Fullmetal Alchemist

2003 or brotherhood, Sup Forums? Which is better?

>None.

I only watched the '03 and the ending disappointed me so much I didn't have the desire to watch Brotherhood.

Watched everything there is as it aired, read the manga.
03 is better.

Watched 2003 first up until Wrath showed up, at which point it was too shitty to keep watching. Imagine my surprise when I found out that that's when it diverged from the manga. Brotherhood is better in every possible way.

Brotherhood is not nearly as good for the first act of the show, which is episodes 1-25 of 20003 and 1-14 of brotherhood. Brotherhood rushed the shit out of that whole section because they figured you knew the atory already from 2003.

03 until it stops following the manga.

>the manga is better than the shows
>2003 is better, despite departing from the manga, and making a bunch of really dumb changes to the plot that were worse than what the manga did
?

2003

"Read" is past tense there, listing his experience with the series.

They didn't change that much, they worked with what they had at the time and did a great job adapting it.

Note that there are quite a few plot changes to the series then. In 03 Ed an Al are 12 at the begining, when in the manga those stories take place when they're 15. So they never meet Barry when he was alive and just saw Hughes a few times, etc.

The state alchemist exam is also completely difeent.

FMA 2003

I automatically disqualify anyone's anime recommendations based on whether they list Brotherhood over 2003. Oh don't get me wrong, I can see how you could think it's better, if it was your first anime and you have sentimental attachment to it.

But damned if there's any other reason to like that Shonen tripe parody of the real FMA. In the 2003 anime the Homunculus could hold up that anime all on their own, even if there weren't any good guys. I thought Ed and Al could die at any moment when I first tuned in during Mustang vs Fullmetal. In the manga/Brohood the Homunculus are just a sideshow like Jesse and James from Pokemon. I mean let's look at all the freaks besides them.

>Al who can use alchemy despite having NO BODY
>Ling and his Sith thing with Greed
>Chimeras of various groups
>Barry (but without the recognition that Al got in 2003 from Greed for immortality.)
>Barry's zombie body
>clone robots
>immortal scientists
>djinn in a bottle, who is also "god of the gate," and Hoenheim's clone, and Ed's.

2003 used some of these but sparingly to say the most, and had a tight explanation for all of them or at least could be inferred (like Archer-bot being the result of chimera experimentation). Hell it even explains where the fake Philosopher's Stones came from if you paid attention in episode 48. Like hell if Brotherhood ever offers an explanation for why they're more common than McDonalds. I can't come up with a legitimate plothole in 2003 except Archer, and that's stretching. I would sprain my ankles walking through a field with all the plotholes I could find in Brotherhood.

2003

Brotherhood is way better than the 2003 adaptation, don't take the bait os that it's a pasta and he thinks himself as an oldfag and a special snowflake.

>FMA 2003
I automatically disqualify anyone's opinion on anime that think this was better than Brotherhood. I won't read the rest of your post because it will just be "muh 03 u guise" chilling.

Brotherhood

Brotherhood. Solid original story, way less retarded than 2003.

they changed a lot, and most of the things they added were stupid

I always preferred the 2003 anime, it was so appealing back in the day. The atmosphere was much more tense and I really felt concerned with each character's fate. Some character's death were also very poignant. The only thing I disliked in its story was how they brought back Tucker in a chimera form.

Brotherhood's story was much more coherent.

>Brotherhood is not nearly as good for the first act of the show
This is why i dropped it. I got board and it didn't seem like they gave a shit.

>Brotherhood had a better story
What did he mean by this?

Love them both

03s fabricated story was shit and the manga/brotherhood had a way better 2nd half and ending

Only thing 03 did underwhelmingly is Dante. Not a very interesting villain. Still, compared to equally bland Evil Hoenheim who is also cliched shonenshit archetype, I cant say Dante was any worse.

>plot is actually resolved at the end
>villain gets defeated by the protag instead of some anticlimactic what-have-i-created scenario in a fucking elevator
>villain(s) have actual motivation instead of "i wanna be young and pretty forever"
>doesn't have baddie-of-the-week filler with zero impact on the plot
>doesn't end on a depressing cliffhanger
>doesn't try to tie the universe into the real world
>doesn't rely on a garbage Nazi movie to finish the story

1st half of 2003 > Brotherhood > dog shit > 2nd half of 2003/movie

Brotherhood's issue was that it rushed the first half because it assumed you already saw 2003, which left the emotional impact of several key scenes hollow. 2003 does an excellent job with the tone and mystery of the show in the beginning, but then goes completely batshit off the rails once it diverges from the manga.

>In the manga/Brohood the Homunculus are just a sideshow like Jesse and James from Pokemon

So true it hurts.

>>plot is actually resolved at the end
And the first one wasn't? That's wrong. It seems 2003 was too deep for you even though it was a shonen. How embarrassing user.
>>villain gets defeated by the protag instead of some anticlimactic what-have-i-created scenario in a fucking elevator
"I need my final boss fight"
Back to Sup Forums manchild.
>>villain(s) have actual motivation instead of "i wanna be young and pretty forever"
That's the best motivation. Literally the first epic written, of Gilgamesh, used this for a motivation. Nothing wrong with it. It's great.
>>doesn't have baddie-of-the-week filler with zero impact on the plot
You have a point, but but not really. Villains of the week were important to contrast and develop Ed's character. Confirmed for not understand the anime.
>>doesn't end on a depressing cliffhanger
AHAHAHA faggot
>>doesn't try to tie the universe into the real world
Instead we get a faggy gate
>>doesn't rely on a garbage Nazi movie to finish the story
Nazis were great. 10/10 would travel to nazi germany again

You have shit taste.

I think you're the only person I've ever seen on this site that defends the ending of 2003 FMA.

That says something doesn't?
(You have shit taste)

That he's right?

Nazi Germany > Super Saiyan final boss with Rasengan and defeated by Ichigo Final Getsuga by Ed (at least I think that's how it goes. I dropped it two chapters from the end because the story was so bad I didn't want to give it the dignity of finishing it.)

The real world twist at the end is the best original plot device ever added into an anime. It explained where alchemy came from, why science isn't as developed in the world of FMA, and the Gate.

Meanwhile in Brohood: "Have you ever noticed that when an alchemist puts their hands together it looks like they're praying?" SO DEEP. Not.

It seemed that Arakawa knew exactly where she was going with the story and every character had a relevant role to play in the grand scheme of things. 2003, while creative, seemed aimless at times. It resulted in it falling apart towards the end which is a shame.

...

>It seemed that Arakawa knew exactly where she was going with the story
Not hard to tell where you're going when every chapter has the villains flaunting their stupid "PROMISED DAY" in your face.
>2003, while creative, seemed aimless at times. It resulted in it falling apart towards the end which is a shame.
I get the opposite. The fact it foreshadowed stuff like Liore that Brotherhood/manga didn't (when Mustang finds out what happened after the Elric brothers left), sets up the shock of the reveal later in the story when it becomes relevant again, and Ed's rage at Mustang when they fight again in the river, but at that time, Mustang doesn't care because he's also hiding Hughes' death from him. It's pure rage vs rage, and though they don't interact again till they part ways in ep 48, the show built off the complexity of it. There was nothing so poignant or deep in Brotherhood. The series had no poker face.

Evil Mustang ripped off Aoshi Shinomori from Rurouni Kenshin wasn't particularly good. In fact, I hate how he kills Lust, then spares Envy at his friend's beckoning, and then he still gets punished by Bradley. "HARHAR. YOU USED TO BE BLINDED BY ANGER, SO NOW YOU CAN BE BLIND LIKE ME!"

Envy is not going to be spared. What happened is that Mustang denied himself his chance to exact revenge with his own hands. It is about self control. Compared to the situation with Lust which can be argued as kill or be killed.

>And the first one wasn't?
not without the movie, which was terrible. having the elrics both reach towards the sky saying they'll see each other again is not an ending. we're dropped into the alternate reality with Ed in the last few episodes and then the series goes WELP TIME TO WAIT FOR THE MOVIE. and the movie ended up being trash. don't even try to defend it.

>"I need my final boss fight"
it's not about the final 1v1mefgt boss fight. it's about the protagonist actualizing the depth of his character and the lessons he learned. the fact that father is punched to death by Ed with Ed+Al's hands is also symbolic. humanity is a major concept in brotherhood, and a mere human defeating a demigod with his bare hands was paramount to the message that brotherhood was trying to portray. the
>DEPLETE HIS MANA BAR
part of the fight was excessive, I agree, but it's the final moments of that fight that count, with Al's sacrifice mirroring his brother's from the beginning. it all comes full circle.

in 2003, Dante is eaten by gluttony in an elevator. she's not even killed by one of the interesting homunculi, but fucking gluttony. nor is her end in any way related to any themes the series put forth. please tell me in what way this is a fitting end to the primary villain of the series. you could argue that envy became the primary antagonist after that, but even so his end was lackluster in 2003 as well.

>That's the best motivation.
"best" and "cliche" are not synonymous.

>Villains of the week were important to contrast and develop Ed's character.
i'll concede that. it does develop their characters well.

>AHAHAHA faggot
>Instead we get a faggy gate
wonderful argument.

>Nazis were great.
yeah they are, in stories where it makes sense to have them. the real-world tie in is so out of place that it's jarring, and throwing in Nazis as the de facto bad guys wreaks of unoriginality. it's the biggest asspull you could possibly do in an original work.

>make a story where the protagonist is an unbearable little shit less interesting than literally every other major character

>having the elrics both reach towards the sky saying they'll see each other again is not an ending
It's literally the perfect ending. The whole point was to show that you can't get everything in life because something must be sacrificed for another thing to be gained. The movie ruined it.
I don't know how you managed to miss the point this hard. I'm certain Brotherhood fans are mentally impaired and you're not helping the case for them.

>depth of his character
He had very little depth and he definitely didn't have a good character arc. That's what the first anime had. So, no I'm not buying it.
And the humanity thing in Brotherhood was so sloppy. It flipflopped between humanity is X or Y whatever suited them. Then there's the problem it's humanity as in better things people do one moment and humanity as a concept of species another. It's terrible and makes no sense in the end because author doesn't know what she's doing.

>but fucking gluttony
Yes and? You can't escape death forever. Something will finish you eventually. Falling to the most trivial of thing was the point.

>cliche
Cliche is good when utilized correctly. Brotherhood did not utilize most of them well and they were too numerous.

They're so different, to a point where they simply can't be compared. Even the characters themselves behave differently.