I have to say the original was very good. I loved how it ended. Some people might think the transdimensional thing was stupid, but in a universe that exaggerates alchemy to such an extent and tries to pass it off as not magic, but some sort of science, it's not any more ridiculous. I didn't mind. I really liked how it ended, how it wasn't too sad but not too happy, it was just a very solid ending. Now, I haven't seen the movie that's supposed to serve as the sequel to the original Fullmetal series but if the series had ended right there I wouldn't have minded.

Many critics have already brought up the pacing. In Fullmetal Alchemist the way things are brought to the attention of the viewer and how all the events and developments are timed makes for much greater impact when things do eventually happen. While the original is filled with just too much padding at times, even to a painful extent, I think Brotherhood follows the opposite extreme. Liore and especially the backstory of the Elric Brothers isn't handled nearly as well as it was in the original, especially the matter of Hughes and when a certain Glutton loses a special someone, because of how fast it all happens and how little certain characters are focused on. Now perhaps Brotherhood does deliver this same sort of feeling but with different characters, which is fine. Perhaps Brotherhood just focuses less on certain characters and more on others and I've yet to see it. I have after all only gotten to about the 30th episode.

I try not to be biased by nostalgia but it's hard when there's so much that the original does right. Brotherhood seems far too content to shove plot detail after plot detail down our throats. Episodes that could have been extended into 2 or 3 are shoehorned into 1. Because of how much information has to be conveyed in such a short amount of time they even have to rely on internal monologue more so than I remember being in the original.

Not to mention they foolishly chose not to use Aaron for Al's voice. Sometimes his replacement actor does her job so well she sounds like that 13 year old boy, but most of the time it shows, a little too much, that she is in fact a girl. The way I see it, while Aaron's voice might have gotten deeper, that doesn't mean they couldn't compensate by manipulating his voice a bit and making it higher pitched with their sound equipment. If the only problem was indeed the pitch of his voice then I think it was really foolish to replace him. Then again, maybe there's more to it.

And then there's Bratja. Now it's fine they want to make a bunch of new music, and beside Bratja there wasn't a lot of memorable music in the original FMA, and while the new theme is actually quite good, it pales in comparison to Bratja. Listen:
http : //www . youtube . com/watch ?v=uwzAEwzUI8k

If somewhere in Brotherhood they actually do place this song, it would be really nice. If they would just use this song every once in awhile it'd be great. Sometimes they did overuse this song in FMA, but that they don't use this song at all in Brotherhood for how wonderful it is is really honestly depressing.

The part where Brotherhood seemed to start clicking for me was after it stopped becoming so familiar to FM, you know where the two series start to become really really different, the diverging point that starts basically around the Lab 5 incident. I notice Brotherhood seems to have a better plot in terms of sheer structure and logic, making it more interesting in this sense. What it seems to lack, at least at the moment, is emotional impact. Everything happens so fast it becomes hard to care about anything.

Not to mention, the humor is really inappropriate. I mean in the sense that it's very out of place and not funny. Me and my brother already thought they really killed the jokes to the point of being unfunny in the original, but here they just go all out. I've actually heard people say that the original was too dark. This is simply not true. Maybe relatively speaking in comparison to the Manga, but all things considered FMA had a tasteful minimum of lighthearted moments in relation to dark. I can think of a thousand different cartoons movies and tv shows that are considered not completely dark by critics, which happen to be a thousand times more dark than FMA.

This wasn't meant to be a very structured review, I just wanted to hear what people had to say about my thoughts on this series.

Long time no see JCD-Bionicman ;)

Anyway I have seen both but I got into more Brotherhood than the original, also the originals ended in a cliff hanger.

Also Brotherhood had moments where I was on the edge of my seat for the next episode like those "Oh my goodness whats gonna happen after this" moments.

So I recommend Brotherhood, I find it much better.

Also I could PM a site that has all the Episodes.

Yeah it's been awhile XD

Yeah it's hard to know really for sure whether I would like Brotherhood more if I had watched it first. I still think Brotherhood would have benefitted a lot by supplying more padding between episodes, not too much but a little bit, especially for the sake of the plotlines of certain characters like Hughes, Greed, Lust and Gluttony.

I have Netflix so you don't have to worry about that but thanks.

Oh and nevermind with what I said about the original FMA ended in a cliff hanger because I just found out that it did ended with a conclusion to its story.

I was basing my knowledge of watching the show in adult swim which I remember seeing one late episode and the next day its back to the first.

But I enjoyed Brotherhood more than what I did saw in the original heck I think the dub acting was more tolerable in Brotherhood than the original.

Yeah I pretty much agree with you. The original handled the relationship between the brothers much better than in Brotherhood, ironically, but as you said Brotherhood had the superior plot overall.


I did enjoy the presence of Olivier in Brotherhood, though, hard not to fall in love with a woman like that.

If someone were to tell me they were only going to watch one I'd tell them to watch Brotherhood but if they were going to watch both I'd definitely point them to the original for a greater emotional experience.

Not to say Brotherhood did not have its moments, I was watching the episodes as they were released on FUNimation and it was PURE HELL having to wait an entire week to find out what happens next, especially as the show was wrapping up.

Also I watched the subs so Al's voice didn't really change, Mustang's did, however, and that did bother me a lot especially since he's one of my favorite characters.

Brotherhood was incredible. The original was pretty good. The differences in Brotherhood are very important.

I liked both, I found each of them thought provoking and they both completely engrossed me at the time for different reasons. I did however start to lose interest in the original FMA towards the end, and the movie bored me. Brotherhood had me hooked up until the end.

Also thanks for the song, I'd forgotten about it. Been many years since I watched the original.

Got Barefoot Essentials? It has spoiler tags now. Press Ctrl-L


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I almost forgot about that kid, yeah the new Wrath was only a million times better than the old one. The new Pride as well and the new Sloth, almost forgot about him, too. And I loved the introduction of the China expy (TVtropes will ruin your vocabulary) and the characters that came from there. The prince gave me a bunch of laughs and a lot of genuinely touching moments and it's hard not to like May and her Bearcat. Envy was also significantly different from the original and it's hard for me to say which version is more intimidating. I think I'd have to lean to Brotherhood in that regard too.



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I've not seen Brotherhood, but I've read the manga and I definitely found the manga's plot to be better than the first anime (please don't call it the original as if the manga doesn't exist).

(Slightly off topic)

If you did not read it I highly recommend reading the Manga version of Neon Genesis Evangelion, it just completed its whole story just recently and I find it better than the Anime's series+End of Evangelion and the Rebuild movies combined.

It follows the anime+end of evangelion storyline but with a lot of crucial differences in outcomes and character portrayals, relationships etc. and the ending is different to what people argue as the closet thing to a "happy" ending.

I like both series, but can't really recommend one over the other on their own. The original series doesn't really end and Brotherhood is much better later on but Brotherhood also rushes over early parts of the story, assuming that one has seen the first series or read the manga.

I have to say, I was really not overly fond with many of the changes done to the first anime series, that being said there were some things that I really liked, and even hit me in the chest a bit. I still prefer Brotherhood (as well as the manga) to the first anime series, but I can see the validity of those who may think otherwise. Between FMA Brotherhood, Berserk movies (though I prefer the manga), Hellsing Ultimate, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012), and a slew of other releases have really rekindled my interest in anime as of late. :) I really have to remember to pick up a bunch of stuff at FanExpo this year. Though I did get a killer deal on the FMA: B 2-package Blu-ray box sets last year, like 65 or so for both, when regularly they were going for 60 or so for each. :)

I prefer Brotherhood hands down because it had the overall better plot IMO but I preferred how the original gave a better feel of the brothers' loyalty to each other as well as the soundtrack.

If Brotherhood used some of the same songs like the Brothers theme, it would have been even better than it already was.

This. I liked the story in the manga more than on the first anime. I have not bothered to watch brotherhood as it's supposed to be the proper adaptation of the manga, which means I already know what will happen making it pointless to watch; and I hardly watch anime anymore either way.