.

deg said:
2003 has slow pacing but the songs are great

Realicle said:
It is pretty definitive.

KarateJones said:
Why would i watch that when it’s not canon? Brotherhood IS the definitive version since it’s adapted from the source material properly

APolygons2 said:
@ShamankinguYoh explain why, don't just leave a take like this as if its fact.

Most people like brotherhood more, but you are in the minority for thinking this poorly of 2003.

APolygons2 said:
@ShamankinguYoh

If it was as obvious as you say, there wouldn't be so many people who love 2003.

It's a completely different story, but it's still a great one. It's one that I for one liked even more. And I love brotherhood btw, this isn't coming from someone who disliked it or anything.

APolygons2 said:
@ciiviic 2003 is a completely different story tbh.

even from the start it has some anime original moments that build up to completely different plot points, it is a genuienly great story, even if you end up liking brotherhood more after watching it.

APolygons2 said:
@ShamankinguYoh That is false.

You just throw "bad bad bad" like that is somehow an argument.



It starts the same, but no, it does fully become it's own story half way through.



You want to know why 2003 is better to me? It's not just that it's darker and the superficial stuff!

I think most of the characters are better here:

I massively prefer dante to father as a villain. Father was actually my biggest issue with brotherhood, everything from his origin to his death was just frustratingly wrong. It's so weird to me how a show with as many great villains as fmab, can fumble the bag so hard when it came to the main one. Dante is no masterfully written villain either, but at least she isn't a walking plot hole, and her character actually has a direct connection to edward.



Lust is barely a character in brotherhood, but 2003 she was one of my favourites.

I liked scar's character more, His brother's massive crimes make his hate for alchemy and hunt for blood, make so much more sense. and his conclusion was holy shit was it amazing in 2003, sacrificing his arm to save ed's little brother, the same way his brother did for him.

I liked the elric's teacher more, I somehow even liked roy more, who was already one of my favourite characters of all time in brotherhood. He get a lot fewer bad ass scenes, but his story is just so inspiring and tragic at the same time, he being the one who killed winry's parent instead of scar adds so much to his character.

and hues being the one who talked him out of killing himself also adds a ton to their dynamic.



I could go for so long.

I think the twist about the portal was so much more interesting and even logical, than some white thingy called truth being the source of all power. I Rose being the one inspires edward the same way he did years ago is brilliant. I think edward believing in the illogic of equivalent exchange despite making fun of rose for something similar is terrific ironic writing.

The music is just as good, if not better than the original.

It has so many philosophical ideas and themes, that kinda existed in brotherhood too, but all were dumbed down or barely explored.






I can go on for so so so long.

I could probably go just as long about brotherhood, but as I said, I love both. This isn't about brotherhood not being amazing. it is. This is about 2003 being arguably just as good if not even better. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses.

ShamankinguYoh said:
Jesus Christ. Good job proving me right about not understanding the real story. Nothing more needs to be said. Congratulations. You fundamentally misunderstood Fullmetal Alchemist. To actually prefer Dante as a villain means you didn’t understand anything about Father or his narrative purpose and thematic connection to the Elric brothers.

APolygons2 said:


Alright, Now this genuinely pisses me off, your overconfidence is so damn painful.


I will break it down for you, maybe you can learn what the hell you're talking about then:

ShamankinguYoh said:
It’s almost like Father being a hypocritical character was the point.

APolygons2 said:

ShamankinguYoh said:
Agree to disagree.

APolygons2 said:
@YagamiLight_1212 @

2003 was always going to be anime original, it plants seeds of it's later plot points from the very start.

The ending of 2003 is bitter sweet, but how does it miss the whole point? It is thematic perfection.


Now the movie DID suffer from a lot of story cuts that they had to make as compromise, so it ends up being a bit lacking, but that isn't a bad ending either.


Brotherhood was made because 2003 ended up being a completely different story, not because it was bad. 2003s reception was never "poor" despite the controversial ending. Brotherhood's existence wasn't because 2003 adapted the manga poorly, or because it was bad.

It existed because 2003 didn't adapt the manga at all, and was it's own story after a certain point.

YagamiLight_1212 said:

No, no, no. It was not always going to be anime original. There’s no evidence of that anywhere online or from the author at all. Anywhere you look will tell you the same thing. The anime caught up to the manga too quickly and the author Hiromu Arakawa couldn’t stop the anime so she decided to ask animating studio to create it’s own storyline based on what was published at the time which was about 28 chapters out of 108. I never once said FMA was “bad” or the reception was “poor” please don’t misconstrue my words here. I enjoyed FMA (look at my rating if you don’t believe me), but when I compare the two shows, I prefer to go with FMAB, because it’s the faithful adaptation of what Arakawa had written. I also want to state there’s absolutely nothing wrong with AOE, but I would rather watch a show that is faithfully adapted from the manga vs an anime original ending. The author wrote it a certain way and if they wrote it that way who am I to judge and say it should’ve ended or been written another way? If it weren’t for them we wouldn’t have the story in the first place. The whole reason there are two versions of the show is simple: it’s just that popular, and always has been. The manga was popular enough to create an anime so early in its run that it had create an original ending (not make the whole anime original from the get go) it was only natural to adapt Fullmetal alchemist again once the manga was (nearly) finished, especially since the two had diverged so massively. I’m not looking to fight here, I’m just here to explain the reason why there were two different shows.

YagamiLight_1212 said:
It was not always going to be anime original. There’s no evidence of that anywhere online or from the author at all.

APolygons2 said:


I'm not looking for a fight.

Brotherhood is a fantastic story, and I can fully see why someone may like it more. Even for me, they are very close in quality, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses.


But I will argue about this specific point that you made, cause why do you need the author to say it, when the evidence is right in the show itself?

We see flashes of Lust's past, extremely early on. The girl who dante takes over the body of, was an anime original character. shou tucker surviving was also something that only happened because they planned to change the story.


Listen, anime production is not a fast process. you can't really start a 50 episode long show, and only descide what to do in the second half right when you reach it. Writing stories takes time, even if it is following a foundation made by someone else.

It literally would make 0 sense to say they just started writing the anime original stuff AFTER they got to that point while adapting it. and again, there are several plot points and hints super early on, that purely exist to fuel the changes.

KarateJones said:
Why would i watch that when it’s not canon? Brotherhood IS the definitive version since it’s adapted from the source material properly

ShamankinguYoh said:
Here we go again with this nonsense. 2003 is garbage and most of it makes no sense.

YagamiLight_1212 said:
that the anime caught up so early that the author went ahead and told the animation studio to create their own story

APolygons2 said:
I just finished 2003, and I actually ended up liking it more than brotherhood. Brotherhood is not the definitive version, it's just a different one.

frankly, the themes and ideas feel almost dumbed down here.

and I for one think the character arcs of 2003 are somehow even better. It's a lot more sombre, and honestly barely feels like a shounen at times, but if you like this series, 2003 is a lot more than a shlob that should be skipped in favour of brotherhood. It's actually a fantastic show in it's own right.


That is NOT to say you will necessarily like it more too, the scores would tell me that you probably won't.

And there are a lot of things that brotherhood does do far better, it being far more tightly written with far better action is just the start of why brotherhood can be seen as the better one.

But 2003 is a completely different experience built up on the same foundation, and that is not an experience you will get to have every day.

a_cord said:

I love FMA03! For me: FMAmanga>FMA03>>>>>FMAB

APolygons2 said:


It's not about believing. It just doesn't make sense.

Why did they make the changes before running out of manga content changes then?

Why did they give hints to events that only happen in the 2003 anime original story so early on?

If their goal wasn't an anime original from the start, the when did it become their goal?



Of course it out paced the original, I wasn't saying it never adapted the manga. I was saying they knew from the start that they would catch up at some point, and had planned to make it an anime original. If the author gave them permission to go anime original, it must have happened way earlier on.

It couldn't be after they caught up, cause there wasn't a break. It's not like they just wrote animated and storyboarded each episode by the week. if you know how anime productions work, then you know these things take planning. you can't just suddenly change to anime original on the spot.

I'm not saying you are lying and the author didn't give them permission. I'm not saying 2003 didn't start being based on the manga. I am saying, they built it up with the idea that it will catch up at some point.