Edward FMA 2003 > Brotherhood Edward

[indigoasis]

18 minutes ago, the actual real soul said:

2003 was also one of my first real anime, and I'm not counting stuff like DBZ (since everyone and their mother pretty much saw it). I started watching it again before yesterday, and I still feel it holds up. There's also another really good thing about this anime, and that's the OPs and EDs. Amazing music I listen to this day. And talking about OPs, the first one ("Melissa") is one of my lesser favourites, but the song is still very catchy and hard to skip.

Melissa is an absolute BOP, but Rewrite is easily my favorite of the openings. And strangely enough, I've never actually watched DBZ. Like, I've seen short slips here and there, but I was never really able to get into it. 

8th grade was when I discovered FMA, and it was Freshman year of high school where I would actively listen to FMA's openings because I loved those songs. 

I'm also gonna leave a link to this remix because I really, really like it (spoilers for Conqueror of Shamballa, since the video uses clips from the movie). Also, if you look through the comments, you might be able to find a comment I left on the video 5 years ago, lol.

2 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Funny; FMAB was the very second anime that I've seen (the first being One-Punch Man unless you count Spider Riders: an animated show made jointly by a Japanese animation studio and a Canadian animation studio). 

I was obsessed with FMA for a good while, so Brotherhood was also my second anime (if you count 2003 and Brotherhood as separate anime, despite being the same series). I forget what other anime I watched after that time, but Death Parade is one that I do remember, and it's one that I highly recommend.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'm gonna have to disagree, pretty heavily. Physically, Brotherhood Ed actually seemed to grow and age more than 2003 Ed, and that gave a sort of representation of how the Brotherhood Ed was growing and changing as a character. And by extension, as a character I felt Brotherhood Ed had a much better and more satisfying growth as a character.

[vanguard333]

4 minutes ago, indigoasis said:

I was obsessed with FMA for a good while, so Brotherhood was also my second anime (if you count 2003 and Brotherhood as separate anime, despite being the same series). I forget what other anime I watched after that time, but Death Parade is one that I do remember, and it's one that I highly recommend.

Interesting. After seeing FMAB, I was looking for more good anime to watch (I was limited by only having Netflix at the time) and I ended up watching Violet Evergarden as my third anime. I remember all this very well because I only saw these shows for the first time two years ago. Violet Evergarden is absolutely fantastic, by the way; an amazing story and emotional journey about grief, the importance of communication and bearing the scars of the past while finding happiness after bearing terrible tragedy. I highly recommend it; it's the only show that ever managed to be emotionally hard-hitting enough to bring me to tears every single episode. So, yeah; fair warning: have a box of tissue beside you if you decide to watch it. 

Incidentally, after that was three anime in a row that I really didn't enjoy: I saw the first half of the first episode of Death Note before deciding that it wasn't my cup of tea, then I tried Code Geass and enjoyed it despite its writing issues up until a certain moment late in season 1 proved so bad that it completely killed all my interest in the show, and then I ended up trying this shonen anime called Fairy Tail that again was neat concepts but lackluster writing; I gave up on it after season 1 (mainly because Netflix only had season 1, but I don't feel like returning to that show any time soon; Black Clover handled being a shonen anime with a world full of magic infinitely better by bothering to have a good story, cohesive world and well-written characters). 

[indigoasis]

20 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Interesting. After seeing FMAB, I was looking for more good anime to watch (I was limited by only having Netflix at the time) and I ended up watching Violet Evergarden as my third anime. I remember all this very well because I only saw these shows for the first time two years ago. Violet Evergarden is absolutely fantastic, by the way; an amazing story and emotional journey about grief, the importance of communication and bearing the scars of the past while finding happiness after bearing terrible tragedy. I highly recommend it; it's the only show that ever managed to be emotionally hard-hitting enough to bring me to tears every single episode. So, yeah; fair warning: have a box of tissue beside you if you decide to watch it. 

I've actually been meaning to watch Violet Evergarden! I at least watched the first episode, and I really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to watching the rest when I can set aside some time for it and actually engage with it. 

If you'd like some more recommendations:

• FMA 2003 - It doesn't sound like you've watched it yet (I could be wrong), but this is an easy recommend. If you have watched it, watch it again. Same world and characters, but it takes on a darker tone. I can't exactly pinpoint when it diverges into 2003-only content since it's more or less sprinkled throughout until it mostly becomes 2003-only content, but there are notable differences between Brotherhood and 2003 that you'll notice.
  • we stan fma 2003 in this house
• Initial D - This is my favorite anime of all time, so I'm absolutely going to recommend it (I'm also biased, so keep that in mind, haha). It's a racing anime from the 90s, so it's gonna look a pretty dated, and it may not even be your cup of tea, but I wanted to go ahead and recommend it anyway. It also goes on for a few seasons (with a movie in between), so it does actually improve in quality over time (even though the quality is reminiscent of the era the individual seasons were released in, so don't judge it too hard if you give it a go, lol). Also, if you've ever heard of eurobeat, the genre of music comes in full force with this show.
• Cowboy Bebop - I've yet to fully complete this anime myself, but I've heard great things about it, so I'll recommend it here.
• Psycho-Pass - Another one of my personal favorites. I actually got into this one pretty recently, too. Anyway, it's a phenomenal anime that has it's share of action and psychological thrillers. It also may or may not be a deep dive into the human psyche in terms of its themes, so if that's what you're interested in, go into the deep end with this one.
• Death Parade - Already recommended this one, but I'll recommend it again. It's pretty short, only 12 episodes, but it tells the story it needs to tell, and I love it. Me and friend watched the whole thing together in a night and a morning a few years ago, so I'm pretty fond of this one.
• Great Pretender - It's on Netflix, so please watch it for your sake and for mine. It's absolutely gorgeous to look at, too. I personally like to describe this as "no u" the anime. Also, you can't go wrong with either sub or dub since both are really good. I watched the first three cases in dub, and the fourth case in sub, and both are soooooo good. This is a top tier anime for me.
• Kakegurui - I feel like this one is tad harder to recommend, but anyway, this is another one of those "no u" the anime sort of deals (also another anime that a friend recommended to me; I did fall out of watching it when it was on it's initial run, but I ended up coming back to it to finish up what's been released so far). It's a gambling anime that includes characters making some very interesting and detailed faces in closeups (mostly in the first season), and I live for it. It does have some, uh... provocative moments, so maybe watch this one of your own, lol (it's not sexually explicit or anything, but I at least want to warn you of it having some provocative material in select instances so you don't get in trouble or anything). 

Anyway, I don't wanna get too off track from the topic, but hopefully some of these will entice you into watching them, or at the very least checking them out!

[whase]

I started out watching FMA:2003, and loved it, so I continued watching Brotherhood and loved it even more. I've rewatched Brotherhood a lot, since I love rewatching shows and coming to new insights, and have since forgotten the plot of 2003. I tried rewatching 2003 last year when it was added to Netflix, but I didn't get past episode 10 because I cringed so hard.

Not saying the start of Brotherhood doesn't have its problems, but I'm just far less bothered by them.

I don't really see any problems with Ed in Brotherhood though, I really like his growth as a character.

Brotherhood is my second favorite show, right behind Avatar the Last Airbender. Still watch it at least once a year.

[vanguard333]

9 hours ago, indigoasis said:

I've actually been meaning to watch Violet Evergarden! I at least watched the first episode, and I really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to watching the rest when I can set aside some time for it and actually engage with it. 

Sounds good. Yeah; it is great. I might try some of your recommendations, but I don't really have much time for shows right now; I have room for two in my schedule, and I'm currently watching two (Black Clover and TONIKAWA). 

 

1 hour ago, whase said:

I started out watching FMA:2003, and loved it, so I continued watching Brotherhood and loved it even more. I've rewatched Brotherhood a lot, since I love rewatching shows and coming to new insights, and have since forgotten the plot of 2003. I tried rewatching 2003 last year when it was added to Netflix, but I didn't get past episode 10 because I cringed so hard.

Not saying the start of Brotherhood doesn't have its problems, but I'm just far less bothered by them.

I don't really see any problems with Ed in Brotherhood though, I really like his growth as a character.

Brotherhood is my second favorite show, right behind Avatar the Last Airbender. Still watch it at least once a year.

I love rewatching FMAB; I honestly consider that show the epitome of rewatch value because there's so much attention to detail and so many little things that are easy to miss on a first viewing.

[NobodiePichu]

FMAB well overall more faithful to the original manga lacks a lot of the mangas charm and weight in presentation, as does fma03. IDK, they both lean a bit to hard into trying to be melodramatic and thematic which makes them come off as somewhat self important, well the original manga had a better appreciation for how silly the whole thing could be. Not helped by how both animated adaptations pull punches or tone down some of the more brutal aspects of the original manga when making the jump to the screen that kinda makes important moments of drama in the source feel not as impactful [ishval being the biggest example there i'd say, which gets expounded on more in the manga then either adaptation which cut the flashback down].
 

03 definitely spreads its wings from the original and creates a story that works well in its own context and it certainly indulges in its own sense of brutality, but id also argue that it gets over indulgent and revels in a somewhat misanthropic attitude and presentation that wasn't really present in the manga [especially as it diverges further and further from the manga] turning ed into a limp sadsack that gets carted around by the plot and one shocking revelation to the next as opposed to the firebrand genius he was originally who needed others to keep his head to the ground.

brotherhood meanwhile well its more faithful to the original manga and well crafted in a technical manner, guts a lot of the original mangas presentation in order to try and be similar to the 03 adaptation at the same time as its trying to be faithful to the manga. Well also being more toned down in its violence. in that sense 03 knew what it wanted to be atleast, brotherhood suffers from an identity crisis reveling just as badly as 03 could but interjecting it with moments of the originals occasional goofiness that now feel out of place in this "super serial, fo real" story.

but then thats just my personal taste.