Watch me!

For those of you who don’t care for simulcasts because they don’t want to have to read tiny subtitles on a small screen, Cartoon Network and FUNimation have announced that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood will air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block starting Saturday, at 12 AM. Sadly, Anime Almanac’s Twitter reports that the broadcast will be in Standard Definition only, with no High-Def broadcast even on Cartoon Network’s HD channel.

Still, this is a great announcement for Fullmetal Alchemist fans, because it means that dubbed Fullmetal Alchemist will air every week for the conceivable future, making it even easier to follow the series – the first DVD release isn’t until May 25th, so this is a good way to fill the gap until it comes out.

Will you be watching?

The weekend is over, and that means that the usual suspects are up on the official streaming sites – the new One Piece is up on FUNimation’s side, Fairy Tail and Sora no Woto on Crunchyroll, and InuYasha: The Final Act on Viz. The new One Piece is interesting, since it’s one of the few times you’ll ever see Luffy utterly beaten, while Fairy Tail has a lot of topless Gray for your fangirl pleasure.

There are two older shows that deserve your attention, though: first, Crunchyroll has decided to get people ready for the upcoming Gundam Unicorn by posting the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, and while it’s incredibly dated, it’s still worth seeing as a historical piece. The second is Buso Renkin, a series that has old-school action sensibilities and perhaps the most awesome opening theme in the history of anime.

Out of the two, I’d suggest skimming Gundam for a few minutes as a historical frame of reference, but you really should go back and watch Buso Renkin because it’s actually way more fun in anime form than it was in manga form.

The new winter season has brought a flurry of excitement to the anime world, but the latest batch of streaming anime to hit the ‘net reminds you that you don’t always have to be on the bleeding edge of what’s on to enjoy yourself.

FUNimation is going to stream episode 40 of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood tomorrow, and you get to learn about the immortal Xerxes and the creation of the homunculus. From all indications, it’s a very good episode, so don’t miss it!

Meanwhile, Viz has posted 5 episodes of the fantasy action series Kekkaishi on Hulu, and if you’re in the mood for yet another shounen action show, Kekkaishi can scratch that itch pretty well. Check it out!

Image from the FUNimation blog

We’re entering a long, long weekend here in the states, and because of that, FUNimation is accelerating the schedule for this week’s Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood streaming broadcast. Episode 33, “The Northern Wall of Briggs,” will go up at 3 PM Central time (1 Pacific) today on FUNimation’s streaming video site. Have a happy Thanksgiving, folks!