Poll: On FMA and FMA:B

[clippen05]

So I recently finished watching Full Metal Alchemist. I really liked it, well, most of it. I'm not a huge anime guy and I'm pretty picky on what appeals to me and what doesn't. So FMA was a really nice surprise, the military, human, and generally-not-so-cheery theme really intrigued me, even if some of the character deaths were a bit saddening. However, the ending did not sit well with me. In fact, it paralleled what I hated about Mass Effect 3's ending; i.e: adding new plot elements in at the last second. But for at least 97% of the time I was viewing it, I really enjoyed it.

Anyway, a little while into watching the series, I found out about the alternate telling of it in the 2009 version. I had known that there was another anime, however, I had figured that it was a continuation, not a different version. (Sorta like Dragon Ball Z is to Dragon Ball) So after finding this out, I looked online and the consensus of the internet is that the 2009 anime is much better. I decided to continue watching the original and that I'd think about what to do about Brotherhood afterwards. People online praised the second one for having a better plot, but just how much better is it? I don't mean to seem like my time is soooo valuable, but I generally don't like rewatching things. While I know that this is not exactly that case, it would still be treading the same general story, themes, characters that I've seen before. What I'm trying to ask is not, is the second anime better. What I will ask: Is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood that much better that it constitutes watching it if I've already seen the original?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The original anime was done in parallel with the manga, but after a certain point the manga ended up lagging behind the anime so the anime writers ended up basically writing the last third of the anime completely on their own and making up an ending themselves. Brotherhood is a lot more faithful to the manga, and I personally think that the ending is better and much more consistent to the plot.

That being said, the tone of Brotherhood isn't quite as dark as the original Full Metal Alchemist (not to say that it's overly cheery, or that the character deaths don't happen, but the tone isn't quite the same), and Brotherhood really assumes that people have seen the original FMA so it kind of breezes through the early plot pretty fast. Basically the first 20 or so episodes are similar in that they're basically a condensed version of the first half of the original FMA and then the two anime completely diverge (to the point where some characters are completely different from how they were presented in the original, some characters have very different story-lines and endings, and there are a bunch of new and mostly awesome characters introduced).

So if you enjoyed FMA I really do recommend watching Brotherhood. It doesn't feel like you're just rewatching the original, at least not after the first few episodes, though I would suggest not watching it immediately after having watched the first, but instead waiting a couple of months, so that the early episodes feel like a helpful recap.

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

I adore the original Fullmetal Alchemist. Hell I love it even more than the original manga, warts and all. I guess because from a thematic standpoint I liked the original so much better, especially its pacing. As for the ending? I didn't mind it so much myself. Believe it or not there are points where the conclusion is genuinely foreshadowed throughout the entire second half of the series. It only becomes apparent if you've rewatched the damn thing as many times as I have.

Though Brotherhood is definitely no slouch either. It is fantastically written, with many wonderful characters residing in the story. That being said I found that having a gigantic cast and making them all distinct and having a coherent character arc for each and every one of them is something only a pure master writer could pull off. Though keeping that in mind, with such a huge cast there is the issue for me that I found that some of the characters didn't grow as much as they did in the original. To quote Bilbo Baggins I would say that the characters felt "thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread", though it's still butter and it is delicious but not as much in quantity as the original in my ever so humble opinion. Though there are many many awesome new characters in Brotherhood despite that.

So in short I highly HIGHLY recommend this show. It is well deserving to be amongst the most critically acclaimed anime ever made!

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

You'll find no shortage of debates/arguments/bickering over which FMA anime-series is better. But if you enjoyed the 2003-series then there's harm in at least giving Brotherhood a chance. Though you should know going in that it focuses much more on action and that its first dozen or so episodes are rather rushed and sloppy (people suspect that it's because the studio was rushing to get to the new material).

 

[Verlander]

Not seen the second, but I'm in the same situation. Might give it a go, but the darkness of it is what sold the series to me

 

[ThreeName]

Brotherhood is superior. FMA was great, but I can't watch it now because Brotherhood blew it out of the water.

Dat Lin.

 

[totheendofsin]

I feel like Brotherhood is better, though I do love the original as well. I should point out if you decide to watch it the first half (save for the first episode) is largely the same as the original anime with a few differences

 

[Elfgore]

The first fourteen or so episodes are very similar to each other, after that, not so much. Honestly, you really need to watch it. I was in the same boat as you before I watched it, but everyone here told me to watch Brotherhood. I did and ended up enjoying it much more than the original.

 

[CrazyCrab]

FMA: Brotherhood is one of my favorite animes to this very day, I'd recommend it to anyone.
I think that watch at least a couple of episodes won't hurt - if you end up not liking them it's not like you won't be able to stop afterwards.

 

[Fodder Aplenty]

Apparently between voting "yes", and reading your post, my vote decided to jump to "no". so yeah, ignore that. Something you shouldn't ignore, however, is FMA:B.

 

[Vausch]

Watch it, but not for the reason you listed.

Brotherhood is great, but the first half suffers from some really bad pacing issues and throws out anything that was shown in the first anime. Just completely skips it over or skims it.

 

[4RM3D]

The original series focuses more on the Elric brothers, while Brotherhood focuses more on the history and the world. Because Brotherhood has more episodes and skips the first 12 (or so) episodes of the original, it has more space to flesh things out (mostly the world). But at the same time it misses a good intro, which the original series does have.

So my recommendation is to always watch the original series first and then Brotherhood.

I don't think Brotherhood is better than the original series. No, Brotherhood only became as good as it is, because of the original series lifting Brotherhood on an even higher pedestal.