posted
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, here on hulu, is an apparent retelling of the story that just started airing last month in Japan and here. I'm glad that hulu is showing it in the original Japanese, and I'm glad that they got the main two actors back to voice the main voices (though, without Hughes and Mustang it's a bit of a let down).
But, um, why?
The story is almost exactly the same. The order is moved around for some things, other things are expanded upon and some are made much shorter, but why retell an entire show like that if you're going to basically use the same plot line? I guess I just don't see the point, but I was wondering what other FMA fans think.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
The original anime diverged significantly from the manga (at the point when it had no more manga to work from). In particular, the absolutely awful ending of the anime has had many fans calling for a retelling for quite some time (and for the movie to be burned ).
Also, the technical quality of anime has improved significantly, plus they know it will be really popular (heck, the fujoshi watchers alone . . .), so it gets to have a huge budget that does more justice to the original.
And, more cynically, they've been looking for a new shonen blockbuster and haven't had much success, so bringing back FMA makes a lot of sense. I can't say I'm complaining too much, either, because most of the shonen blockbusters are really awful.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Well, it looks somewhat better visually, but not that dramatically. I'll have to watch the original to compare.
And I know the anime and the manga had some significant divergences, but from what I've seen thus far, the retelling hasn't changed all that much from the original, though I admit I haven't read the manga. The only difference I've seen thus far is SPOILER......Scar killed Shou Tucker, which I don't remember happening in the original, he just killed Nina/Chimera in the alley, and then Tucker shows up later as a chimera, I believe. It's been awhile since I've watched it all the way through. The biggest difference seems to be that the sequence of events is different, and some scenes have been shortened, others lengthened.
Oh yeah, I totally get the whole "let's just make some money" angle. I was thinking from a storytelling angle. Retelling the exact same story over again doesn't strike me as particularly impressive. Retelling it with some major editing holds promise.
But it's still only five episodes in, so I guess I'll reserve judgment. The description I read somewhere said that it was basically just a rehashing of the exact same plot.
PS. Did you see the movie? How was it? The ending was so wacky, I'm curious and somewhat hesitant to see how they kept it going. I'm not a big fan of manga, but I'm curious as to the differences too.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Brotherhood is still in the manga storyline covered by the original. It should diverge sometime in the next five to ten episodes. There are major characters in the original anime that don't even exist in the manga.
The movie is even worse than the ending of the original anime, which is really terrible. The movie doesn't even bear a vague resemblance to the manga. It has a decent song at one point.
One of the reasons you don't notice the visual differences is you're watching it on Hulu, which doesn't get to very high resolution. It is in Japan (and fansubs) at 1080p.
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posted
Blayne, of course not. And it isn't like they're hard to find (actually, it looks like most of them are 720p, though I see a lot of raws at 1080).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Are there any known plans to make a dubbed version?
I do feel the episodes go awfully fast. I'm hoping that's just because these plot points have been mostly covered in the original and they'll slow down for new plots.
Oh, and I enjoyed both the ending of the anime and the movie.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I assume they'll do a dub after the series is done. I'm pretty sure someone already has the license.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:Brotherhood is still in the manga storyline covered by the original. It should diverge sometime in the next five to ten episodes. There are major characters in the original anime that don't even exist in the manga.
SPOILERS
Hughes is one of those characters right? Watching last night I forgot how the show can tug at your heart strings, like when Tucker turns his daughter into a Chimera. That was gut wrenching.
When Hughes is killed by, I think, Greed, that's gut wrenching too, in a way worse way, because you like him just as a guy, but then you think about his family, and how much time he spent talking about his daughter.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I really liked the original anime, I thought the ending was bittersweet and the movie was engaging and interesting. I'm liking where the new series is going, even if the stories are familiar.
Hey, if you had the option to watch the 13 original episodes of Firefly again, only completely rewritten by Joss with different jokes and different ways doing the same plots, wouldn't you want to watch it?
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
You can also watch episodes right off of funimation.com. They go online within a few days of airing in Japan. And yes, the story of the manga (which this series will follow) diverges from the previous anime around the time Greed is introduced. The manga is still ongoing in fact, so no one knows how this series will end yet. The episode are going fast now because they are very redundant for anyone who has seen the first series. I imagine they're trying to hurry up and get to the material that's different. At this rate it won't be too long.
I sort of assumed that the anime fans here already knew about this series.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
It definitely will be dubbed. As I said, funimation streams (subtitled) episodes on their website, which confirms the fact that they have the North American distribution rights, meaning that they're obviously going to dub it. No word on when though.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Yeah, I heard from a FMA manga reader about this retelling, and she added that somewhere around episode four is when the plot starts to break off and follow the manga more. Or did she say after ep four? Eh, whatever. Somewhere around there.
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
I've only seen to five, and yeah, it does slightly start to change around there, and from what I've read of the next couple episodes, it really jumps forward from the original timeline.
It's too bad they couldn't get the voice actor back for Roy Mustang, but everyone else seems to be back. I'm excited to see where it goes now.
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posted
During all the 2008 campaigning, an LJ friend made an icon with a picture of Roy and the phrase: Roy Mustang for Fuhrer.
Man, I love that icon.
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: I've only seen to five, and yeah, it does slightly start to change around there, and from what I've read of the next couple episodes, it really jumps forward from the original timeline.
It's too bad they couldn't get the voice actor back for Roy Mustang, but everyone else seems to be back. I'm excited to see where it goes now.
posted
They no longer seem to be available on the Funimation site. Anyone know if that's permanent, or will they be back there in the near future.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
By now, the plot has diverged between adaptations and new characters have been introduced. I think they kind of rushed the episodes in Dublith, with Greed and his gang, but they made up for it with the most recent episode.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Apr 2008
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
I'm confused, did they have an episode about Greed and his gang or did they skip that for now and will go back to it in flashbacks?
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quote:Originally posted by manji: By now, the plot has diverged between adaptations and new characters have been introduced. I think they kind of rushed the episodes in Dublith, with Greed and his gang, but they made up for it with the most recent episode.
13 was a touch rushed, but I thought 14 came off very well.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I love FMA. This might be worth watching!
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
Oh yeah they are pretty good, I liked the orifinal FMA AND the movie I felt were good and havent read very far in the Mnogo but I think I will, I really like how they fleshed out Vicky a bit.
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posted
I'm think he's talking about Vic Mignogna, the voice of Edward Elric in the English dub. Of course, I'm just guessing.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Apr 2008
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
This is probably my mild case of I don't know what, basically sometimes when I'm typing one word instead I will type out a completely different word.
So "vicky" is probably not what I meant, in context in hindsight I probably meant Amersteris/their world.
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