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Shelf Life - Band of Brothers [2010-06-28]


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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 5:16 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes the original FMA as much as I like FMA:B. There are even parts and aspects of the original show that I like more than the retake (shocking, I know)! I *loved* the end, for example (the movie, not as much). I go into it in detail in the spoiler-icious "FMA 108-The End" thread in the Manga forum.

But FMA fandom in general is very protective of it's favorite property. I think the funniest thing I noticed was the fan reaction that Aaron Dismuke wouldn't be able to reprise his role as Al--as if Funi should've castrated him or something (poor kid).Anime hyper

Maxey Whitehead is doing a fantastic job, and Aaron Dismuke can go back into Dub acting if he likes-based on his performance in Ouran, he's still got the stuff!

I'm also scratching my head as to why Soul Eater isn't on [as], based on it's buzz and fan loyalty quotient, it has a lot more going for it than Kekkaishi (and I really like the Kekkaishi manga). Well, this review makes me want to check out SE, anyway.
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MetatronM



Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 281
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 7:37 pm Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
Maxey Whitehead is doing a fantastic job, and Aaron Dismuke can go back into Dub acting if he likes-based on his performance in Ouran, he's still got the stuff!

Aaron is going to be in the Brotherhood dub later on. He's going to be playing spoiler[young Van Hohenheim].
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shamisen the great



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 658
Location: Oregon, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 7:49 pm Reply with quote
Original FMA- I also enjoyed the original FMA (including the movie). It has its flaws, but overall I think it stayed close to the themes if not the actual content of the manga. I prefer adaptations when they're not carbon copies of the source material.

Shelf photos- my collection is probaly not the most discriminating. Ever since I've had access to internet shopping and my own source of income, I have not been the model of restraint. I recently had to convert my dvd's to thin cd cases to save room and it took over 900 cases. Yeah, I've got a problem.
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KanjiiZ



Joined: 28 Jun 2009
Posts: 661
Location: Central Coast
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 8:25 pm Reply with quote
I'm kinda curious...what race is Felipe Smith? I know it doesn't relate to anything, but I would like to see from what perspective Peepo Choo was written in.
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Azure Shift



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 15
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
It suddenly occurred to me after that particular fight that Maka is a female protagonist of a shonen show. Sure, she fights on a team with Soul, but it's nice to see a girl in the lead role for once.

Heheh yeah didn't hit me at first either and it is nice to see that,I kinda wonder why it is kinda rare. Anyway I enjoyed reading today's column.
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bglassbrook



Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Posts: 1244
Location: Gaithersburg, MD
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
It's like the new Evangelion movies or Dragon Ball Z Kai.
I think the reference you are looking for is Hellsing Ultimate, which having read the series last weekend I would really like them to get around to finishing state-side for comparison.

Anime World Order wrote:
The statement that has gotten me more hate mail than anything I have ever written was my saying that the constant jokes about Ed being short get really old, really fast. But despite that, I stated Fullmetal Alchemist was still the top show of the decade. That just WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH for a sizable amount of people. In fact, due to the compressed nature of Brotherhood, those "Ed is short, and Al is the younger brother!" jokes are even MORE frequent. I think I counted 7 or 8 in a single episode.
Yeah, those have reeeally been wearing on too long. At this point they are even more annoying than the as-yet-random alchestry folks.

shamisen the great wrote:
Shelf photos- my collection is probaly not the most discriminating. Ever since I've had access to internet shopping and my own source of income, I have not been the model of restraint. I recently had to convert my dvd's to thin cd cases to save room and it took over 900 cases. Yeah, I've got a problem.
Shhhh... she still thinks closets are used for storing household supplies, clothing, and the like.

erinfinnegan wrote:
Jaymie wrote:
And Hohenheim doesn't actually make his first appearance until Episode 19, which is on the second set. He did appear a lot in the first opening though.

He was totally in Ed's dream/flashback thing in this set. Like we saw his face, maybe twice, and I was really surprised since I didn't remember seeing his face for quite some time in the first series.
Twice sounds about right, once in the flashback and... the other time later, before he formally "shows-up" in 19. There were likely more flashbacks with him in it in the first series. Though Sheska does seem to have a lot more staying power this time around (not just the earlier introduction.)
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:31 pm Reply with quote
KanjiiZ wrote:
I'm kinda curious...what race is Felipe Smith? I know it doesn't relate to anything, but I would like to see from what perspective Peepo Choo was written in.

There's a picture of him in this interview. I think his parents are from some South American country, but I don't remember which one. Felipe has lived in Chicago, L.A., and apparently Akron according to that interview. He's lived in Tokyo for a couple of years now. He is one international dude.
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kpk



Joined: 05 Apr 2009
Posts: 484
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:14 am Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:

kpk wrote:
Quote:
Characters that only turned up in the second half of the original turn up early on in Brotherhood. Sheska (the girl with a photographic memory) gets a lot of screen time and Ed and Al's dad makes more than one appearance.

Wha..?

Can you be a little more specific?


Sheska had a big role in the first series.
She's only make two appearances in Brotherhood.

Hohenheim (Ed and Al's father) make more than just one appearance in the first series.

penguintruth wrote:
Brotherhood isn't really comparable to Dragon Ball Kai because Kai is little more than a glorified clip show with little bits of new art here and there, and cut a certain way so it resembles the manga slightly closer. Minimal effort was put into it. Brotherhood is a completely new series based on the original manga's story, with all new animation.


Yeah.. what he said.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:26 am Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
Ashen Phoenix wrote:
doctordoom85 wrote:
She's not really bashing those sort of people, just saying their "standards" (though YMMV on where the line between different standards and simply different tastes lies) are probably lower. And really, you should always be proud of your collection considering it shows how much you've supported the industry. Even if a bunch of the ANN staff came to your house and saw your collection, I doubt they would say anything too negative since they all strongly push the "support the industry" argument. Only if you had done something genuinely stupid, like push yourself into debt by buying too much at once, would some well-earned criticism be coming your way.

Thanks for the point of clarification, doc.
I was a little taken aback by the way her comment came across, too. But now I don't feel upset.

As for Brotherhood, I'm still pretty torn; on the one hand I'm very turned off by the almost constant joke-spewing, even in serious situations, but on the other hand it's still a deliciously animated BONES work, still has one of the most well-suited VA casts I've ever heard, and as the manga has told me: it gets better.


I have trouble with the jokes too. The first series certainly had a number of them, but I feel like it did a better job of backing off in the right places. I've had an easier time lately now that the epsiodes on TV have moved into new territory, so I'm not either thinking, "no I liked the other way better", or "wow they just blew throught that." I still have some hang-ups since the first one is my favorite series ever, but I'm at least able to give this a shot. And I barely notice Al's different voice. Maybe once an episode I'll remember it is someone else, and the rest of the time I don't think about it.

I think I'd have a whole lot easier time with Brotherhood overall if people didn't all of a sudden act like the first one was bad. I'm totally fine with people preferring this new one, but the first one was the darling of the anime industry when it came out. Obviously, the popularity of the manga was a factor, but I doubt if we'd see a second series out within a few years if the first didn't do something right. I suppose I have issues with peolple letting a desire for faithfulness keep them from admitting when an adaptation was good. I can go on and on about how Batman Begins and the Dark Knight changed things about Batman, but at least I'll admit those were good movies.


It's not that the first one is bad, it's just that the first one is over rated. For example with the changes to the homunculus, Lust was really the only one who really took advantage of the change in origin with Sloth and Envy never really taking full advantage of their origins. It also gives characters who appear for one or two episodes character development while characters who appear throughout the series like Riza Hawkeye are flat characters.

I would also make complaints about how Ed and Al are able to easily kill people while in the manga Ed and Al refuse to make those choices and instead find another way.

The animation was good, the music was great, and it usually worked but I never really was amazed at the first series.
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WingAlchemist



Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 2:59 am Reply with quote
I absolutely loved the first FMA. I thought it was brilljant. I never quite got why they also made the movie, because that one kind of ruined the ending for me, but I still enjoyed it. I started reading the manga after the first series, and then I realized how much better it was, but I still thought that the ending of FMA was very good, because it stayed close to how the themes and characters were.

When I heard FMA:B was going to be closer to the manga, I was excited as well as wondering if they could actually pull it off. The manga is very unique (I've never really seen one like it), and it has a art style that I really enjoy. Putting that aside, when I saw the first episode, I was immediately turned off by the fact it was a filler episode. Seriously? A filler at the beginning of probably one of the most anticipated anime? After that, I haven't watched it. I'm still gathering courage.

What also bothered me is that Roy's seiyū was replaced. I loved Toru Okawa a lot, and his voice suited Roy.

And I haven't watched Soul Eater, because it never really appealed to me, but maybe I'll give it a shot after reading this.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 3:04 am Reply with quote
That one episode of filler has been the only filler in Brotherhood. So nice job on letting one episode deter you from a rather excellent series.
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UncleChuckTH



Joined: 26 Jan 2010
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:10 am Reply with quote
Brotherhood stands on its own pretty well, I would say. I never saw the original FMA or read the manga, and either way walking into Brotherhood was simple. That first part of the series didn't really need to drag on if you ask me;condensing it was a good idea. Besides, the rest is excellent and amounts to a better story from what I can tell.
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PetrifiedJello



Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 3782
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:29 am Reply with quote
Anime World Order wrote:
This is of course the nature of reviewing anime: you either get a bunch of contrary responses from people who've seen the thing you're talking about and made up their minds, or very few responses because you're talking about something nobody's heard of.

Very true.

Quote:
Then again, this IS the Shelf Life feedback thread. You know of this all too well!

Indeed. Sometimes, the actual outbursts have been more informative than the review itself as people defend their own personal review.

Having read the article and the comments, I am a little more confident on the differences between the FMA series. If I were to buy, I'd go with the first and completely ditch Brotherhood.

I've always heard good things about the series and I've been dying to check it out. Thanks to several of the comments posted in this thread, and Erin's review, I can now safely determine the version which will suit me best.

That's why I love passionate comments. No matter how "offensive", there's always a truth to their words.
Very Happy
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24249
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:55 am Reply with quote
I'm in the middle of my first watch of FMA and absolutely loving it. It's virtually a flawless entertainment delivery machine. I will absolutely buy FMA: Brotherhood because I want to see every incarnation of this show there is. Including the manga and all OVAs/movie(s).
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Anime World Order



Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 390
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 8:02 am Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
I'm also scratching my head as to why Soul Eater isn't on [as], based on it's buzz and fan loyalty quotient, it has a lot more going for it than Kekkaishi (and I really like the Kekkaishi manga). Well, this review makes me want to check out SE, anyway.


Remember, the anime that appears on Cartoon Network at this point is pretty much a step removed from paid programming akin to late-night informercial time. Kekkaishi is on because Viz is paying Cartoon Network, same as with Death Note. The same goes for Fullmetal Alchemist and FUNimation. It's not like Cartoon Network can make any money off of sales of DVDs and merchandise of these properties they don't own anyway. That's why the timeslots for these things are so absurdly late and it doesn't matter if tons of people watch them or not.

It sucks, because seeing anime on free/basic cable TV is how pretty much everyone is introduced to anime in the first place. And now anime's virtually gone from those channels such that the only way you'd see it would be if you were specifically looking for it to begin with.

PetrifiedJello wrote:
Having read the article and the comments, I am a little more confident on the differences between the FMA series. If I were to buy, I'd go with the first and completely ditch Brotherhood.


For what it's worth, I would say that as great as the original Fullmetal Alchemist TV series was, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood blows it away. Hands down, no contest.

The reason there's so much ambivalence towards it online is that...well, what everyone has already said: the first 20% of the series is a reanimated version of about 50% of the original show, only sped through and with slight differences that become less slight later on such that you can't easily skip those 13-14 episodes. And what do the lion's share of anime reviews focus on? The beginning, because if you talk too much about the later parts of a series you risk spoiling things for people. So it is that many FMA: Brotherhood reviews have an unavoidable "this is awesome...but we've seen it before..." vibe to them.

The experience is akin to watching the first 13 episodes of [insert 50-episode Sunrise mecha series here], which serve solely as exposition with a "been there, done that" kind of feel before the REAL story starts. Said story almost never make senses if you skip ahead (except for GaoGaiGar; by all means skip the first box set entirely on that and start with the second box where it gets great since the first half is the definition of average and it's all recapped anyway), so you have to just grit your teeth through them. In an era where most entire series are 13 episodes long, most people decide it's not worth the effort. Here's hoping that once the second set of FMA: B comes out in the US, more people who are currently thinking "eh, I already watched this show 6 years ago" will give it a shot.

Bones really took a gamble on the original FMA by having it deviate completely from the source material such that the entire second half could technically be called "filler" material. But it unfolded so well that you don't hear too many complaints about it (I do agree that the FMA movie does diminish the impact of the original TV series' ending). Unfortunately, when they used the same strategy with Soul Eater, the end result wasn't as great...
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