Oh, FMA 2003, that anime we remember fondly as a 9/10 adaptation slightly worse than Brotherhood, "it diverged from the manga but still was so good". If you're one of those people, then you need to rewatch the anime, because it's more a 7/10. The anime only original content it's not very good. Be warned that I will compare this adaptation with the manga and Brotherhood a lot.
Ok, first let's start with the good. The story until Greed's introduction is faithful to the manga (with the exception of a few episodes), these episodes are amazing, they didn't rush the shit out of them like Brotherhood
...
did. This is more a matter of personal opinion, but the character's designs look so much better here than in Brotherhood. The animation is consistently better (Greed vs Ed looks amazing here, Brotherhood's version looks horrible in comparison). The soundtrack is excellent, specially the tracks that convey sadness and intrigue. OPs and EDs are great too. The comedy doesn't feel as bad and out of place like it does in Brotherhood, it's still pretty bad, but at least the scenes go faster and the music accompanying them isn't as silly (yes, I hate FMA's humor).
Now the bad. So, from a production standpoint this adaptation was great, but since it was produced while the manga was still released, it eventually caught up and Bones decided to make their own version of FMA independent from the source material. They came up with a story that felt a little messy and fanfiction, but this was better than the DBZ and Naruto solutions to this problem, shitty inconsequential side stories, the dreadful filler that almost every shonen has to suffer. The ideal would have been if they waited until the manga had enough new material to release a 2nd season (like Wit did with Attack on Titan). Characters now had completely different motivations, some even changed personalities (for example Envy, Kimblee and Barry are now one dimensional psychopaths) the plot itself took a very different route. Some of this changes worked out kinda nicely, but most of them felt strange and almost as if the mangaka asked Bones to not do anything that could spoil the surprises she had planned for the manga.
Spoilers ahead, skip to next paragraph if you haven't watched FMA 03/Brotherhood. Roy Mustang apparently doesn't give a fuck about his best friend's murder, he replaces Scar's entire purpose and character arc as the killer of Winery's parents depriving Scar of his whole redemption arc. King Bradley, the most badass antagonist who had some of the best fight scenes in the manga/Brotherhood is almost nowhere to be seen and given zero nuance to his character (he was an evil person with some good traits in the manga, here he is just an asshole who kills his non-homunculi son). Father wasn't that great of a main villain until the climax, so I didn't mind much that he was replaced with Dante, who was interesting in the beginning. Unfortunately the final battle against her is nowhere near as exciting and her character ended up feeling rather hollow. The new Wrath is fucking annoying, the only good thing about him was his fight against Gluttony in the movie. Envy is a complete different character, he's still supposed to be "envy" but behaves more like "wrath", he's less interesting, here he's not envious of humans, just furiously envious of Ed. The Fletcher brothers are incredibly boring and unoriginal, they feel like filler characters. Frank Archer is the worst villain, worst as in shitiest, it's hilarious how they try to make him relevant turning him into a mecha that randomly appears out of nowhere to "kill" Mustang. Barry is completely deranged and unlikable, he appears earlier as a human and almost kills Edward (leaving him traumatized), then the chimera tragedy occurs. Edward already went through a traumatic experience with Barry a few episodes ago, so the emotional impact is diminished (and now the anime feels like torture porn). Not everything is bad though. Lust starts out as a very sadistic and malevolent character like her counterpart in the manga, but as the story progressess she becomes more complex and likeable. She's the "good homunculus", our Greedling in this version. Speaking of Greed, he is killed rather quickly, but leaves a strong impression, I liked him a lot here. The new Sloth is kinda dull, but she's more interesting than the original brainless mass of muscles from the manga. I like the new origin given to the homunculus, and how the other side of the gate is our world (unfortunately Conqueror of Shamballa wasted all the potential they had with this premise).
Even with all its faults, FMA 2003 is an overall good anime, and it's still one of the best shounen out there (much better than My Hero Academia and Kimetsu no Yaiba). But if you have to choose between 03 and Brotherhood, then go with Brotherhood, since the story has a more satisfying ending. With 03 you have to watch a shitty movie (Conqueror of Shamballa) to get a "proper" ending. If you have to choose between Brotherhood and the manga, then go with the manga.
Feb 24, 2020
Fullmetal Alchemist
(Anime)
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Oh, FMA 2003, that anime we remember fondly as a 9/10 adaptation slightly worse than Brotherhood, "it diverged from the manga but still was so good". If you're one of those people, then you need to rewatch the anime, because it's more a 7/10. The anime only original content it's not very good. Be warned that I will compare this adaptation with the manga and Brotherhood a lot.
Ok, first let's start with the good. The story until Greed's introduction is faithful to the manga (with the exception of a few episodes), these episodes are amazing, they didn't rush the shit out of them like Brotherhood ... 
Feb 20, 2020
Mugen no Juunin: Immortal
(Anime)
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Blade of the Immortal is an okayish manga (6/10), but enjoyable nonetheless, so when I found out that there were plans for a 2nd attempt to adapt the complete story I was surprised and a little excited. I thought this would receive the treatment FMA got with Brotherhood, but boy was I wrong. This new adaptation is below average.
Story - 3/10 The pacing is the worst aspect, it's so fucking rushed you can barely understand what's going on most of the time. The story itself is nothing special, a pretty straightforward revenge story, with lots of convenient chance encounters for the sake of the plot ... |
