Forum - View topic

Manga vs. Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist

I always feel the itch to write an extremely long essay about the merits of both series and what's superior whenever I see this topic, but I think I'll keep it to what I think is the biggest reason I prefer Brotherhood. As much as I am fond of the 2003 anime, I think it does disservice to a lot of characters that aren't the Elric Brothers. Part of it is simply that they didn't have the material at the time, but part of it is their own interpretation of those characters that don't sit right with me.

For me, I really, really dislike 2003's treatment of Winry. I myself was simply indifferent to her back then, but I remember seeing that she had a very sizeable anti-fandom. To be honest? It's not that surprising when you consider that 2003's vision of Winry is a far more abrasive, typically tsundere supporting character that the Elrics frankly seem to see as a nuisance, or at least someone who's not part of their journey. I was extremely surprised by just how much of a better character she is in the manga and Brotherhood. The subtle differences in execution of the same events between the 2003 anime and Brotherhood make all the difference. Brotherhood makes it very clear that Winry is not a nuisance to their journey. She's the emotional pillar for the brothers, she's the one who makes them understand each other when the brothers are in a bad place, and that even though she's not there physically, she's walking with them in their journey every step of the way.

Once it gets to the material not covered in the 2003 anime, it's even better. The story makes it so clear that the brothers respect Winry and trust her. At Briggs, where a lesser story would have used Winry being a hostage as just an obstacle that the heroes need to overcome, the manga/Brotherhood makes this to show off Winry's competence, further establish and evolve key relationships (Ed-Winry and Ed-Winry-Scar), and greatly develop Winry's own character arc. Awesome stuff.

...And there you go, I ended up writing a whole bunch after all. I didn't mean to, I swear! Anyway, I only touched on Winry, but I feel the same way for quite a number of other characters as well. Overall, I prefer manga/Brotherhood because it treats characters who are not the Elric Brothers much better, and because it introduced many awesome new characters that I never got to meet in the 2003 anime.

I lost some respect for the 2003 anime once I learned that the Ishbalians in the manga were inspired by the real-life treatment of the Ainu, Japan's own indigenous minority group, who weren't even officially recognized as such until 2008. There was relevant commentary in the original work, it was just not as easy for a foreign audience to relate to.

Arakawa never said Ishvarans = Ainu
She just wanted to portray in her story a minority group like Ainu people.

I lost some respect for the 2003 anime once I learned that the Ishbalians in the manga were inspired by the real-life treatment of the Ainu, Japan's own indigenous minority group, who weren't even officially recognized as such until 2008. There was relevant commentary in the original work, it was just not as easy for a foreign audience to relate to.

"Which one is actually better"? There is no debate. Whatever came first (in this case the manga) is ALWAYS the better one. Anime adaptions need to get their you-know-what together and adapt things faithfully. If you can't do it right, don't do it at all. If these animation studios want to create original content so badly, stop destroying adaptions for existing works and make an original anime from scratch.