just one volume to go. I’m actually getting reasonably confident that the show will finally be completed in its high definition form in the UK!


Once more, everything in italics is a cut and paste from the DVD review.

Alchemy is the art of the transmutation of matter by means of an incantation, a mystical circle, or sheer willpower alone. For centuries charlatans and the deluded pursued the creation of gold by alchemical means but to no avail. But in Full Metal Alchemist, alchemy is a realised science. Set in an alternative world during the early years of the twentieth century, the transmutation of elements is indeed a reality, and the state regards such talent highly indeed. Full Metal Alchemist tells the story of brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, two precocious alchemists who are on a quest. The young brothers had attempted the unspeakable, resurrecting their mother. But the Law Of Equivalent Exchange cannot be flouted, only objects of equal mass can be transmuted, and the dead cannot be brought back to life. The attempt failed disastrously. Now, Alphonse is a disembodied spirit bound to a suit of animated armour, while Edward has replaced his leg and arm with metal automail, but it’s his prodigious facility with alchemy that has earned him the name, Fullmetal Alchemist. Now they search for a means to restore their bodies.

This fourth collection of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood comes with 13 episodes across 2 discs from Manga Entertainment.

In the previous instalment, Ed and Al had thought that they had uncovered the conspiracy, unmasked the homunculi, and discovered Father, the hidden figure behind the disaster being engineered in Amestris. But all that they had really learned was just how high up the command chain the corruption went, how deeply in trouble they were, and just how many people they cared about that could be used against them. Similarly, Roy Mustang’s investigation into the death of Maes Hughes led him to similar conclusions, and with similar results, his command split up and reassigned, and with him and Lt Hawkeye kept under the watchful gaze of The Fuhrer King Bradley. The only hope that Ed and Al have is that Father doesn’t have the same control over Alkahestry, as he does over Alchemy, and that means somehow getting in touch with Scar and the Xinghese visitors. Under their original pretext of finding a way to restore their bodies, Ed and Al headed north to the icy wastes around Fort Briggs, where they encountered General Olivier Mira Armstrong, another potential ally in their fight and their search for Scar. They also learn just what part Fort Briggs will play in the upcoming ritual. But the conspirators keep their potential sacrifices on a short leash, and send the Crimson Alchemist, Solf Kimblee after them ostensibly to hunt down Scar. General Armstrong is called back to Central, and Ed and Al somehow manage to connect with Scar, but Kimblee is on their trail, and if they aren’t careful, their covers will be blown.

Disc 1
40. Homunculus (The Dwarf in the Flask)
41. The Abyss
42. Signs of a Counteroffensive
43. Bite of the Ant
44. Revving at Full Throttle
45. The Promised Day
46. Looming Shadows
47. Emissary of Darkness
48. The Oath in the Tunnel

Disc 2
49. Filial Affection
50. Upheaval in Central
51. The Immortal Legion
52. Combined Strength

Picture

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood gets a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution. I got pretty technical about it in my review for the volume 3 Blu-ray, so I won’t repeat that here. Suffice it to say that while it may have been animated at less than 1080 lines of resolution and up-scaled for the HD broadcasts and these Blu-rays, Brotherhood looks pretty damn fine in its HD incarnation. The image is clear and sharp throughout, detail levels are stupendous, and the colour depth is a world away from the DVDs. Watching the show with no visible compression artefacts, and at its native frame rate is by far the preferable means to consume it. The only issues you might notice are a couple of lines affected by aliasing in the upscale process, and a smidge of digital banding, particularly in darker scenes.

The images in this review are sourced from the PR, and aren’t necessarily representative of the final retail release.

Sound

You have the choice between Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround English, and Dolby True HD 2.0 Stereo Japanese. The English track will play back with the signs track locked on, while the Japanese audio has the translated subtitles locked during playback. This is the one sticking point where the DVDs have an advantage over the Blu-rays, as their subtitles are optional. It’s a price we have to pay to get the show on Blu-ray. In Japan, where Blu-rays are more expensive and with fewer episodes, but in the same region as the US where these discs were originally authored, they would much rather that Japanese fans buy domestic, rather than opt for the comparative bargain of importing. One way of doing that is by marring the Japanese option with needless subtitles. Of course with us being in Region B, we technically don’t need the subtitles locked, but we have to live with the legacy of Funimation’s authoring. One thing, Funimation opted for a thin white font for their subtitles on the Blu-rays, and in comparison to the usual yellow text on the DVDs, it is not quite as easy to read.

Once again, I took this opportunity during the re-watch to take in the English dub, watching more than half of these episodes that way. Having lived with Japanese FMA ever since the first series, it did feel a little weird hearing a different language from familiar faces, with a couple of odd sounding voices for certain characters, but the quality of the dub is strong, and pretty soon I was switching between the two versions without noticing much difference. The English voice cast do capture the characters in much the same way as the Japanese voice cast create them, but never once does the show sound like a copy of the Japanese version. While the Japanese stereo is strong, particularly when pro-logicked up, the English surround track gives the show a little more space, particularly during the action sequences. The quality of the audio isn’t immediately all that different from that on the DVDs, but at certain points during the episodes, particularly during more strident moments, the added fidelity and clarity of lossless audio becomes clear, the audio is richer, and much more defined.

Extras

The Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood discs usually come with two audio commentaries, but this time they are both on Disc 1.

In the episode 40 commentary, ADR Director Mike McFarland chats to the voice of the adult Hohenheim, John Swasey, and the young Hohenheim, Aaron Dismuke about the story and the characters. Of course Aaron Dismuke voiced Al in the first series, so there is a fair bit of compare and contrast as usual.

The episode 46 commentary sees ADR Director Mike McFarland in the booth with also ADR director Caitlin Glass (voice of Winry), and as you can guess, this is more of a commentary track that looks at how the shows are directed.

Disc 2 holds the textless credits.

Conclusion

Forget about comparing Brotherhood to the first series. It’s so determinedly forged its own path that it feels like a completely different animal now. I find that I love both of the stories equally, albeit in different ways. This fourth instalment of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood simply underlines just how effortless it makes its peerless storytelling look. Once again it will hook you with the first episode on the disc, and keep you tethered, breathless and at the edge of your seat, with every new plot development, every new character revelation, and with the peeling away of every new layer in its labyrinthine plot. When it comes to spinning a yarn, there is no other anime as addictive, or as accomplished as this.

It looks at first to be a replay of the previous collection. That too was poised to pick up from a cliff-hanger, and instead delayed it by a recap episode. Here we get another recap episode to kick this collection off, but this time it’s recapping material that we just didn’t know before. Homunculus (The Dwarf in the Flask) takes us into the past, to show us Hohenheim’s origins, and indeed why he and Father look so similar. This is all new material, a story that we haven’t seen or heard before, but it does wind up answering some of the series’ more essential questions, and quite rightly it is an un-missable instalment.

It’s then back to that looming cliff-hanger, the one that saw Winry, Scar, Marcoh and the chimera heading into a trap at Briggs, with Ed engaged in a battle of wits with Kimblee to keep their deception secret, and with Al venturing into a lethal snowstorm to warn the others, before being pulled into limbo and brought face to face with the gate once more. In episode 41, we pick up that storyline again, and watch it develop over the next few episodes, as the heroes continue to piece together the conspiracy that is unfolding in the nation of Amestris, forge a network of allies to work against it, and begin to take the first few steps in fighting back.

Once Ed and the others learn the date of when Father’s plan will be put into effect, we dispense with the build up and jump ahead in time by a few months to the crucial date. It’s getting straight to the point of the story, which is a smart move, but also at this point, the flow of time slows down, and we have the events of a few hours paced over the final seven episodes on this collection. I did have a few qualms about this when it first started. After all, in lesser shows like Naruto and Bleach, when fight sequences are stretched over several episodes, it usually means filling the time with flashbacks, with characters standing around analysing each and every special move, and with nonsensical posturing.

That is never a concern with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. We may get a slower passage of narrative time in these seven episodes, but the story is just as densely plotted and as gripping as before. There is just so much going on at this point, so many facets of the story unfolding, so many characters to keep tabs on, that the pace is still lightning fast, the narrative is incredibly dense, and it’s very easy to just be swept away by the story. For seven episodes, as what looks to be the final arc of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood began to unfold, I was at the edge of my seat, glued to the television. The various characters and stories that have been explored so far in the series begin to reward the viewer at this point. The revelations and plot twists come thick and fast, and I spent the last couple of hours of this collection in a mild state of constant head rush. You can’t get much better than this thrilling adventure story when it comes to anime. Just twelve more episodes to go now…


Would you believe that I actually like the English dub for Brotherhood more and more. That’s a rare statement for a vowed sub fanatic, but there are anime shows, usually the cream of the crop, that distributors and studios go the extra mile for. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and for that matter the original Full Metal Alchemist are both instant classics, and the strength of their dub performances reflect that. That it is coming out on Blu-ray now, not too long after the DVD, has given me the incentive to try the dub in order to keep my viewing fresh, and I’ve been struck by the quality of the writing and how well it flows. If you need a contrived reason to double dip on the series and upgrade those DVDs to Blu’s you could use that. But really, the increase in visual and audio quality is more than enough.