Anime Review: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Part One

[Towels]

I've only seen Brotherhood once, but I keep up with the Manga. I've seen and loved all the original FMA tv series.

To me, it just seems that the major difference between the original show and the manga are the motivations of the villians. Most Anime fans I talk to like the Manga more. I perfer the original TV show.

Spoiler

The Fuerher makes a better Pride than Wrath. An angsty kid makes a better Wrath than a tired old general.
Although I concede that lumbering giant makes a better Sloth than Ed's mom, but it can work. Perhaps Ed's mother symbolizes Ed's emotional dependence on her.

Perhaps these are cultural differences though; The Quest of Shambala movie seems a bit more oriented towards western culture than the manga.

I do like the tweeks they did to some characters in Brotherhood, particularly Winry and Scar. They were more fleshed out and characterized than the original TV series.

EDIT: Also, the ending of the original TV show made sense to me.

Spoiler

Ed was essentially reincarnated into a similar but fundamentally different world.

Doesn't that fall in line with the whole Balance morality that the show preaches?

Oh and here's a fun fact: In Chemistry, there actually is a Law of Equivalent Trade. It has to do with balancing ionic compounds. In the salt Sodium Chloride, 1 molecule of Sodium is equivalent to 1 molecule of Chlorine. Horray, Full Metal Alchemist got me through Chemistry!

 

[Kirch Libre]

Sorry if I sound like a broken record here. But I'd watch the entire series first before I make a final judgment. That being said I'd have to sorta agree with your thoughts on the pacing in the first few episodes. Especially with how they handled such a pivotal character's death. However that's pretty much how the manga was so it didn't surprise me how they paced it like they did.

 

[MajoraPersona]

As I was reading this, it took me a few minutes to realize these guys were watching the English dub, which probably just came out.

Oh well.

Also, I believe Al's voice actor changed. I may be wrong, though.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

I loved the brotherhood series though I do agree that...

Spoiler

Hugh's death wasn't that emotional for me, he wasn't very well developed in brotherhood (in my opinion) not enough to justify mustang's insane grief at his death anyway

 

[Zorg Machine]

I thought that the original was shit. It may be because I read the manga before watching it but I never liked the story and the changed characters.

btw, if you do part two and still think it's worse than the original...actually, I can't even imagine a world where that is possible.

 

[Prexus]

This review was fairly poorly done. FMA:B started as a retelling of FMA because they didn't want to say, "Okay everyone, watch FMA up to Episode # then start watching FMA:B, cause thats where we diverge!" and to judge the entire Anime based on this is just silly.

When I was first introduced to FMA:B (after watching FMA about a year prior) it was only up to about Episode 16, and I was told "The first season is mostly recap but Episode 13 and on is where it gets really good because its fresh and ignores the hasty, poor quality ending of FMA." and that is exactly what the situation was.

The new takes on Alchemy, the introduction of different types of Alchemy, and the new characters and character interactions (Specifically the way existing and new characters interact with Scar) is what makes FMA:B a really good anime, and something worth watching over FMA. I have before and will continue to recommend people watch FMA:B and ignore FMA entirely, but if they insist, make sure they watch FMA first and FMA:B second, starting from Episode 1. So that they can see how much better FMA:B was done.

The reviews posted here are like eating the icing off and cake and writing a food critique on the entire dessert.

 

[SpikeFT]

Everyone has a point except the guy that started this namely Mr. JoshV sorry buddy but you cant judge FMAB comparing it to FMA. The first one was more character depth while the second focused on the main story maybe more on Hohenheim but still great nonetheless. Also its sucks that you didnt get FMP instead probably the guys that sent it were like:"FMP FMAB whats the difference same thing" ignorant jerks to say the least but lets be polite still everyone is entitled to their own opinion

 

[hobo_welf]

Can I point out that the manga has been completed for a while now? It's done, it's been done.

And FMA:B was actually a little bit better. The story had some plotholes in it, but so did the manga so whatever. It didn't flesh out some things as well as it should have, but it kind of relied on your knowledge of the series already, honestly. It was good though. Not as good as everyone makes it out to be, but definitely better than the first.

 

[Feylynn]

Without reading the other pages and at the risk of repeating lots of people.

I got the impression that Brotherhood was paced like that intentionally. Give enough detail that newcomers can understand the party but very conscious most of it's fans are really fans of the first anime and have already seen this all, likely more then once, more then that if they read the manga as well.

That said I agree the first started better but have to say Brotherhood completely dominates it in every other endeavor.

I love both but the departure of the first anime was so stretched, without knowledge of the manga it was obvious that they pulled it out of left field.

So conclusion, Watch both, starting with the first so you get the solid character base and pacing.
Then watch Brotherhood for the real story.

 

[DayDark]

I feel the new is somewhat more lighthearted than the original.

 

[GamerLuck]

Forget season one. Its season two that matters. That's when you get to see where the story was supposed to go, feel the depth and true conflict with the humoculie.I always preferred the manga to the first iteration of FMA, and Brotherhood is a perfect adaptation of what made the manga so great.

 

[The3rdEye]

I'll admit I hated the original full metal alchemist, but brotherhood sounds somewhat interesting to me - kind of paradoxical!

Im the same way, I dont know if its because its been re-done or something in the way that it had, but, I do find myself been drawn

If you do watch FMA:B, stick with it until the end, it's a series that uses all of it's air time to develop so it's something that you should at least try to commit to..



One interesting thing that I noticed both reviews missed:

FMA has it's first episode set in Lior, a town where alchemy is seen as works of god, something above and beyond the realm of mortal man. It strongly sets the themes of religion, man vs god and the works of god that man must never attempt as central themes for the rest of the series. It goes on portraying the attempts of man to surmount god's work as being doomed to failure and resulting in bastardizations of their intention, or rather that attempting god's work will always result in a vile and grotesque image of the intended result. (Father Cornello's incentive for Rose being the prime example of this)

FMA:B on the other hand has it's first episode set in Central and deals with the morality of Edward and Alphonse, and the politics within the Central governing body and that of those working against that body. Where FMA deals with what is outside the power and control of the cast, FMA:B focuses more on the motives and rationalizations made by the characters as they play out their roles, internalizing many of the conflicts from FMA's world into personal revelations relative to the character experiencing them.

On the purely artistic side, FMA:B does use many of the standard anime devices and exaggerations (overly simplified faces with certain emotions, SD proportions... *sigh* Armstrong's sparkle) but overall it's a slightly more serious portrayal of the characters, which tends to allow the recurring anime theme of questioning our own humanity to be considered a little more seriously, and plays a much stronger role in FMA:B than it's predecessor.

As a whole, while they are both really good stories, FMA to me displayed a world revolving around cruel irony where the message was "Don't do it, because it shouldn't be done" with the negative outcomes being the main driving force to the character's development. It also had several loose threads by it's conclusion, which was only indicative that that wanted that they wanted to do further work with the series but outside the OVA format (see The Conquerer Of Shamballa). FMA:B portrayed an attitude of humility and "All things will right themselves, it's the decisions you make not the end result, that matters and are the only things you can truly control" and internalized a lot of the devices shown in the first series inside the characters themselves, making it all very character-centric.

I enjoyed FMA for many reasons, one being Vic Mignogna. It was also sort of fast and loose with it's progression, and while it did have little slips into settings that in regular series I would consider "filler" (the trip to Rush Valley was just WAY too whimsical to seem cohesive overall imo) it had a lot of action and a strong story that stayed true to the overall world of FMA. FMA:B on the other hand had slower pacing and was much more deliberate in what it showed. At times it felt like the studio was a little pressed for time to get all the information they needed into the series but in the end you're left with a very broad understanding of the time-line, during which you get the see development of ALL the characters, even the protagonists which just wasn't as prevalent in FMA. (Although I can see some people preferring Lust's monologues and late character development in FMA, to me it seemed rather out of place, where as I found Envy's sequence near the end of FMA:B to be much more poignant and in-character).

TLR - Woo! FMA!

 

[reachforthesky]

I like FMA because it seems to incorporate the best elements of anime while leaving behind the less favorable stereotypes. I could write pages about it, but since we're talking about Brotherhood, I'll just say FMA holds a very unique, positive place in my heart.

Brotherhood seems a little...brighter than the original series. As the first reviewer said, it moves much faster and it occasionally takes the piss out of some of the story's most powerful moments, such as the events surrounding Nena. It's humor is often forced, repetitive or misplaced, whereas FMA's was pitch-perfect. I wouldn't call it bad as much as...disappointing. not unlike the new Star Wars to FMA's original trilogy.

All i have to say about the second review is, if I had discovered Full Metal Alchemist because I got it instead of the vastly inferior anime I had ordered, I would probably still believe in God.

 

[acosn]

Both series are good. Right, sure, Al and Ed's characters don't get fleshed out as well. The idea I think is that you more or less already understand them. What they do go ahead and do is more or less elaborate on other characters. They explain Mustang. They explain the bad guys. They explain everything in between.

 

[UnicornWhisprer]

There is really no comparision. Brotherhood far surpasses the original in every possible way save the development of Scar. The original left so many things unexplained and so many threads that lead no where. For example, all the humunculi are named after the 7 deadly sins. In the original, this just seems to be an arbitrary, but cool naming system. In Brotherhood, there is actually a purpose for their names, and is a pivotal point of the story. The original devolved into another generic anime, while brotherhood is exceptional and a far deeper story than anything I have seen in awhile.

 

[Socius]

The second anime was following the manga and was by far the better.

 

[GuiltBlade]

First review was interesting to read, the second I myself wish I had dismissed without a second thought, but maintained a certain standard before writing a reviewing comment.

To myself the first series seemed a much more enjoyable affair, I preferred the alternative story, the slower development and the stronger relationships which are shown between characters.
I however still look forward to the divergent storyline in the second season of brotherhood, even if personally I would like to see a continuation of the brothers lives in our reality.

 

[faggotron]

are you kidding?
i think the anime did a great job covering the entire story of the manga..
and it is one of the more popular anime/manga out there..

 

[faggotron]

are you kidding?
i think the anime did a great job covering the entire story of the manga..
and it is one of the more popular anime/manga out there..

and one more thing.. this is'nt a remake..
keep watching and you'll know what i mean