Mullet Death wrote::rant: I know I might receive some flak from some of you for saying so, but I actually didn't like either Fullmetal Alchemist series that much at all, largely for reasons I'm not supposed to talk about in this forum like "theological" and "negative" themes. It also didn't really live up to the incredibly high expectations I had for it given what people had said about the franchise before I actually purchased and watched it. I know a lot of people here and a huge population of anime fandom love it to death, but I don't. Does that make me a hipster anime fan?
Actually, no, you are not a hipster (rejoice!). If you were, you would be like me who is all like, *puts on fake glasses* "I liked FMA and FMA:B before it was popular. Heck, I read the manga before most of you were born."
But anyway, it just means you got it all hyped for you and it wasn't quite your cup of tea. That happens a lot, even with popular anime. It's also a reason I like anime, it's diverse enough that not everyone has to like the same series!
But to the happy topic of this thread, the FMA anime do rank highly in terms of "best anime", I think.
Brotherhood was the better of the two series by far, but both had their pros and cons. The first FMA series had a solid start and brilliant character development until the story went sideways, backwards, and upside down to who knows where. Brotherhood didn't focus on early character development as much as "let's get to the cool parts of the story, yay!". Yet, they not only had a better story but they stayed true to the actual names for the 7 homunculus, so kudos for that.
All the theology in the series is a whole other can of worms to open, but one thing I will point out is that in Brotherhood (and in the manga), the homunculus die (spoilers XD; ) as they lived, which I find quite interesting. A bit of an extension of "pride cometh before fall" and all that.
(mini note: while this section of my post is not directed to you, Mullet Death, if you want to talk about FMA theological stuff, feel free to shoot me a PM if you want. XD Or anyone can if they want.)
So, in summary, read the manga. =D