8.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
The Flame Alchemist's rebel army pushes the forces of Central to the brink of collapse until the enemy's fallen leader returns to take control. As mortals and monsters wage war, young Edward and Alphonse Elric must face a cruel being with the unholy power of a god.
Starring: Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya, Megumi Takamoto, Iemasa Kayumi, Shin'ichirô MikiAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Action | 40% |
Fantasy | 38% |
Comic book | 35% |
Sci-Fi | 31% |
Adventure | 29% |
Comedy | 12% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Note: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a newly produced anime adaptation of the original manga by Hiromu Arakawa. Released five years after the original Fullmetal Alchemist series, Brotherhood contains elements of the prior 51-episode production, but remains more faithful to the storyline of the original manga. My colleague Dustin Somner reviewed the first three boxed sets of the series, while I took up the story starting with the fourth boxed set released a few months ago. As Dustin discussed in the reviews of the first three installments, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part 1 basically rehashed events that occurred during the first 33 episodes of the original production, giving longtime fans of the series a quick brush up while getting uninitiated viewers up to speed. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part 2, featuring episodes 14-26, really started to get into the nuts and bolts of the Brotherhood storyline and started setting up events which may have surprised those familiar only with the original anime series. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part 3 really took off, introducing new characters, and upending several preconceived notions about motivations while setting a chain of events into motion that could lead to massive rebellion. As I discussed in my review of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part 4, a lot of long withheld answers were forthcoming in the fourth installment, including some fascinating information regarding some backstories of some major characters. But the fourth installment, perhaps pausing a bit too long to provide this needed information, may have struck some fans as being too slow, at least at times. Will Part 5 reestablish some momentum?
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 5 continues its trend of AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1, as well as this series' odd concatenation of beautifully detailed scenes existing side by side with elements that seem to have been dashed off by a hurried five year old. Despite a native HD source element, this series can be oddly unsatisfying at times in terms of real detail, but overall, there's very good to excellent line clarity and colors especially pop nicely, with robust saturation and a very appealing palette. This set of episodes more than some of the other sets in the series may be hampered by the fact that there are so many large scale sequences which perhaps haven't been well attended to in terms of beautifully rendered detail. On the other hand, some of the smaller scale sequences have wonderfully realized characters and backgrounds. Anyone who has spent any time with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood will know the series is regularly one of those "glass half full, glass half empty" enterprises, and this set is no exception. Overall, though, the Blu-ray transfer is very nice looking and has no major issues in and of itself.
Both lossless offerings on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 5 feature very good to excellent fidelity and mixes, though as I experienced with Part 4, I found the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix preferable to the original language Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 track for a couple of reasons. While the Japanese track is certainly fine, it is obviously much narrower and also sounds noticeably compressed in both the extreme high and low ranges when compared to the English track. This tendency is especially apparent in some of the exciting action sequences, as well as in the ubiquitous underscore. In fact Part 5 has lots of opportunity for surround activity, and that is another reason to recommend the 5.1 track, as it does a very fine job in placing a lot of discrete sound effects around the soundfield, helping to achieve a nicely uniform immersion a lot of the time. Voicework on the English dub is very good as well, with little of the overacting which is sometimes endemic to these English dubs. Original language purists certainly won't have much to complain about with the Japanese language track, but I still recommend at least checking out the English language mix, especially if you have a surround system.
I wouldn't say I had quite the bittersweet feeling I had when, say, Lost came to an end a couple of years ago, but there was still that fleeting sense of nostalgia and a long trek well traveled as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood played out its final episodes. As full of "court intrigue" as these final episodes are, and as much as that at least initially shunts the Elric saga off to the side, this is ultimately a show about family and connections, and there's a very touching aspect to these final outings that tug pretty handily at the heartstrings. As I mentioned above in the main body of the review, separating discrete sections of this series simply because it's been released in multiple volumes is a bit unfair. Looking over the vast expanse of the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood universe, it becomes obvious what a massive, novelistic undertaking this series was, and how incredibly well it succeeded almost all of the time. Highly recommended.
2009
2009
2009-2010
2010
2009
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
2009
2009-2010
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
2009-2010
2011
2009-2010
2005
2003-2004
2010
2014
ソウルイーター
2008-2009
Anime Classics
2008-2009
10th Anniversary Edition
2007-2009
キルラキル
2013-2014
幽☆遊☆白書 / Yū Yū Hakusho / Anime Classics
1992-1993
コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュR2
2008
2012-2013
Anime Classics
2011-2012
Classics
2003
Anime Classics / フルメタル·パニック!
2002
Essentials
2007
S.A.V.E.
2008-2009
Episodes 76-99
2013
Classics
2005