Fullmetal Alchemist: 2003 Anime vs. Brotherhood

[00slash00]

I liked FMA much more than Brotherhood...for the most part. I loved about the first 50 to maybe even 70% of FMA, but the end was such complete garbage and the movie didn't help any. Brotherhood, on the other hand, really bored me for about the first half of the series. Plus, if I hadn't watched FMA first I wouldn't have a clue what was going on in the first half of the show. Overall I'd say they're about equal. FMA had the better beginning and Brotherhood had the better end. Still, I enjoyed FMA more, for some reason

 

[Saetha]

SNIP

Really? Huh. I figured that the original started with a more faithful adaptation of the manga and then completely diverged (With the exception of filler-y bits like the doll guy and the thief chick) and Brotherhood changed things about the beginning to condense it more easily, and then copied the manga pretty much word for word.

So... how'd the beginning go down in the manga then? What did the 2003 anime change?

EDIT: And you know, I've had at least one person tell me Brotherhood's better if I considered the first thirteen or so episodes of the original to be the "real" beginning, and more-or-less pretend that they directly lead into Brotherhood instead of running off on the original's plotline.

 

[sextus the crazy]

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.

You can understand it (my friends I showed it to certainly did), but It does go a bit too fast. They don't give you anytime for things to sink in, so when:

Spoiler

Hughes' death

happens it feels like we didn't have enough time to make that as emotionally important as it should have been.

Personally, I've heard that you should watch FMA (2003) until it diverts from canon, then switch to brotherhood.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

SNIP

Really? Huh. I figured that the original started with a more faithful adaptation of the manga and then completely diverged (With the exception of filler-y bits like the doll guy and the thief chick) and Brotherhood changed things about the beginning to condense it more easily, and then copied the manga pretty much word for word.

So... how'd the beginning go down in the manga then? What did the 2003 anime change?

EDIT: And you know, I've had at least one person tell me Brotherhood's better if I considered the first thirteen or so episodes of the original to be the "real" beginning, and more-or-less pretend that they directly lead into Brotherhood instead of running off on the original's plotline.

That's pretty much the way to go.. watch the first 25 episodes or so then watch Brotherhood starting at around episode 13 to enjoy the overall series better

 

[Nazulu]

SNIP

Really? Huh. I figured that the original started with a more faithful adaptation of the manga and then completely diverged (With the exception of filler-y bits like the doll guy and the thief chick) and Brotherhood changed things about the beginning to condense it more easily, and then copied the manga pretty much word for word.

So... how'd the beginning go down in the manga then? What did the 2003 anime change?

EDIT: And you know, I've had at least one person tell me Brotherhood's better if I considered the first thirteen or so episodes of the original to be the "real" beginning, and more-or-less pretend that they directly lead into Brotherhood instead of running off on the original's plotline.

That's pretty much the way to go.. watch the first 25 episodes or so then watch Brotherhood starting at around episode 13 to enjoy the overall series better

I don't know about that. The way everything is conveyed in Brotherhood is dramatically different to the original.

Might be better just to watch Brotherhood from the beginning to get used to the style. No? Saetha has already seen the original so what difference does it make? Unless it really left that bad of a taste.

 

[DementedSheep]

I like brotherhood better but that's probably because I read the Manga first.
Broken record at this point but the problem with brotherhood is they rush through and do completely different things at the start. Since FMA 2003 was fairly faithful there they probably didn't want to retread it.

 

[Souplex]

Apparently better? That seems to be the general consensus.

Who told you that? They're a hateful liar who deserves to be strung up by their thumbs.
Part of what Made FullMetal great is it didn't pull a lot of the crap that most Japanime does. Brotherhood does pull that crap.
As such weaboos like it more, people with standards hate it.

 

[Nazulu]

Apparently better? That seems to be the general consensus.

Who told you that? They're a hateful liar who deserves to be strung up by their thumbs.
Part of what Made FullMetal great is it didn't pull a lot of the crap that most Japanime does. Brotherhood does pull that crap.
As such weaboos like it more, people with standards hate it.

You always seem to take it to the next level in topics like this. Lol

I definitely prefer the original FMA and Half Life and what not, so I know what it's like, but you're not going to prove anything to anyone with this aggression, other than you feel strongly about it. See, we don't know what type of person Saetha is, so he/she may prefer it too. Nothings for certain.

You're right though. Brotherhood does have a lot of that Japanime cliche' rubbish, and it doesn't execute any of that well either.

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

I hold the contentious opinion that the Original 2003 series is a far more interesting product than Brotherhood. Not that Brotherhood was bad, so much as it was just a very standard action anime compared to the 2003 anime.

1. I agree with the above opinions. The 2003 series had a much slower pace, which wasn't always great. It could feel somewhat stretched. But it gave the characters much more emotional impact. One of my least favorite things about action animes is when they introduce AND kill off a character in the same/next episode. Like we are supposed to care. "Oh, here's Mr. So-and-so. I knew him for 30 on-screen seconds. BUT IT PROFOUNDLY CHANGED MY LIFE." Brotherhood somewhat compensates for this by introducing more characters. But I didn't found them more hokey (far-eastern magics and princes and pandas and ninjas) than the disarmingly sentimental Hughes.

2. And far more importantly, I think 2003 raised WAYYYYYY more philosophical subtleties than Brotherhood. Some people may not like that. But I found that it was so far removed from anything I had watched in any other medium.

There was the whole question of what is means to be human. They pounded it in episode-after-episode that humanity is a vital and clearly delineated quality. But then they did something really, really cool. They provided counter-points to this. Is Nina-dog human? Is Al human? Is Dr. Tucker still human?

Nowhere is it more interesting than in the Homunculi. Each and every episode they reinforced. Homunculi aren't human. You cannot return the dead-to-life. They cannot experience emotions. But then we see Wrath was initially a neutral character who just wanted a mother. Lust actually comes to terms with her existence and begins to take on memories of who she once was. Gluttony goes into mourning over the loss of Lust.

^The writers painted a very gray picture of what it actually means to be human. That is so immensely unique in any medium. And a very worthwhile question.

Brotherhood was still great. But I didn't get quite as much of this charm. The morality was much more cut-and-dry. "They aren't human. Because reasons. Now kill them."

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

If you were disappointed in the ending of the original, Brotherhood is definitely for you. I did it the other way around, saw Brotherhood first then the "original." And I felt the same way about the original ending: it felt rushed and unfulfilling. It felt like the first season was building up a much larger and much deeper world, but the ending did not follow through on that. But in Brotherhood, it does follow through, and in spades. It's much longer of course, but I still think it's worth starting from the beginning, just so you can see the threads which are laid in the beginning and then picked up again later in the series.

The purpose for and origins of the homonculi are different in Brotherhood, but make a lot more sense in my opinion. A lot more is done with them and the reasoning behind them being named after the seven deadly sins is a lot clearer.

Overall, I think both series' lay out the foundation of the world pretty well, but Brotherhood gives it the climax and conclusion it deserves. I understand the situation writers were in for the original series, and I think it definitely is an interesting direction to go, but it either wasn't the ideal direction or it wasn't executed just right.

 

[Saetha]

Snip

I don't know about that. The way everything is conveyed in Brotherhood is dramatically different to the original.

Might be better just to watch Brotherhood from the beginning to get used to the style. No? Saetha has already seen the original so what difference does it make? Unless it really left that bad of a taste.[/quote]

Yeah, I intend to watch the entirety of Brotherhood. I actually watched the first four episodes last night (Look, I'm a weak, weak woman and there are only so many hours I can spend looking at plant cells) It's... well, definitely rushed, and the business with Tucker didn't feel as heavy, but it's easy to just remember how it went down in the other anime. Maybe I'll just rewatch the first few episodes from the original once I get to Hughes' death.

Apparently better? That seems to be the general consensus.

Who told you that? They're a hateful liar who deserves to be strung up by their thumbs.
Part of what Made FullMetal great is it didn't pull a lot of the crap that most Japanime does. Brotherhood does pull that crap.
As such weaboos like it more, people with standards hate it.

Really? ...Not sure how you can get more weeby than the Deus Ex bullshit Archer came back as.

 

[Souplex]

Apparently better? That seems to be the general consensus.

Who told you that? They're a hateful liar who deserves to be strung up by their thumbs.
Part of what Made FullMetal great is it didn't pull a lot of the crap that most Japanime does. Brotherhood does pull that crap.
As such weaboos like it more, people with standards hate it.

Really? ...Not sure how you can get more weeby than the Deus Ex bullshit Archer came back as.

Style, tone, theme, and execution.
Things like an ever expanding superfluous cast, dragging multi-episode fight scenes, and defeating all their foes by punching them enough as opposed to how they out-thought them in the original.

 

[FPLOON]

FMA had the better beginning and Brotherhood had the better end. Still, I enjoyed FMA more, for some reason

Basically sums up my feelings on the whole "FMA vs Brotherhood" anime debacle... I think the reason why I like the original just a bit more than Brotherhood was due to how much development does happen between Ed and Al throughout that series, even though it's ending, to me, was ruined by the movie that followed... Also, even though I'm fine with Bortherhood's overall length, I still feel like there were certain areas outside of the first 13 episodes that could have been put under the same pace as the original... Then again...

I feel comparing Brotherhood to the original is a joke, just like LotR to The Hobbit series.

I'm starting to really agree with this statement right here... OP, if you found the ending to the original "disappointing", then Brotherhood would probably fix that right up... Just be wary for its comedy since, to me, it's a hit or miss with only a few characters, outside of Hughes, utilizing the comedy as some form of breather in comparison to the serious/depressing stuff, if I remember correctly...

Then again, Brotherhood's movie was still better than the original's movie since it doesn't takes place after the ending of the series...

 

[RedDeadFred]

...Is Mustang still awesome in it?

I would say he's quite a bit MORE awesome. He was one of my favourite characters on the show.

Basically, Brotherhood kind of assumes you've seen the original series since it moves a lot more quickly at the beginning. It does kind of suffer for this, but I found the overall end product to be quite a bit better. I liked the majority of the characters more in Brotherhood. The cast does get a little too big at times, but I didn't think anyone was uninteresting.

Also, if you liked the voice actor (English dub) for Pride from the original, you'll be happy to know that he reclaims his role as Fuhrer. It's been a while since I watched them both, but I'm pretty sure there were several other voice actor returns, his just stood out the most to me since it was probably my favourite English dub performance out of any anime I've seen (though I don't know if that counts for much since I've seen very few anime).

I might be a tad biased since I watched Brotherhood first and just about everyone on the internet says to do it in the reverse order. I know a lot of people say that a certain death doesn't carry as much weight in Brotherhood, and while that's true, it's certainly not trivial. When I first saw it, I was quite sad. The character had been one of my favourites and had seemed like such an all around great guy.

Sometimes people harp on the show for not focusing on the brothers enough. That might actually be true since my favourite characters were Mustang, Greed (sort of.....), and Wrath.

Anyway, both are great. I personally prefer Brotherhood, but I wouldn't fault anyone for liking the original more.