At Low On Hit Points, Michael wrote about how the original adaptation of FMA packed a better emotional punch than either the manga or Brotherhood, and I’m pretty much inclined to agree. However, I don’t think that that means the manga or the second adaptation are necessarily worse than the original show, since they each target different aspects of the basic concepts in the series.
The anime adaptation of FMA was heavily character driven. It took the original concept and themes of the manga and adapted them for better effect, essentially fleshing out what hadn’t been fully explored in the manga. For example, you could look at the two or three episodes spent on the Lior arc. The extra elements added to the arc (such as the gruesome depiction of Rose’s ressurected “lover”) made the viewer empathise more with Rose – she seemed to have more of a reason for her actions than in Brotherhood where she just looked like an adamant, then ignorant and then mentally traumatised religious fanatic. It also managed to create unique and well-developed characters, taking those characters with small parts and developing them rather than introducing new ones. In the end, it ends up being that the show is based more around the reasons for the character’s actions, by which I mean how their personal past experiences affect their actions later on. In the original series, it’s one of the more powerful moments when Rose shouts the very same words that that Ed had told her years ago, especially when it’s the first time she’s spoken since the (traumatising) war in Lior. As such, the show ended up being more seinen than shounen, focusing on the psychological, moral and emotional questions that the original concept brought up more than anything else.
In contrast, the manga and Brotherhood are plot driven, particularly in the case of the manga. The original anime was a weekly show and therefore had about four times as much content as the manga each month – it had the time to develop its characters while still keeping a good pace with the plot and not exasperating the viewer. With the manga, things had to move forward with more speed so that it didn’t get bogged down in exposition for 2 months without anything happening storywise. Perhaps this would be annoying if the plot of the manga wasn’t so great. The history of the country plays a large part in what happens with the story, so to add lengthy character development on top of that would mean it takes an age to get anywhere. The fact that new characters from new areas are introduced as the series continues doesn’t help with character development either. From where I’ve read up to, Arakawa has great plans for her series, but doesn’t want it to end up being dragged out over twenty years. The moral issues in the anime are still present in the manga (at least until where things diverge) but they’re simplified for the sake of the story. There’s more of a focus on what’s happening than the reasons the characters are making these things happen. In this way, it ends up being more of a shounen overall. The same can be said for Brotherhood since it’s being as faithful as possible to the manga (right down to the character designs). The reader/watcher ends up empathising less with the characters and being more engrossed in the actual story.
Though an anime with “deep” characters is more likely better than an anime without, each version has their own objectives, as well as positive aspects. The writers of the original FMA anime wanted to improve upon the issues raised in the manga within the short period of a year that they had. Since it’s a weekly show, the drama and tension are maintained more consistently than in the manga. Things move forward much more quicly in Brotherhood and the manga , and humanity and morality are delved into more deeply in the original adaptation, but neither of them discredit the other. I’ll probably always like the first series more, being ever so slightly more of a “character” man myself (and the fact that the first girl wins) but reading the manga as well means I get my grand and engaging plot as well.
Also,the art and music in Brotherhood aren’t as good as in the first series. *shrug*
Grand Punk Railroad 
Thinking about Eternal’s post on the matter, it’s possible that we are predisposed to the first treatment of a subject (unless we hated that). If true, then all things being equal, we favor the first take on a story we heard. I wonder if that extends to your comment about the art and music in Brotherhood not being as good as the original.
As far as the music goes, it’s hard to surpass Michiru Ooshima’s efforts. Akira Senju is a composer whose works I admire (See Red Garden’s OST) and though he doesn’t surpass Ooshima, he comes pretty darn close.
Other than that, I’m finding that I like the first FMA a whole lot more. It’s not a point that one can easily dismiss as nitpicky since there is a discernible difference between the two entities, especially since in my eyes, the first season’s plot is just as strong as the second (so far) but that added touch with the characters and the moral dilemmas it posed was what sent the quality of the series up so high.
Building on your point, we need to consider that most people are comparing the two series between similar plot points. For example, the compare everything up to Tucker’s arc in both series. At these same plot points, the first series has more character development since it had more episodes devoted to each arc. Though it’s less natural, perhaps it’d be more fair to compare the first 5 eps of FMA I with the first 5 eps of FMA II, regardless of how far apart their plots are.
My memory is rusty as far at the details of FMA’s soundtrack but Brotherhood has impressed me so much lately I don’t think it would be beaten. Even if it were they are both top tier so it does not matter much.
Looking back, Ooshima used a few more trumpets and symbols and flowing string melodies. All in all it sounds more dated. It would fit in a very old American movie. Some tracks would work in a Ghibli film even.
Other tracks are more far out and would fit well in certain games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UX6XHeSka8&feature=PlayList&p=45042787AEB3B6DC&index=23
I wish I could cite a classic movie that uses a piece like this off the top of my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPqA6Th1aHU&feature=PlayList&p=45042787AEB3B6DC&index=25
Well, here’s a stab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaH8Oj3Wgk&feature=PlayList&p=82162BDF011E7BCC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13
You get my point about the way he uses the same orchestral lay out?
I must admit Brothers,kei and kodoku are tremendous classics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqAejaacEl8&feature=PlayList&p=45042787AEB3B6DC&index=38
Oh, and the movie had Beethoven’s fifth!
Given that a lot are quite similar, Akira Senju’s standout tracks are more elegant and modern. Even this far, I’d give it the edge. I would like to hear brothers in the new show though.
See the song at the 15:30 or 20 min mark of ep.3[the new brotherhood] or 16min in ep.4.
It’s not a full comparison but it’s clear that the difference is not so great.
I agree with that guy you linked to at the beginning…
While I obviously agree that characterization is better during the first adaptation, I do believe that plot is also better. What the homuculus mean to the plot in the first adaptation is far more significant — in my eyes — than what they mean to the plot in the manga, from what I’ve read.
I’d like to see further into the manga and in a more direct fashion (than simply reading plot spoilers that I’ve read), so I want to watch further before I comment more on it. But if I have to comment on what I know now, I have to say that the first adaptation is better in everyway, plot included.
I guess this explains why Brotherhood, particularly for the first three or four episodes, felt so rushed. It’s not quite as bad in the most recent episodes (or it might just be that the faster pacing is a little more appropriate for the current events in the plot) but I still think they could stand to slow down and let the ideas sink in a little more.
I’ve always, always liked character-driven stories better than plot-driven because without characters that I can wholeheartedly sympathize with, it rarely matters to me just how ground-breaking or supposedly interesting a plot is. I have still yet to actually read the FMA manga, but I do agree that the difference between the first FMA anime and Brotherhood lies mostly in the characters; that would also explain why the more character-centered episodes in Brotherhood so far are those I like the most.
I’m also in the camp that really, really misses the OST from the first anime, even if the OP and ED for Brotherhood are great.
Its an interesting point, and I see a good deal of validity in it upon reflection – I had been trying to pin down why I was not really enjoying Brotherhood (much to my chagrin), but wasn’t coming up with anything substantial beyond it feeling rushed… I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, though.
The first FMA anime was one of my favorite series precisely because of its focus on characters and their relationships. They did a really nice job detailing the relationship between Ed and Al and also the love they have for their mother. The manga is leaning more towards the grand scheme of things and the action. The manga is not going to have the same emotional impact (pending the ending), but the action should be better and more plentiful than the first anime. Hard to say which one is better overall.
I’m not familiar with the manga and the original series is in my distant memory now, but your comparison definitely makes sense in general. Shounen tend to be more plot-driven, particularly the good ones that actually have a plot, but earning an emotional reaction from the viewer often requires likeable characters. On the other hand, the shows I react most to usually don’t have much in terms of story, and vice versa. Long story short: you’ve got the right idea.
@moritheil
That’s possibly the case, but I’d hope that it wouldn’t be. I’m not trying to be harsh on Brotherhood (after all, if I go into it negatively thatn I shouldn’t be surprised about what I dislike) but the short, squat faces do put me off slightly.
@zzeroparticle
It all depends on what type of anime fan you are and what your favourite aspects of anime are, I guess.
@Baka-Raptor
The increase in pacing leaves a lot to be desired in terms of characters, but it’s better than just rehashing content for 4 months. Different aims, different results.
@kaki
I liked the dated feel, though. I love strings, synthesized or otherwise, as well.
@Michael
But once again, that links more into characterisation than actual plot. They’re not particularly relevant in the overall scheme of things.
@Sorrow-kun
We’re probably too busy comparing it to the first series, since the manga progresses at much the same speed. I’m just glad they’re trying to get onto the original manga content ASAP.
@Kiri
I kind of see from both sides of the spectrum. Just as long as characters aren’t stale or boring, then I can enjoy a plot focused show just as much as a character focused show.
@adaywithoutme
Oh well, at least the animation looks real perdy hur hur.
@TJ
There certainly wasn’t a lack of action from the first series, but more is always welcome, especially considering how awesome some points in the manga are.
@ETERNAL
Thanks. I tried to appease both sides while still gicing a valid argument, though it seems as if eveyront prefers the orignal show anyway.
I enjoy watching Brotherhood but it certainly doesn’t leave the same impact on me that the first series did, emotionally that is.
I tend to enjoy more character driven shows, I think because its easy to empathize with what’s going on when even if the situation is completely outlandish, you can at least connect with the emotion because that is completely familiar to you.
I certainly enjoyed how the first delved into why and how the Homunculi came to be.
I prefer the score for the original. I think Bratja is one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever heard and it always fills me with a sense of wonder. I think its even more powerful because it really connects you to Ed and Al and their bond.
For that reason I think the old style works better for the first series.
Because I think the flowing melodies work better with the more emotional, character driven first series than a more modern sound would have.
We’re still reading and writing and watching plays, t.v shows, stories, exploring those same emotional themes that Shakespeare wrote about all those years ago.
Because we all experience them they are timeless and I think the more old style music reflects that and resonates so much better than a more modern sound would have.
Having said that, since Brotherhood isn’t so character driven Senju’s score works well. But given my preference for character driven over plot, the first score speaks to me more. I have to say it grows on me the longer the series goes on, but in my mind I don’t think it will ever surpass Ooshima’s score.
The excitement that the first FMA gave me will be hard to match. So far, i’ve felt Brotherhood is lacking the essence that made the first run so good. I’ll continue to watch it though, to see how things work out.
There is obviously a lot to know about this. There are some good points here. 🙂
[…] what more can I say about FMA that I haven’t already said. It seems I appreciate it the more I talk about it, watch it, or even think about it. I […]
I agree with what you said about the manga being story-driven while the anime is character-driven. There’s no sense in comparing the manga and the first anime. They’re completely different interpretations of the same universe and they’re both excellent in their own way, not to mention the fact that they’re both from completely different mediums with different expectations. I great memories of both.
Brotherhood, however, is a very solid and entertaining series… but hoo boy is it a rough diamond. First off, it’s an aesthetic disaster. The music is good, but with the exception of a few tracks, it just went straight through my head unlike the absolute masterpiece that was the first anime’s OST, which wormed their way in there and somehow never left. And with the exception of Yui’s flawless pop-rock masterpiece Again and Uso by SID, the great track supporting one of the greatest ending sequences of all time, the opening and ending themes range from forgettable to OH MY GOD TURN IT OFF. Then there’s the art. The show is VERY well animated… but dear GOD Bones, HIRE A NEW ART TEAM. There are frequent noticeable and at times serious quality control issues, one of the most glaring is Mustang’s unintentional “DERP” in episode 4 (or was it 5?).
When you move away from the aesthetics, however, you find a brilliantly plotted, masterfully written, sometimes oddly paced, nowhere near perfect perfect, yet always entertaining shonen series. With the exception of the complete pacing failures that are the first 13 episodes, the manga’s absolutely incredible, mind-torching storyline is preserved in top form. Also, several of the manga only characters are some of the most colorful and entertaining individuals out there. And I have to admit, although I love the first anime’s homunculi, the manga’s homunculi are much better. Brotherhood does still have quite a few glaring issues though; the biggest of which is that even after the first 13 episodes the pacing is still a bit too fast.
So, Brotherhood is very good. In fact, it’s better than just about every other popular shonen out there. Naruto and Bleach can’t hold a candle to it.
And yet, in my mind, the first series still beats it out in every way that matters. It is my personal favorite series of all time though, so that may have something to do with it.
Brotherhood is great… BUT if they had just taken those crisp hi-res widescreen computer graphics and redrawn the original series like that, otherwise sans changes, it would probably beat it hands-down.
Things being the way they are, both are very worth watching and highly enjoyable.
PS with either series, you do sometimes wonder what masterpiece it would have been if the animators were Gonzo or Sunrise instead.
The first FMA butchered Hiromu Arakawa’s original work, since the series were already over by the time the manga was in its 8th volume.
Which meant that some major plot points in the manga, had to be scrapped in order to fill a weekly show, like Lust was Scar’s brother’s wife of girlfriend and became a Homunculus through transmutation? Or that cop-out for the finale, that there was an alternate reality? Compared to the Brotherhood ending, which was a satisfying conclusion? Or even turning Ed and Al’s mother into a Homunculus?
Studio Bones did a great job on Brotherhood and the character designs were closer to those of the original manga and kept the relationships between the characters intact which made the original manga a hit. The soundtrack does fail in some points if you listen to the songs without the accompanying scene.
And let me conclude by asking:
What does it have character development in a crappy plot that ended nowhere?
Honestly, after watching both, I really didn’t like Brotherhood, not because it was bad, I’ll admit it was good for a shonen, but that’s what it turned out to be, just another shonen. With the original, the characters, as pointed out, were better developed, to which you felt emotionally invested, and that’s how you know you’re telling a good story, when you feel for the characters. I never got that with Brotherhood, I never felt invested, I knew everything would be fine, so on and so fourth. I’ll give you an example, the homunculi, in the original, they were people, they had good reasons for what they did, they weren’t just mindless peons, and they had a good goal, to become human. In brotherhood, they were just your typical peons that worked for the big bad man trying to become god, which is another issue, the fact that Brotherhood’s main villain is your typical Shonen Jump villain, the one who wants to rule the world and make it into his own image. Now Dante may not of been the most enjoyable, she was more sympathetic, because of the whole aspect of being afraid of death. Another issue with Brotherhood is the fact that out of all the episodes, it always had a cheesy moment that ruined the feel of the episode, to which it could be a good 10 minutes of being serious, then suddenly something funny. At least with the original, the comedic aspects fit, to which it didn’t ruin the pacing, even in an episode that’s funny, the serious moments felt serious, and it kept well with the pacing. When the episode was serious, they kept it serious, didn’t throw in cheesy comedic moments. Then there’s the whole horrible pacing of the first 14 episodes. The fact that it took 15 episodes just for the anime to be good is bad, I’m sorry, but with the original, you just got into it, you got sucked in to what was going on and you felt invested. Now the things Brotherhood did well, the action scenes, the expansion of the world, and the addition of two characters. That’s not enough, and ya, a lot of people say that since it fallows the manga, it’s automatically better… No, that’s not the case, because it also pulled in the elements that fit in a manga, but wouldn’t fit in the anime. As I said before and I’ll say this again, a good story needs to make you feel invested in it’s characters, it needs to make you think, it can’t just be mindless. So in the end, FMA will always be better then Brotherhood.
Brotherhood didn’t need have tons of angst ad melodrama to be better. The character manage there struggle far better instead bputting in forced drama every five second. Also 2003 will never be better than Brotherhood because it’s plot completely falls apart with that whole real world copout and it’s ending was just bad. Not to mention the cast as a whole isn’t as well developed as Brotherhood as well/
And Dante was a horrible villain that had an incredibly lame death. Father was far more developed in back story and character than she was.
It’s clear you’re being biased and simple drunk on nostalgia to realize 2003’s shortcoming.
I agree 100% with the above poster. There are manga that are better than the anime, like Pandora Hearts, which is an absolute masterpiece of a story. When I say MASTERPIECE, I mean it. Like FMA, this story looks at every character, even the supporting ones, gives you their past, explains why they do the things they do and make even the evil ones sympathetic. Every single one of them is lovable and human with their flaws in their own way.
Sound familiar? That’s just what FMA did. Rose was suffering from emotional trauma after being raped and left to die. Lust is trying to figure out who she is, (much like Alice from Pandora Hearts), Greed just wants to live forever, but at the same time he wants to cut down the homunculi, Wrath wants to be human and have a real home, Sloth is confused by her past, Ed wants to be normal.
The first series did a wonderful job with comedy and drama. You know, episode 6 was a light-hearted but still serious episode, with the baby being born and the funny humor in it but it was still serious. Brotherhood makes everything into a joke and ruins the seriousness. It’s like FMA was dubbed by 4kids or something in this abomination of a sequel.
I absolutely adored the first anime. Because the characters were not abstract, I could relate with them. Any anime I cry for, I feel connected to. Any anime I feel for, I know is good. The ones I didn’t feel for, I knew they weren’t good, like Elfen Lied, and Brotherhood. I felt for Bleach, for Naruto, for FMA, for Code Geass. I cried for all of those shows. I probably cried the most for Higurashi no naku koro ni or Pandora Hearts.
Aside from that, this author is awesome. The person who wrote this post should be proud of themselves.
Are you claiming you felt more emotion from Naruto and Bleach than FMA Brotherhood?
Yeah, you clearly have great taste for anime. >_>
It really doesn’t matter what taste I have in anime; everyone’s different, sure. But I sure didn’t feel much of anything for FMA Brotherhood compared to other shows that I’ve felt connected to. Good fiction makes you feel for the characters; that one certainly didn’t. I’m an amateur writer headed towards original fiction, so I have a good grasp on what makes a good or bad character. I certainly don’t get the hate on people that like a tv show because it doesn’t follow its original 100%. Of course it can’t. You can’t fit everything that’s in a book into a movie or tv show; it’s impossible to do so. The first series only went on original territory because 1. There was nothing coming from the manga at the time, and 2. The author herself approved of it and saw nothing wrong with it. If she’d seen something wrong with it, then she would’ve spoken up. It’s not the fans’ responsibility to act like the author and jump down the throats of those who like an anime when the author herself has no problems with it.