Fullmetal Alchemist: 2003 Anime vs. Brotherhood

[Saetha]

So, if you have (For whatever bizarre reason) been keeping up with me, you should know that a few weeks ago I decided to revisit a series I loved, but hadn't watched in years. FMA. Really the only time I actually watched this anime was back when the original from 2003 aired on Adult Swim. I've never seen Brotherhood, and my memory of the original is so faded it was basically like watching a new series anyway.

I've since finished the original anime, and intend to move onto Brotherhood once finals are done. But, I know nothing about Brotherhood other than the fact that it's A) Very different from the original, especially after the Lab 5 arc, and B) Apparently better? That seems to be the general consensus.

Anyway, my point mainly focuses on that last one - is Brotherhood better than the original? What should I be expecting, going in? How does it differ from the original (Without spoilers!) and how is it the same? ...Is Mustang still awesome in it?

As for my thoughts on the original, if you care to read them...

"Disappointed" is the best word I can think of. The show started out so strong, and I really loved season one, but I felt like it started falling apart a bit during season two. I understand that this is where the anime really started diverging from the manga and that a lot of season two won't be the same, which gives me some hope. But I still feel like the show ended up being a bit of wasted potential. Like, Scar just deciding he's going to make the stone? Mustang deciding he's going to drop everything to avenge Hughes? Hohenheim dropping in and then leaving almost immediately? The ending with Ed and Al just felt kinda underwhelming to me... And don't even get me started on the movie. That was basically a giant "Fuck you" to anyone who wanted to know about any of the characters besides Ed and Al.

 

[Zontar]

Brotherhood isn't so much better as it is different. While the original was an anime adaptation of the manga, Brotherhood was a literal adaptation of a finished manga, two different scenarios which lead to different types of stories. I personally liked both, preferred the original, and am still upset the movie never got a sequel since it had a great story scenario for the adventure they where on.

One thing that disappoints me about Brotherhood is you NEED to watch the original anime or else it doesn't make any sense (plus the dog/daughter arc from the original is covered in literally one episode, giving it no emotional impact to those who haven't seen the original). The first half of the original series is fast-tracked since it assumes you've seen it before, but once you get past that it becomes pretty good in its own right with a story that's very different from where the original ended.

 

[Korenith]

I agree with Zontar that Brotherhood breezes through the early sections that are basically the same and so you lose a lot of the character building that I felt the original did really well.

That said I too hated the movie and where it went with the story.

Overal I reckon they're both worth a watch. Neither is 100% there but they both do different things better. Brotherhood has a much more complete feel to it though and the finale action sequences are better. I think the original series takes more time over it's concepts though and gives characters a bit more breathing room for the viewer to become attached.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Wow, how timely. I only just started rewatching Brotherhood (3rd run through). It's easily in my top 5 favorite anime, probably only behind Samurai Champloo actually.

I was also a huge fan of the original when it was going. I more or less agree with Zontar, in that both series are excellently made and neither can really be called the better of the two, but I still MUCH prefer Brotherhood over the original strictly due to my own personal tastes when it comes to storytelling.

It is a little rushed in the beginning

Spoiler: For Reference

Hughes dies in episode 28 I believe of the original show, yet he dies in episode 10 of Brotherhood. I don't consider that spoiling anything for you as both shows follow pretty much the same plot until Hughes dies, just Brotherhood compresses it a bit.

Brotherhood is also 10 episodes longer, so all that plot compression at the beginning still leaves PLENTY of story to be told later on.

If I had to describe the differences without giving anything away, I'd say that Brotherhood is considerably DARKER than the original show, yet at the same time a lot more idealistic. The original show had a pretty cynical storyline which I don't tend to like as much. Also, the main plot of Brotherhood has a lot more gravitas, compared to Dante's selfish personal goals. You also get to see some of the world outside Amestris, which I really liked for the world-building aspect.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

One thing that disappoints me about Brotherhood is you NEED to watch the original anime or else it doesn't make any sense

Uh, you do? I didn't see the 2003 anime until well after Brotherhood and I understood what was going on. Seeing the 2003 show didn't expand on that understanding either. The stuff with the Tuckers was still pretty weighty, too, though it was a bit better in the 2003 show I'll admit.

 

[Saetha]

One thing that disappoints me about Brotherhood is you NEED to watch the original anime or else it doesn't make any sense

Uh, you do? I didn't see the 2003 anime until well after Brotherhood and I understood what was going on. Seeing the 2003 show didn't expand on that understanding either. The stuff with the Tuckers was still pretty weighty, too, though it was a bit better in the 2003 show I'll admit.

I, um... I needed to watch the original first. When I decided I was going to give the series another shot, I figured I'd skip straight to Brotherhood. Ended up being so lost that I stopped halfway through episode one and just rewatched the original.

I don't think it'd be impossible to get into the series starting with Brotherhood, but the original does seem to have a much stronger beginning, especially for newcomers. It really gives a lot of breathing room to learn what everything is and who the characters are, starting with an explanation and demonstration of alchemy and moving on from there. On the other, during the fifteen minutes I saw of Brotherhood, all I could think was "Wait, Mustang's in this already? And Armstrong? And Kimbley? You know, if I didn't remember the basic plot and characters from the original nine years ago, I'd probably be immensely confused as to what's going on right now."

But it's interesting that you could dive in with Brotherhood. Did you just understand it all immediately, or push through an initial rough start? Would you start with the original, if you could go back and do it differently?

 

[Elfgore]

Brotherhood wins hand down for me. It's actually in my top ten anime. Great mix of action, drama, and comedy. The first series was great as well, but nowhere near as good.

Yes, Brotherhood did condense the earlier episodes, but only because pretty much everyone had already watched the previous show. They already knew what happened in quite a bit of detail. They expanded the story as well, moving beyond... the country it takes place in. It's been about a year, so I don't remember much. But I do recall, I hated the last few episodes of the original and found the final villain forced and completely random. Now the last few episodes of Brotherhood were epic beyond belief. The ending also always gets to me.

 

[TravelerSF]

Though I feel that Brotherhood is WAY better than the original, I can see people choosing either one over the other. The way I see it, the original is a more emotional experience and focuses more on the relationship between Al and Ed. Which I felt kinda went against the point of the manga, that at the end they didn't need to trust so closely on each other since they had gathered so many other people around them.

That said the brotherhood has tight, focused plot, amazing moments, DIVINE animation and is one of my favorite animes of all time.

 

[Ken_J]

While it is mostly preferential which one is 'better' I feel that '03 is a much tighter experience. '03 has very methodical pacing and plotting which makes it very strong. Brotherhood while strong it's own right, feel rushed in it's beginning feeling almost like a recap of '03. That may just be because Brotherhood covers that same material in it's first 13 episode that '03 did in around 30. Understandable, annoying but understandable. On top of that the last bit of Brotherhood drraaagggs. At that point it feels like every episode is about 5 in series minutes.

But yeah I get your criticism about how everyone just became resigned to their roles by the second half rather than growing from it. I think that might be because of the split with those little traces of groundwork being retrofitted to fill another role being 'disappointing' as you called it. There's a food metaphor in there but your mister critic man so you make one.

 

[000Ronald]

Anyway, my point mainly focuses on that last one - is Brotherhood better than the original? What should I be expecting, going in? How does it differ from the original (Without spoilers!) and how is it the same? ...Is Mustang still awesome in it?

Brotherhood is absolutely and unquestionably better than the 2003 series. And that's not to say that the 2003 series was bad, by any means; just that (at least in my opinion) Brotherhood is so much better. Part of it, maybe, is a thematic difference. The 2003 version emphasized that once something was done, it was done. Sins could not be forgiven. Brotherhood is the exact opposite; anyone can be redeemed if they honestly, truly wish it. It's never easy, and there's always a price to pay, but redemption and salvation are never out of grasp.

And not only is Mustang still awesome in Brotherhood, he's even more awesome in it. I won't spoil you, but...yeah. Much more awesome.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Brotherhood was a definite choice for me, hands down. Characters make more sense to me, The Father is a way cooler and much more dangerous villain than Dante is, almost everything is more memorable and Mr. Elric isn't a total ponce as he is partnered up with Dante. I agree though that the beginning portion is a little hastened, but the original series got weird once it no longer followed the manga (though of course in its defense, it didn't have the material at the time available). I felt way less attachment to the plot and what the character's were fighting for.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I honestly loved both. They both have flaws, but I love the world and the characters. I liked getting two different stories.

I just really loved them both.

 

[Nazulu]

As far as I've seen, most people like both. A lot will say Brotherhood because the story is more complete (generally speaking).

If the story is better, I wouldn't know since I didn't compare, and that's because I was absolutely sick of Brotherhoods shitty execution through out. Everyone here seems to be more tolerant of it, and that's with most things. However, I feel comparing Brotherhood to the original is a joke, just like LotR to The Hobbit series.

Everything in BH either felt forced or over-the-top. The jokes all made me cringe, the dramatic scenes made me laugh, and those action sequences people loved bringing up made me roll my eyes with some of the crap they pulled. I couldn't get into any of it. BH just felt amateur in it's entirety, while the original left me on the edge of my seat nearing the end.

I'm not going into detail as to not spoiler BH, but if you find the whole thing awkward from the start, you'll most likely suffer it like I did.

Edit: Didn't think much of the film either. All for ignoring it.

 

[loa]

Remember all that "sin" bullshit in fma that just kept droning on and on and on, hammering it in at every opportunity?
Brotherhood drops that like a hot potato and replaces it with more interesting characters and a much bigger story.

 

[Auron225]

I'd argue that Brotherhood is more worthy of the title "Original". Here's how it works;

The FMA manga was underway and its growing popularity led to the creation of the first anime. The anime team faced the same problem most anime face when it catches up to the manga - fillers, stop for a while or go our own way? They decided to go their own direction - which led to what was, in my opinion, an underwhelming villain, a questionable plot (in the latter half) and a disappointing ending.

Meanwhile, the manga plowed on ahead and got better & better as it went. It remained largely popular, and so they decided to create Brotherhood with the intention of following the manga to a t. It does, and it is so much better for it. Arakawa Hirmou knew what the hell she was doing when writing it, so it was very very good - the Brotherhood adaptation followed it very well and so it's great too.

The one and only thing the first anime has over Brotherhood is that some of military characters are better rounded - you see more of what their lives entail and it's enjoyable.

Brotherhood has a more focused plot, other great characters (Ling, Olivier Armstrong, Lan Fan, etc), better villains, a more tense story... just about everything is better.

Go watch it. Right now. Do it

Brotherhood wins hand down for me. It's actually in my top ten anime. Great mix of action, drama, and comedy. The first series was great as well, but nowhere near as good.

It's in my top four

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

the first 25 or so episodes of the original anime were better then the first 13 of Brotherhood.. especially for the deaths of the characters of Hughes and Nina... when Hughes foes in the original anime you felt it because he was around for so long and his uncle-like relationship with Ed and Al was shown really well.. there's a reason fans cried foal when he died. cause viewers really got to know him... but he died in episode 10 of FMA Brotherhood and mostly appeared as a background character before that.. so we didn't care as much(unless you saw the original anime first..) same for Tucker's daughter Nina. Us fans got to know her quite a bit in the 2 episodes she was in ,so her being experimented by her father and then given a mercy killing by Scar was a shock.. not so much in FMA Brotherood..she's only briefly seen before being killed of in the 1 episode she's in , so her death had no real effect on anyone..

Oh and only briefly mentioning the Coal miner situation that ED and AL were involved in in FMA Brotherhood was pretty dumb after it was so thought out in the original anime. they also wrongly condensed 2 episodes worth of story about their trip to Leore to 1 episode.. more bad pacing

I know Brotherhood followed the manga's pacing more closely, but the thing is, the early chapters of the FMA manga had horrible pacing..there's a reason they changed so much in the original anime..

I will admit that i liked the later episodes after episode 13 or so of FMA Brotherhood.. and the ending was more satisfying.. but the beginning of the original FMA anime was far better then FMA Brotherhood was. and character deaths were more meaningful in the original FMA anime.

 

[madwarper]

snips

I figure the reason Brotherhood fast tracked the beginning episodes, up to Rush Valley, is because most of the content already existed in the 2003 anime. So, there was little reason to reinvent the wheel. Additionally, the only reason I suspect they added the Shou/Nina Tucker episode was to kill Shou off, else they would have skipped it altogether.

 

[Newway12]

both are great.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

There shouldn't even be a contest..Brotherhood is way better than FMA, because it actually follows the manga and it has an ending worthy of being one of the best anime shows out there.

It also holds 1# spot on Myanimelist with over 300k+ votes.