***spoilers***Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood had, and still has, quite a bit against it once you think about it. Not only is it being judged by fans of the first series and of those of the manga, but it's only been about 6 years since the first one aired- not giving enough time for new anime fans who don't know anything about FMA to take over the fandom. For the first 13 eps., it stuck to material that's already been covered by the first series. But what the creators decided to do was just rush through this material and assume that you've watched all of this before. While that is true for most of the people watching this series, it really turns up flat for the most part and it doesn't even adapt Arakawa's manga completely with the random changes it makes, so in the end it seems like they were just trying to tick both camps off. Two things that really have improved is the animation, as well as the music, which was something I really didn't like about the first series.
Now that we're in territory not covered by the first series, Brotherhood at least now as the luxury of only being compared to one piece of work. It's still changing some parts and it's still kind of "so-so' so far, but ep. 19 shows the good side of taking some liberties. While leaving out the fight between Ling and Lan Fan vs. Envy and Gluttony seemed like a bad idea at first, it really allowed for Mustang and crew to be the center of attention in this whole episode. The art direction when Lust was getting burned to crisp was the best by far in this series. Not to mention that it actually handled Alphonse's brief, but important development really well. This part in the manga is definitely one that is hard to mess up, but considering how it's been so far, I was half-expecting it to be mediocre. I'm glad that it wasn't.