Genre: drama, fantasy, adventure
Dub Available (and is preferred thanks to Vic Mignogna)
Rating: TV-14
Seasons: 4
Episodes: 51
Overall Score: 9/10
Summary: Fullmetal Alchemist is a loose anime adaptation of the of the same name . The central characters of the anime are and : two alchemist brothers who are searching for the so they can obtain their bodies after a failed attempt to bring their dead mother back to life...
13 February 2023
A few years ago I reviewed FMAB (That might be confusing to new readers because I'm going to put this chapter first, but that's only because this book is in alphabetical order). In my FMAB review, I said that there was no point in doing a separate chapter for 03 because it would be "redundant", but now that I'm a little older and I've seen each series at least twice, (Brotherhood closer to 5 now) I can safely say that I don't really lump them in together anymore. The main reason being, clearly, that 03 deviates from the manga lot due to the anime's production schedule overtaking what was written of the story at the time. But also because, contrary to popular opinion, I think 03 is a masterpiece in its own right, because it contains elements that would not have been possible with the Mangahood cast, universe, and circumstances.
// THIS REVIEW IS GOING TO BE FULL OF SPOILERS AND REFERENCE SPECIFIC PLOT POINTS, AND THE ENDING. IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THIS ANIME YET AND WISH TO BEFORE BEING SPOILED, I SUGGEST YOU STOP HERE //
Alright, so first off, I'll say that it was interesting to have Ed and Al be present for the birth of Hughes' daughter, and consequentially Ed and Elicia having the same birthday. This was not a plot point that was brought up in Mangahood, and this episode also showed more of the Hughes family and allowed viewers to get more attached to them. The same can be said of the Nina and Shao Tucker sequence; they spend more time with them, and the viewers have more time to get attached to Nina before she and Alexander tragically become a chimera. Not to mention, 03's rendition of the scene is incredibly captivating and dismal. The lighting is dramatic and the scene is incredibly gut wrenching to watch, because we just spent time getting to know these characters.
03 is, overall, much slower. Likely stemming from the idea that people had already seen 03 when Brotherhood was airiing, they rushed through the initial introductions to many of the main characters. It is an action series, although its earlier counterpart is actually categorized as a "drama" series rather than an action, and is more focused on character development. reddit user Capt-Hereditarias says on the topic of 03's character development:
"the main thing to me is the characters and how it just feels more grounded and intimate, more "realistic", no clear good and bad, no true happy endings and the overall relationship with the characters and everything they go through
I prefer way more that in comparison the big epic adventure with the always confident protagonists about saving the world and stopping the powerful anime villain (not that I dislike father, brotherhood or the promised day arc, I love them all, I just prefer how much more dark and true to nature of the initial tone of the story 03 actually is)"
About the characters in 03 vs brotherhood, ed is way more shallow in BH compared to his 03 self imo, with little change and impact on his personality throughout the anime, and not having the same maturity build up in his arc like 03 ed does
And I think Al is almost the opposite, with his brotherhood version being more connected with ed but with a more mature personality and stronger character as brotherhood goes on, while in 03 the whole point of his character is how he loses that innocence he has in the beginning and gets more and more degradated as the anime goes by, being a shell of his former self (pun intended) when the anime nears it's end
I love both of those characters in both anime, but I gotta say that 03 did a better job in developing them (specially with Ed, since as I said, Al does have a good chunk of development and change in mangahood)"
(my bolds)
To summarize, 03 is a character study. It is the study of the characters of Ed and Al and the effect their journey has on them, how it shapes them as people and how their trauma has affected them.
The humunculi in 03 are more interesting as characters as well, since in 03 deviated from Mangahood in the idea that the humunculi are born when a human transmutation is attempted. This adds some confusing plot points -- like Envy being Ed's half brother, but also adds in one of the most interesting scenes -- Ed vs his mother, as Sloth has taken on her likeness. The emotions that clearly play out while Ed is having to fight a monster that looks exactly like his dead mother are heartbreaking, and a deep cut to Ed's psyche that is not present in Mangahood. This also ties into the aforementioned character development, and how Ed is characterized more realistically in 03.
Getting to the ending, because I already feel like this review is very long, especially compared to my other ones in this book. The ending is a big sore spot for a lot of fans of Mangahood, my 17 year old self included. I thought it was awful that Ed and Al got separated, and it didn't have a nice satisfying bow on top of everything like Mangahood did.
Except... that was the point. It wasn't supposed to end well. They accomplished their goal -- getting their bodies back -- but at what cost? That's the underlying theme of the entire series of course; equivalent exchange.
Sure, Ed trading his ability to use alchemy in Mangahood was interesting, and a big sacrifice considering how much we know Ed values his alchemical abilities. But 03's price was much steeper -- Ed is separated from his brother, in a strange new world. They solved one problem to end up with another, and while they had grown a lot and matured throughout the series, there still wasn't a completely satisfying conclusion. It's gritty, it's dark, it's real. The struggle we watched these boys go through for 51 episodes was resolved, but was it worth it?
There's a movie, too, taking place right after 03 ends but to be honest I haven't seen it yet, although I'd like to eventually.
But, for now, I think that's mostly all I have to say on Fullmetal Alchemist, one of my favorite series of all time. (I could watch analysis videos on either/or/both series on YouTube for hours). I guess the last question is, which one did I like more? And to be honest, I don't have an answer. They both have their strengths, and their weaknesses, and both of them stand as incredible pieces of media in their own right. I'm just glad we ended up in the timeline where both of them got created, and I don't see the point in sitting here and trying to figure out which series is objectively better when they are both, unequivocally, masterpieces.
