Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

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For many, Brotherhood is the essential anime experience, and it's easy to see why. A more faithful adaptation to Hiromu Arakawa's mega-popular manga series than the original adaptation, Brotherhood contends with loss, grief, war, racism and ethics in mature and unique ways, ahead of its time in nearly every aspect. What's more, the show is paced perfectly, with neatly wrapped arcs that lead into each other and bolster a greater global narrative on selected themes. Brotherhood is just the right length, never overstaying its welcome and proving how versatile and malleable the conventions of shounen anime can be.

Brotherhood has a sizeable cast of characters all of different nationalities and ideologies, with motivations that often oppose one another—the show manages to use these moving forces to form factions, alliances, and foils that flow in multiple directions, paralleling the often messy, always chaotic nature of human relationships during wartime. The show's emotional core revolves around the plight of the Elric brothers, Ed and Alphonse, two alchemists sponsored by the authoritarian Amestris military. It's not your classic military drama, though, as Ed and Alphonse quickly learn how far Amestris' authoritarianism stretches.

Where Brotherhood excels lies in the sensitivity it expresses for every one of the characters' fighting for their desires and contending with their mistakes, with particular highlights for the plights of minorities and women. Ed and Alphonse struggle with the fallout after attempting forbidden alchemy to revive their recently deceased mother. Later, their childhood friend Winry is portrayed heroically for acting as an emergency midwife. Scar, initially introduced as a brutal serial killer, is one of the last remaining indigenous Ishvalans, an ethnic group purged during a colonial war at the hands of Amestris—his odyssey continues to ring more and more resonant as we stray further into a post-terror world. It's why the series continues to wow today: it eschews cliche to make cogent points on human consciousness.www.peaanime.com