Forum - View topicFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV) (w/ index).
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Dune
Posts: 223 |
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The recent episodes have definitely improved, which is fortunate for me since this is the arc I was looking forward to the most. (The cliffhanger was great; the preview was pretty clever too, whoever thought that one up was on the ball. Also yay for postponing a Ran Fan scene so that appropriate attention stays on the Amestrians).
Though for the life of me I can't understand why they've decided to remove all the ambiguity. The first series was wonderful about involving main characters whose true nature could flip from trustworthy to detestable at a moment's notice- and this was the moment where the manga shines in that respect. Here, having everything be spelled out so cleanly, and so soon... I just don't agree with that decision at all. And it's not just Mustang who's affected-- Brotherhood removed the scene in Xerxes where Breda pulls out his gun with orders from Mustang to assassinate spoiler[Ross in case she really did kill Hughes]. Similarly, was it really necessary to reveal that Havoc was the lone gunman before he even went into action? It sapped some potential suspense from the situation. They could have just as easily had Havoc appear silently spoiler[to Ross] before his appearance in the following scene. It's akin to the stereotypical person in the theatre who repeatedly says, "Oh don't worry guys, Character ___ is actually ___" five minutes before anything actually happens. This sort of thing don't ruin this arc by any means, but these choices remove a lot of what made the first series and manga so impressionable. The next episode's going to be great, however. Big showdown. 
Edit- Forgot to mention- it's been confirmed that episode 22 covers spoiler[Winry's reunion with Scar, which all but confirms that the confrontation with Father will be done by episode 26. I know that German magazine reported a 63-episode run for this show, but I have trouble seeing it. At the pace this show is going, things could very well be resolved by the early 50's...] |
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silver_omicron
Posts: 132 |
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After seeing the last episode, I have this to say:
This series is amazing. I'm hooked all over again. 
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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My thoughts on episode 19:
This was by far the best episode of the the series thus far. The art and animation was (mostly) great, there was action and suspense, the music was spot on, and it just felt big and noteworthy. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that it's as good, if not better, than any of the best episodes of the first series, and I was a huge fan, and continue to be a huge fan, of that series. Really, I felt like this was one of those episodes that did Arakawa's story justice. It's one of those episodes of an anime that I'll always remember. Now, it wasn't perfect, mind you. I personally don't mind saving the fight between the Xingese characters and Envy and Gluttony for another episode, but there are a few important story elements that are in that battle that would have been better introduced sooner rather than later. Then there's the voice acting by the voice actress for Riza Hawkeye, which I felt was too girlish, like she was a grade school girl crying over a fight with her boyfriend. I felt like the VA for Riza in the first series could have captured her anguish without it sounding so cheesy. Then, of course, there's my opinion of Lust as a whole, and how I preferred the more constructed Lust in the first series, but this is hardly the time to even bring that up, since she did serve her purpose here. She didn't exactly go to waste, even though she wasn't as important as the first series. Anyway, a hallmark episode. And I look forward to seeing Edward confront his father in the next episode. |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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I gotta say I didn't give much credit to FMA up to now. Well, let's hope they keep it up.
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crazzycat
Posts: 3 |
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i want to watch next season anyway, i adore this anime
Full Metal Alchemist is the best anime "Truth in wine"(Pliny the Elder) |
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RhymesWithEmpty
 Posts: 208 |
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Well, this was one of the big episodes those of us who follow the manga had been waiting for, and I'd say they handled it pretty well. I won't go so far as to say that it was better than the best episodes of the 1st series, but it was at least approaching them. In terms of action, it's most definitely up there. The music was great, as well, and there was some very nice animation, can't fault it there.
There were a few minor annoyances, for me. For one, Riza's character design - I'd always noticed the slight differences, but they never really bothered me or stood out to me that significantly until now, where we zoom in on her face what seems like quite a number of times. It has the effect of making her seem more soft and innocent, and less like the no nonsense, badass military woman that she is, which kind of makes the transition to her spoiler[crying when Lust essentially says she's killed Roy] slightly less effective. Maybe it was that coupled with the voice acting, as penguintruth pointed out - they do seem to have switched in more feminine voices for some roles that don't really call for it, imo, but, eh. It was still a really good scene, actually, so I can't complain that much. Somebody's voice acting I liked very much in this episode, brief though their part was, was Gluttony's. He was perfectly creepy, I thought. Almost makes me wish Gluttony had more lines, haha. Another slight thing...did they really need to make Lust's boobs bounce around, complete with sound affects, during the whole Havoc-is-a-breast-man joke? Honestly, Havoc's dramatic bit declaring how much he loves boobs didn't bother me as much as the whole stupid "boing-boing!" thing in the background. Meh. The part where Barry jumps to attack Lust and does his little mid-air twirl thing was kind of weird, to me. Doesn't seem like Barry's style, and it just looked awkward. Barry's spoiler[death scene towards the very end] was great, though. The look of pure joy on "his" face at that part has always creeped me out, and they nailed it. Hmmm, what else... I kinda miss the whole bit where Roy says he already called for backup, and Al is like, "When?!" to which he replies, "I lied." Thought that would've been good for a chuckle, but I guess they wanted to jump straight into the action and showcase Lust's boobs bouncing around, heh. And doesn't Roy have a line about how you can tell when a body has burned up because their fat evaporates into the air and makes your lips sticky? I always thought that was a nice little touch, but instead he just seems to say he can smell it. Ah well. If all of us can agree on anything after this episode, I think it's that Roy is a total badass. And ripped! He was certainly in the spotlight here, although Al still got his moment, too, which made me very happy. And he also looked pretty badass with spoiler[his armor being all cut up and whatnot] Ah, and that reminds me of another thing - I hadn't noticed until now, but Lust's "Ultimate Spear" seemed quite different this time around - they were more like giant knives, heh. Pretty cool, I guess. So, yes, overall, very good. I am, however, a little concerned about the moving around of the Xingese characters' confrontation Envy and Gluttony, if it's still going to happen...I mean, it's supposed to happen concurrently with this whole episode, so pushing it an episode or 2 back seems like it would just make the flow of things really awkward. And it looked like the next episode was going to be focused on Ed and Hoenheim, as it should be, although I guess they could squeeze it in there... I don't know. I just hope the next episode has the proper emotional impact - the scene with Ed spoiler[digging up the remains of what he and Al transmuted that night] is one of my favorites. Every panel in that part of the manga just kills me. Also, something that just occurred to me - showing Hoenheim's bit in Risembool without showing spoiler[Father confronting the Homunculi after the events of this episode, and then unplugging himself from his freaky chair to seemingly leave,] seems like it'll undermine a lot of the ambiguity concerning Hoenheim's character. So, yeah, I've got to agree with Dune on that issue. And it seems like Hoenheim's whole "Pinako, my house is gone..." line has been cut, too, which makes me a little sad. Well, if all of that means devoting more time to other important scenes around this bit, then I guess I can accept it. |
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p3rseus
Posts: 72 |
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I was a skeptic at first but the last few episodes have been excellent. I still prefer the original anime but this one definitely stands in its own two legs to be a great show on its own. The action sequences are especially well done and the story is interesting always letting you want more. Kudos to the team for turning it around.
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kpk
 Posts: 484 |
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It was a very good EP, with very cool fight scene and some great animation work... And that's about it. Nothing less and nothing more. Definitely not one of FMA's best episodes. And you know what else? I really starting to understand what the problem with this show, they overdo everything... The action? Overdo. The funny parts? Also. And the dramatic parts, and the combination between the dramatic parts and the funny parts, and emotional parts.. With the music and the characters behavior. Everyone are so over-dramatic all the time (especially Ed. God! I really liked him in the first series but in this show i hate him! Is SO annoying!) and the music too, that much that i really become annoyed by them and lose any interest or caring for the characters. I mean, i didn't care about Riza spoiler[when she cried or Al when he protect her, or when Roy appears or when Lust died. ]
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Fawfulhasfury
 Posts: 46 Location: USA |
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A beginning of a Brotherhood/Original Series comparison.
So I decided to go back and watch an episode of the original series to compare it to Brotherhood somewhat. The specific episode is Episode 19. The one where Ed and Al figure out about Lab 5 and sneak out to go investigate it. One of the first things I noticed is that the character designs seems to go off a lot, making some really weird bug eye effects. Especially with Edward and Maria. I noticed a couple effects were better, such as a depth of field effect not used much in Brotherhood. But the animation quality at least in this episode lacked somewhat. And those manga-eqsue comedy moments complete with icons and squigglies and little tiny emoticons, yeah that was in the original series too people. There's one scene where friggin hearts float out of Hughes head for crying out loud. So the story is going great, Scar comes in to kill Edward and takes out some soldiers. So he comes across the map of Central and Marco's notes. So he could just read them or something right. No that would take too long with soldiers on his tail and it would look stupid. So what do they do. They throw in a pointless sequence where Scar's arm acts on it's own and absorbs the words into this knowledge suction alchemy floating globe thing. I mean I'm fine with him figuring out about Lab 5, but what was the point of him learning about HUMANS and the PHILOSOPHERS STONE. They were so desperate to put it in they put in that stupid nonsense? Since when can you absorb knowledge through a floating pink globe using alchemy? I think they definitely took some liberties here. It was jarring and out of place. And I was shocked because I really didn't know that that was even in there; I had forgotten about it. So later on we have the booby traps sequence, which was a brilliant bit of comedy. But I'm glad Brotherhood didn't adapt it because we need the original series to have it's own defining moments. and that is one of them. The fight with the Guardian and Edward, or I should say the beginning of the fight wasn't as great as in Brotherhood as far as animation. It was a lot of quick cuts and blur lines. Oh, and you know that manga panel thing that was overdone in the Cornello episode of B. Well, that was IN THIS EPISODE. During the fight. In fact, while watching this, I had a hard time remember I wasn't watching an episode of Brotherhood. Before you ask in order to discredit what I'm saying, my order on this series is First series than manga than Brotherhood. I'll do a comparison of Episode 20 next, which is one of my favorite episodes in the first series, to see how it compares to Brotherhood. EDIT: Episode 20: I'll make this short. The fight scenes were still better in Brotherhood as far as animation quality and fluidity. In the original series some of it felt like still images. The character designs were still off in some parts. And I noticed in this episode background characters weren't animated but were still images as well. Episode 21: The end to the brother was sad, but I found it sadder and crueller in the new series. Brother makes this series though. It's one thing you just can't replace in Brotherhood. The rest of the music is on a tie with me with that of Brotherhood, discounting the Italian resteraunt melody. I think both versions stand on their own, but to say that Brotherhood was taking serious liberties in the humor/seriousness transition is a downright lie. One thing in the original series I really did like is the close ups of the face. That I do think takes us closer to each characters emotions. By the way, I'm also not a fan of Barry being the one to inadvertently release Greed. I think the manga handled this aspect better, and except for one scene soon with Greed in the prison, there's really no reason to add this in. The lighting in Brotherhood is better in some places, and the animation just feels really artistic, whereas FMA had more of a realism to it. I can't really say which is better, especially since in some ways both series have very similar lighting choices. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Heh, I forgot about that stupid word globe thing in the first series. It happens in all of one second and then is never mentioned again, so it didn't bother me that much, but like Robo-Archer, it's one of those things that makes you sort of scratch your head when you take the time out to really think about it.
Some of the new ideas didn't work as well as others. Scar's arm being spoiler[a Philosopher's Stone in the making]? Good idea. The chimeras in Greed's group beingspoiler[ from a secret unit that started the Ishbal war]? Another good idea. Tying together Roy and Winry's backgrounds? Decent idea. Edward changing the makeup of the metal in his arm to confuse Scar? Amazing idea. Word globe and Archer with the impractical automail? Not such good ideas. (Honestly, who designed that automail? He's a big gun and then he ends up using a pistol, anyway!) But, it really is better to concentrate more on the new series. |
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Fawfulhasfury
Posts: 46 Location: USA |
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Yeah my post was mainly to point out that some of the things people were complaining about in the new series were just as much there in Series 1.
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RhymesWithEmpty
Posts: 208 |
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I always thought that word-globe thing was rather stupid, too, right from the 1st time I saw it, but it really is easy enough to overlook. It's like penguintruth said, yes, there are some bad ideas scattered throughout, but with 51 episodes, that's bound to happen, and I'd say the good ideas most certainly outweigh the bad ones, even with how terrible an idea robo-Archer was.
But yeah, right now, it seems like it'd be more fruitful to be making comparisons between Brotherhood and the manga, rather than Brotherhood and the 1st series, which, believe me, I could do all day, heh. |
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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It's just a case of rose tinted glasses, heck when the initial Brotherhood episodes came out I was dumbfounded at people saying the animation was better in the first series. First FMA does get some wickedly animated scenes later on but it's not like Brotherhood doesn't, as Episode 14 and 19 show. I'll rank the music between the two series about the same, just First FMA has much better placement, whoever's in charge of placing the BGM in each scene in Brotherhood needs to lift his game. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Trust me, if I were reviewing the first series, I'd definitely have a few criticisms of it. But back when it first aired, I wasn't really that active in following anime and commenting on forums for every episode. I still love the first series, but it's not my favorite anime of all time.
I'm active during this series, though. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Here's something I did, I watched the Slicer Brother's fight with Brotherhood first, and then the first series. I never noticed how bad the animation was, one scene that was really obvious is where they just copy a manga panel for like two seconds where no movement occurs. TWO WHOLE SECONDS! Though in Bones defense, that has more to do with budget, FMA Brotherhood was pre-liscensed in a large portion of the world so Bones got it's money up front and used that in the series itself. |
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