Fullmetal Alchemist vs Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

[Manga4life]

So, which series did you guys prefer and why? Which one was truly better than the other? For me, it was really hard for me to go into Brotherhood because I was such a huge fan of the original FMA that the thought of me enjoying Brotherhood more was just unimaginable, but then I sat down and watched Brotherhood and I can honestly say that I do enjoy it better than the original. Not a whole lot better, but just slightly because of the stronger animation and the fact that it just felt "different" than the original Fullmetal Alchemist. I do still hold a torch for the original FMA though, and many of the sad and epic moments of Brotherhood were dulled because I saw them first in the original, so stuff such as Hughes' funeral and Dr. Tucker turning his child into a beast didn't hit me nearly as much as they did in the original show. Any which way, I loved both series and I would certainly recommend either to anyone who wants to get into the genre or who's just looking for a show with a tremendous overall story, but for me the choice goes to Brotherhood because I felt the overall product was just a little better when it comes to story and animation, but the music of the original still shined brighter in my opinion.

[Robotech Master]

Brotherhood, because it was a more faithful adaptation of the manga and the manga got seriously awesome.

The first anime's storyline, which pretty much had no choice but to deviate because it was made when the manga was so young--and actually it started deviating a little here and there from the beginning--was good, but the pacing fell off a little towards the end, and I have to say that I felt some of the ending developments were kinda meh. The conclusion and the final 10 or so episodes leading up to it fell flat for me, and the movie wasn't satisfying at all.

Now the Manga's final arc, the promised day, was downright epic, and Brotherhood did a good job of bringing that to life. You can't help but cheer inside when Ed just fucking clocks the big bad in the face and tells him he sucks.

[The Drunkard Kid]

IMO, the original anime came across more Seineny while the latter was pretty straight Shounen. Its a matter of taste as to which one is better, but there seems to be a limit as to what being awesome can get you in the first anime and it felt like Ed and Al were forced to compromise their innocence a little more. Also, the Brotherhood Anime felt stilted for the first few episodes since they didn't seem to want to spend too much time rehashing the parts that were already covered in the first anime. The pacing got better once it got to the filler and mid/late manga based episodes.

Though I agree that the ending of the movie was kinda meh, since ISTR that there should have been a way for Ed and Al to destroy the gate and still remain on their own side. I mean, Al could create remote controlled golems, IIRC. Or for Winry to at least sneak into plane with them if they decided to keep the Alchemical Nuke plotline (though shouldn't an Alchemical Nuke be useless on Earth if they don't have a Homonculus to use as a Philosopher's Stone?).

[HasbroSlayer84]

I just started watching anime last year and I watched brotherhood on adult swim and liked it a lot so I went to buy it and got the first FMA by accident and watched it anyway and loved the show. I actually like the first FMA better than the brotherhood show, it was more enjoyable for me.

[Zak213]

For some reason, I prefer the 1st anime for its bitter sweetness and i definetely like the fact that ED killed greed and how things played out.

But I enjoyed brotherhood as Ed deserved a happy ending.

[Siriel]

I enjoyed Brotherhood more.

That said, I preferred the first anime's Greed. And first anime's Wrath is still my favourite character in the series for some reason.

[Fast]

I think I liked the Manga better but to be honest I haven't watched the first anime in 5-6 years at least but remember loving it (except some stuff with Envy). Still I know for a fact I liked the brotherood specific characters a lot more than the 1st anime ones. And my favorite character Roy was much better in Brotherhood as well IMHO.

Still I should re-watch 1st and watch all of Brotherhood again side by side before I come back with a definitive answer

[Kusanagi]

Brotherhood, the first parts obviously tell the same story, but the latter parts felt more coherent, fleshed out, and interesting in Brotherhood imo. Also there are so many more awesome side characters that appear in Brotherhood but never in the original anime.

[Selimpride]

The manga.
I didn't like the fact that Brohood rushed at the beginning, oh and the fact that entire flashback of the Ishbalan War which was a full volume of soul killing and the whole innocence dead/war is hell was made into one rush episode without any real depth.

And the first anime bugged me in the way that they were trying to be as dark as possible but it was pointless, the implications that Rose was raped was just pure pandering for tear jerkers from the audience. Oh and some of the characters mainly, Kimblee, Hohenheim, and Bradley stand out since they were fleshed out more in the manga/Brotherhood. Bradley was my favorite character in the manga/Brotherhood because of how complex he really was(the whole human/homunculus thing) and how in the end you felt as if you really will never know who he was, he felt like a puppet(I mean personality wise, we all know he was a puppet in all three versions) in the first anime.

Oh and the fact he was a badass, my shonen side of me loved of how he was probably the second strongest homunculi, he was able to take down the first Greed without effort, he was able to evade a whole barrage of bullets, cut a tank with just a sword and gernade, he was able to fight Captain Bear, Fu, and Lin and killed two of them, and even injured and tired was able to avoid Mustang's flame alchemy(the same guy who took out two homunculus) to pin him down, and was going to win the fight against Scar, who now had the ability to use regular alchemy, had the sun not hit his eye. Which was symbolic in the way the sun since ancient times represents God the thing Bradley hated all his life. All this and he that he is essentially human with an extremely powerful eye. The only things he did in the first anime was kill Martel and lose to Mustang.

I will say though I did like what they did with Lust, I hated the fact she was killed off early on in the manga and even more annoying she was the 2nd homunculi and only female one that Father created but gets taken out like that, so the first anime gets me on that one.

[Hiromi]

I enjoyed the original anime, but the pacing and flow of story never felt right(for obvious reasons), whereas the Brotherhood/manga had one of the better climaxes/endings of any series I've seen in a long time.

[Sabrina_Fried]

Brotherhood. But only because I have never seen the first series. I probably should track it down one of these days.

[Nayrman]

First series by a mile. It feels more compact and personal. The problems tend to stay the character's problems. They'll work together when it suits them, but for the most part it remains an Elric problem.

Brotherhood has way too many shonen cliches at the end of it. Every major character MUST get their moment in the sun during a fight or so, everyone must combine their powers to help defeat the final boss, and so on and so forth. For a series that was mostly very personal and character driven, to just turn it into a big battle royale at the end is just kind of lame.

[Manga4life]

I've recently re-watched the entire Brotherhood series for a 2nd time and I can say that I still find it a tad bit better than the classic FMA, but that's more or less from a production standpoint due to the better animation and the overall look/feel of the show. The original will always take me back to a time when I was pretty new to anime and FMA was one of the series that you HAD to watch to really say you were serious about the medium. There was something about those key moments in the original that will always stick with them the first time I saw them, so it'll always have that going for it at least.

[Reinos]

I liked Brotherhood more than the first series. There were several reason why, but the big one is Brotherhood has two groups I love that aren't present in the first series, Briggs and the Xingese.

[Libaax]

The first anime has good first half but the manga was awesome,great in the end. I havent seen Brotherhood yet but i will prefer the version that follows the manga first.


By the way i think all versions of FMA is more seinan than shounen. FMA was too mature,dark unlike most heroic shounen.