Why Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Topped Global Rankings — 64 Episodes, Zero Filler

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I almost didn't start this one. Sixty-four episodes felt like a commitment I wasn't sure I wanted to make. (B-3: Full disclosure—I'd been burned by long-running anime before, shows that started strong and then dissolved into filler arcs and power-up screaming matches.) But in Japan, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood isn't just popular. It's the show people mention when they want to convince someone that anime is worth taking seriously. So I gave it three episodes.

I finished all sixty-four in a week. And here's the thing that still gets me: there isn't a single throwaway episode in the entire run. Every scene, every side character, every seemingly inconsequential conversation feeds into a finale so satisfying it redefined what I thought long-form storytelling could do. This is the show that held the #1 spot on MyAnimeList—the world's largest anime database—for years. If you love tightly constructed narratives, the kind where Christopher Nolan or David Fincher would nod in approval, this is your entry point into anime. It's dark, but it ends with hope. It's complex, but never confusing. And it respects your time in a way that very few 64-episode shows ever have.

🎬 Official Trailer

*Note: English trailer not yet available. This is the original Japanese trailer.

📌 This Title in 3 Lines

📖 Synopsis

Edward and Alphonse Elric lost their mother at a young age. Gifted in alchemy—a science of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter—the two brothers attempted the ultimate taboo: human transmutation, an alchemical ritual to bring their mother back from the dead. It failed catastrophically. Edward lost his right arm and left leg. Alphonse lost his entire body. In a desperate act, Edward sacrificed his own arm to bind Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor.

To reclaim what they've lost, Edward earns the title of State Alchemist—becoming "the Fullmetal Alchemist"—and sets out with Alphonse in search of the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary artifact said to bypass alchemy's fundamental law. But their journey pulls them into a conspiracy involving the Homunculi, artificial beings manipulating the entire nation from the shadows. The truth they uncover will shake the very foundations of alchemy—and force them to confront what "equivalent exchange" really means.

✨ What Makes Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Special

64 Episodes with Zero Filler — Every Scene Earns Its Place

The single greatest achievement of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is structural. From episode 1 to episode 64, the story moves in one unbroken line toward its conclusion. There are no filler arcs. No beach episodes shoehorned in to pad the runtime. No "training montage" detours that go nowhere. Japanese fans often describe this with a phrase that doesn't translate perfectly but captures the sentiment: "sute-kai ga hitotsu mo nai"—not a single throwaway episode.

What makes this even more impressive is how the show handles its middle stretch. Around episodes 20-30, you might encounter scenes or characters that feel tangential. A side character's backstory. A political subplot in a distant region. You might wonder why the show is spending time here instead of advancing the main plot. Then, 20 episodes later, that same side character becomes the linchpin of an entire battle. That political subplot explodes into the central conflict. The payoff isn't just satisfying—it's the kind of thing that makes you want to rewatch the entire series just to catch what you missed.

This is why FMAB held the #1 ranking on MyAnimeList for years. It's not because of any single brilliant moment. It's because the cumulative effect of 64 perfectly interlocking episodes creates something greater than the sum of its parts. If you've ever abandoned a long-running anime because of filler fatigue, this is the show that proves it doesn't have to be that way.

Adults Who Actually Act Like Adults

Most shonen anime follow a formula: the young protagonist trains, powers up, and eventually surpasses every adult in the room. Brotherhood rejects this entirely. Edward and Alphonse are talented, but their combat abilities remain roughly the same throughout the series. They win not by getting stronger, but by working alongside others—particularly the adults around them.

And those adults are genuinely written as responsible, capable people who take their roles seriously. Colonel Mustang isn't just comic relief or a mentor figure waiting to be surpassed. He has his own political ambitions, his own trauma, his own moral lines he refuses to cross. Major Armstrong fights with conviction. Izumi Curtis, the brothers' teacher, is terrifying and compassionate in equal measure. In the Japanese anime community, fans often praise Brotherhood specifically for this quality: "otona ga chanto otona shiteiru"—the adults actually behave like adults. It's rarer than you'd think in this genre.

A Dark World That Still Chooses Hope

The early episodes of Brotherhood are merciless. Without spoiling specifics, there is a scene involving a young girl and a dog that has traumatized an entire generation of anime viewers. (If you know, you know. If you don't—brace yourself.) Another early death lands so hard that Japanese fans still reference it as one of anime's most devastating losses, over 15 years later.

But here's what separates Brotherhood from grimmer series: it walks through that darkness and comes out the other side with its belief in people intact. The ending is hopeful. Not naive, not cheaply optimistic—but earned. The show's central philosophy, "equivalent exchange" (to gain something, you must give something of equal value), is both the cruelest rule in its world and, ultimately, the foundation of its most moving moments. What Edward discovers about equivalent exchange in the final episode left me sitting in silence long after the credits rolled.

🎭 Memorable Scenes

"Big brother... can we play now...?"

This is the line that haunts every FMAB fan. Everyone remembers the iconic scenes, the big battles, the dramatic reveals. But the one that broke something in me was this quiet, distorted whisper. A young girl, transmuted into something no longer human, barely able to form words. I had to pause the episode. (I actually set my laptop down and stared at the wall for a few minutes. I'm not exaggerating.) In Japan, this scene is so universally known that simply saying "Nina" in an anime discussion is enough to make people wince. It's the moment Brotherhood tells you exactly what kind of show it is.

And then there's the final scene with Hohenheim at Trisha's grave. A man who has lived for centuries, who has carried guilt and loneliness beyond what most stories even attempt to depict, finally finds peace. "He died looking happy"—that's what the characters say. It's such a simple observation. But watching him clutch a family photo and smile as he passes, beside the woman he loved? That quiet image stayed with me far longer than any battle sequence.

💭 How It Made Me Feel

After finishing all 64 episodes, the overwhelming feeling was accomplishment. Not just the characters'—mine. I'd invested over 20 hours into these characters, and the story rewarded every minute of that investment. Every dot connected. Every thread resolved. The final battle gave me goosebumps I didn't know I was capable of getting from animation.

The philosophy of equivalent exchange lingers well beyond the final episode. It's a deceptively simple concept that Brotherhood stretches, challenges, and ultimately redefines. What does it mean to sacrifice something of equal value? Can love be quantified? Can loss? These aren't questions the show answers neatly. They're questions it leaves you to sit with...and I think that's the point.

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😅 Room for Improvement

I've been praising this show for several paragraphs now, so let me be honest about where it stumbles. The early episodes have a comedic tone—chibi-style gag reactions, exaggerated facial expressions, slapstick moments—that can feel jarring against the darker material. In the manga, these moments read differently; they're quick visual gags between panels. But when voiced and animated with full sound effects, they can feel like the show doesn't trust its audience to handle the weight. I almost wrote this off as "too childish" in the first few episodes before the story pulled me back in.

There's also the question of combat progression. If you're coming from shows where the protagonist unlocks new abilities every few episodes, Brotherhood might feel static. Edward's fighting style barely changes from episode 1 to episode 64. The show compensates with tactical creativity and teamwork, but if raw power escalation is what excites you, this won't scratch that itch.

And the ending. I debated whether to even mention this, but some fans—particularly those who prefer their dark fantasy to stay dark—find the conclusion too clean. "Too kind," some say. A small but vocal contingent in Japan has called it a typically "female-authored" ending, which is both reductive and, in my opinion, completely wrong. The hopefulness isn't naive. It's hard-won. But I understand the criticism, even if I disagree with it.

🎬 If You Loved This, Watch These 3 Next

Attack on Titan (Season 1)

If Brotherhood is the gold standard for "every episode matters" storytelling, Attack on Titan is its darker, more brutal sibling. Humanity fights for survival against monstrous giants in a show where the foreshadowing runs so deep that details from Season 1 pay off in the final season, years later. The structural ambition is comparable to FMAB, but the tone is considerably grimmer. Prepare yourself accordingly.

Where FMAB ends with hope, Attack on Titan asks whether hope is even possible in a world this broken. Both approaches work brilliantly—but they'll leave you in very different emotional states.

Violet Evergarden

Brotherhood and Violet Evergarden share a core theme: the journey to recover what was lost. But where Brotherhood does this through alchemy, action, and political intrigue, Violet Evergarden does it through letter-writing. A former child soldier, her arms replaced with mechanical prosthetics, learns to understand human emotion by ghostwriting letters for others. The animation from Kyoto Animation is so beautiful it borders on unfair, and the emotional precision of each episode will leave you genuinely shaken.

If FMAB made you think, Violet Evergarden will make you feel.

Read our full review of Violet Evergarden

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

If Brotherhood is about the pursuit of alchemical truth, Orb is about the pursuit of astronomical truth—at the cost of your life. Set in 15th-century Europe, it follows scholars who risk execution by the Church to prove that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The willingness to die for knowledge connects directly to the Elric brothers' willingness to sacrifice everything for understanding. Produced by Madhouse and widely considered the best anime of Fall 2024 in Japan, this is a show for anyone who believes that ideas are worth fighting for.

Read our full review of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

📺 Where to Watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

📊 Streaming Comparison

Service	Availability	Free Trial	Monthly Price
Crunchyroll	Streaming	Free Trial	$7.99/mo
Netflix	Streaming	None	$6.99/mo+
Hulu	Streaming	30 Days	$11.99/mo
Disney+	Streaming	None	$9.99/mo
Amazon Prime Video	Streaming (via Channel)	30 Days	$14.99/mo

📝 Final Thoughts

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is, in the most literal sense, a masterclass in long-form storytelling. Sixty-four episodes. Zero wasted. Every character, every subplot, every quiet conversation between battles feeds into a conclusion that feels both inevitable and surprising. The adults behave like adults. The villains have logic behind their cruelty. And the ending—after everything the Elric brothers endure—chooses hope without ever feeling dishonest about the cost.

After finishing the last episode, I did something I rarely do: I immediately went back and rewatched the first episode. Not because I'd missed something, but because I wanted to see it again knowing what I now knew. The experience was completely different the second time. Details I'd overlooked became painful. Throwaway lines became foreshadowing. That's the mark of storytelling that trusts its audience. Remember what I said at the beginning, about almost not starting this? That version of me didn't know what he was about to find. Whether you're new to anime or a veteran looking for something that respects your intelligence, this is the one. The #1 ranking wasn't a fluke. It was earned—sixty-four episodes at a time.

⭐ Title Characteristics

Category	Rating
Story	★★★★★
Characters	★★★★★
Animation	★★★★☆
Music	★★★★★
Foreshadowing & Payoff	★★★★★