Fullmetal Awesomeness

New anime series brings Fullmetal Alchemist franchise back to life

What do you do after you’ve made boatloads of money turning one of Japan’s best selling mangas into a super-popular anime?

You do it again!

Get ready for the U.S. TV debut of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the newest addition (by which we actually mean reworking) of the hit Fullmetal Alchemist franchise. Starting this weekend, English-dubbed Brotherhood episodes will take over Adult Swim’s Saturday at midnight time slot.

For those of you who aren’t alchemy and/or anime-obsessed, here’s the deal: Fullmetal Alchemist began as a hit manga about two brothers living in a steampunkish world. Using alchemy, they try to bring their mother back from the dead. Things go wrong and the next thing you know one brother has lost an arm and a leg, while the other brother’s entire body is destroyed and his soul is thrust into a pretty sweet suit of armor. Oops. Their attempts to get their body parts back lead to plenty of adventures, revelations, etc.

About halfway through it’s run, the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime diverged from the manga’s storyline and went it’s own way. So Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was created to animate all that unused manga-y goodness. The catch: In a move that’s good for beginners but kind of annoying for fans, Brotherhood’s early episodes rehash the origin stories already seen in the first series.

If you want to jump ahead, a backlog of subtitled Brotherhood episodes exist on Hulu. But let’s be honest, if you’d wanted to be forced to actually read what the characters were saying, you’d have just picked up the manga.

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