full metal alchemist

As a fan of the the first anime series and of the originating manga, I was interested in how this new version, FMA Brotherhood, would turn out. I was initially optimistic and I haven’t been disappointed so far after watching the first four episodes (through FUNimation’s video portal, just to clarify).

I like how Brotherhood is running faster than its predecessor. Shou Tucker’s story originally occupied two episodes; it’s now been told in one. A similar condensing happened with Cornello and Lior, with Rose’s “revived” brother and Ed in chains being cut, omissions I’m fine with. The mining town incident with Lt. Yoki was wrapped up in a few lines during an office conversation. I think the Clause/Majihal and the train hostage situation are being passed over entirely for the sake of a quicker storyline, which may be for the better. Those took place before Ed got his State Alchemist title, anyway, and it would benefit the series to not waste time on events of the past and instead focus on the main narrative.

Even though this remake seems “darker” – however you wish to read that – there are still the same moments of humor, e.g., Al being confused as Fullmetal during the brothers’ first appearances and Ed being sensitive about his height.

Something that bothered me about the first series, now that I look back at it, was Michiru Oshima’s orchestral score because it could be overbearing at times, particularly in the last quarter of the series. Akira Senju is handling the soundtrack this time around and though there are some tracks with similar dramatic vamps, there have also been less bombastic ones including a sullen, Middle Eastern-sounding string piece in ep. 3 (15:25-16:37 on Funi’s timecode) when Al was telling Rose about how he came to be a suit of armor. Regarding the opening and ending sequences, I didn’t care for either at first but then I grew to like most of YUI’s “again” – the quick bridge still annoys me a bit.

P.S. Alex Leavitt wrote an interesting post recently about the art design differences between the two series based on their first episodes.