FMA vs. FMA: Brotherhood

[Frozengale]

So I've been a long time fan of Full Metal Alchemist, and I finally decided to watch the Brotherhood series. I watched the entire thing and I thought it was pretty good but it just wasn't as good as the first FMA Anime in my eyes. I've been looking around on sites and what not and I see that most people oddly enough like Brotherhood more then they do the first Anime. And I just can't understand it really. Brotherhood was full of Deus Ex Machina and nothing really seemed to make sense or fit together well.

I'm just curious why people seem to think Brotherhood is so much better then FMA, and is there anyone else out there that thinks that Brotherhood, while good, just can't compare to the first series?

 

[Fappy]

I think Brotherhood is better mainly because it stayed close to the original manga. The first FMA diverged off the manga and became a little clichè.

Yeah, pretty much this. I also think the characterization was much better in Brotherhood. Thought both endings were cheesy, but Brotherhood's made more sense and offered more closure.

 

[WeAreStevo]

Personally I prefer the original FMA to Brotherhood, although I believe that the original took a major nosedive from the point when Al becomes the Philosopher's stone on. I thought that it was brilliant up until that point. Then the series kind of jumped the shark in the last few episodes.

As for Brotherhood, I think I found it difficult to get into simply because I kept thinking "Huh...that's odd...These people did something completely different in the first iteration of this show.

I've never read the Manga though, so my opinion is purely based on a n00bs approach to FMA.

 

[CODE-D]

I think Brotherhood sucked assssss.
The original was darker and more meaningful. You really felt for the villains and they werent just bosses to be beaten, especially where the homunculi were concerned. Father as the villain was horrible and his defeat cliche, everyone bands together to take him down, blegh. What he wanted didnt even make sense, he took everyone souls and yet they were still able to fight him, the fuck?. Brotherhood had way too many aesops(ms armstrong/izumi) and was way too preachy and made some characters lame, especially scar and truth.
Brotherhoods ending was also kinda bullshit.

Brotherhood just seems to happier and sillier, which really kills the times it means to be more dramatic. Plus it goes way too fast and slow in all the wrong places. And the soundtrack is no comparison.


But I did like the Ling character, but thats not enough, especially with the introduction of several characters I hated. In fact Bro. has way too many characters and unnecessarily gives spotlight on them.

 

[Plinglebob]

I think up to there the stories split (episode 24ish/episode 13) the original series was better as the slower pacing allowed more character growth for the secondary characters which in turn gave their fates a greater impact. After that however, I think Brotherhood wins out. The story was tighter, the ending superior and the villan and characters much more interesting (especially Mustang).

And the soundtrack is no comparison.

Amen to that. Dante's theme is one of my favourite pieces of music.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

I think brotherhood was the better of the two, but there were things I really liked about the first one or that made it interesting.

Father was definitely a much cooler main villian than Dante was though, and I think in some ways his homunculi were cooler.

Still, both were great.
I've got a question for anyone interested:
Which order do you think people should watch them in order to get the most enjoyment out of them?

I personally think you should watch brotherhood second, because its a bit better IMO and has a more 'epic' story arc than the first, making it feel more climatic.
If you watched them the other way round i think it might not be as good, though i might be biased from having recently finished brotherhood, and having watched them in that order myself.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Personally, I thought Brotherhood was a bit more cliche, it was far more of a good vs. evil fantasy series. I liked darker psychological first series. The villains where more sympathetic and the heroes where more complicated. The movie wasn't as good of finale as Brotherhood's though. Anyway, I like them both, but they are very different series despite having the same name and "characters".

Although, Greedling is pretty badass...

 

[Crazy_Dude]

Never seen the original FMA but watched everything of FMA:B, and loved it. But I can't really compare the two because I haven't seen everything.

 

[9thRequiem]

I prefer Brotherhood.
Although the ending of FMA was better - bittersweet loss over power-of-friendship, and some of the early story elements were a lot more explained [I think this could be because BH would have needed to retread old ground, which would have bothered it's viewers who had seen what was essentially the same events before], I just found myself enjoying Brotherhood more; the story seemed to be leading towards something, once the pieces were laid out it made more sense, there was a much greater threat and danger involved, and the characters were more fleshed out.
The details in the first didn't gel together all that well as things developed - for instance, I never got why the homunculus in the shape of their mother was "Sloth"; nothing about her or her creation was slothful.

And the soundtrack is no comparison.

Correct. Brotherhood's soundtrack is better. Yes, the original did have Brothers, but BH had Lapis Philosophorum, Battle Scherzo, and a whole load of others.

Still, both were great.
I've got a question for anyone interested:
Which order do you think people should watch them in order to get the most enjoyment out of them?

I personally think you should watch brotherhood second, because its a bit better IMO and has a more 'epic' story arc than the first, making it feel more climatic.
If you watched them the other way round i think it might not be as good, though i might be biased from having recently finished brotherhood, and having watched them in that order myself.

Agreed. Partly, because Brotherhood skims over a few early details that could leave you a little lost, and partly because doing them the other way would leave you feeling a little let down.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

The details in the first didn't gel together all that well as things developed - for instance, I never got why the homunculus in the shape of their mother was "Sloth"; nothing about her or her creation was slothful.

Actually, 'sloth' the sin has meanings that include: apathy/depression/neglect/laziness, and so on.
Therefore, Trisha Elric as Sloth makes sense cause she shows apathy towards her own children, neglecting her role as their mother and not showing caring/love towards them or indeed towards Wrath either. She later also reveals the other side of sloth, in that she did still care for her children, and yet was trying to kill them and not connect to her old life as trisha, purposely detaching from who she once was and her own memories/emotions. (a part of apathy)

She also appears to be the calmest of the homunculi, another representation of her apathy. (of all the sins, Sloth is the only one that really fits her role as Ed and Al's mother anyway... well I guess she could have been Wrath if she acted more angry and wanted revenge on the elric brothers for creating her.)


-----------
So that bit gelled Alright IMO, but I know what you mean for some of it not quite working as well as it did in Brotherhood.
On the flip side though it did make some connections (that brotherhood didn't) that I think were fairly cool, like homunculi being failed human transmutations, how truth was instead wrath, and was taking eds sacrificed body parts for himself, the gate leading to another world and revealing how equivilent exchange was an incomplete formula (Hohenheim saying how the energy for performing alchemy must also come from somewhere, and it was from the people dying in the other world beyond the gate. i remember think 'whoa, thats so true, i didn't even think of that before but it seems so obvious now that he mentions it'). Stuff like that.

I don't necessarily think its a bad thing that they weren't in Brotherhood, but at the same time they were pretty cool.

 

[LoFr3Eq]

I've only seen Brotherhood, I asked the person I borrowed it off if I should see FMA, but he said that everything about FMA:B is just better.

Apparently there isn't the moral question of using the Philosopher's stones in FMA, and the story involves just making one and using it rather than the question of "is it right to use something that was made by killing people".

 

[AlternatePFG]

I've only seen Brotherhood and it's one of the few anime series that I've managed to sit down and watch the entirety of it. I thought it was really good, and I'm really not a fan of anime in general.

Would love to watch the original version, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[SckizoBoy]

LIES! ALL BLATANT LIES!

I'm kidding, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but I much preferred the original's slower, more methodical pacing and darker tone to Brotherhood's constant humor delivered at utterly inappropriate times. Honestly, Brotherhood's seeming unwillingness to have a truly serious episode in the first third of the series hurt the series greatly in my eyes, so much so that I almost completely stopped watching. However, I persevered and am glad that I did.

As much as I like both (my avatar has always been a picture of Ed), both have noticeable and unfortunate flaws that keep them from being the beacon of perfection that I would have liked them to be.

Pretty much this...

Felt the first half of FMA was better, but the second half of FMAB was better... *shrug* I have archives for both and flip between the two.

At first, I didn't like FMAB at all because of the changes to the voice cast (original Japanese)... Megumi Takamoto as Winry, Fumiko Orikasa as Hawkeye and Shinichio Miki as Mustang really bugged me for about ten episodes, but I got into it by ep14-15-ish.

As for FMA, Dante just never hit me as sufficiently villainous, and the idea that Hohenheim/Dante/former lovers went rather unexploited. And the film... eesh, the film...

 

[Magnalian]

Both are pretty hazy in my memory right now, but I do recall liking Brotherhood better. The ending of the first series just didn't make sense to me

Spoiler

So Ed dies, Al resurrects him by sacrificing himself, and then Ed does the same friggin' thing.

One thing I didn't like about Brotherhood though, was that Winry was made a whole lot more.. fanservice-y.

 

[Xaio30]

I'm just curious why people seem to think Brotherhood is so much better then FMA, and is there anyone else out there that thinks that Brotherhood, while good, just can't compare to the first series?

The first series sets up the beautiful rules of parallel worlds where different things occurred. That made me able to accept both series as canon, which was nice. Both series are excellent, though I could not help but like Brotherhood a bit more for finally showing us Anime viewers what happened in the Manga. And concerning the weird parts of Brotherhood, well, you have to recognize whether they are symbolic or not.

 

[Mugen]

Original Fullmetal was ok....then they tried to get preachy, and the whole Hitler thing was a bit weak. Even the Conqueror of Shambala kind of ended on a sour note.

I think i prefer Brotherhood because, well the ending is actually satisfying. And (obviously) its higher quality animation, and the pacing is better. they get through all that early Lior and Dr Marcoh stuff rather quickly.

Also, the Flame Alchemist simply DECIMATING Lust,maybe the best scene in any anime, ever.

of all time