Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[White Manju Bun]

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire 64 episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about the DVD only footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

• General impression of the series.
• Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
• Thoughts about the animation quality.
• Characters/Character Design
• Voice Acting
  
  
• Which kind of footage (DVD only) you feel you'd really like to see.
• What the show meant to you.
• What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

One major point I'm adding. This is not a thread to compare series. This thread is only to give your impression on what happened in Brotherhood. So absolutely no talk of the first series should happen in this thread. Any talk will be deleted.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

[S.t inFAMOUS]

I think it was a very good series but it shouldn't be considered as a vast improvement over its predecessor. Earlier episodes were terrible and humor wasn't just right at first but as the series went one it got better and better. Also the art and animation were functional but not gorgeous.

Animation Quality: 7
Voice Actors: 8
Script: 8
Soundtrack: 7
Editing: 8
Enjoyment: 9
Emotional Involvement: 9.5

[General_Asakura]

i gave it a 9 cuz i really liked the series. this goes straight to my portable hd where i store all my anime which i might want to see again later.

[DJ Trouble]

I just finished watching it, after spreading the series out over about two days.

The series wasn't without its problems, namely the story itself, however, in the end it was enjoyable, and I think that's all that really needs to be said.

[Kristen]

Been a while since I gave a full out review. This series is quite epic in terms of length and characters, so I will need to break it down quite a bit.

Smaller stuff first.

Animation/Artwork - I, for one, really enjoyed the artwork style of this series. The intentional odd colors on the walls were quite enjoyable to see. And of course, the characters looked great. Some mistakes all around, like forgetting which arm ed lost, but overall, I'd give it an 8.

Consistency with source - This was amazing. They were incredibly close to the actual manga, so you felt like you were watching the actual manga instead of an adaptation. Not to mention, finishing within 3 weeks of the manga's end prevented major spoilers. 10.

Pacing - Again, this was great. At no time did I feel that the anime was rushing things or going to slow. Note, this is the anime. The manga at the middle I thought was too slow. 9.

Onto the 2 more major things.

Plot - This section is divided into 5 "arcs" as I'd like to call them.
1. Original FMA - This section did really really well to keep old viewers entertained. They managed to move through it nice and quickly, and managed to keep me entertained. 9
2. The East - Best arc of the series. It seemed at this point, every week I wanted more. From the death of Lust to being in Gluttony's stomach with Envy, to meeting father... This was what made the series interesting. Not to mention, I loved all the investigation and talks about what was really happening. 10
3. Briggs - This arc to me was just boring. I'm sorry if you loved it, but the entire thing with Kimblee trying to find scar and General Armstrong acting all tough made me want for the episode to end so I could do something else. And Sloth just wasn't an interesting character. Not to mention, there was nothing more to investigate, and everyone was forced silent. 4
4. Escape from Briggs - This arc, however, was much better. I found it interesting with the chimeras, and the actual betrayals of Kimblee. Since this includes the battle with Pride, I have to say that it was really amazing that they could hold out a battle with Pride for 1.5 episodes and keep it interesting. 7
5. The promised day - Pure epic battle. Though weren't armstrong and the Curtis husband on that stairwell for like... 5 episodes? 9

Overall - Great plot at the start and the end, but the middle was dull. 8.


Characters -
Naturally, there are too many characters to list, so I'm going to get some of the ones that stuck out.

Ed - This guy is just cool. There's nothing else to say.
Mustang - Same thing as Ed, just more powerful. He drove the series for the protagonists.
Envy - THIS CHARACTER MADE THE SERIES. I don't care what drove the main plotline, but the most interesting plotline was about Mustang trying to find Hughe's killer. And every time Envy appeared, it became exciting. She was the epitome of an antagonist, and so fun to watch. If Envy wasn't part of the series and lets say Lust killed Hughes, then it'd be boring.
Sloth - Sloth was the dullest most uninteresting character out there. Yeah, he was supposed to be dull, but the manga could've at least had him have a more interesting plotline.
Major Armstrong - A strong willed character is only interesting when her soft side is revealed. It never was. Not a good character.
Winry - <3 <3 <3
Scar - It was nice to see him change from a ruthless killer to a good heart, but it got annoying after a while to hear him repeat about his changes.

Overall Characters - One interesting thing is that outside of Winry, not a single character needed to be female. Each character played a male role, or could easily be adjusted to one. Which seems strange to me that a country that is that prejudiced against Ishbalians would be so gender equal. I'd say an 8.

Overall - This show kept me entertained for over a year, and it's something I will remember. While I wouldn't rate it like a Clannad or Kanon, it does deserve a high rating. I'll give it a 8.6, truncated to an 8 in the voting.

[Sigsig]

Animation Quality: 8
Voice Actors: 9
Script: 8
Soundtrack: 10
Editing: 9
Enjoyment: 10
Emotional Involvement: 8

Overall: 9

I feel the series was a great, one that I will remember for years to come. Despite some obvious mistakes like Kristen mentioned (eg. wrong arm portrayed), I believe that most people will not notice unless someone points it out (eg. me). Although the starting was slow, the middle to end was a blast of non-stop action, suspense and plot (a few eps in Briggs was boring/little content though). Ending with the Promised Day, which was another 10+ eps of epicness.

Sound - The soundtrack was great, I like all the OP and ED, as well as the placement of music.

Art - Though the quality is not the best I've seen, I think it sufficiently shows what is taking place

Overall - I will remember this shounen anime for a long time to come

[Captain_Monotanous]

I cant say much more than what has already been said & what will be said by everyone. Brotherhood was a stunning run of episodes and I doubt we'll be seeing a show of such quality for a long time if ever again.
Most of the credit has the go to the author of the manga Hiromu Arakawa for creating such a well thought out plot and engaging characters.
In fact, while I'm here, its worth noting that FMA deserves credit for being one of the few stories with genuinely masculine male protagonists. Men with muscles, beer guts and facial hair that were deep & interesting characters!
I'm sick of all the ambiguously gendered "men" in anime/manga...

I wanna give the anime team a hug for adapting the source material so well. Sure there were plenty of mistakes & odd decisons...
BUT really, it all paled when looking at the series as a whole;
Great Artwork
Great Animation
Great Soundtrack
Great Voicework
Great Pacing
And I also liked all the little details too...like the sustained injuries that were never forgotten to be drawn on (such as Roy's hand carved circle )

I'm really sad the series is over, but all good stories come to an end.
I wish certain other anime would consider this

[ZeroForever]

Overall 9, honestly to lazy to write up the reasons for the score but this series will be worth the buy.

[wingdarkness]

I’m not gonna lie I still have a fondness for the first adaptation…I still feel like the story was more contained, more focused, and the ending more tragic, but having only known that adaptation until I watched Brotherhood I have a whole new respect for this work…I can’t really remember watching an “action” anime that had the run of epic episodes this show had in it’s last 15 or so presentations…

I mean once the show had found it’s stride somewhere in the 30’s it was almost too much at times…From Lust’s classic showdown with Mustang to Selim’s demonic reveal, to the absolutely incredible origin episode for the “Little one in the flask” to the promised day, to the OMGWTFUXORZ O_O of that HUGE final shadow-monster, Brotherhood just kept you on edge…

It also had some of the best collection of villain characters I’ve ever seen in one anime…I mean Kimbley could carry a series on his own as a Boss…To think a character this deliciously sick was probably 5, 6 on the totem pole of villains for this series is remarkable…His battle verses AL might be my favorite of the entire series…Greed, Scar, Selim Bradley, the Ruthless Envy, and obviously Lust at one point or another ruled the school…

And lets not even talk about Colonel Bradley…After this series he has joined the ranks of Legato Bluesummers, Shinobu Sensui, Rau Le Creset, etc. in the pantheon of brutally elegant anime villains…I mean the level of pride, and unwillingness to quit or be simply categorized as evil was something to behold…Even in the end, he died a true man despite not being a man at all…I mean his true grit really shined through… Little bro in the flask was actually the most plastic villain of all…I mean he blew my mind when he turned into that HUGE SHADOWTHING, but he was basically the least interesting villain of all…

And what can I say about Ed and Al…They really were the most consistent characters from the first adaptation…However their struggle and pathos seemed way more tragic in the first adaptation…Really no complaints here as there is so much more to say, but I found Ed’s advancement in skills and Al’s heartfelt confessions just as moving this time around…

This is maybe just 10% of my view of this show, but lets get on to what you really care about:

Spoiler for Ratings:

Animation Quality: 9.23 (It’s all about the anime’s style and within it’s expressed style it accomplished it’s goal…Very good palette of colors and visual flavors throughout the series…Contrasts of an early 1900’s world verses the visual coolness of alchemy was excellent )


Voice Actors: 10 (I’ve never been someone who harshly grades anime voices…I can’t think of one voice that annoyed or troubled me…However Kimbley, Bradley, and Little Bro in the Flask had excellent VA’s)

Script: 7.99 (Like I said, the first adaptation ended really tragic and I liked that…This story had almost too much of a happy ending, but there was so much tragedy before the end that it worked…Another issue is that the last 10 eps were so effin epic I ran out of steam...After the fight between Scar and Bradley I really had nothing left…Beating the final boss was more a of sweet epilogue than pure intensity for me, so maybe they could have lulled the audience to sleep one more time before the final battle…Additionally the story started off slow and not well focused until the early 30’s where it caught it’s stride)

Soundtrack: 9.25 (Loved all the action BGM’s and playful scores, especially loved the episode preview music when it was epic violin motifs introducing the new scenes…It would always keep me hype—Hated when they changed it)

Editing: n/a (I can’t recall ever commenting to myself that I thought some obvious editing flaw was present)

Enjoyment: 9.66 (I mean this was the most epic anime I watched all year and once it hit that stride I was along for the ride! I mean Kimble giving a playful smirk is enough to keep my juices on flow, so I enjoyed myself^^)

Emotional Involvement: 9.47 (Well when we saw that “End of Evangelian” Moment near the end I almost literally had a heart-episode, so I’d say that was some emotional investment^^…Strangely I cared about many of the villains as much if not more than the protagonists so a show has to be good if it engages me on that level...My ONLY detraction is like I said, near the end the show had popped it’s wad so many times I just didn’t have much left for Ed vs. Father…It was more like “Good for you Ed!” than me living and dying with each punch…

I still won’t lose my adoration for the first installment…I mean the death of Hughs hit me like a ton of bricks in the first series and I don’t think I ever got over his death in the first adaptation, so I had a strong emotional tie to it…But in this story, Hughs death was more of an afterthought to me by the end as so many more epic reveals just kept upping the ante…I mean the episode where we get explained the full history behind Hoeinheim and flask-daddy was one of the best episodes of anime I’ve seen in any genre period…So I am not lost at all about how much more pure epic win this series was in contrast….

As Ed road off on the railroad tracks of future adventures, I smiled and thought, GOOD GOD if this is just the beginning for him…I give the series a final ranking of 9.27 outta 10...It was a great ride, with so much action and emotional epicness, all in the palm of an iron hand…

[zebra]

Most things have already been said, but here's my opinion~

IF I would rate this anime objectively it would only get an 8 or a 9. But I'm not.

10.

It had flaws and I still prefer the manga over it, but man if this wasn't a ten on my enjoyment scale, nothing would be. I love this series. I already adored the first anime, I'm absolutely obsessed with the manga and I was soooo looking forward to Brotherhood. I'm very happy that my hype over the new adaptation wasn't met with this big evil wall of disappointment I often crash into at top speed.

The first batch of episodes where a bit shaky, but were still enjoyable. For me the series truly began with episode 19 and the fight with Lust. That was just so full of epicness. Not only my dear Mustang, but Al; how he stepped in front of on despaired Hawkeye - LOVE.

Spoiler for rant of love:

I loved the voice actors. Specially: Ed's, Mustang's, Greed's, Kimblee's and Envy's. All of them were pure win.
Also: Just. Envy. Never really liked his CG form, though. Hell of a lot creepier in the manga. But his voice made his character so much better. Every scene with him her it was auto win.

The score - was just awesome. Clumsily placed sometimes, but I really love to listen to it; in or out of the series.
YUI's "Again" is the only OP or ED I truly liked. The others weren't bad, but "Again" belongs to my favorite openings overall already. The music, the visuals - just great. And added a lot to my excitement I felt when I started the series.
The other OP and ED were really good visually, but the music just wasn't as much my taste. The third one "Golden Time" lover was pretty cool, though.

Storywise ... what can I say; it has all I love: Action, Comedy, Tragedy and a pinch of Romance. Specially, the action was really great in Brotherhood. And the plot was engaging.

The animation jumped a lot up and down in quality, but it was great when it was called for - resluting in epic scenes.

Best thing in FMA were the characters; each with their own faults and merits.
Ed and Al as the main guys evolved greatly and stayed true to themselves at the same time. So adorable, determined and strong.
Mustang and his crew were kind of the second main characters - and are very loved by me, specially Mustang and his right hand Hawky. Good people, that did horrible things and now try to do their best to do the right thing.
As for the supporting cast; they were always entertaining. Comedic relief like our sparkling Major (and even he has tear jerking moments). Characters that are just meant to be so adorable, that it breaks you're heart when misery befalls them - Nina, Hughes and his family for example. And then just epicness on two feet like Izumi and Olivier. The latter doing a great job in contrasting the methods of the others who try to avoid killing.
Also a special mention to Winry, who is a case of a love interest done right. Because she's so much more and a real character. Liked how she had a place in the story without being a fighter or becoming a damsel in distress.
Really, it's hard to come up with character I didn't like.

Including the villians. Scar as the sympathetic one. Kimblee as one of the coolest monsters without a soul ever - he's a pychotic mass murderer, but damn if he doesn't have principles!
And the Homunculi. Homunculus himself wasn't as interesting as his offsprings, but Pride, Wrath and Envy are bad guys I won't forget. Lust and Gluttony were very enjoyable, too, but fall a bit short in comparison to their other siblings (not counting Sloth :P).

Well, what can I say, Brotherhood is already one of my all time favourites and I already started rewatching (with someone who never heard of FMA before ). Gonna take some time until I stumble upon another anime I love that much.
Yes, I don't care about the faults and shortcomings - just my enjoyment counts
And Brotherhood had me at hello ...

[Photonbeam]

Animation Quality: 10
Voice Actors: 8
Script: 8
Soundtrack: 10
Editing: 7
Enjoyment: 10
Emotional Involvement: 10


Animation quality: It was always awesome, I would even say that it was the same excellent animation quality every episode.

Voice Actors: Everyone's voice acting were great as they really give it their all (although some voices like Scar's VA screaming or doing battle cries sounds weird to me).

Scrpit: 9 because almost all of them are true to the manga and every episode is fulfilling.

Soundtrack: The battle scenes combined with the epic soundtracks makes it more intense and the emotional scenes with mellow music makes a really nice impact on my emotions.

Editing: Some manga content were heavily changed in the anime.

Enjoyment: From the first to the last episode, I truly enjoyed watching every minute of each episode. The plot was perfect and the characters were powerful to make an impact to every reader of the manga and every viewer of the anime.

Emotional Environment: I'll admit, I cried several times during emotional scenes. It truly brings out your sad emotion and it's delivered into tears.


For me, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the best anime and manga series (Fullmetal Alchemist) I've watched and read in my entire life.

[Spring-heeled Jack]

Giving FMA: Brotherhood anything but a 10 would probably make time collapse into itself lol. Theres bleach, gundam, and naruto, and then there's god-damn Fullmetal Alchemist... Words Cannot do justice to this series, so i won't even pretend to understand this anime's greatness...

[Reckoner]

Personally I don't find much fault with FMA as a series, but there's little to get overexcited about.

It doesn't take any chances and always seems to play it safe.

There was quite a bit unrealized potential in this anime. It would've been interesting to actually explore the other countries, but they did nothing regarding that.

The people from Xing were utterly pointless in the end.

I'm not going to take the time to write a full out review, but in general, FMA was a good anime, with lovable characters, but in the end played it too safe to ever pass onto true greatness.

FMA may be a polished shonen, but it's not a truly great one. Enjoyable ride, but it offers no more. In some ways, I felt the original FMA anime ended on a better note.

[JPZ]

Sorely let down by the soundtrack in this series...could have been so much better if they brought on board the team from the original

this brought it down to an 8 for me.

[Shiroth]

Personally i found the score for Brotherhood one of the highlights of the series. Akira Senju is an outstanding composer, like i've been saying for the past year and a bit in this section of the forum. It's just a shame that the music placement in the middle of the series was starting to get a little bit repetitive, though thankfully we had outstanding placement during some of the major key scenes in the series (especially in the last arc) which made up for it. Plus listening to the three soundtracks stand alone destroys my thoughts of the poor placement, which i'm glad about.

Overall i'd seriously enjoyed Brotherhood, though i wouldn't rank it as high as i do the manga. The fact that a lot of the humor was 'deleted' so they wouldn't bring down some of the more serious scenes really bugged me quite a bit, because it shows in the manga that they increase the overall enjoyment that's to be had of the series. Sure i understand if there wasn't enough time overall to include everything, though the humor is a big part of what makes the manga so good, especially seeing how well Arakawa can right humor, and to see that taken out of the adaptation was just a huge shame.

I'd want to give this an overall 10 just because of the last arc, because BONES sure did deliver 110%, which truly made this so much fun to watch. Though that's not really fare in the end, so it get's a 9 from me.

[Jeffry2009]

I like brotherhood but sometimes it really Bothers me a lot when I compared to the manga version they didn't really explained to me what really happens until it's totally uncleared on several parts.

Second that Why can't just SCAR finally get settle the score on Kimblee instead of got killed by someone by PRIDE?! Why can't just Greed gets revenge on Wrath for avenge Fu's death instead of Scar who finally finishes him once and for all?! I mean this is just all wrong. I was expecting like that since back then. How could that douchebag Pride just killed his own partner like Gluttony & Kimblee for no apparent reasons?! This is just UNFAIR.

Finally, the show was over and that Flask has finally GONE TO HELL. FOR GOOD.

END. OF. STORY.

OK, Enough of these rants. I really should get off my chest & moving on. Why is this always keep happening to me these days.

My final thought of this show was:-

Voice Actors: All 24 Voice actors had a great resemblance from our all time Favorite Gundam series like 00 & SEED.

Editing: Several scene skips & changes from the manga really makes NO sense & bothers me.

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed some humorous scene a lot.

Emotional Environment: read above post. I'm not gonna repeat myself over & over. Even some emotional scene where Nina turns into Chimera, Hughes got killed by Envy and of course, Hoenheim's Demise.

I give this show an 8.

[ninryu]

awesomeness got a name and it's Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Ed and Al FTW!

the animation is smooth and beautiful, Ed looks hot in every moment.
the plot is awesome as expected of Arakawa-sama and the jokes and chibies are loveble.
the OPs and EDs are very fitting and the music is awesome. the animation in the OPs and EDs is beautiful as well.
our loved seyuus acting really good as the characters. if it's Rumi Paku as Ed, Al's cute voice or Kida from Durarara's seyuu as Ling.
the emotions put into this anime are great and you cannot not love the characters and empathy their sadness.

Animation Quality: 10
Voice Actors: 9
Script: 9
Soundtrack: 9
Enjoyment: 10
Emotional Involvement: 9

a must watch however you're otaku or not.

[UltimaWolf]

Animation Quality: 8- Seemed consistent.

Voice Actors: 10- I loved the voices to the characters, they didn't sound bland or unemotional and for the most part they showed a wide array of emotions, especially the main cast.

Script: 9- I haven't read much of the manga but from what I read and have heard, it stayed pretty true to the manga.

Soundtrack: 8- music fit the series well, and the OP/ED's were good and fit the series.

Editing: 8- Again, haven't read all of the manga so I don't know everything that was changed, but it seemed to stick pretty closely to the manga, though i'm sure some things were cut-out or rushed. Its only natural.

Enjoyment: 10- I really loved this series. The original I liked but didn't seem to get into once it got into the 20's, but in Brotherhood, once I got out of the Intro episodes(about to epi 10,which even those were fast and went by quick) I couldn't wait to watch the next episode. The villians were really well-done for the most part and I particulary liked Envy>Greed>Wrath and Pride out of the Homunculi, the rest of the Homun's were kinda bleh, but I've seen alot worse villians. Kimblee I enjoyed as a villian though I wish he had more fight-scenes compared to what he got, and his death was kinda unfortunate but I liked what he did at the very end.
I also liked how even though there was such a huge cast of characters they all seemed to get time in the spotlight, and had some decent development.
Even the Xing crew grew on me, which at first I thought were just a bunch of comedy relief characters that would get pushed to the sides.
I liked Mustang's crew aswell, though towards the end they got left behind 'cept for Riza and Mustang, which is fine to me, just wish those two got 'together' officially, ah well what can I say, I like romance. I also liked Winry and Ed's little moments together and the 'equivalent exchange' part at the very end gave me a smile.
I only wish it was longer

Emotional Involvement: 9-I actually cared for the characters, not as many died as I originally thought would, but there was several close calls that had me worrying. Some parts had me feeling pretty sad, particulary Envy, and Honhenheim parts, atleast that I can think of off the top of my head.

I pretty much marathoned this series, I wanted to take my time with it so it wouldn't be over so fast, but I still found myself watching 10+episodes a day until finally I finished it today I'm only sad I didn't watch it sooner. But it was much better than I could have imagined considering the original. Was also suprised at the amount of blood, guess thats what I get for thinking it was going to be a kiddy series

9/10

Spoiler for Ending questions:

I just have a few questions, Was there a actual reason for Envy to kill itself? Was it just because it was going to die anyways or was it out of spite to the 'lowly humans'?
When Pride was taken back down to its 'true form' what made it change? When Envy went to its true form it still retained all of it's desire and thoughts, but the reborn Pride seemed different than it's previous form, was their some reason I missed?
I was kinda disappointed that Grummen became President instead of Mustang but ah well, I liked Grummen at first but once he showed his true colors he went way down the list for me.

[Echoes]

Watching this was a pure joy. The characters are unforgettable across the board. The villains are so compelling that you just might want to stop rooting for the protagonists (until you recall how awesome they themselves are), and each and every character added something substantial to the show. Rarely do we see such an ensemble cast, where every character is developed and explored to this extent.

The music was marvelous, having a very broad range, and though the series was long, it never felt overused. Like the first series, there were a myriad of great openings and endings as well, which really set the tone for the episodes. I'm really glad they kept this part up, as the music from the first series is a large part of what helped it stay fresh in my mind for so long.

The animations and art style was outstanding, of course. The world, and the characters, were truly brought to life. The only negative aspect would be a lack of detail in the backgrounds at times, but it's negligible in the grand scheme of things, and didn't detract from the enjoyment one bit, in my opinion.

The plot is one of the grandest and best in the entire genre of fantasy, and indeed, in all of fiction. I can't praise it enough. The pacing felt very natural, I was never bored, nor can I remember a point where I thought things were moving too quickly for me to keep up. It's action-packed, yet filled with subtlety and symbolism, and this time, it came to an extremely satisfactory conclusion.

This show falls *just* short of the gold standard of 10, which I've only ever handed to around ten shows. It's close, though, incredibly close, and is something I would consider among my favorites, and a must-watch. It's worth every penny I intend to spend on it, and it was certainly, without a doubt, worth every second I spent watching it. Hence, I award this show an incredibly strong 9/10. A true work of art.

[kitten320]

I give this series 10 for several reasons... FMA doesn't belong to my all time favorite list, it just didn't touch me that much but... even though FMA didn't leave such huge impression on me, this is probably the only series where I have no complaints at all. Even my all time faves shows have some flaws but here... And consider that this series are long and a lot of laws are happening in such series, FMA always kept to be interesting for me and never had me pissed off as it happens with coghBleachcough.

I was never annoyed by Edward the main hero, and I'm a huge main character hater because you always know how thing will end with them. Here Edward was getting punched quiet a lot as well as he had punched others a lot. He didn't have any dumb power ups and wasn't upgrading fast like some cyborg. all his actions and fights seemed believable.

The series also had great characters, all of them wre unique and interesting in their own way. The fact that series didn't follow the typical "You killed my family and now I'm the one who kills you" rule is a plus as well. In real life you don't always get your revenge and end up fighting those who had messed up your life.

Also series had nice balance between drama and humour though I might have preffered a bit more drama, but whatever. It still was good^^

So yeh, for those reasons alone I will give this series 10 and not 9.