Forum - View topicFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood -[adult swim] (w/index).
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jjwitdaheydiddydiddy
 Posts: 45 |
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That's a good point about storytelling. Even though I don't like a slow-moving series, I also don't want the first episode I see to be inundated with plot, or seriousness. The beginning of the original FMA was lighthearted and appealing, and that's a good thing if you don't know what to expect from a series. Even Death Note, for as depressing as it is, didn't start out with a firestorm. Like, you wouldn't buy a pair of new shoes and go out for a 15-mile run without breaking them in--you get sores if you do that. I find that a lot of people agree (though not everybody). And I really enjoyed the character developments, the relationships between said characters, the eventual seriousness of the plotline... The pace felt natural, for some reason. But on the other hand, I've only seen one episode of Brotherhood, so I have no idea how it will progress. I'll just have to wait and see. |
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jsc315
 Posts: 925 |
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Wow did they just butcher AL's voice. He sounds like a little girl. Other then that It was good but thats a huge disappointment since Al is my favorite charter of the show. O well I'll just stick with the subs on hulu. Not like I have much to complain since the subs are out there for free.
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DangerMouse
Posts: 4022 |
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Al's indeed voiced by a woman now and while you can tell especially in the first episode since we're so used to Aaron's voice after all this time and to an extent in the second, hopefully she'll continue to grow into the role and find a nice balance.
The slower speaking of the first "real" episode improved all of the performances in my opinion over last weeks fast-paced cameo show. Hughes was much improved now that he doesn't have to talk a mile a minute in a short cameo scene and I think sounds like I remember him in the first show and the performances combined with the music when spoiler[ Roy and Riza arrive at the Rockbell house ] were nice and powerful even having seen the first series. Since he was talked about in the first ep, Travis Willingham's Roy was totally back in form I felt. Al's new voice actress sounded quite good this week now that we can finally really hear some wordier dialogue and will hopefully continue to improve. She's sounding rather promising for the role so far and there were times this week where I just watched not thinking about the change much, so those who were saying they felt confident she could sound similar enough that she'll capture it as the show continues and she gets more comfortable with the role could indeed be onto something. I wonder if I'm the only one? Not all the time, but I thought that surprisingly there were even a few occasions where she somehow managed to channel and sound almost exactly like Aaron's version in a couple of key lines throughout the episode (at various ages of Al, not just younger). Hopefully this mix will continue to improve where she makes her own mark on it while still capturing what was great about Al's voice in the first series. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8628 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Well, let's see:
- I could hear Maxey Whitehead's Al better when he wasn't in his armor form, and it sounded good, but in armor, it was still hard to make out most of the time. - Sonny Strait sounded better as Hughes in this episode than in the previous. - Pinako's VA is still pretty good. - Vic still sounds exactly the same as Ed. It wouldn't bother me so much, except that he sounds pretty much the same as a kid, too. - They sure crammed a lot in this episode. I almost forgot this episode was like that. And only a single scene with Trisha! Poor Trisha. Dead after a single scene. No major screw ups this episode. No huge blunders like Isaac's awful voice. But I still prefer the Japanese cast by far. |
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SoandSo
 Posts: 204 |
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Hoo, ok, second episode.
Gotta say, kinda enjoy the art in this series. It has a certain, Soul Eater-esquely off-kilter look to the backgrounds. Everything looks like an old German picture book with crayon colors and ever-so-skewed architecture. It's a nice touch. It's especially striking in the big human transmutation scene(warped perspective and color theory like WOAH 0-0), even if it's really obvious. I always thought the soundtrack was nice, too. I think the reason it's so divisive among viewers, other than just not being able to get over Oshima's work, is that A. it's used without a hint of subtlety, and B. there's not that much of it. Both valid critisicms, but I put it in the same book as, say, Darker than Black or Hellsing; great music but wielded like a spiked club. Only a few comments on the dub this time, despite being the only reason I'm even watching. The writing renders the question of whether everthing's acted well pretty moot. The crib note engines are on full overdrive here, so pretty much the whole episode is expository "BLAHBLAHBLAH My motivation/worldview is this" dialogue from nearly everyone, and again, it'll be this way for awhile. On that note, I truly hate how every character is borderline Flanderized just stuff all this info in while the plot keeps rushing ahead. Especially when it backfires on them later and the story expects you to suddenly care about them. Everyone seems already settled into their roles, Hughes in particular, with the only exceptions being Riza and Al. I STILL thought Riza was played by a different person this time. Her voice is much deeper than before, or at least louder and more pronounced. It always throws me off. Whitehead continues to be a wonderful surprise up until the aforementioned transmutation scene when the octaves punch waaaay up and she loses her grip on the whole "not obviously sounding like a woman" thing. Her acting was still great, but it was too noticable to let it slide. I'm worried about her range. And speaking of that scene, maybe I'm just a horrible, horrible person with a sick sense of humor and a raisin for a heart, but this scene just Cracks. Me. Up. In both languages. All the frenzied crying and gratuitous shots of Ed's gushing stumps and Romi/Vic's voice-cracking babbling, all set to melodramatic orchestral swells....Bones, come on, you know this stuff. When you're trying to be scary, Less is More. I hate to make it seem like it's all just the bitching of ingrateful fans comparing to a point of reference, but you really needn't look any further on how to do this scene better than the first series; A dungeon in black of night, choked with fog and lashes of alchemical energy. Two foolish boys, wide-eyed with unwitting hubris, performing an eldrich ritual. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything goes wrong. A shrieking child, quick, obscured glances at horrible wounds and in the corner, behind a trembling camera in drowned in mist, what they brought back. Basically, Bones would have done much better if they had just toned it back a bit. More atmosphere, more unclear, clever editing, less(preferrably none) overdramatic WHAT HAS I DUN histrionics from the tiny bleeding child. And have some cinematic panache while you're at it. Directing is like painting a landscape, singing an opera or penning an epic. Be ambitious, put yourself in your work, get into your character's heads and adjust the tone to open that little door in their heads for us, the viewer. You can't just blandly show things happening and expect the emotion to just flow logically from there. That's really the main killing blow for Brotherhood to me: no cinematic punch or subtlety at ALL. The scene also ncompasses the second Coup de Grace; no sense of mystery. WHY WHY WHY reveal the Gate and what lies behing it and how Ed's ability to clap-transumute is linked to it and the fact that Izumi is their teacher and all in the SECOND EPISODE!? Fghgrihgh All of it, this and the expospeak and the rushed pacing all stem back to the fact that, at the end of the day, Brotherhood is just a blatant cashgrab, a clumsy work of fanservice that winks at screams HEY GUIZ REMEMBER THIS and OHHH YEAH THIS CHARACHTER'S HERE TOO at an audience it isn't even sure it wants. It clearly isn't standalone, practically dependent on fan-awareness, yet it wants to be at least a little open to new audiences. Whis is too bad, because if I had seen this series first, I'd be wondering what the hell the big deal was all these years, and I know quite a few who did and thought exactly that. Whew, hmmm, silly, less heated things to mention? I love how Mustang takes one look at this sullen, wheelchair-bound kid, his mind shattered and body mutilated, looking litteraly half-dead, and thinks "Hmm, he's pretty good. Let's throw him in the ARMY. Why not?" I know each take is like this, but the bad pacing made it seem particularly silly in retrospect.  Oh, and let's just skip all that nasty business about portaying the excruciating pain of automail surgery. Why bother establishing the lengths Ed will got to accomplish his goal for him and his brother? Character development is for the weak and feeble.
Also, Bradley must be borrowing his secret service from Obama. Great hustle, guys. I do really hate that they completely cut out the state alchemist entrance exam, too. It's the little world-building bits that made the first series special, how's that so hard to get? -_- |
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Fiction Alchemist
Posts: 438 |
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EDIT: This post was a HUGE mistake. I meant what I said about "coloring perception" but I didn't mean it as an insult. It was demonstratively true by the person's own words. But they took offense. I never wanted to argue and I never meant to sound like a jerk. But I did. We both did. I shouldn't have been so confrontational. I was always so confrontational at the time... It would be the last mistake I made on ANN, though. I couldn't deal with the stress and chose to leave the forums after this.
Last edited by Fiction Alchemist on Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:23 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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amarielah
 Posts: 178 |
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I can't speak for anybody else, but this was entirely untrue for me. I forced myself to watch into the early 20's, and it never once changed to "totally awesome" for me, because the problems I'd had with the early episodes were never really resolved. Reducing somebody's criticisms to "you're just allowing your perception to be colored by the first series" is quite silly. As I've said in an earlier post, the problem is not that this series is different--it's that it's different in a way that would make me have problems with any series. And I have to agree with the above poster: one of my biggest issues with Brotherhood has been how completely and utterly unsubtle it's been about everything. I disliked the second half of Evangelion for the same reason, which I saw long before the first anime of FMA was conceived. |
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SoandSo
Posts: 204 |
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BS. Way to completely miss my point there, dude. Yeah, the expospeak, the insultingly basic characterizations, the dull directing, tottaly just my imagination. lol Unless you haven't noticed, almost noone's even be able to put up with those early episodes, including people who've never seen FMA who's opinion you can't just wave away as "colored by affection." I don't care that they were done differently; I care that they're rushed, terrible messes. And yeah, the show only gets better in that it finally gets tto manga-based material; it's still bereft in directorial panache and character development. I know, I've seen the sub. 
Next time, don't apologise for the show's terrible flaws by failing to play the "just a fanboy" card. It'll help me take you seriously. |
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Hyperone
 Posts: 20 |
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First, some disclaimers:
* I have not seen the sub * I rated FMA "Masterpiece" * I do not read manga, much less this specific title Now, that understood, I am not as enthralled with the first two episodes. I feel had I not seen the original series, I'd be lost. I'm hoping that we see smoother development as the show goes on because everything seems to be thrown at you in rapid succession. Points that took a whole episode to establish now are conveyed in a short dialogue/monologue or simply haven't been established yet. I won't rag on it endlessly since it is only at ep two in the dub (I hate the sub voices and will avoid them). The good art direction is still very much evident and I'll continue to watch it out of curiosity. I'm also willing to give early eps a pass for being sub par considering I thought the original FMA's ending was the same (The last eps did not hold up to the middle section). One positive note, I kind of like this new Bradley characterization. Already seen more of him in action in the first two episodes of FMA:brotherhood than almost seen in the first half of FMA. |
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Fiction Alchemist
Posts: 438 |
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EDIT: The other guy acting like a jerk who thinks their opinion is fact does make me feel more like the good guy, I admit. But in reality, there was no good guy in this argument.
Last edited by Fiction Alchemist on Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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SoandSo
Posts: 204 |
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lol Wow, thin-skinned much? I just joined ANN, I've never even seen your username before. I can get a little heated when debating and arguing when someone tries to pass off my points as being "colored" by whatever. It strikes me as cheap because it doesn't actually adress or examine any points, let alone offer any counterpoints. |
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Fiction Alchemist
Posts: 438 |
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EDIT: And here one of the most thin-skinned people I've met projects that onto me. I am still sore about this time, actually.
Last edited by Fiction Alchemist on Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:22 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Al's new voice was much improved in this episode. I can still tell that it's a girl but is certainly better than last week's episode. Obviously she settled down and/or got good advice from the director or other VAs.
The scene where Roy and Riza see what the boys had done in the house then what they'd done to themselves was very powerful and well done. Different from the original but different was good. |
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SoandSo
Posts: 204 |
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;:/ Why are you trying to play a victim? I have nothing against you and wasn't "lashing out." I was countering your attempt at reducing my points by saying I was too attached to the first show. Cheap, asinine tactics will generally be met negativiely, dude. If it wasn't your attention, then don't do it. Just say "Around episode 12 or so the split will happen and this series will get totally awesome", prefferably with some reasons why, and everything would be cool. Leave out the insulting excess. But whatever. I don't need drama over an anime, and neither does the forum. |
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Fiction Alchemist
Posts: 438 |
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EDIT: The projection continues here as the self-appointed victim claims I'm trying to play the victim. This was the final straw for me. It was all too stressful and bad for my health. So I decided to leave the forum afterward. It had been a long time coming. It was my decision and not anyone else's. But looking back now? At THIS user? I'm not sorry to them. Not at all.
Last edited by Fiction Alchemist on Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:26 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Regardless, around episode 12 or so the split will happen and this series will get totally awesome, with or without the other series coloring your perception. In short: Those sticking with the series may be well rewarded shortly.  |
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