Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Part 5 Blu-ray Movie Review

Time to wrap things up. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 19, 2011

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?

In the “some people are never satisfied” category, while some fans may have felt Part 4 of this multi-year release was a little lethargic, those selfsame people may be screaming “Slow down!” at their televisions as Part 5 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood careens madly toward its denouement. These last dozen or so episodes are so manically paced that it may in fact take a couple of viewings to completely glean all the information which assaults the viewer, especially after information came in dribs and drabs in the previous iterations of the long running series. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this accelerated pace, and in fact a cogent argument could be made that the show really had no other option, it makes for an experience where attention absolutely must be paid, as manifold storylines and tangents are wrapped up with amazing speed and relative concision. It’s unfair obviously to complain on one hand about some aspects of the show being too slow, and then to immediately turn around and moan that things are happening to quickly, but while individual pacing elements can probably be rightly faulted, when taken as a whole, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood actually manages to toe the line in a fairly well modulated manner over its sixty-plus episodes.

One of the most fascinating things about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is how it has so effortlessly combined all sorts of elements, references to history and completely disparate ideas in one cohesive whole. Is there any other show in recent memory which has been able to at least tangentially refer to Fascism or a sort of V for Vendetta uprising in one breath while simultaneously evoking ancient “sciences” like alchemy in the next? That’s made for some bracing collisions of timelines and styles, but it’s one of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s crowning achievements that it’s able to so seamlessly blend these really radically different jigsaw pieces into one very satisfying puzzle.

The endgame of the series probably concentrates more on the uprising aspect, the fight for freedom in an oppressive society, while some of the personal issues between Al and Ed and their Father take a backseat, at least for the first half or so of this final set of outings. This is not to say the long, twisted history of these characters is ignored, but it’s almost as if they’ve been subsumed by the larger “societal” forces at work, and that actually helps to put their personal stories within a larger context, something that this last set of episodes does very, very well with. In fact, once we return to their story, it’s all the more satisfying since several plot twists are related to the larger, more inclusive, storyline that has been simultaneously playing out.

As I mentioned in my review of Part 4 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, fantasy franchises like Harry Potter have often come under rather peculiar attack from certain quarters for supposedly spreading Satanic or occult messages. What’s kind of interesting about this final few episodes of Fullmetal Brotherhood: Alchemist is that it plays a certain Potter-esque card itself, at least with regard to something quite like Horcruxes, that leads to one of the central showdowns between several major characters. But ultimately this final set of episodes is probably more concerned with action than it is with philosophy, and that will probably delight longtime fans who have been jonesin’ for some battle sequences after the long expository material that frankly had to be gotten out of the way in Part 4.

Part of the problem with reviewing a multi-volume release like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is that the dividing lines are somewhat arbitrary, as if someone were to ask you, “What did you think of pages 897 through 1055 of War and Peace?” Of course I jest, but you get the idea. That said, Part 5 of this release is manifestly faster paced and more viscerally exciting than Part 4 was, while also imparting a wealth of information that helps to tie up several dangling plot threads. Is everything perfectly resolved with a pretty little bow and a “happily ever after?” Surely you jest if you think anything like that could happen in the labyrinthine world of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. But the series manages to get to a denouement that most fans will probably find quite satisfying, even as it leaves the door open to further adventures down the line. Part 6, anyone?

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Part 5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Part 5 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Part 5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 64 Commentary. The last episode "Journey's End" is granted an enjoyable, if chatty, commentary by Mike McFarland, ADR Director, Line Producer and voice of Havoc; Maxey Whitehead, who voices Alfonse; and Vic Mignogna, who jokes that due to a lot of screaming and yelling in Episode 63, he voices "what's left of Edward". While they do deal with some of the plot points of this particular episode, they also review the long history of the series as well.
• Outtakes (HD; 7:33) has some goofs and the like, and features an introduction by Mike McFarland, who warns potential viewers about adult language at times.
• Textless Opening Song – Rain (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Closing Song – Ray of Light (HD; 1:31)
• Textless Closing Song – Hologram (HD; 1:32)
• Trailers for other FUNimation Releases

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Part 5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.