Back In My Teenage Anime Phase.
Nov. 30th, 2023 09:44 amI've been rewatching the original 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime! It's been a long time. I'm seventeen episodes in.
I was not looking forward to episode seven, which remains one of the most emotionally devastating episodes of television I've ever watched. I've tried to rewatch Fullmetal Alchemist before, but I keep stalling at episode seven; I watch it, I need to take a break because it makes me too sad, and then I never go back to the rewatch.
Now that I've made it past that episode, it's really interesting to rewatch this anime! I'm a person who often revisits the things she loves, but I've only watched the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime once all the way through, seventeen years ago, on account of the aforementioned episode seven problem. I've revisited the story in other forms - the manga and Brotherhood - but it's fascinating to come back to the first version I experienced when it's been long enough for me to forget most of it.
For example, I'd forgotten about Ed's pure terror in his struggle against Barry the Chopper! It's sort of nice that the protagonist is allowed to be afraid; he's not always confident in a fight.
It seems a little surprising that we don't often see signs of buildings or furniture having been constructed with alchemy. Alchemists don't seem to be hugely common, but they're not that rare, and, in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, I'd expect construction to be one of the primary uses of alchemy. Look at all these brick-built buildings; surely you could create something equivalent with alchemy in a fraction of the time!
There's a shot in the second ending that looks alarmingly like Ryuk. For an instant, I felt like I was watching the wrong anime. If the Death Note fell into Ed's hands, he wouldn't be able to resist testing it out, and the realisation that he'd actually killed someone would absolutely devastate him.
The original 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime often gets put down in comparison to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the later anime adaptation that's more accurate to the manga. Brotherhood, which I've seen most of, is indeed very good, and the 2003 version does have its flaws; it feels a bit unfocused and, if I recall correctly, I didn't find the ending particularly satisfying.
But I think the 2003 adaptation is still a great anime. It still looks good; it does a lot of great character work. It adds a lot of filler episodes even in its first half, when it's directly adapting the manga, but I think that's actually to its benefit; for the most part, the filler episodes are still very good, and they flesh out the characters and their dynamics nicely, meaning that the major plot developments ultimately hit harder. Having seen the 2003 adaptation, the early episodes of Brotherhood felt rushed and much less impactful to me, although I warmed to Brotherhood once the two adaptations diverged.
I have a longstanding weakness for short-tempered but good-hearted fictional teenagers, and I think Edward Elric might be one of the first examples I developed a fondness for. Come to think of it, being good-hearted is optional. I just like angry teenagers having too many feelings!
I was not looking forward to episode seven, which remains one of the most emotionally devastating episodes of television I've ever watched. I've tried to rewatch Fullmetal Alchemist before, but I keep stalling at episode seven; I watch it, I need to take a break because it makes me too sad, and then I never go back to the rewatch.
Now that I've made it past that episode, it's really interesting to rewatch this anime! I'm a person who often revisits the things she loves, but I've only watched the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime once all the way through, seventeen years ago, on account of the aforementioned episode seven problem. I've revisited the story in other forms - the manga and Brotherhood - but it's fascinating to come back to the first version I experienced when it's been long enough for me to forget most of it.
For example, I'd forgotten about Ed's pure terror in his struggle against Barry the Chopper! It's sort of nice that the protagonist is allowed to be afraid; he's not always confident in a fight.
It seems a little surprising that we don't often see signs of buildings or furniture having been constructed with alchemy. Alchemists don't seem to be hugely common, but they're not that rare, and, in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, I'd expect construction to be one of the primary uses of alchemy. Look at all these brick-built buildings; surely you could create something equivalent with alchemy in a fraction of the time!
There's a shot in the second ending that looks alarmingly like Ryuk. For an instant, I felt like I was watching the wrong anime. If the Death Note fell into Ed's hands, he wouldn't be able to resist testing it out, and the realisation that he'd actually killed someone would absolutely devastate him.
The original 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime often gets put down in comparison to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the later anime adaptation that's more accurate to the manga. Brotherhood, which I've seen most of, is indeed very good, and the 2003 version does have its flaws; it feels a bit unfocused and, if I recall correctly, I didn't find the ending particularly satisfying.
But I think the 2003 adaptation is still a great anime. It still looks good; it does a lot of great character work. It adds a lot of filler episodes even in its first half, when it's directly adapting the manga, but I think that's actually to its benefit; for the most part, the filler episodes are still very good, and they flesh out the characters and their dynamics nicely, meaning that the major plot developments ultimately hit harder. Having seen the 2003 adaptation, the early episodes of Brotherhood felt rushed and much less impactful to me, although I warmed to Brotherhood once the two adaptations diverged.
I have a longstanding weakness for short-tempered but good-hearted fictional teenagers, and I think Edward Elric might be one of the first examples I developed a fondness for. Come to think of it, being good-hearted is optional. I just like angry teenagers having too many feelings!
