I enjoyed the two separate stories. Edward and Roy both learned good lessons in life and it was good. The children were lovely.

While I enjoy any extra Fullmetal Alchemist content, this one fell a little flat for me. It contains two stories, one that centers on the Elric brothers and one that follows Colonel Mustang. First, Ed gets sick, so he and Al stop in a village to rest and meet a childhood friend. In the second, Colonel Mustang gets sent to a remote base to whip it into shape, but gets dragged out for a LONG walk with Major Armstrong and and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes. The story with Ed and Al seemed to be mostly bickering about Ed being healthy enough or taller than their friend Pitt, and was kind of boring. I did enjoy the story with our military men, and seeing a slightly softer side of Mustang.

Ok, I watched Fullmetal Alchemist WAAAAAAY back in the day, so I have no idea about the storyline, new characters, etc. now. I saw this being offered on NetGalley and I became curious to see what has evolved since I last watched it. I'm glad that I did. I'm not sure what is considered "canon" and I saw that another reviewer didn't like the continuity issue re: story about an incredibly close childhood friend that was never talked about until this moment, but since I am not as well versed in the storyline, it didn't bother me.

So if you follow the storyline and know what is going on, the first story in this book might not ring true to you.

I didn't recognize any of the characters in the second story, so it didn't really do much for me, though the personalities did seem to come through strongly, so it wasn't hard for me to follow how they were. The story itself seemed a little weak sauce to me, but it wasn't bad.

All in all, well written and took me back to when I was younger. One I would definitely recommend to others to try. 3, reliving my youth, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

This is split into two parts, the first being with Edward and Alphonse Elric and the second part focusing on Colonel Mustang, Major Hughes, and Major Armstrong.

I loved both stories. Ed and Al's focused on the brothers being stuck in a village after Ed comes down with a bad cold and they run into a childhood friend apprenticed to a doctor there. It was fun to see the brothers interact with another friend from Risembol that wasn't Winry. And the story with Mustang, Hughes, and Armstrong was just as fun because while it had serious aspects to it, it was mostly a lighthearted moment with the men, getting to have fun with the village children and not just being members of the military (I know we get a lot of Hughes with his wife and daughter, which we still got, but this was great).

The book does a really great job at pointing out how in the story of Fullmetal Alchemist, children are largely forced into adulthood or adult responsibilities while they are in fact still children, which is something that always stuck out to me in the original media.

The only thing that stood out as weird to me is that one of the characters in part two was named Rose and there's a fairly prominent main character in the shows named Rose. I know in real life people have the same name, but not usually in media unless it's for a reason and it wasn't ever mentioned.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

A good group of tie-in short stories in the FMA universe; it does well to give insight into the Elric brothers between the very beginning prologue chapters and the main body of the manga.