Battle shounen

>battle shounen
>protagonist is among the least powerful characters in the main cast and weaker than practically every recurring antagonist

Weird.

Because FMA:B is a good shounen.

Doesn´t matter, he won the last fight against "god" with the power of friendship and had no losses. Fucking equivelant exchange my fucking ass. 03 or go home.

Hell there was even that one page where Ed says hes not really that much of a genius but the real reason he got so good was going through the Gate
RIP Wrath

Should I watch the original or the remake?

Sup Forums loves to shit on fma/b but it's one of the best shonen and I think it is the best entry level anime out there. You can't go wrong recommending it to anyone regardless of their tastes or how much they've watched.

>protagonist is among the least powerful characters
this is my favorite when done well since it basically forces the author to write something interesting for fights or at least like Forrest Gump

Watch 2003.

thanks pal

The only dumb moments of the show were when Ed made himself into a stone, when healing himself from the rebar impaling him and against Pride. The ending was just fine.

U wot? Where was there any power of friendship?
03 is the one with the retarded asspull of "uh I guess our hard work is equivalent to something hueh"

Watch Brotherhood, 2003 goes full retard.

>protagonist is among the least powerful characters in the main cast and weaker than practically every recurring antagonist
Pic unrelated? Ed had a hax ability and was skilled as hell and even fought the top state alchemist to a stand still.

oh fuck
I don't know who to trust

>Where was there any power of friendship?

no, ed was quite powerful, his problem was he hamstrung himself because he was so softhearted, he couldn't fight with the purpose of killing. if you couldn't figure that moral struggle out then you have no business watching brotherhood, and should go back to something easy like naruto.

Whelp

You mean clapping? Tons of other characters have ways around that. Sure sometimes for plot convenenience those ways were trivialized to the point it made the characters look stupid but that isn't much of an advantage. Plenty of other alchemists like Armstrong and Mustand could beat him into the ground.

he was good but wasn't as combat geared like a lot of the alchemist who butchered filthy Ishvalans in the war

It's okay user, you can just watch both. I just recommend you watch 2003 first since it was the first adaption and by all accounts handles the first few arcs better than brotherhood.

Brotherhood follows the manga and 2003 is some made up fanfic with nazis.
Make your own decision.

I also vouch for 03. Brotherhood had way too cookie cutter shounen ending that wasn´t memorable at all. 03 made you feel something bittersweet.

That's more him losing all his power because of friends rather than gaining it though

>implying the American Alchemist wasn't the strongest

>WHAT I NEED ARE FRIENDS
>Punch fake god
Did this rip off Soul Eater?

but he didn't gain anything or accomlish anything with friendship power retard. He just said he was okay with giving up his power to live a happy life with his brother, girlfriend, and numerous other companions. You can't compare that in anyway to people like Naruto, the entire cast of Fairy tail, or DBZ.

>weakest in the series
>regularly getting his ass stomped
>beats the strongest enemy in the series by teaming up with the other weakest character and tricking the big bad

03 has a terrible ending. even if you like the 'shock factor' it's a fucking mess

It's just an allegory for the show saying that there is more to life than alchemy, and that alchemy doesn't make you more than human. Not the literal power of friendship. Calm down.

He dies against every Homunculus bar Gluttony and even then it's a shot in the dark if Gluttony uses his False Gate of Truth. And Mustang is so far above him it's not even funny.

That's not power of friendship retard, that's an ending that makes perfect sense considering all the things the show has established. It's like solving a puzzle, fits perfectly.

'03 first, then brotherhood.
It will make you appreciate brotherhood.

>mechanical arms

>trying to copy Violet Evergarden

Pathetic.

Brotherhood if you want more action adventure 03 if you want more of a drama

>young adult tragic romance
>protagonist is the most powerful character in the main cast and only got away for her war crimes because her country won the war
What did they mean by this?

03 didn´t gloss over the pain from the starting arc. It has a more a roadtrip feel to it. Brotherhood skips the beginning with x2 fast forward and got the standard shounen fights after shounen fights with a lot of reappearing annoying shit characters.

The ability to use alchemy without a circle was a powerful ability and Ed was among the best users (Izumi's health made her unable to keep up). He was also able to fight most of the homunculus which only Roy and Armstrong was able to do.
>Plenty of other alchemists like Armstrong and Mustand could beat him into the ground.
He fought Mustand to a stand still when he challenged him.

Zen may have been DEVIL COOL but he beat the strongest character with his dick and the rest of the time mostly got stomped

Just watch the 2003 and the Brotherhood. Their both worth at least having an opinion on.

Conversely the Homunculi held back when fighting him, otherwise he'd be dead. If you think he could have done better, tell me how (and don't say he should have copied Mustang's flame alchemy, because he can't do that).

The only thing that makes those moments dumb is that we don't see the after effects. Theoretically, those two times should have taken years off his life. Possibly dozens of years. He'll die young and leave his children without a father, just like him and Al. But that wouldn't be a happy way to wrap up the story, so it gets swept aside. It was still a neat idea.

It had a fantastic ending since it tied up the theme of giving something to get something. Ed lost all his friends and the entire world he has known just so Al could get his body back. Now that is an emotional ending.

>Reddit Spacing
Pathetic.
Also, it was more steampunkish
Gate bullshit might have allowed him to synthesize something similar but yeah the point was that it was the culmination of one dude's life who promptly destroyed it

Ed was definitely not weak and he was also better than most Alchemists in the series
Greed and Envy didn't hold back

>He fought Mustand to a stand still when he challenged him.

Are you serious? If Mustang goes for the kill there's exactly three characters that can even hope to stand a chance against him: Hohenheim, Father and Bradley. Everyone else dies in literally a second.

You mean 03 anime right? I agree.

>I-I-I-I-I-If Mustang was serious he could win

Ed was fucking powerful, his skills in alchemy outstripped many of those he faced.

Not that user, but yeah, Mustang's flame alchemy is inherently lethal. There's no way he didn't tone it down when fighting Ed.

>snaps his finger
>Edwards head literally explodes
How do you defend against that?

>Flame
>Explode
Don´t you have an eye exam to catch?

Mustang was a character who relied mainly on his flame but it could be easily extinguished making him useless so he's essentially a glass canon . Ed's whole deal was that he was very resourceful and had an ability that didn't require a circle to transmute anything.

2003 is better in my opinion, but every one else insists Brotherhood is the better show. I prefer the visuals of 2003 whole-sale, but I also don't really care about story that much.

Check them both out.

Dude can literally burn an "immortal" homunculus to death. That's the equivalent of burning hundreds/thousands of humans (which is somthing he actally did)

...

I only ever saw the 03 version and that was like 10 years ago. Could someone spoil for me why any random dipshit couldn't just copy Mustang's pentagram and make their own pair of hax insta-win gloves? I feel like they should be mass-produced or something. Maybe I should watch this again.

You will like the one you watch first. 03.

The other ending has him also sacrificing stuff and it doesn't make it worse because "he sacrificed less", he still sacrificed something incredibly important to him around which he based his entire life. But also, the rest of the ending is not a rushed mess of nonsense.

>Friends caused him to lose all his power.

FMA:B is still my favourite anime and manga.

remake.

Brotherhood was made with the assumption you've watched the original, as it speeds through the first few arcs as already mentioned. So watching 2003 first, then brotherhood after those arcs are done would be best.

Because alchemy is not just the fucking symbol and you're done

Explosions are his whole schtick.

There were only two times the show ever tried to explain it and that was in brotherhood. A quick cut of Riza's back with blurred instructions and him muttering to himself about oxygen ratios. That's it.

>How to defeat Mustang

Solved by him carrying a lighter or matches.

>2003: Edgelord
>2009: Fedora tipping edgelord
How can 2003 compete

The original is the better version of the early parts of the story but Brotherhood is overall better

Not bad since Joseph outlived everyone except Josuke, and Giorgio in the original timeline by being weak.

The correct way to watch is 2003 up to the greed introduction then switch over to brotherhood.

He had a lot more style in 2009. You can get away with edgelord characters if they're enjoyable to the audience.

Definitely remake. The original becomes fan fiction.

Greed´s death in 2003 is a godly moment though

Most of the state alchemists are irrelevant. When you look at the main characters and antagonist it's clear Ed is no where near the top, being weaker than Father, all the homunculi (except maybe Sloth), Scar, Kimblee and arguably mustang.

Brotherhood is much better, 2003 diverges heavily from the actual manga after a certain point and then ends up going off a cliff in terms of quality. lots of boring filler too imo

Ed was more powerful than most of the officers and his brother.

Yeah, the officers weren't alchemists. Didn't State Alchemist automatically grant you rank of Major?

Al was stronger than Ed after he learned to use circle-less alchemy.

This. Ed’s strengths were in his tenacity, his ability to take advantage of being consistently underestimated, and in knowing enough about general alchemy to be a jack-of-all trades that can handle any situation. No one but Alphonse was shown transmuting the wide variety of materials he did (whereas most alchemists have a specific niche), and he was still the most creative of them. But as for raw power, he was always in the lowest tiers as soon as the plot started picking up.

FMA is a weak story. 03 is the only way to actually enjoy the show. Brotherhood and the manga are just plain boring.

Because it actually has good writing and therefore he doesn’t always win.

03 then Brotherhood

Makes you appreciate both

Completely wrong. You were probably 12 when you saw 03 or something.

...

Ed sacrifices his powers. He doesn’t use friendship.

Both are great

since he lost his powers isn't that the completely opposite of power of friendship?

Don’t respond to idiots

>mfw I also responded

Watch original until Greed's arc and then continue on with Brotherhood

Ed is great but Roy was the real main protagonist in the later half of the story. Fucking based

Are you actually autistic? I don't even need to reason why there wasn't "power of friendshp"
Now Soul Eater, that another thing. As much as I love it the ending was total trash.

Hunter x Hunter is even better about this

>main character has absolutely no unique powers, and is significantly weaker and worst trained than his sidekick
>he's basically irrelevant to the top end powerful people in the world who often toy with him
>any sudden power boosts only come with immense sacrifice and limitations

oh and I forgot to mention

>protagonists wins maybe 60% of his fights at best

2003>brotherhood

Part of me feels he's a bit too irrelevant.

Two of the best arcs he's basically a side character

that pic always reminds me of early Tower of God
or rather the other way around I suppose since HxH is older

The only arc he's basically irrelevant in is the Election arc, which is the worst one, so I think it's fine

Go back to /r/eddit, faggot.

>implying
You sure you didn't mean mal? You can't deny it has tons of cliches but does them all very well. It hits all the points of a normie friendly anime while still being good quality. The recommending thing was just a hypothetical, it's probably the most common first show that people watch today.

>it's probably the most common first show that people watch today
Pretty sure that's Jojo

hell no JoJos is a meme

Most people today start with One Punch Man or Attack on Titan

Fmab has bonus points for having a great dub that gets spammed on as.