Highlights
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a more faithful adaptation of the manga, providing a story that fans of the original source material were looking for.
- The overall tone of Brotherhood is more light-hearted and approachable, which aligns with the tone of the original manga.
- Brotherhood has better pacing than the original anime, condensing the story into fewer episodes and making it more engaging for viewers.
Fullmetal Alchemist has cemented its name as one of the most memorable and legendary franchises in all of anime. With its captivating story, memorable characters, unique world and iconic power system, this franchise is often remembered in high praise, with a legacy so great that it is still being viewed by thousands of people from across the globe. The sheer success and love that people have for this franchise made it so that there were two different adaptations released for it.
The first one, simply titled Fullmetal Alchemist, was released in April of 2003 and was an anime that was made during the run of the manga itself. Due to this, there were many changes from the original manga that were made to the anime that most fans did not like. This is where 2009’s Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood comes in. With a story that was more true to the manga while also keeping all the strengths of the previous anime, Brotherhood was what the fans of the manga were looking for in an anime adaptation. So, let’s break down all the reasons why Brotherhood is a better adaptation than the original anime.
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True to the Manga
As stated before, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an adaptation of the manga that is much more in line with the story that the manga was trying to tell than the original is. This is important for several reasons, the biggest of which is the fact that the manga itself is the main reason that people even wanted to watch the shows in the first place. Due to the change in the story, many fans were left disappointed.
This also affects the characters of the story as well as their general development and progression. While this doesn’t mean that the characters in Fullmetal Alchemist are bad by any means, they just have different character arcs as compared to the ones they received in the manga. Another reason why many prefer the Brotherhood adaptation is because the world, in general, feels much closer to the one in the original story.
Overall Tone
While this is not a reason why Brotherhood is the better adaptation, the change in overall tone may be a reason why many fans of the series tend to say that Brotherhood captures the true essence of the original story. Generally speaking, the Fullmetal Alchemist anime is considerably darker in tone compared to its 2009 counterpart. While the latter doesn’t exactly shy away from the mature and darker themes of the story, the atmosphere of the original anime tends to make the atmosphere more sinister.
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The reason that this point makes it on the list is simply that the tone of Brotherhood makes it a show that is more approachable and easier to watch, not to mention that this tone is exactly the same as the original story. While many prefer the darker themes of the original anime as being more captivating, Brotherhood sticks to the silly and more light-hearted atmosphere of the manga.
Better Pacing
One of the most common complaints of fans when talking about the original anime is its pacing. Fullmetal Alchemist takes its sweet time in telling the story of the Elric brothers, something that can turn many people off as the important moments can feel too few and far between. This then makes it seem like the series is a bit of a slog to get through.
Brotherhood is essentially able to explain in 5 episodes what the original anime would take 10 episodes to. However, this may not always be a bad thing because in the original anime, viewers spend much more time with fan-favorite character Maes Hughes, someone they always wanted to see more of anyway, though this can be seen as the only upside to the drawn-out series.
The Inconsistencies
While many characters from both of the anime adaptations are seen as having undergone drastic character development, the ones from Fullmetal Alchemist sometimes undergo character moments that can be seen as somewhat inconsistent with their developments within the story. The biggest examples of this are the main characters, Ed and Al, themselves.
While this certainly doesn’t happen often, both characters often partake in human transmutation multiple times in the series. This is quite an appalling decision as their initial blunder led to Ed losing two of his limbs and Alphonse losing his entire body and was the primary reason behind both of their character arcs from the very beginning of the show.
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The Ending
While both anime adaptations have very memorable endings for their stories, the route that the original series takes was found by most fans to be very abrupt, leaving much more to be desired. While this ending fits in with the far darker tone that the original series is generally known for, many fans thought it to be more of a waste instead of a way for the story to finally come around full circle, the way that Brotherhood pulled it off.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward is finally able to save his younger brother’s body. However, this ends up sending Edward through the door of truth and dumps him into the real world during World War 1 without his alchemy powers. The reason that many fans did not like this ending was mainly the conditions for why Ed ended up where he did. Instead of willingly giving everything up to redeem himself and save his brother, he goes to help some soldiers on the other side of the door of truth, only to have it shut behind him, tricking and trapping him without his powers and leaving Alphonse alone on the other side.
Brotherhood, on the other hand, makes Edward once more come face to face with Truth. Over here, he decides to give up his ability to perform alchemy in exchange for his brother getting his body back, symbolically bringing the story full circle as Alphonse lost his body due to alchemy, but in the end, it was the sacrifice of alchemy which brought it back. Ed also ends up realizing that although alchemy is all he knows and loves, there are more important things to live for, leaving both brothers together at the end.
While most people prefer Brotherhood, both series are classics and are within the upper tiers of anime. While they are set in worlds with the same rules and characters, they tell different stories in different tones, both of which are well worth the watch.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood can be streamed on Hulu and Prime Video.
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