FMA vs. FMA: Brotherhood

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

I enjoyed both, but I liked FMA over Brotherhood. I know Brotherhood followed the manga more, but I felt the character's in Brotherhood weren't as developed and the pacing was just too fast for my liking. To each their own though. I still enjoyed both.

 

[Vausch]

Brotherhood, no contest, Brotherhood surpasses the original in every positive aspect. It's got better pacing, better music, better animation, better voice cast, and above all a better story.

Some people will say the original had a better intro arc, but that is false. The original's intro arc was riddled with filler episodes that in no way contributed to anything.

EDIT:

Also the original lost even more points due to Dante being the worst villain I have ever seen in an anime of this genre. Such a pointless conflict at the end.

I have to wholeheartedly disagree with you on the pacing with Brotherhood. See, the problem is that it rushes through everything and omits parts of the story that happened to be in the original anime, even if it was a necessary plot point (See the mining town, the revelation of Hughes' death) and that odd addition to the beginning where Cornello turns into a giant monster made no sense to me.

Now admittedly the animation is absolutely gorgeous, and when it moves to its exclusive parts it becomes a very great story with all of what you mentioned, but the first episodes don't paint it in a good light. Maybe it's because I read the manga and knew what should have been and what wasn't, but I still gotta disagree. Am I saying it's worse? No. In fact as a whole I'd have to put the series as equals, both being great stories with resolutions I loved. Granted I liked Brotherhood's ending better, but I still liked both about equally.

 

[Guffe]

I personally haven't seen Brotherhood but I read the manga.
I really liked the oriignal FMA anime but somehow the Manga was even better.
So based on that the Brotherhood is better but I don't think it can be counted like that.

 

[PureIrony]

Let me put it this way. I rewatched the entirety of FMA in 5 days on Netflix. I could barely get through the first episode of Brotherhood.

I mean, I don't understand how anyone could really think Brotherhood is better. I know only seeing the first episode of Brotherhood kind of invalidates my opinion, but...really.

If I had to put my grievances with Brotherhood into one sentence, It'd be that it was very aware that it was following up a masterful series like the original.

 

[shimyia]

i like them in (almost) equal measure.
I think Brotherhood has a more "Shonen"-style to it than the first but it still delivered a heart-warming and also incredibly dark story.
The first has the element i like most &which is not in any other anime) - Dynamics of the fights. Basically that means that people can die from a few cuts and bruises in the right places, you dong need tanks, rifles, and destruction alchemy in order to kill a man.
This and the even darker than brotherhood's story.

but im a more positive person. I i've been entertained a whole of a lot more in Brotherhood.


p.s. every anime's first episode sucks except the first FMA's episode. Brotherhood's first episode kinda sucked balls and i had very low expectations after that but it really grabbed me by the neck in the later episodes, being so damn entertaining and dark at the same time.

 

[Feylynn]

Brotherhood was full of Deus Ex Machina and nothing really seemed to make sense or fit together well.

It's actually funny but I found that Brotherhood was better because the original was full of Deus Ex Machina and nothing seemed to fit together.

Brotherhood had a logical progression that introduced the Sins much better with more accurate personalities and laid clues out for the true goals of the antagonists with much more efficiency.

World War torn Germany had nothing to do with anything.

However, I also believe that Brotherhood is worse until you have already watched the original due to pacing problems.
The real Full Metal Alchemist is when you use the pacing and character building of the first anime to give Brotherhood enough weight to just drop in with the real deal and be awesome.
They couldn't afford to make a 30 episode retread of stuff that had already happened in the previous series without boring fans of the first anime to tears so they really were banking on "passable for newcomers but great for fans" in my opinion.

Alternately you can read the manga, which is awesome, but you get robbed of some pretty good audio support relying on that route alone. I'm a fan of reading the Manga, watching both of the anime series+movie and just loving all of it.

 

[lionsprey]

Haven't watched Brotherhood although i did watch the First FMA and Read the manga and since Brotherhood supposedly follows the manga my vote goes to Brotherhood.

 

[StraightToHeck]

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

On that last bit, I completely agree with you