if your keeping up to date with this wonderful series like i am then you may have noticed the series story telling pace has slowed down significantly with previous episodes steaming through several chapters per episode now at a sluggish but still enjoyable taste

but this has me slightly worried as a viewer seeing as this is meant to be a much more faithful adaption of the manga than the previous one because the manga is still going on and i've got an ominous feeling we're either in for a sudden stop for the series soon or we're in for another original ending like with the first fma series

Spoiler:

zepplins... ZEPPLINS FUDGING ZEPPLINS WHAT THE HECK!??

and as viewers of soul eater may well know the same studio that working on brotherhood now really did cut that series ending short and horribly...

you have been warned

Being a huge FMA fan myself, I would say this: I really don't think the slower pace is due to an abrupt end to the show, but most likely because the pace of the previous episode covered so much ground, to continue that pace would have caught the anime up to the manga in a very short time.

another reason for my belief is the recently released OVA's detailing specific things about the series that were cut a bit from the manga, as well as some details never fully explained. Basically they are adding way to much detail to the series to pull a D gray man style ending.

bare in mind, the manga is a monthly release, not like the weekly shonen jump series, so if the anime catches the manga, to add a filler arc would stretch on to an agonizingly long and costly time.

My own thoughts are like this; having followed the manga closely, I would say it looks like Arakawa-san is reaching closer to an end to her story for the manga, thus now that the story is hitting key parts which are different from the first series, the episodes are slowing down to tell the full story, and not just the important parts anymore.

Basically most of the most episodes were similar to the other anime, and in fact, they weren't that fast paced, with of course the exception of the Ishbal situation before going to the north which covered 3 chapters in one episode and left off a lot of detail, but they do seem to be moving fast because they are recounting details of the story that didn't appear until much later in the other series, thus it seems to move even faster.

all in all, I wouldn't have any worries at this point. Brotherhood is rating in the top 3 most viewed series at the moment, and will most likely roll on until the end of the manga, as per the agreement with Hiromu Arakawa (my favorite lady..Yay!).

true true, and on reflection i may be simply comparing the pace of the series to that of the first adaption which didnt have a lot of source material to go on at the time compared to this one but what the hey so far so good and i am thoroughly enjoying every release of this anime series.

im slowly tackling the manga one book at a time (so my knowledge of how close they are to the ending is pretty vague) from the bookshops whenever i have some spare money on me however the temptation to click on the manga sites is very tempting a lot of the time i must admit...

well, I will tell you this, there will be a couple of instances when things will slow down quite a bit, as a lot will be happening, especially where the manga is now, since it's telling a lot about this one part, which takes time, however, eventually the stories of everyone will split off a bit from each other, and I would guess the anime will probably add a few fillers here and there to keep things up for a while, while the manga is in the slow parts.

But on a side note, Adult swim announced that they are picking up two new anime shows and canceling showings of others, one of the ones I know they are getting rid of is Blood +, which they lost the rights to, like others, but, of the ones they are gaining, it's offical:

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (dubbed Version) will premiere on the night of the 13th of FEB, at 12:00 am (so technically it will be the 14th, but you get the idea) on ADULT SWIM, followed by a 4 episode mini-marathon of Bleach.

So, are the mini marathon of bleach, are they of the mini arc that takes place in between the battle between Ken's and Noitra battle and the Return to Hueco Mundo arc? The Amagai Arc? They were saying they didn't know about it though. And about Brotherhood. I agree it is way slow. I think it said last update was January 10th and a new one was just put on yesterday. So fillers will probably go in and movies also that they mentioned within the brotherhood series.

well in point of fact, brotherhood is moving at a regularly steady pace as far as the episodes go. The manga story is much more different than the first anime, and there is a lot more introspective moments that go into it. Arakawa-sama is quite detailed in her work. Dn't make the mistake of comparing it to the first which was only 52 episodes, due to the limited amount of material to work with.

As for the mini-marathon, It's most likely dubbed episodes so it will be episodes that happened a while back. The subs will be farther along.

yea, im sorry. lol, and I swear, I didn't know that the author was a woman. I don't really see female manga artists these days. T-T
Anyway, Brotherhood comes on tonight at 12 so, I am ready to see it.

Bump! well as im sure many of you are aware and with only a couple of episodes left to go and then thats it FMA is over, quite monemental for an amazing series like this to come to a close.

as an anime only watcher im leaving the best till last and reading the manga till the anime is finished so spoilers minimal PLEASE thanks : D

any thoughts, farewells etc etc you'd like to give about this amazing series then by all means post here, if you havent seen or read it then take a butchers at my reviews then go and effing read/ watch it nao!