Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

[Admiral X]

I tried watching it, but I could never get over the humor. It seems like some serious mood whiplash to me.

[MrL1992]

I tried watching it, but I could never get over the humor. It seems like some serious mood whiplash to me.

The humour of the original 2003 series is actually a lot more subdued comoararively.

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I think its good that he is going with compilation style reviews again for shows like this, probably saves times in the long one rather then stretching commentary over single episodes

[Wargriffin]

Brotherhood does tend to have more classic anime humor hence the off model bits

[Chaos Sepher]

Think the off model humor is also based on how it was portrayed in the manga as well stylistically.

Long time FMA fan myself since the first anime, but I definitely prefer Brotherhood myself.

[Cheerilee]

Both shows are imperfect adaptations of the manga.

The first show had access to the first 6-8 volumes of what would become a 27 volume story (less than 1/4 or even 1/3) when they decided to devote 51 episodes and a movie (aka, four 13-episode units) to realizing those volumes, plus whatever ending they could cobble together (which is strikingly different from how most anime are treated, with one batch of 13 episodes and then a great deal unresolved and never ever coming back to the story).

For Brotherhood, the end of the manga was finally in sight, and there was more story left unadapted than there had been already adapted, justifying another trip to that well, but they were stuck with the problem of having invented an anime ending for the earlier adaptation, and audiences not knowing how much of the canon story had come from the manga and how much non-canon material was made up by the anime. So a whole-series reboot was in order, but they only gave themselves 64 episodes to do it (five of those standard 13-episode units), which is barely more room than the original adaptation had. They had to recap the opening while trying not to drive audiences off and kill the show's ratings with bad episodes (new and old audiences, with completely different needs), followed by an entire series that didn't nearly have the room to breathe that the original adaptation had.

The first show is the better show, but it has a made-up ending. The second one has problems, but it has the complete story. The best and most consistent version is the manga, but that doesn't have the advantage of being anime, you have to -read- it, and reading is hard, even when you're just reading comic books.

[LiteYear]

I do think Brotherhood would have been an exceptional stand-alone anime if they had devoted another 13-episode block to fleshing out the story, especially on the early part. Part of that is that I believe another mandate they had is that they wanted to synchronize the manga's and the anime's ending. But, in my view, once it gets past the recap block and is allowed to explore the new material, I think it surpasses the original on its own merits.

[Ghilz]

In general, while I think Brotherhood is more...profound (or, more "art") I've always been of the opinion that it's the much harder series to watch. The last bit, namely after all the Homonculi are introduced, is great, but getting there is so hard if you're JUST going off the series.

Speaking as someone who saw Brotherhood before seeing the original or the manga, not going off just by the series isn't "hard" at all. That or you have no concept of what hard is.

Yah, in hindsight I see how it's rushing at the start, but on its own not having seen anything? No, it's not hard to go through the series. While it rushes it covers exactly the beats I needed to understand so I was never lost.

Having seen the rest, I'll still stand that Brotherhood is the better adaptation. The original just devolves into gibberish towards the end in a way that left me unsatisfied (Doing them in reverse order does admitedly give it further disservice in that it's easy to see where it overcame the manga, spot the foreshadowing that makes no sense or goes nowhere, since I know what the full plot is intended to be).

I'll also take a weaker start of a show over a weaker ending. Because the ending is ultimately what leaves me with my feelings for a series. Brotherhood wraps up well with a bow on top. The original adaptation ends with a wet fart.


On the review: Still amused by Chuck calling Edward "Edgar" on purpose.

[ninjadeadbeard]

FMA: Brotherhood is literally perfect. There are no flaws. I will fight any who say otherwise.

I am very excited to see Chuck cover this.

[Zezlemet]

I may be the last to know but to inform those who don't his name is first name King last name Bradley it's not part of the title. For the longest time I thought he called himself Führer King just to let everybody know who the big swinging dick is.

[Chaos Sepher]

Honestly I think it was just cause Nina called Edward Big Brother in general that was what clicked the horrifying realization, but the aspect that everyone assumed Ed to be the little brother being a major clue was an aspect that never really occurred to me before that is rather neat to consider.