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Fullmetal Alchemist - Brotherhood Official Discussion Thread

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BlueWord

Member
Just watched 17 and 18, one right after the other. If I recall correctly, there was a bit more suspense in the manga regarding
whether or not Roy actually killed Maria. They sort of knocked it out in two episodes, here.

Also, is it just me, or did 18 have better visual quality than some of the other recent episodes? It may have just been a palette swap for lighter tones, but it was a nice contrast with previous episodes.

Next up,
Hohenheim... well, for Ed, anyway.
 

TheOddOne

Member
GaimeGuy said:
Regarding your comments:
#1: The name is Maria, not Diana. :lol
#2: As people have mentioned before, the first anime did it's own thing. Scar is the person who kills Winry's parents in the source material. Mustang killing them was completely fabricated in the first anime.

BHAHAHAHAHH... it was way to late for me :lol :lol :lol
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
BlueWord said:
Well, in the manga, they didn't do (episode 18 spoilers)
Ed going to Xerxes at the same time as the confrontation with the homunculi/barry's real body.... in fact, it shouldn't even occur for another 1 or two episodes. Although the events occur at roughly the same time, Arakawa covered everything with Roy in Central first, THEN covered Ed's little side trip.

There are a good 5-6 chapters between the scene in the alley and Ed meeting Maria in Xerxes and learning the truth about her. Since FMA is serialized montly, that means there was a good half-year where people were left in the dark about whether or not Mustang killed her, never mind the fact that Brotherhood is also quite a bit more straightforward than the manga due to its pacing of ~2 chapters per episode and with a lot of character interactions, dialogues, and some subplots being cut out altogether
 
Watched ep. 18, definitely great.

I'm kinda disappointed that they crammed both the truth about Maria and Ed's trip to the Eastern ruins into one episode, but then again, all of Mustang's team got airtime so I'm happy.

Loved the foreshadowing of future events and I was stoked to see the telephone scenes animated.

Next episode is going to be downright epic. Can't wait!
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
GhostRidah said:
How long is this series going to be? I seen the original but I think I want to start watching this one soon.
Unfortunately, based on the way they're pacing things, I'm expecting something around the length of the first anime (50-55 eps). This is not really enough time to do a faithful adaptation though.... should have been ~75 episodes really :/
 

BlueWord

Member
GaimeGuy said:
Unfortunately, based on the way they're pacing things, I'm expecting something around the length of the first anime (50-55 eps). This is not really enough time to do a faithful adaptation though.... should have been ~75 episodes really :/

Yeah, I was talking about this with a friend the other day. I can't help but feel that the story of FMA would be better told in a longer series.

On the other hand, they also have to pace things quicker, which means there aren't going to be too many boring episodes.
 

Jangaroo

Always the tag bridesmaid, never the tag bride.
BlueWord said:
Just watched 17 and 18, one right after the other. If I recall correctly, there was a bit more suspense in the manga regarding
whether or not Roy actually killed Maria. They sort of knocked it out in two episodes, here.

Also, is it just me, or did 18 have better visual quality than some of the other recent episodes? It may have just been a palette swap for lighter tones, but it was a nice contrast with previous episodes.

Next up,
Hohenheim... well, for Ed, anyway.

The last episode or two have had some disparities in their animation quality. Episode 18 looked a lot nice though. This happens in animation all the time though, certain episodes just don't have as much polish as the more important ones.
 

castlegar

Member
Anyone pick up the OVA? I was thinking of getting it, but I've already seen the subs so Im on the fence. I know it's cheap, but eh, they were ok. The best one has hardly any dialogue, lol. Curious of how the chibi party will translate, though.

I guess it would be nice to have, just to complete the series
 
michaelsrevenge said:
Anyone pick up the OVA? I was thinking of getting it, but I've already seen the subs so Im on the fence. I know it's cheap, but eh, they were ok. The best one has hardly any dialogue, lol. Curious of how the chibi party will translate, though.

I guess it would be nice to have, just to complete the series

My friend's dad picked it up for me at SDCC, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Funimation has a trailer for it on their youtube channel, so you can at least hear the voices.

I do know that when I saw the trailer for it at Anime Expo, the few excerpted pieces of dialogue were great.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
BlueWord said:
Yeah, I was talking about this with a friend the other day. I can't help but feel that the story of FMA would be better told in a longer series.

On the other hand, they also have to pace things quicker, which means there aren't going to be too many boring episodes.
there really aren't that many boring or drawn out sections of Full Metal Alchemist, to be honest.... the worst is probably the Paninya chase scene (it takes up like 3/4 of a chapter, seriously >_>). It's pretty much perfectly paced, with events being fleshed out without being drawn out.

a 1 chapter per episode pace would be too slow, I agree, but a 6 season series with 74-76 episodes, or ~1.5 chapters per episode, would have been perfect, especially considering that 25-50% of each chapter is resolving things that the previous chapter ended with.... would allow them to pace episodes pretty freely (that is, in determining cliffhangers and how to end episodes eventwise/emotion wise).
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
So, episode 19 should be airing in about 10 hours or so.... this is something that arakawa and manga viewers have been hoping to see animated for years. I hope they do it justice :D

Edit: Haven't seen the ep yet, but it sounds like it delivered :D
 
Ok, so basically if I've already seen and loved the first one is this one worth checking out? Or is it just the same basic thing with new animation?
 

duckroll

Member
Orin GA said:
Watch episode 19 and say that again duckroll >:|

You mean the episode where they decide to completely remove an awesome fight from the manga involving awesome characters? Yeah that episode. What a piece of shit!
 

duckroll

Member
Sorry, I'm just an angry bitter manga reader. I'm sure this will wear off once I get over it. Ep19 has really good animation. I'm just mad they removed the other fight. :p
 

Tacitus_

Member
GaimeGuy said:
Ran Fan + Ling vs. Envy

Hmm, I will need to consult my manga collection when I return home before I can exclaim sufficient outrage about this. I might even go as far as posting an image macro.

Hmm, was it at the [OBVIOUS MANGA SPOILERS]
stakeout near whathisnames apartment with Barry? The fight where Envy kept transforming into different people and Ran Fan said that she senses him, whatever he becomes?
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Tacitus_ said:
Hmm, I will need to consult my manga collection when I return home before I can exclaim sufficient outrage about this. I might even go as far as posting an image macro.

Hmm, was it at the [OBVIOUS MANGA SPOILERS]
stakeout near whathisnames apartment with Barry? The fight where Envy kept transforming into different people and Ran Fan said that she senses him, whatever he becomes?
Yes.
 

Zanmato

Banned
duckroll said:
You mean the episode where they decide to completely remove an awesome fight from the manga involving awesome characters? Yeah that episode. What a piece of shit!
WHAT WHAT WHAT!?!?!?! Does it at least look like it will be in the next episode?
 

Tacitus_

Member
GaimeGuy said:
apparently not.

Meh, while a nice fight (and propably awesome while animated), it isn't exactly necessary for plot advancement. The way someone acted, I thought they had dropped something important plotwise.
 

B.K.

Member
That's a really stupid cut to make.

Tacitus_ said:
Meh, while a nice fight (and propably awesome while animated), it isn't exactly necessary for plot advancement. The way someone acted, I thought they had dropped something important plotwise.

It is important plotwise.
That fight was the fist time in the manga that you hear from Pride.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
B.K. said:
That's a really stupid cut to make.



It is important plotwise.
That fight was the fist time in the manga that you hear from Pride.
It's also the first time we learn that (spoilers)
the people from Xing can sense out the Homunculi specifically from their Ki... this plays a big role in setting up the next events
 

Tacitus_

Member
Oh yeah. My memory seems to be extra cruddy this evening.

I forgot that they learned about the sensing before Lings fight with Wrath, which, in hindsight, is fucking stupid from me
 

B.K.

Member
Don't feel bad. I had to reread that chapter of the manga. I didn't even remember that fight. It's been too long since I read that part of the manga.
 

duckroll

Member
I think it's a lot more than a "nice fight" myself. There are several other things besides what was already mentioned that made the fight pretty important imo.

- It's the first time you actually see Envy getting desperate and annoyed at the fact that he's been outgunned and outwitted, and his reaction to it. This is important character development for his character, because he doesn't really have much scene time in the series compared to other characters.

- It's important development for the Xing crew, because it's the first time you see Lan Fang and Ling working together well, and also the first time you see Ling actually fight with a sword. This builds up the audience's expectations of his character's fighting skills for his later clash with Wrath, because up until now he's been shown as a rather weak character.

- It shows that Ling and Lan Fang together can easily match Envy AND Gluttony, which is the ONLY reason the plan to draw out the other Homunculi would make sense to begin with. Otherwise, without a good idea of what they're up against, it would be really foolish for Ed and Al to even agree to drawing out Scar AND the Homunculi, especially if they don't know if together they can handle all their opponents.
 
Saw the raw during the stream then saw it again. Still loved the episode, despite the removal of the Xing crew. The one fight I wanted to see - Roy v. Lust - was absolutely amazing. Pretty much nailed the scenes panel for panel.

Now waiting for the subs.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Plywood said:
So from the sound of it, this isn't as close to the manga as it should be. :(
It's basically Full Metal Alchemist Abridged, to be honest. 52 episodes just isn't enough to cover the whole series of events faithfully.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Plywood said:
So from the sound of it, this isn't as close to the manga as it should be. :(
Bones is to blame for being lazy mfers, they cant make a series last for more then 52 episodes!
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Lafiel said:
Bones is to blame for being lazy mfers, they cant make a series last for more then 52 episodes!
That's really not their call to make. That's more the territory of Aniplex, MBS and Square Enix (the guys footing the bill for the anime) than it is Bones.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
duckroll said:
I'll like to point out, there's nothing indicating it's actually 52 eps. :p
Animax said they've made a deal to air 51 eps, and the show is going at a pace where they'll be halfway through the manga chapters by episode 25-26.

Everything points to 4 seasons :p
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Plywood said:
On a scale of 1-10 is how faithful is it to the manga?
In overall style and feel? 9-9.5/10

In terms of being a 1:1 adaptation? 7.5-8/10
 

duckroll

Member
GaimeGuy said:
Animax said they've made a deal to air 51 eps, and the show is going at a pace where they'll be halfway through the manga chapters by episode 25-26.

Everything points to 4 seasons :p

And yet MTV in Germany, who signed the deal later on, says it's 62 episodes.
 

duckroll

Member
GaimeGuy said:
First I've heard of it o.o

Sorry, my bad. It was a German anime magazine which said it was 63 episodes long. MTV Italy said it would 65 episodes long when they announced it later on. So we have 51, 63 and 65 as "possible" episode numbers. :p
 

Jangaroo

Always the tag bridesmaid, never the tag bride.
duckroll said:
Sorry, my bad. It was a German anime magazine which said it was 63 episodes long. MTV Italy said it would 65 episodes long when they announced it later on. So we have 51, 63 and 65 as "possible" episode numbers. :p

It'd be nice to see 65 episodes.
 
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