Ah yes, it's the uni semester again, which has meant that again my DA account is having a dry spell. Right now it's the middle of the semester, which means exams, assignments and all the other assessable things that I really don't like about uni.

I have, however, been finding the time to rekindle my Fullmetal Alchemist addiction, and I stumbled across a blogger who said that a second season of FMA, called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, was being released. I am in love with FMA -- the show is so complex and has so many themes running through it, I can watch the entire season over and over again and find something new in it every time. The movie was somewhat disappointing, but it provided closure to the series.

So I was surprised when I read that a second season was being made. How would that work, I wondered -- after all, the first season chartered Ed and Al's journey to get their bodies back, and whilst the ending left some end untied, the movie took care of those. Where would a second season fit in? It would be cool to have a season about the travels of Ed and Al in their different worlds (i.e. the time between the end of season 1, and the beginning of the movie), but wouldn't that just be milking it?

I looked into it a little bit, and it turns out that Australians can watch the first four full online eps of FMA: Brotherhood at the website official Australian distributor, Madman's website. I think I read somewhere that the US Funimation Website also has those eps available for Americans.

I've watched the first four, and thus far the series is the exact same story. If you've seen season 1, you can predict the ending of episodes 2-4 (episode 1 was a kind of prequel episode). So unless they've got some major changes coming up later on in the season, why would they bother to make a second season that's identical to the first? I read that FMA: Brotherhood

I'll be keeping my eye on this one -- especially on later episodes once they've established all the foundational characters and stories. But if they don't pull out some big diverging storyline that sets Brotherhood apart from the first season, I have to wonder how successful Brotherhood is going to be. After finishing the season and movie, I thought it was quite refreshing to have a series that reaches closure after the season is over -- instead of doing a Digimon/Pokémon and having season after season after season that just draws it out until you just couldn't be bothered watching it anymore. But maybe a second season is just what it needs.

I'll keep you posted on what I reckon!

Cheers,

Thiro