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Fullmetal Alchemist


CyanideFishbone

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I've seen some people with Edward Elric profile photos and I thought I'd join the trend, so I felt this thread partially necessary.

 

Fullmetal Alchemist (I prefer Brotherhood but I need to rewatch 03) is definitely my favorite anime and probably my favorite show of all time along with early Simpons, Futurama, and a few others. The show's characters are masterfully made, the plot is awesome, it's written fantastically, it's pretty near perfect in my eyes. I'm currently reading the manga as well; just finished Volume 6. 

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I was doing this on SBM well before anyone else

 

But yeah, I think it goes without saying that I absolutely adore FMA. I've watched Brotherhood all the way through twice, and been blown away both times. It's like a movie you watch, then immediately turn around and buy tickets to see again, because it couldn't have been that good.

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FMA is definitely up there in my ranks. Brotherhood was more in line with the manga but I still liked the original because of all the great moments it had. The story had a combination of serious and funny moments which I liked a lot. Plus the character designs were pretty good, I thought Edward Elric was a great character along with Alphonse.

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Hell yeah, FMA rules. Like Rurouni Kenshin, it's one of those series that I keep coming back to because I never get tired of admiring how much pruning and effort went into its complex and mature themes. Even characters that used to kind of get on my nerves, I find new things to appreciate about them.

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Been rewatching FMA 03, on episode 41. Forgot how good this show is. A lot of notes I have with it; all in spoilers.

 

I totally forgot just how amazing the scene where Fuhrer Bradley is revealed to be a homonculus and murders Marta is. Holy shit that hit me hard. I already knew the twist, but it's just done so fantastically. Marta's death hits hard; I was starting to get into her character more than I ever did before. She's a very well-handled bad to good character; she's very kind on the inside, although reckless. Forgot how amazing her dynamic with Alphonse was that fucking amazing. Also interesting to note that Fuhrer Bradley's reveal happens in Episode 40 of 2003 and like Episode 11/12 of Brotherhood. 

I've been reading the manga and I never noticed just how different the Devil's Nest arc was treated. A lot of differences; one notably is that in Brotherhood and the manga, that was where Fuhrer Bradley was revealed to be a homonculus after his eyepatch is torn off.

God fucking damn I love what they do with Shou Tucker in 2003. Instead of him being murdered by Scar, I like how they turn him into his in-human alchemic abomination with that still super chilling voice. God he is so damn unnerving, he makes me so uncomfortable when he's on screen in the best way possible. 

Frank Archer is an incredibly enjoyable 2003-exclusive antagonist. He's just so cold and he just looks like all the life is sucked out of him.

Edited by CyanideFishbone
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10 hours ago, HawkbitAlpha said:

I purposefully skipped out on watching the '03 series when I read that it diverged from the manga story line. So I've gotta ask: is it actually worth seeing on its own?

I'm volunteering right now and probably shouldn't send my entire response, but fuck it, no one's looking and they'll hear me typing away and think I'm working. I'm taking a break anyway. Warning; I'm gonna get a bit spoilery and may nerd out here lmao.

 

 

Honestly it depends on how much you like Brotherhood and how much you want to watch more FMA. I love both but FMA 2003.... has some problems. The first half of the series is an absolute 10/10, hell, even like an 11/10. The characters are given a lot of depth, the emotional scenes are beautifully done, the fights are well animated and well executed, it's just perfect. However, by the time Maes Hughes is murdered by Envy and the plot diverges from the manga, the show.... loses quite a bit of it's mojo. It's still interesting and still a great show, but it does get a bit cluttered and never feels as coherent as Brotherhood did. There are some pros here; I do prefer the idea of how the homonculi are failed human transmutations in 03 and how they have loose memories of their lives as humans. Also, I do prefer 03 Sloth to Brotherhood Sloth; 03 Sloth added a ton of emotional tension to the story. However, the plot gets a bit cluttered as I said, and a bit of it suffers. They basically build up an arc (which is still enjoyable) of Sheska and Winry teaming up to try to find Hughes' killer that basically goes nowhere. Mustang never finds Hughes' killer; none of Mustang finding out Envy did it and beating the shit out of Envy and Envy killing themselves. Winry and Sheska teaming up is nice and they have good chemistry together, but it just goes nowhere and really does feel kind of like a waste of time. Also, I'm gonna be honest here; Dante is one of the worst villains in any anime I've ever seen. The homonculi are strong villains, and while they need a leader, Dante was just absolutely terrible. Father is a million times better. She just feels.... there. She had a good plan, and her theme is among the best songs in 2003's OST, but she just feels.... so there. She's like in 9 episodes in total and there's like no time to build up her character. Okay, her and Hohenheim were married. Okay, that's kind of interesting. Wish it wasn't introduced so late and there was no time to go in depth about it because there was so much going on in this plot. There is just absolutely no time to flesh her out and she ends up feeling generic and forgettable. I just don't get why they didn't make Fuhrer Bradley the main antagonist. Sure it would've felt a bit cliche, but we spent a ton of time with him and he feels way more fleshed out than Izumi's old teacher, and his plan is way more diabolical and it would've felt a bit more coherent. The show spends so much time of it's story with the military's corruption, and Fuhrer Bradley literally starts wars and conflicts with other nations just to murder his own troops to make Philosopher's Stones. That is so much more interesting than Dante wanting to kill everyone so she can live forever, which isn't bad by itself, but come on, Bradley's was way more interesting. Dante also has one of the most, if not THE most, anticlimactic death scene I've ever seen. Like how she's just kind of.... there, she just kind of.... dies. Ed and Al defeat her, and she leaves the underground city and is devoured by Gluttony who she turned rabid an episode or two ago, in universe like an hour before. Also the last couple episodes of the show are just such a goddamn mindfuck. I've seen the last couple episodes twice and i still don't completely understand everything. I like what happens on the other side of the Gate of Truth, but everything happens so fast that it all just kind of suffers and feels like they could've spent more time building up everything. And the ending is anti-climactic as all hell, I'll just say that much. Brotherhood ended perfectly, one of the best endings to one of the best television shows I've ever seen. Yeah it's a token happy ending but if any show ever deserves a happy ending it is FMA, where the characters go through hell and back, and the ending feels rewarding and deserved. I do enjoy some of the 2003 only characters, like Frank Archer was an okay villain, but the whole "Robo-Archer" shit is one of the absolutely stupidest writing choices I have ever seen in any show I have ever watched. It feels like something right out of a Scully-era Simpsons episode, not Fullmetal fucking Alchemist. So, yeah, in the end, the first half of FMA is a definite 10/10, but the second half is about an 8. I don't want to say the second half is bad, but it suffers a bit. FMA 2003 also develops some characters a little better than FMA Brotherhood does, like Winry, Sheska, Lust, and Marta, which are great, but I prefer FMA Brotherhood. I like most of FMA 2003's exclusive characters, but man, I do love Ling Yao, May Chang, Olivier Armstrong.... all not in FMA 2003.  Also, holy shit, the scene where Fuhrer Bradley is revealed as a homonculus is amazing in FMA 2003. There's a few other scenes like that that are better in 03 like the uhh.... Shou Tucker thing, but generally, I prefer Brotherhood, but FMA 2003 ain't bad. It's all up to you. 

Edited by CyanideFishbone
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