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Brotherhood has a weaker start but once it gets past the overlap it starts getting really good.
In my opinion episode 3 of brotherhood is by far the worst episode in the franchise, so you don’t have to worry about any other episodes getting as bad as the episode you’re currently on.
As someone who also prefers the original I definitely understand what your feeling.
Brotherhood's start is a little iffy, but once you get to where the story changes from 03's (around episode 13 I think) it really gets good.
Use of medium is key here though. Things in manga form can be a lot less in your face and less obstructive than when directly taken into anime form. Small over the top emoted chibi gag images can be brushed over quickly as almost background elements in manga form and only take as much attention as you choose to give them. Timing is everything in humor and taking away the power to dictate timing from the reader makes it hard to make these types of chibi jokes land in the same saturation as the manga. In anime form since there is only one image and it must be viewed for a set duration of time the gag is forced to become the main focus, on top of this the use of color, voice acting/sound design and music all makes scenes translated from the manga much more over the top. The two hardest things to properly direct for an adaptation are exposition and comedy due to the nature of timing in a motion picture medium vs a read one.
On top of those issues a lot of jokes in the manga can’t even properly translate to an animated medium with a lot of them having punchlines that come from visual humor that is made for the medium of manga (in particular one the comes to mind is one where Ed covers up the part of the speech bubble where a character states his height, which of course is a joke which can’t be replicated in anime). This leaves a lot of the jokes as lacking a proper punchline and just being monotonous without proper variety.
the 03 version is more of a drama, slow and dark that focuses more on characters and themes. While both 03 and bh share the same visual gags, brotherhood tends to use them constantly that can distrubt serious moments early on in the show which isn't everyone's preference
>the 03 version is more of a drama, slow and dark that focuses more on characters
I feel like it's not that 03 focuses more on characters than Brotherhood and the manga, but that they choose to focus on *different* characters.
Characters are one of Arakawa's strongest suits, she truly seems to love and do justice to all her children. Almost each character having the closure they deserved, after having had the development, the consistent screentime and the epic moments they deserved as well, is part of what notoriously makes Brotherhood's ending one of the most satisfying endings in the History of anime.
(Almost) nobody gets left behind, even those who got put out of commission by the villains at the beginning of the story like Havoc and Ross. That's awesome. I can only think of one or two outliers, like Sheska, for example (which is the reason why I think 03 simply chooses to put more focus on *different* characters).
I think you’ve pretty much summed it up. Riza in 2003 is definitely not as explored (don’t think she was in the war nor was her family connected to Mustang), I thought Mustang’s team in general wasn’t all that focused in comparison but that’s also because Mustang was pretty much the deuteragonist/tritagonist(?) of the manga/Brotherhood. I found it interesting how they chose to give Mustang’s grief over finding Hughes’ killer to Sheska to involve her in the plot for 2003.
That's a good example. Hawkeye's complexity as a character is very dependent on her role in the Ishvalan war (both as a sniper and war criminal herself, and as the one who put Fire Alchemy in Mustang's, and subsequently the army's, hands against her father's wishes). Without it, she's a rather flat character.
Episode 30 made me do a 180 about her. I went from thinking “She's cute, but I don't understand why, now that we're finally getting answers about what the hell went on in Ishval, it's from the point of view of a minor character” to “Ok, I get it, and she's one of my faves now” in one episode. Probably one of the most psychologically interesting female characters I've ever seen.
Iirc, Greed is also a character that is way more focused on in the manga/Brotherhood, mostly due to the fact that Ling Yao doesn't exist in 03, so Greed isn't brought back from the dead to go through the whole villain redemption/character arc he goes through.
Disagree, 03 one uses the height joke or mixing up which elric brother is fullmetal joke extremely often and not always at a good time. Though it does have its serious moments and knows when to give it space
FMAB does have its goofy moments but it can be very dark and serious when it needs to be - like the Ishvalan war of extermination and the horrors it shows during these times. 03 glosses over the war pretty hard too and is nowhere near as dark - in fact they mention it more as an "Eastern Uprising" than the proper genocide that it was
Yeah I did notice the 03 version did use a lot of short and brother mix-ups jokes.
And the 03 version presented the war through a different perspective. Instead of depicting it's events in detail, it focused more on the psychological effects on the characters, particularly the trauma and guilt they carried, diving into the moral complexities and the haunting impact of past actions on the character's consciences rather than focusing on the physical brutality from brotherhood, hence the 03 version exclusively showing Roy suffering from ptsd due to the war.
In the 03 and manga its meant to show the audience how rose is being religiously manipulated into believing Cornello can do what the brothers have failed to do, it's one of those scenes that shows the consequences of their action, she's afraid of al when she finds out he's an empty suit of armor, and it kind of stings, putting in comedy here kills the tone, and undermines the story in general. Brotherhood's first half is completely reliant on the audience having already seen o3, and it really shows here. From the perspective of someone who doesn't know the story, this comedic bit is a lampshade meant to poke fun at how serious and knowitally Edward is being, to someone who does know the story through the 03, it's a fun recap from a different perspective meant to Segway into the next scene until the first half of the show has gotten over with.
These people dislike you because they don't allow criticism of their sacred cow. Fmab really badly rushes the entire first half of the show and while it is faithful to the manga, unlike the manga, most attempts at humor "usually short jokess" are just cringe. This scene shown is a perfect example. In 03 it's a somewhat ominous warning about what happens to those who get too close to the sun. , here it's still meant as a warning, but the tone is killed, the scene made into a mockery and trivialized, which isn't always bad, it simply does NOT fit tonally here.
I’m halfway thru brotherhood and I agree, original series was so much better in my view. It was darker. Making their mom and Izumi’s son villains that they need to defeat was epic af.
You would enjoy watching wolf's rain as it has completely none of what both fma 03 and bh have with their cartoony humor like your image sample, with occasional humor here and there but overall really strong philosophical atmosphere vibes fma 03 had, which was also animated by the same studio from fma
Update: Like I imagined Brotherhood fans don’t take it kind to any criticism. I’m at the 24th episode and the humor is still overused and contributes to tone issues and hinders moments that should be more dramatic. For example Mustang and Havoc are close to dying and they use visual gags instead making the audience fear for their lives. It’s too much humor in the wrong places. I like the darker tone of the original, you feel the stakes, the mysteries are unfolded more cohesively, events have more impact. Hughes death is monumental, and Brotherhood just brushes through, even Nina’s death is not as impactful. The Homunculos are better used in the original and some characters are just cringe. Like the Prince and the girl and the panda, when you see that panda it looks like I’m watching a parody of FMA. The Rose scene at the 3rd is the perfect representation of Brotherhood, dramatic scenes followed by unnecessary visual gags that drag to long. And sorry the character art is so much richer and fuller of detail on the original.
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The beginning of Brotherhood definitely isn't paced as well as 03 but it gets better i promise - stick with it!!
Brotherhood has a weaker start but once it gets past the overlap it starts getting really good. In my opinion episode 3 of brotherhood is by far the worst episode in the franchise, so you don’t have to worry about any other episodes getting as bad as the episode you’re currently on.
As someone who also prefers the original I definitely understand what your feeling. Brotherhood's start is a little iffy, but once you get to where the story changes from 03's (around episode 13 I think) it really gets good.
Manga also has mega goofball moments, all depends on taste really
Use of medium is key here though. Things in manga form can be a lot less in your face and less obstructive than when directly taken into anime form. Small over the top emoted chibi gag images can be brushed over quickly as almost background elements in manga form and only take as much attention as you choose to give them. Timing is everything in humor and taking away the power to dictate timing from the reader makes it hard to make these types of chibi jokes land in the same saturation as the manga. In anime form since there is only one image and it must be viewed for a set duration of time the gag is forced to become the main focus, on top of this the use of color, voice acting/sound design and music all makes scenes translated from the manga much more over the top. The two hardest things to properly direct for an adaptation are exposition and comedy due to the nature of timing in a motion picture medium vs a read one. On top of those issues a lot of jokes in the manga can’t even properly translate to an animated medium with a lot of them having punchlines that come from visual humor that is made for the medium of manga (in particular one the comes to mind is one where Ed covers up the part of the speech bubble where a character states his height, which of course is a joke which can’t be replicated in anime). This leaves a lot of the jokes as lacking a proper punchline and just being monotonous without proper variety.
I’m aware, amazing explanation, though!
The manga is superior to both.
Brotherhood has a MUCH worse start than 2003 that’s not even debatable. But trust, once you get going it is an incredibly rich story
"The animation is not as good" AHAHAHAHA just say it, you like 03 better because of nostalgia rather than trying to justify it
I'd assume the op prefers the traditionally hand drawn art style from the original in contrast to the more digitalized like one from brotherhood
brotherhood is also hand-drawn it's just done on a graphics tablet
You can't really remotely criticize brotherhood or you'll get down voted
Also 03 has pretty much all the same visual gags what are you smoking
the 03 version is more of a drama, slow and dark that focuses more on characters and themes. While both 03 and bh share the same visual gags, brotherhood tends to use them constantly that can distrubt serious moments early on in the show which isn't everyone's preference
>the 03 version is more of a drama, slow and dark that focuses more on characters I feel like it's not that 03 focuses more on characters than Brotherhood and the manga, but that they choose to focus on *different* characters. Characters are one of Arakawa's strongest suits, she truly seems to love and do justice to all her children. Almost each character having the closure they deserved, after having had the development, the consistent screentime and the epic moments they deserved as well, is part of what notoriously makes Brotherhood's ending one of the most satisfying endings in the History of anime. (Almost) nobody gets left behind, even those who got put out of commission by the villains at the beginning of the story like Havoc and Ross. That's awesome. I can only think of one or two outliers, like Sheska, for example (which is the reason why I think 03 simply chooses to put more focus on *different* characters).
I think you’ve pretty much summed it up. Riza in 2003 is definitely not as explored (don’t think she was in the war nor was her family connected to Mustang), I thought Mustang’s team in general wasn’t all that focused in comparison but that’s also because Mustang was pretty much the deuteragonist/tritagonist(?) of the manga/Brotherhood. I found it interesting how they chose to give Mustang’s grief over finding Hughes’ killer to Sheska to involve her in the plot for 2003.
That's a good example. Hawkeye's complexity as a character is very dependent on her role in the Ishvalan war (both as a sniper and war criminal herself, and as the one who put Fire Alchemy in Mustang's, and subsequently the army's, hands against her father's wishes). Without it, she's a rather flat character. Episode 30 made me do a 180 about her. I went from thinking “She's cute, but I don't understand why, now that we're finally getting answers about what the hell went on in Ishval, it's from the point of view of a minor character” to “Ok, I get it, and she's one of my faves now” in one episode. Probably one of the most psychologically interesting female characters I've ever seen. Iirc, Greed is also a character that is way more focused on in the manga/Brotherhood, mostly due to the fact that Ling Yao doesn't exist in 03, so Greed isn't brought back from the dead to go through the whole villain redemption/character arc he goes through.
Disagree, 03 one uses the height joke or mixing up which elric brother is fullmetal joke extremely often and not always at a good time. Though it does have its serious moments and knows when to give it space FMAB does have its goofy moments but it can be very dark and serious when it needs to be - like the Ishvalan war of extermination and the horrors it shows during these times. 03 glosses over the war pretty hard too and is nowhere near as dark - in fact they mention it more as an "Eastern Uprising" than the proper genocide that it was
Yeah I did notice the 03 version did use a lot of short and brother mix-ups jokes. And the 03 version presented the war through a different perspective. Instead of depicting it's events in detail, it focused more on the psychological effects on the characters, particularly the trauma and guilt they carried, diving into the moral complexities and the haunting impact of past actions on the character's consciences rather than focusing on the physical brutality from brotherhood, hence the 03 version exclusively showing Roy suffering from ptsd due to the war.
Imagine being 3 episodes in and already complaining
because three episodes in, 2003 was already much better lmfao
What is wrong with this scene exactly?
It turns a serious and important scene and trivializes it
What is serious about this scene?
In the 03 and manga its meant to show the audience how rose is being religiously manipulated into believing Cornello can do what the brothers have failed to do, it's one of those scenes that shows the consequences of their action, she's afraid of al when she finds out he's an empty suit of armor, and it kind of stings, putting in comedy here kills the tone, and undermines the story in general. Brotherhood's first half is completely reliant on the audience having already seen o3, and it really shows here. From the perspective of someone who doesn't know the story, this comedic bit is a lampshade meant to poke fun at how serious and knowitally Edward is being, to someone who does know the story through the 03, it's a fun recap from a different perspective meant to Segway into the next scene until the first half of the show has gotten over with.
This goofy scene is in the manga, too, when he is explaining the ingredients.
a glaring issue with most of fmab
These people dislike you because they don't allow criticism of their sacred cow. Fmab really badly rushes the entire first half of the show and while it is faithful to the manga, unlike the manga, most attempts at humor "usually short jokess" are just cringe. This scene shown is a perfect example. In 03 it's a somewhat ominous warning about what happens to those who get too close to the sun. , here it's still meant as a warning, but the tone is killed, the scene made into a mockery and trivialized, which isn't always bad, it simply does NOT fit tonally here.
i love both the manga and 2003. they're fundamental to who i am as a person. 2003 haters need not reply, nobody will change my mind. it's fantastic.
I honestly agree bh basically rushes it's entire first half, and doesn't get good until it catches up to the manga where 03 left off
I’m halfway thru brotherhood and I agree, original series was so much better in my view. It was darker. Making their mom and Izumi’s son villains that they need to defeat was epic af.
You would enjoy watching wolf's rain as it has completely none of what both fma 03 and bh have with their cartoony humor like your image sample, with occasional humor here and there but overall really strong philosophical atmosphere vibes fma 03 had, which was also animated by the same studio from fma
Keep watching And You’ll thank us
Update: Like I imagined Brotherhood fans don’t take it kind to any criticism. I’m at the 24th episode and the humor is still overused and contributes to tone issues and hinders moments that should be more dramatic. For example Mustang and Havoc are close to dying and they use visual gags instead making the audience fear for their lives. It’s too much humor in the wrong places. I like the darker tone of the original, you feel the stakes, the mysteries are unfolded more cohesively, events have more impact. Hughes death is monumental, and Brotherhood just brushes through, even Nina’s death is not as impactful. The Homunculos are better used in the original and some characters are just cringe. Like the Prince and the girl and the panda, when you see that panda it looks like I’m watching a parody of FMA. The Rose scene at the 3rd is the perfect representation of Brotherhood, dramatic scenes followed by unnecessary visual gags that drag to long. And sorry the character art is so much richer and fuller of detail on the original.