Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

[TrueMetis]

With that in mind I wonder how effective watching the 2003 series up until the split than continuing with Brotherhood would be. Or does it partially diverge enough earlier that that wouldn't work? Been a while since I've watched either.

[Rocketboy1313]

I can't stand "Brotherhood".

[Wargriffin]

Really trying to compare the two is like Apples and Oranges in how different they get tone and message wise

I mean Take Lust for example...

The versions are effectively, Same design, Different Character.

Its kinda weird...

Largely I enjoy both as a whole unto themselves but prefer individual Aspects

Like I like FMA's version of Lust over Brotherhood's but prefer Brotherhood's Mustang.

Granted FMA does have one point against it... If you didn't like FMA's Ending... The Movie made it worse!

______
Brotherhood's Wraith kicks too much ass

[TrueMetis]

... The movie was stupid. "Hi I've got the ability to temporarily transfer part of my soul to a suit of armour to control it, and I'm going to forget about that ability right at the end so my brother has to go through the portal to shut it down and I'm going to follow him so we can have an "bittersweet" ending.

[Wargriffin]

... The movie was stupid. "Hi I've got the ability to temporarily transfer part of my soul to a suit of armour to control it, and I'm going to forget about that ability right at the end so my brother has to go through the portal to shut it down and I'm going to follow him so we can have an "bittersweet" ending.

and that doesn't even go into the ridiculous amount of "housekeeping" the movie partakes in...

Envy anybody

[Fianna]

There's not a clear divergence point where the first anime's plot stops following that of the manga (and thus of the later anime series). There's a point where the changes from the manga become far more radical, but even before then there are lots of little changes scattered throughout.

[Edvarius]

I'm personally more of a fan of Brotherhood than the first anime. Yes, Brotherhood doesn't have as much time fleshing things out at first or moral ambiguity, but I feel the story and lore of the setting are much stronger in Brotherhood.

With that said, with this review I am mainly curious about three things. The first is if episode 4 will result in a rant of some kind, the second is what he thinks of alchemy in this show, and the third is how he will react to what little we get to see of MAJOR ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE STRONGARM ALCHEMIST! *sparkle*

And if you're a Patron who's seen the episode early don't spoil that for me, I wanna see for myself.

[MrL1992]

For anyone who hasn't seen either 2003 or Brotherhood. I still find it worthwhile watching both but that you should see 2003 first.

While its ending is more bittersweet and debatably less satisfying, it does go to some darker places and is harder hitting on an emotional level.

I don't blame Chuck for only going with the one though and it being the one the author I tended. Its going to take time to get through this as is even with it being pretty short by battle shonen standards.

I am curious if he's seen 2003 though and might reference it at any point.

[RobbyB1982]

With that in mind I wonder how effective watching the 2003 series up until the split than continuing with Brotherhood would be. Or does it partially diverge enough earlier that that wouldn't work? Been a while since I've watched either.

There's lots of little changes along the way (such as the brothers being around for the birth of Hughe's kid instead of a random person, meeting Barry the Chopper, Scar showing up in the lab to fight the sins, or Ed noticing the Fuhrer's secretary fairly early on in a blink and you miss it moment).

You'd probably have to stop at the end of the second season around episode 26, after _____'s death, and definitely before Wrath shows up and Scar's plot starts going in a completely different direction.

A loooot of the season 3 Greed stuff overlaps between the two shows and the first series handles it better, but there's so many new little plot bits in there at that point they'd be a mess to try and merge from there.

[ORCACommander]

it may be because i saw brotherhood first but I really started to dislike bortherhood where there was clear and deep divergence. I knew ahead of time why but it just felt liker a mess to me and made no sense