Forum - View topicThe Anime Backlog - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
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merr
Posts: 487 |
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Yeah, the problem is Brothethood was produced with the idea that everyone had already watched 2003, so it speed ran everything up till the plots diverged. It stands on its own technically, but you can tell it was meant to be watched after the first series. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2113 |
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As a teenager my favorite thing about Brotherhood or the original manga was the return of Greed who had a big impact in 2003 but small screen time whereas in in this version he mixes with Mamoru Miyano incarnate Ling Yao. It was fun seeing these two interacting and switching voices in Japanese due to their distinctive voices but it was sometimes hard to take Greed's switch from the homunculi to Edward's side seriously since he tends to do whatever he wants until the climax. It's a shame the ministuff from volume 27 such as Pride's state or Hohenheim going to the afterlife weren't included as they felt like missing scenes that serve as even bigger closures. It's insane that Arakawa instead decided to use a oneshot where Ed and Al just discard Hohenheim's armor over what any other character could use to end the story.
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 377 |
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Count me among the many who did not know '03 had not seen any sort of reprint or on streaming (in the US at least). Seems a shame because even though I know it goes way different after its divergence point from the manga plot, I still think it's a very good show in its own right. I'll also stick up for it whenever people say it has a bad ending. It has a pretty good ending. Now the movie, that has a bad ending...
And I will also agree with the common sentiment that a lot of Brotherhood seems written (the early parts at least) with the assumption that its viewers did watch '03. I can't see why else they would start the first episode of the show with that original character fight scene other than to go "hey fans! It's all your old faves!" Which then leads them to give characters/stories like Hughes or the Tucker family less time because "yes they're very sad but you know this already..." Yoki shows up in the show after having his whole story with the Elrics happen off screen because again, you remember that episode, right? Anyway, all that aside, I know the elephant in the room with FMA was addressed in the column briefly, but just curious to know if Lynzee tried the dub and what was her opinion? |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2296 |
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It's been discussed in previous threads, but while the beginning of Brotherhood is certainly faster-paced than the first half of FMA 2003, it's hard to argue that it's a faster-paced adaptation than the rest of Brotherhood. It's just that an average of 42% of a volume per episode is a lot.
To demonstrate how much opinions can vary, I've seen the opposite argued by someone who hadn't seen FMA 2003 or read the manga -- that the first 20-25% of Brotherhood is great, and the rest is mostly wheel-spinning. |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2368 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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On the contrary! Olivier Mira Armstrong was the absolute best character they added to the Brotherhood series. But to each is own I guess.
I actually found a copy of the 2003 anime on Blu-ray for relatively good price. Still a shame it's no longer on any streaming devices. Feels like it was on Netflix forever. Moreover, I'm already looking forward to the new column. |
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Richmyster84
 Posts: 193 |
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I'm probably in the same age bracket as the writer of this column (elder millennial) and watch both series as they aired on Adult Swim. I remember it feeling rough not knowing how the manga story finished since it had not been written at the time and finding the ending of the 2003 series disappointing. Once FMA: Brotherhood finished airing all I could feel about the series was "thoroughly satisfied and complete ending". The entirety of the story was so well thought out and clearly planned by the author that it didn't have to rely on a MacGuffin to solve Edward's answer to The Truth. The establishment of the reverse transmutation circle by Hohenheim teased during the series without letting the audience know what its purpose was for also showed how well crafted the author made the story.
I've gotten my 68 year old mother to watch 3 anime in the last few years. Death Note, Attack on Titan, and Fullmetal Alchemist. I had her watch the first 25 episodes of the 2003 series so she could get a better feeling of what the audience should have for Maes Hughs, Shou Tucker and his daughter and her dog Alexander, and the where the Yoki character came from since he just appears in Brotherhood without having any backstory detailed. She thoroughly enjoyed it. Her favorite character was Lieutenant Hawkeye. So I would say that the first half of the 2003 anime is necessary to watch before starting Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. |
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Kakalini
Posts: 26 |
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Super excited for this column, it's right up my alley. I'm usually at least a few seasons behind the current when I'm watching things, but often trying things from years ago, so I'm always happy for reviews/discussions/etc. of things that aren't just the latest series.
I'm currently in the middle of FMAB myself, having never watched 2003 (despite being active in online anime communities when both came out), and it's enjoyable, but not so enjoyable that I watched straight through when I started a few months ago. Part of that is probably the fact that I read the entire manga several years ago, so I know the basic story beats, but it's also impossible to not keep in mind that sooo many people loved this, which sets me up to be impressed, regardless of deliberately trying to avoid that kind of thinking. |
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Varkias
Posts: 32 |
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My pile of shame includes a bunch of stuff I bought for 75% off when the local Suncoast closed more than 10 years ago...
Decision paralysis from so many choices is probably part to blame. It also doesn't help that I look at things and think, "I'd rather watch this WITH someone," but haven't had someone to watch with in ages. These days everyone I know who would be interested lives a little too far away for regular viewing. 
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6275 |
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Not my fault Arakawa thought it was cool to have her be the only character to look down on and insult her brother Alex for coming down with PTSD during the Ishvalian campaign over watching and participating in the massacre of innocent spoiler[people which is later established as a false flag operation designed to create Philosopher Stones]. A war crime that many characters such as Roy acknowledges they may have to answer for at some point. Which gets even dumber with the fact that one of the men working under her is half Ishvalian. If she any point she acknowledged her horrible treatment of her brother she’d be redeemable but that never happened at least not in the anime by my recollection. And don’t know if happened in the manga which I til this day have never read the end of.
Considering you have people who liked Brotherhood but either disliked 2003 or were indifferent to it I don’t think so. I also like to think had someone waited to make an adaptation FMA instead of doing it so early this divisiveness would never exist. But hey why make an adaptation of an ongoing once it’s finished when you can do it fairly early into the source material’s life span. |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1463 |
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Lynzee, you might want to take a look at but of the 2003 series you inherited from Zac, since it eases its way through the introductions of some of those well-loved characters, especially Hughes. After the first half, the series got farther and farther from the manga, so you can almost view the bit you have a more relaxed beginning to the material in Brotherhood.
Looking forward to what comes next in this column. (I don’t think i’ve watched any of Brotherhood, come to think of it.) |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3818 |
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Also happy to see a new column in the vein of Buried Treasure/Garbage & Pile of Shame, including the info box at the end
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Fluwm
 Posts: 1014 |
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FMA:B is in a bit of a weird situation, I think, because so much of the "anime discourse" tends to be oriented around the usual shounen action fare, whose fans kind of put it on a pedestal. I've seen so many people who've watched FMA:B in recent(-ish) years come away feeling disappointed that it was still, ultimately, just another shounen action series, if a very well-done one.
...Anyway, yeah, this is a great/terrible premise for an article. Great because it'll (ideally) highlight older, perhaps unduly-overlooked classics; terrible because it cannot help but remind me of just how ridiculously out-of-hand my own backlog has gotten. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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That's pretty close to how I feel about Brotherhood. It comes across as a fairly played-straight shonen, albeit one that's much higher quality and better thought out than most. Meanwhile, the 2003 adaptation felt more ambitious, tackling more complex themes and moral nuances. Seiji Mizushima and Sho Aikawa took the core of Hiromu Arakawa's story and did some fascinating things with it. Sure, it wasn't perfect, and the story was a bit messy at times, but I'm always going to value that sort of narrative ambition. In particular, along with delivering some jaw-dropping twists, the end of the series was a perfect encapsulation of its core themes of brotherly love and self-sacrifice, finishing on a bittersweet yet hopeful note. (Let's just...ignore the movie, shall we?) On the other hand, Brotherhood's ending felt much too...easy, with everything wrapping up in a neat bow that didn't feel entirely earned. I'm not against that type of ending in general, but it stood in stark contrast to the earlier adaptation. Now granted, I know it was going to be hard for Brotherhood to click with me, because the 2003 adaptation was one of my formative anime experiences. But even putting that aside, I don't think its beginning acquits itself very well, at least not for a first-time viewer. As others have said, it assumes familiarity with the 2003 anime and/or the manga, and as a result breezes through most of the material it shares with the earlier adaptation. (When Yoki finally shows up, I remember there being an almost tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that his backstory happened off-screen.) The 2003 series took more time to breathe at the start, and the content it added helped better flesh out the world and many of the supporting characters. In particular, I think transposing the birth scene that Ed and Al witness to Gracia earlier in the story was a stroke of adaptive genius. I know for certain that I wouldn't have felt how I did about Nina and Hughes if I hadn't watched 2003 first, because, we got to spend so much more time with each of them and build up those stronger emotional connections. Brotherhood definitely didn't start to click with me until after it moved to parts of the manga that hadn't been adapted before. I think there was a noticeable spike in quality at that point, maybe because the anime staff felt freer to go their own way without the specter of the earlier adaptation handing over them. That aside, I'm really looking forward to this column going forward. Justin's Buried Treasure/Garbage and Pile of Shame articles were some of my favorites from the site's past, and I look forward to seeing Lynzee's take on old favorites and hopefully some new recommendations. As for my own massive backlog...well, let's say I have a long habit of buying shows sight-unseen during sales, only to have extreme difficulty getting myself to sit down and actually watch them. No, I don't have a problem, why would you say that? >_> |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5163 |
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The best part about FMA 03 was Hughes' extended arc, the villains' background plots, and Dante, and we had more Winry and Sheska shenanigans, but you could easily tell they were making it up as they went along and the ending is kind of a hot mess, even with not including the movie which I actually liked the movie. But even with it rushing through some things, I think FMAB has a more coherent narrative and I liked Ling Yao and May Chang and FMAB just felt like a bigger more lived in world. It's also the kind of show that really keeps you wanting to watch more to see what happens next and everything feels wrapped up conclusively. I do think the production values are top notch on both shows in terms of both animation and the soundtrack and both shows have terrific theme songs. I think you still get the best full experience watching both.
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Trollhiti Tour Guide
 Posts: 17 |
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I don't remember much of the original series besides the random old woman being the main villain and the ending being very weird and Ed gets isekai'd into Nazi Germany. I prefer Brotherhood overall even if people call it more "shounen". I see that as a compliment.
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