I watched the anime without even reading the manga at all and still liked it, and I still understood the story, but of course I do not remember everything about the story now since its been awhile since I have seen the whole anime.

Pretty much agree with OP.

Brotherhood was better plot wise but it was too action packed, without not much else. The original, while still having many light-hearted moments, had a much serious tone which I enjoyed a lot. I don't really remember both series that well but I think the original put more emphasis on characters, their introduction and development, which Brotherhood severely lacked because most of the episodes were rushed.

Both series have good/bad points.

2003 had better looking backgrounds and music, Brotherhood had better animation. 2003 probably also had better characterization across the board, but particularly with the supporting characters and homunculi (except for Bradley who was way better in Brotherhood, Mustang who was about the same, and maybe some others I forgot). Oliver is pretty great though. And both series have some problems with their endings.

The first 13 episodes of Brotherhood are terrible, because Bones assume you already seen the first series.

After that, it reaches the part where the manga started hitting its stride and building everything up. Though I think it doesn't quite pay off and starts going downhill after the Briggs arc. (I don't mind preachy shonen stuff, but dear lord the overly shonen-y shonen-ness of the stuff in the last arc like Envy was ridiculous to the point of being offensive)

And honestly even given filler, I think the 2003 series had a lot less plotholes than the manga/Brotherhood. Even if it wasn't the author's intention to get into super in depth in establishing rules to how alchemy worked, pretty much everything involving alchemy and the main villain came off as plotholes. Not even remotely trying to be consistent with it.

Meh.

While it isn't offensively bad like the FLCL manga, the Eva manga is pretty shallow and completely misses the entire point of the series. It's sad that someone involved with the series from the beginning can have such a poor grasp on the characters and themes, and it took him nearly 20 years to finish what basically amounts to his shinjixrei fanfiction.

it's pretty much eva for people who don't like or understand the series.

(that's not a personal insult btw)

I personally felt the original one was better.. it had better humor and the backstory was really good.. brotherhood was so meh.. none of the characters get their revenge.. scar never faces off with that explosive thingy man (sry watched it a while back) and mustang never completes the job with envy.. it gets so preachy about revenge and bla bla.. it made it mad.. oh and mustang killing off winry's parents.. waaay better than scar killing them off..

loved lust and her backstory with scar in the original... and edwards and als mom as a homunculi that was cool.. brotherhood.. meh.. just my thoughts..

I was massively disappointed by brotherhood. Everything that generated depth in the original was substituted by flat comedy in my opinion. I have nothing good to say about it...

Explain than in complete detail why the anime is better and the manga is shallow because I have seen both?

It turns out the last 13 episodes aren't on Netflix and on Hulu there is only sub option.

I'd appreciate being pointed toward the dubbed last episodes.
Yeah they just went balls out crazy with that tasteless humor. Even in the original the humor was usually pretty dry and overused. I mean even in moments where serious things are happening in Brotherhood, they'll shoehorn some awfully bad humor in there, more than a couple of times.

But... DO I LOVE DOGS!

Which is a really weird thing to do considering Brotherhood isn't a sequel or followup but rather an adaptation of the original plot from the manga. But I guess they're relying on people being familiar with the characters.

Would that be Hollywood's gay agenda at work again? First they ruined Hitman 5, then they hide the last 13 episodes!

It's extremely ironic that you're the one making me out as the political zealot, nevermind all the time, but here and now especially since I haven't even posted in months let alone posted something politically related in over half a year.

I know, but I remembered that thread this morning and had another read of it. It's incredibly amusing to me.

I missed the irony though, can you explain it?

Conquerer of Shambala pissed me off because Ed and Al did not have to leave their home universe to destroy the other portal. Remember how Al could remotely control empty suits of armor? Send one of those over to destroy the portal. Instead we get the brothers trapped forever in a foreign universe and forced to leave their friends and loved ones. My response:
....................../´¯/)
....................,/¯../
.................../..../
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.·´
............\..............(
..............\.............\...

I could be mistaken (and I probably very well am), but isn't that a prime example of Chekov's Gun there, or barring that getting Fallout 3'd? :P

IMO, Brotherhood is much better than the first anime adaptation. The main reason is that Greed and Pride (Selim) have much larger roles in the plot. I disliked all the homunculi that the first anime made up because the manga hadn't introduced them yet at the time, specially fake-wrath.

It would be an example of Chekov's gun being unfired.