One of the biggest debates in anime used to be whether the 2003 version of Fullmetal Alchemist is better, or Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I say "used to be" because it seems like the debate has been settled: Most people believe that Brotherhood is better due to its faithfulness to the manga. This drives fans of the 2003 version nuts. When you look at how many of them react, they don't seem to appreciate the fact that Brotherhood has overshadowed an anime that they love. So it feels like they're willing to argue tooth and nail that the 2003 version is better.
To their credit, I agree that simply saying "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is better than the 2003 version because it's more faithful to the manga" isn't a very satisfying answer. The second most popular answer that Brotherhood fans give when stating why Brotherhood is better than the 2003 FMA is that Brotherhood has a better plot. They also accompany this by mentioning that Brotherhood has a better ending. These points are true, but they never seem to get fleshed out or explored.
In fact, I feel like I rarely come across any in-depth explorations of the 2003 FMA's flaws. This feeling is what ultimately led to this blog series being created. You see, I think that there are numerous flaws with the 2003 FMA anime. In fact, the more I've thought about it, and the more I've tried to listen to both sides, the greater my feeling becomes that 2003 FMA makes less sense the more that you think about it.
This post is designed to be an introduction to a very long blog series. I'd like to lay out the outline of what future blog posts will cover on this topic. So why do I consider Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood to be superior to the 2003 version of Fullmetal Alchemist?
1) Brotherhood's plot is superior by a significant margin. The plot of the 2003 FMA does not make sense, for reasons that I will lay out in the future.
2) The 2003 FMA has a lot of good ideas, but doesn't always execute them very well. (Examples include but are not limited to: Envy being related to the Elrics, the changed explanation for how the homunculi are created, how Edward shed his "no killing" rule, etc.)
3) Brotherhood's take on the characters is far better than the 2003 version. 99.9 % of the time there's a major difference between Brotherhood and the 2003 version, I find that Brotherhood winds up being superior to whatever changes the 2003 FMA made.
4) Brotherhood is more consistent with the lore and the rules of alchemy than the 2003 version.
5) Last but not least, I also find some of the arguments in favor of the 2003 FMA to be rather weak for reasons that I'll get to in future blog posts.
I realize that I'm far from the first person to state that they like Brotherhood more than the 2003 version. So why bother? Well, I feel like I have a unique perspective to contribute because I'm that rare FMA fan who saw Brotherhood first, then the 2003 version, and then read the manga. Most FMA fans either read the manga first, or saw the 2003 version first. This order makes logical sense, but it feels like it does affect how they view certain elements of both stories.
It's incredibly rare for me to see someone who viewed Brotherhood first and give their thoughts. Plus, as someone who saw Brotherhood first I feel like other fans constantly talk over me, and I'm not a fan of that. If this sounds vague to you, then I promise that I'll expand on this talking point more in the future.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to this new writing project. I'm curious to see how people will react. Plus, it will be good to get this off my chest.
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