Brotherhood has a lot of followers,but I'm afraid I'm likely in the minority here,but let's throw following the manga out for a second as a reason why Brotherhood could possibly be better and allow me to pose the following topical question...how on earth is Brotherhood a better show than the original FMA anime?
I've seen very little in the way of substantial evidence that would equate to Brotherhood being a more well-done series,aside from "It actually followed the manga" bullsh*t (sorry about that).This is understandable as a criticism from those who were huge fans of the manga,as I can reason being disappointed that not every single bit of the content that you grew to love ended up on screen originally,and if you weren't a fan of those deviations...then that could only make it worse,I get that.
Brotherhood is a shallow bare-bones show with a mediocre of effort behind it meant to give itself an actual identity as a show.It's a gimme to the manga fans,a crowd pleaser(which it accomplished),but I can't seriously take the idea that it is actually better than the 2003 show,seriously.
The first half of Brotherhood covers essentially what would be the first third or so of the original show and it does it in such a viciously and seemingly expedited manner that is not only jarring for non-manga readers like myself,but audaciously pretentious.It's understandable this needed to happen,but the show played out as if they already knew you had already seen(or read) this stuff.It's actually almost embarrassing to watch.What's unfortunate is that they expected the manga or the original series to essentially be the pillars on which they slop-fed you that the whole first half,letting the older non-related content fill the gaps.It makes sense as a plan,but individually for Brotherhood,makes for a terrible conglomeration of episodes that is really in the top three faults of Brotherhood as a show.Once the manga picks its own pace up around the time it moves along its own unique path(the manga one),it becomes more intriguing.Basically the problem here is that they covered the material incredibly poorly in the first half of this series.
I pose to you...does a great book(or a manga in this case) does always make for a great audio/visual entertainment?Some things are better left to the pages...and unfortunately think that Brotherhoods story and some of its details fall squarely in to this syntactical basis.There are a few unique traits about the original series that make a huge difference in how you interpret both the anime and the characters...I'll go over two big ones.
In Brotherhood,Scar is responsible for the death of Winry's parents.He killed them in a fatigued rage as it was during a hectic time of war despite them being doctors.Now...in the 2003 series they made an incredible change to this historical event.They re-wrote Mustang as the killer.In the heat of war,they were treating the enemy,and he was given no choice but to execute them as traitors.
This one single change does a few things.First...it completely absolves Scar from being the biggest hypocrite in the show.His life goal ends up being to kill off all of the state alchemists for what they did,but guess who spilled innocent blood long before the war was over?Scar.He murders in cold blood two defenseless doctors who were given medical attention for his wounds.This makes Scar a preposterous hypocrite,and as a result makes it increasingly difficult to sympathize with his motives if at all.On the other hand,Mustang is now the murderer of Winry's parents.How can you ask for a better ticket to drama?Edward Elric's commander killed his best friends parents!One simple detail changed and it both changes a conceptual flaw,and it creates an amazing new dynamic to the Fullmetal Alchemist canon.A brilliant change.
Next are the Humonculi.In Brotherhood and the manga,these are simply horrific creations spawned in the power of the philosopher juice with the steady hands of the original Hunomculus.Boring!They changed this in the 2003 series...to something way more both intelligent and clever.In FMA 2003,a Humoculus is born every time there is a failed human transmutation...and not only that but it takes on the form of the human ingredient.This was a brilliantly thought out change as it provides the potential for so much character drama in the face of their unsightly relatives and friends as a for with a personality they can no longer recognize.This is most prominent around the time they are killing Sloth(Elric's Mother). This is another dynamic creatively woven in to the "new" story of the 2003 series.
Now,let's talk about the creators of the Humonculi,Dante and Father.Father was that guy who was marginalized in the past and set out for power and security as a result his character was megalomaniacal to the point of being flat-out unbelievable.His story is a common trope played out in fantasy settings,particularly Japanese ones.He's an example of a character who has reasons for being the way he is,but the sheer extremity of his actions is out of the realm of justifiability or even rational thought.
And Dante is much more grounded in reality.Take a character who has lived for 400 years.Has experienced heartache after her lover left her in face of tragedy.Has spent hundred of years watching humans grow old and have children,just to see those same children repeat the same mistakes of the generation before them.All the knowledge and wisdom she accumulated over her 400(plus another 20 to 40 I'd imagine)years created a different world view.Where we might see our mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow,Dante could easily see it as humanity's inability to learn over hundred's of years of failure.We have to focus on ourselves in our limited years,but her luxury of time gave her more opportunities to evaluate humanity as a whole,over-time first hand.She's cruel,cynical,and somewhat insane,but I can absolutely understand why she is the way she is,and more importantly,could see a reasonable person drawing those cynical and bleak opinions were they in her situation.
Yes...self-servingness and lust for immortality are far from "original",but it was all wrapped up in a package sold to you with sincerity.The antagonist wasn't like that to be antagonistic or because of a childhood experience that shaped the way she grew up,but because her attitude and opinions made sense for a character who lived the way she did.
A big issue I have with Brotherhood lovers is how they criticize the original show for its ending(as in the direction it went as a whole in the last few episodes). I think this criticism is utterly pathetic,because Brotherhood story is equally if not multiple times more absurd.Watching the anime makes it almost seem laughable.The moment the main enemy becomes "God",Hoenheim is right there to enact the plan he has been preparing from the beginning of the damn (sorry about that) series,and from there it's a slow process to the main antagonists eventual defeat.How stupid is this?The defeats the purpose of almost the entire series's events,because Hoenheim has the master plan all along.Also,I completely skipped over the absurdity of becoming God and the swallowing of some giant door the size of the planet and..yeah all of that stuff is weird and abstract.
While the 2003 series isn't innocent being abstract and out there,it went for something more close to home.Something that was more closely tied in to the Elric Brothers themselves instead of some tiresome tale about a civilization that was wiped out by some...thing in a beaker and this things demise.
Story details aside...a major issue not related to Brotherhood's horrid pacing is that almost every identical scene,side by side in comparison to the 2003,is inferior.I'm referring to scenes that played out in both series because as you know for the most part the two shows are incredibly similar up until the point the 2003 show deviated.My best example is the church scene in the very first episode of both series.Watch them side by side.Edward explains to Rose the chemical composition of the human body in both scenes...Brotherhood makes an amazing job in making it look like a joke.In the 2003 series they made an excellent job in making it a powerful scene of conceptual thought provocation.The Brotherhood scene makes it look like an anime LOL moment.This is only the first in a long line of examples down the road until the two branch off from one another,and it's closely tied in to my criticism that Brotherhood did the first half very poorly.
Now a valid criticism from manga fans on the first series is that it was too dark.It was much darker than the air of the manga or Brotherhood.Edward is even killed.He's impaled through the chest.It's gruesome stuff.Fans felt that the first series deprived FMA of its humorous light-hearted value...and this I feel is the only valid-point behind Brotherhood being what it is.It's not that Bortherhood is all jokes,it definitely has serious moments,but it suffers very painfully for viewers like me from a bad case of The Brock.Things are constantly being over explained on screen because there is so much information from the pages from the manga that are hard to show in a finite amount of episodes.The 2003 series took the concept of FMA and made it much grittier,which in my opinion is quite appropriate given their circumstance...and a lot of details in the canon.It's because of this route the the 2003 series sees many emotionally charged moments than Brotherhood does,because it capitalized on what it believed it's strenghts were,which given the story was definitely drama.Brotherhood turns many of these great moments that the 2003 series did in to fleeting moments of anime lulz...and you find yourself saying so often "The first show did that part so much better!". These aren't even deviations,these are moments that happened in both series the the 2003 series did better.Opinion?Yes I suppose,but is a like scene when Ed is at the end of his rope in the a fight against the soul bound samurai suppose to be comedy?It became comedy in Brotherhood,and it was nothing of the sort in the 2003 series.It's not a big deal here and there,but felt Brotherhood had an unfortunately thorough means of de-human-ifying (sorry that's the best word I can find to describe it) a lot of great scenes with a lot of relate-ability that made the original show more emotionally gratifying.It made Brotherhood feel as though it lacked "heart",simply going through the motions of essentially being hand puppets for the manga instead of standing on its own as a good show.Tapping into that human connection,that very basic need to live,or to understand the motives behind a killer.This is what the original show did so well.
Lastly,I find the ending of Brotherhood to be too quaint.I don't mind a perfect ending to a simple anime,but the story of FMA is anything but simple.It's incredibly complex (more so in the manga/Brotherhood),and for everything to be peachy at the end,what with the guy getting the girl,Winry pops out some children,Al has his body back,yippee...just doesn't sit right.Conqueror of Shamballa is a great movie in my opinion with a great concept,and it gave us an ending that,while it didn't leave everything in a peachy keen,gave us something that left you thinking "...I can handle that". A non-perfect ending for a non-perfect sequence of events,is what I think should be the recipe.Ed and Al are together,but now they must explore a new world...with even a few recognizable faces.What's even more intriguing is it allows you to wonder about the future.What will happen next?Brotherhood denies you of this potential intrigue.Also this ending taught me a lesson...that life is unfair.But it takes a certain perspective to see the beauty in that unfairness.Even if you don't have back everything you sacrifice,you'll always have something worth having.At the end...Ed and Al are alive,and after what they went through for each other..that's as much as the can ask for.
All in all...I find Brotherhood to be an overrated adaptation of what would be a great manga,yes...Brotherhood keeps you interested,but it doesn't get you invested.I hated Brotherhood because it over-shadowed how emotionally powerful the original FMA was with it's dumb action.I don't care how epic the action scenes were,it didn't made me feel a thing.
And I find the original 2003 series to be a strong,creative landmark of anime that decides to branch off from its source material.It's emotional,it still retains enough of that wacky FMA humor,but it keeps it under control to harness a better potential.The potential to be thought provoking with all the concepts of life and death,the making of the Philosopher's Stone and the choices people make.There were so many great scenes that were done so well,making FMA one of the most human,emotional stories ever told.You can laugh,you can cry and you can cheer.
That,my friend,is the recipe for a great anime.
As always,Smell ya' later!
