Poll: FMA vs. FMA: Brotherhood

[[Kira Must Die]]

I haven't seen the old show in years, so I'm not sure how that holds up, so I'm gonna go with Brotherhood, which I still liked. I do remember the old show feeling much darker than Brotherhood, though. One problem I have with brotherhood (and I'm not sure if it's the same with the original series) is that the humor felt a bit out of place most of the time.

I prefer both series dubbed.

 

[xPixelatedx]

The FMA Brotherhood Dub is surprisingly good, I'll watch it when it's on Adult Swim/Toonamie. But just like with all Dubs, half the emotion is absent. I prefer the sub, unless I just want it on for background noise/atmosphere. Then obviously I need the dub because I don't know a lot of japanese.

 

[xPixelatedx]

As I said, i overall prefer Brotherhood, I just think FMA has the strongest beginning, Brotherhood rushes it's first act, doesn't give the time needed to make Tucker & Hughes' fates as impactful as they were in FMA (I'm referring to Tucker before Laboratory 5, as then it just gets a little crazy). And whilst Grand and Tucker aren't major characters or even all that significant to the overall story, I applaud anything willing to give a little extra love to a side character (though Grand's shining moment was cut from both versions). Besides those were just a few examples of little things i liked in FMA.

As a general rule I'd say Brotherhood has the better story but FMA tells it's story in a slightly better way

I agree with all that up to a certain point. I actually prefer the original FMA up until the 2/3rds mark. The climax of the Original FMA was just so silly, and disappointing. The villain was just a crazy woman, they talked, did a little alchemy and even danced. Then it was over... I was really underwhelmed after all the buildup this got. The ending to Brotherhood and everything that happened right before that was all MUCH more satisfying.

 

[mitchell271]

I watched original 4 times and Brotherhood twice and brotherhood is better, though I rate both a 10.

However, the original had much better ending, scar was cooler and Lust had good development. Hughes and Greed deaths was also better in the first series, except the music at Hughes funeral, which was better in Brotherhood.

Subbed of course.

Did you only watch it subbed? If you get the chance, watch it dubbed. It's easily one of the best English dubs I've heard for anime. I know where you're coming from (I usually watch subbed) but give it a shot.

 

[Raggedstar]

Stupid computer wiped my response because it wanted to go back a few pages x____x

Anyways, I think the original FMA had the better action and animation. It flowed a lot better and looked nicer in general. So much detail and it all just popped out. FMAB's comedy and animation was a bit to...manga (as in it fit the manga a lot better without being so jarring in animation). FMA was also a lot better paced because it had less to cover (FMAB had to steam through everythig because they KNEW everyone watching most likely were familiar with the original). When it came to Tucker and Nina, damn straight I felt more gutted in the original. Same with Hughes *sniffle*.

With characters and plot in general, FMAB is the clear winner. They covered more content with the manga (manga is awesome btw) and it flowed better with more overall development. The original's plot I agree fell apart towards the middle and REALLY collapsed at the end. FMAB's final act was so intense, I couldn't believe it!

Dub vs sub, well...the FMA I prefer to watch in dub. The Japanese one is good, but FMA's stands out as one of the best anime dub performances ever (I hold it 2nd behind Cowboy Bebop. NOTHING can beat Cowboy Bebop in the dub department). FMAB's dub didn't have the same impact, and it doesn't feel like their hearts were in it anymore. Made me feel sad. But the Japanese...holy crap was it so good.

Sooo, I'm rather conflicted

 

[Zyst]

I liked the Brotherhood (sub) the most, I really dislike dubs in general and prefer to see any media in its original language.

 

[Username Redacted]

FMA:B(sub) here. I just feel like it was a more consistent story all the way through whereas, as many have pointed out, the later episodes of FMA sort of go off the rails. I would also like to add that with regard to the tie-in movies that FMA:B is the clear winner as IMO 'Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa' (OG FMA tie-in movie) was a piece of shit movie while 'Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos' (FMA:B tie-in) was actually decent.

 

[THEMILKMAN]

I preferred Brotherhood, although the first one was good too. Brotherhood just had more interesting characters and, biggest of all IMO, it didn't have that WTF ending that the first series had. Seriously, WTF.

EDIT: I watched the dub. I'm just a dub kind of guy. I feel that I can't fully focus on everything going on when I need to read subtitles all the time. They're not that distracting but I get the feeling that I'm sometimes not paying full attention when subs are being read.

 

[shadyh8er]

I prefer the dub of the original. Here be spoilers:

Spoiler

In the original FMA, time is taken for most of the side characters to be developed. In particular, Lust, and that female chimera that Al befriended. When they both die, their deaths carry a lot more weight than they did in Brotherhood. Lust's death in Brotherhood just elicited a "ZOMG! MUSTANG IS AWESOME!!!1" while in the original it was more heartbreaking.

Also, would someone care to explain to me why the series called "Brotherhood" puts less focus on the brothers than the original?

Captcha: no soup for you

Aww darn. I guess the captcha writers were Brotherhood fans.

 

[Karoshi]

I'm crazy in love with the FMA manga. While I was delighted to see a second anime which sticks to the canon, the pacing and the voices didn't always fit in my opinion. The animation wasn't always on spot either. Some scenes were incredibly beautiful, while other were pretty shoddy drawn and rather weak.

On a different note, nice to see that pretty much everyone agrees on Brotherhood being the superior anime. =D

 

[F'Angus]

I love the original for its story and for it's music.

But I just love the characters in Brotherhood.

 

[Neonsilver]

I prefer Brotherhood/Manga, I always thought that the story of the original just didn't fit when it deviates from the manga. But I started with the manga so those parts were probably more obvious for me.

So, if I have to chose one, I would say the Manga is the best, followed by Brotherhood.

 

[Dansen]

I watched eight episodes of FMA brotherhood and thought it was garbage. It has god awful pacing, they only devote two episodes to greed and the devils nest, when they should have done three. Not only that but they mix up the events and changed several parts too. The animation is terrible, some of the laziest shit I have ever seen, it especially annoys me when they use comedic scenes to cut down on the work they had to do.

ex. When Ed and Al are escaping from father Cornelio, they use the "comedic effects" to reduce the amount of time they needed to animate, not only was it lazy but completely clashed with the tone of the story a few seconds ago.

This happens as well in the Leeto ark, when they turn father Cornelio into a giant monster thing even after his hand gets fused with the machine gun. He is supposed to be on the ground screaming in pain, but instead he shrugs it off and doesn't seem to notice just so they can pad out the time.

Voice acting is still bad,I don't know why they kept Al's voice actor, he wasn't good in the original, and he isn't good now. Several other voices are very questionable including Greed.

Brigadier General Bass Grand's death...sigh... I could go on and on about what is wrong with the series, but I wont.
All I see is a shitty cash in that does the manga less justice than the original.

 

[R4ptur3]

Brotherhood was by far the better of the two for me. However I see FMA as a sort of introduction to some of the characters and the setting of the world. For example when ed and al go to the mining village, in FMA its a full episode but in brotherhood its only a sort of flashback. FMA went into more detail with the early part of the story. Brotherhood's story however made more sense then the original anime in my opinion, in which the latter sort of went all over the place and didn't know what it wanted to do. Also I watched it in dub and have no regrets.

 

[mitchell271]

snip

They cut down on the animation because they had already done one series. They didn't want to redo past episodes to the letter and reasoned that you could go watch the original series if you wanted it to go on longer.

Ed's voice actor is actually different. It was played by Aaron Dismuke in the original and Maxey Whitehead in Brotherhood.

 

[lunavixen]

To me, both have their good points and I like both series, while Brotherhood stuck closer to the manga, the original tried to mix it up and I can respect that. I don't like... scratch that, I HATE dubbed anime (there are a few exceptions) because they usually choose the worst voice actors that sound nothing like the original japanese actors. So subbed anime all the way.