I apologize for skipping over episode 2, but with the traveling and illness I suffered last week it couldn’t be helped. It was mostly material from the first series anyways, although I thought they did a really good job of explaining what happened in the past in a quick, yet quite clear manner.
Ah, the often cited and shopped pimp pose. Looking good there Ed.
I’m not a particularly big fan of the split shots they a couple of times this episode, as I usually find it distracting. Also, I think this is the point where I was giggling along when Ed mocks religion. The symbolism and religious themes in FMA are pretty thick (seven deadly sins and other rather obvious references), but I always found the commentary on the relationship between science and religion to be fascinating. I also dug the Icarus references.
Alright, why are they trying to make this show into some gag-suspense hybrid? I find all of the SD gag scenes to be jarring and really detract from enjoyment of the serious side of the show. A joke here and then is fine, but they interrupted several serious moments this episode to do a stupid joke about Ed’s height or which one is the real Fullmetal Alchemist for the upteenth time.
They certainly made her a lot more of a crazed religious fanatic then I remember her. It’s sad, but there are millions of people like her in this world.
Again with this crap…
Definitely a badass way to annihilate a Juggernaut wannabe.
I enjoyed all of the action this week, and some of the philosophical and religious musings, but I really could do without the stupid gags in the middle of fights and other serious moments. They went through this arc pretty fast from what I remember in the first series, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It didn’t feel rushed, and this way they will be able to get to some more material that we didn’t see in the previous adaptation.
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I completely agree about the gags. While I was watching I was sort of like “okay, it’s funny. The first time. Now it’s getting irritating.” Didn’t they stop making the “oh, YOU’RE the Fullmetal Alchemist?” jokes sometime after the Sho Tucker arc (in the manga)? >_<
The problem with the complaint about the comedic inserts is, they really ARE far more prevalent in the manga; it’s just that the first adaptation of FMA took most of it out to make it seem more ‘serious’. That aside, Bones did breeze through the material pretty quickly, and had to change some stuff to squeeze the Liore arc into one episode. Saw many people whining about Hulk!Cornello too.
I found this episode pretty bland and boring. Am I supposed to wait for episode 10+ so it’s stuff I haven’t already seen ?
Animation was lazy (in addition to the script) in several places too.
Definitly got me worried regarding the show, as while the first was somewhat original, the second and this one were bad recap episodes. I had recaps.
Yeah, the gags are more prevalent in the manga, but inserting it between the action sequences was a little bit too much. At least they are going through this recap stuff quickly. Can’t wait until they get to the good parts of the manga.
Yeah, I’m in full agreement with the whole gag thing, and for some reason, I remember this fight being better the first time around. Either way, I’m hoping the gags clear up.
Yeah, I’m in full agreement with the whole gag thing, and for some reason, I remember this fight being better the first time around. Either way, I’m hoping the gags clear up.
The thing is, all of the gags used in this episode ARE in the manga. What BONES is doing is actually following the manga meticulously, even if they did make some slight changes. I also find it amusing to see people complaining about the content being repeated. This was never supposed to be a completely new version of FMA; it’s a remake. And even so, as if anticipating this truly uncalled-for reaction, BONES managed to squeeze the whole Lior arc into a single episode. I personally wouldn’t even mind if they slowed down a bit and took their time, but I guess they can’t afford it what with the large amount of material to cover and a limited number of episodes.
Anyhow, BONES is doing a fantastic job so far, and I am enjoying every minute of the show.
@Myu
Well, I find it amusing that you enjoy seing the same stuff twice. Or rather, three times if you read the manga. In addition, “BONES managing to squeeze the whole Lior arc into a single episode” is no feat of strenght, it’s more of an ultimate bore : not only have we already seen it, but they also managed to make it uninteresting. Poor gags, poor action, poor story, because as you say “they managed to squeeze so much in”. It’s like cramming 10 recipes worth of ingredients in your cooking and saying “dude it must be good because I’ve put so much in it”.
Was a remake necessary ? I’m not sure. They could very well have started a “manga restart” in medias res, or even made new and original episodes to introduce things (but wow that would mean being original, and obviously there are some rabid manga fanboys around there, are there not ?). In my eyes, it’s poorly rehashed content, with an hectic pace and unfunny jokes ; of course I wouldn’t mind if they slowed down, because right now it’s like watching a quick summary. They don’t have a “large amount of material to cover” ; they can do what they see fit, it just happens that they chose to redo things.
Regarding the whole “remake” nature of the stuff, there are remakes and remakes. I mean, Birdy is a great anime, but was also a remake from an OVA. They changed the graphics, the cast, the story, and in my opinion it got much improved, and felt like a different experience the second time. On the other hand, FMA2 has almost the same graphics, the same voice actors for the main cast, a very close plot (right now, and I liked how they tried to deviate from the manga in the first ; it seems it even was suggested by the author too). It’s not anime making, it’s recycling.
Finally – Bones can make great shows. They are also very good at screwing endings, so I’ll be careful… I wasn’t very careful, but it also seemed to me the animation was lazy in many parts. Maybe they’re keeping their budget for later episodes, who knows.
@Myssa: Hmm, interesting. I’m not familiar with the manga, so I thought Bones was simply taking the style they went with in Soul Eater and applied it to FMA2 as well.
@Nemo
Exactly, I do enjoy seeing the same stuff twice. Watching a show once again is just like rereading a book. It never ceases to amaze me how much I notice that I didn’t the first time; how much I understand differently and see from a different perspective. And it really is up to each person to decide what they think is a feat of strength or not. Once again, everything including the gags was taken directly from the manga, and frankly, if you thought the story was poor this time around, it must have been poor for you the first time you saw it, because back then it wasn’t that much different at all. All BONES did now was exclude the filler parts such as, oh let’s throw them into jail for kicks and the talking bird chimera.
If you don’t think a remake was necessary, don’t watch the show. It is perfectly understandable to be satisfied with the first version, it was great. There is no reason to hope for something you won’t get and then end up being disappointed. The studio chose to make a direct adaptation of the manga and not a completely new original series, and their decision had nothing to do with the, uhh, rabid manga fanboys.
There are plenty of new things in FMA2, including the design of the characters and the art style. Personally, I think that the voice actors making a comeback is a wonderful idea; if people are struggling to adjust to Mustang’s new voice, it’s not hard to imagine how difficult it would be getting used to Ed or Al being portrayed by someone else.
BONES can indeed produce wonderful shows. They didn’t screw up FMA the first time, and so far there is no reason to believe they are going to mess up this time.
@Myu
Well your point on re-reading, re-watching doesn’t apply here, since it’s a different show. And sadly for me I rewatched FMA1 prior to the second season (that was an extremely stupid idea in retrospect I agree), so I’ve pretty much seen all there is to it (I mean, I’m a litterature major, I see small details, you get what I mean). Of course you could see the “quick Lior arc” as a feat, but to be honest, I don’t think it is what anime viewer are looking for ; it’s more of a technical storytelling feat, if you had to name it, and because of its summary-like nature of a known work, it doesn’t quite daze me (a good story telling of a manga is something else in my opinion, what parts to keep, what parts to skip, what point of view to adopt, etc.). But I’ll agree with you – it would have been worse if the Lior arc had dragged on for several episodes. So in a way, good.
Now, I disagree the “jail throw” and “talking bird chimera” were “filler”. Naruto eating natchos is filler ; a 10 minutes midseason recap (or even 20 in some shows’ case) is filler. A talking bird chimera, well, is plot. Not only were chimaeras an element to be introduced (chimeras are quite present in the anime), they are also key in what the anime tries to tells us (however childish it may be) about the human condition and the nature of life. But then again I’ll agree with you – it’s fortunate they didn’t show it again, because otherwise I might have thought I had launched season 1 by mistake.
And yes, I thought the Lior arc was quite poor ; the mock religious man using others’ belief for power is nothing new. It was okay in the first season, because it introduced the fact that they were alchemists, that Al was nothing but an empty armor. It was interesting because it was a story elements. Now, in the second season, it is episode 3 ; the first two episodes made clear that al was an empty armor, that they were alchemist, that they had tried to mess with human transmutation. So the point of the Lior arc is moot. Indeed, the place of an episode in a serie clearly determines its value ; Lior as first episodes was a great storytelling move. Lior as a third (and in the second season too) is a very poor decision, because all its storytelling purpose is now gone (the philosopher’s stone got little airtime), leaving only the side story elements : the “dude messing with people beliefs” and comedy. The first is nothing fascinating (especially in such a shallow treatment), and the second is ok provided you haven’t seen FMA1 or read the manga, because as you know, jokes are often like suspens, when you know what the final pun it is hardly funny or surprising or scary anymore. There are exceptions, like running gags (what Edward says when someone calls him chibby, though it seems it is no longer present this season ?, or the way they always think he is the little brother and the “big armor dude” is the FMA).
In fact, I don’t think a remake was necessary. But I don’t think either it was a bad idea, I know many people wanted to see the manga animated, and I had nothing against that. My point was : you can make bad remakes and good remakes. I was hoping it would be a good, fun, interesting remake, and that third episode, for reasons I’ve given, was shallow and uninteresting, so I’m disappointed. I sure hope we are both proven wrong and the next episode is not another already seen arc summary with stale joke.
When I said manga fanboys, I meant people who WILL be satisfied by anything that follows the manga, regardless of whether it’s actually a good anime or not. An anime is not a manga, there are decisions to be made ; depending on the choices of the staff, the anime can be good or bad, even if it follows to the letter the manga. I like the fights, the characters, the “clap in your hand zoom stuff happens” dynamics, the story (I like the manga’s overall story better too, though I find the first anime had very clever ideas and was very coherent, two reasons why I liked that show) ; this episode provided nothing of that (in my humble opinion).
I don’t find the art style and the chara design much different ; maybe that’s just because I don’t pay enough attention to these points (I draw like a paralysed monkey). I also agree that the actors coming back is nice (I was really surprised at Mustang’s voice, so I get what you mean).
On the Bones study – like I said, it’s a great study, but to me there are reason to doubt. Again, I just hope I’ll eat my words and have a great and entertaining anime, when the original manga arc starts. Let it start, let it shine, show us the good manga stuffs (of which Lior isn’t). Show us some Father goodness. No hard feelings in two replies though, I totally understand your point of view ; I was just bored during that episode, so I’m trying to explain that, looking for reasons that make sense, and overall hoping the next one will be fun. I’m not biased against a remake or anything (like I said I love Birdy’s).
I am with Nemo on that one. I love FMA1′s first ep. It was very effective at catching my interest. But as an ep3 it’s not very interesting. It worked as an ep1 because we learn trhough the mad priest the true nature of the main characters, it’s a suprise. When it’s the third episode, where is the suprise? And the fact that they closely followed the manga doesn’t change anything, it just means that the manga was flawed too.
I didn’t watch FMA1, because I prefer watching anime that don’t deviate too much from the manga, so watching FMA 2 hasn’t been disappointing for me (and nor does Mustang’s voice bother me much). However, I was expecting something more exciting, esp. this one w/ Cornello. Just as Nemo pointed out, the whole ep felt rushed.
@ZI: I disagree. As an avid manga fan, I find the execution of FMA pretty flawless. You’re comparing apples and oranges. Anime and manga are two different forms of media, and therefore have different manners of expressions. I think the problem with this ep. was that they were making an animated manga [the split shots for example] instead of making an anime. That’s probably also why the action was so short…
I wonder if it was really needed to retell so much, but I guess that compacting previos episodes means that we are going to see something new at some point. But not in the next chapter, these is like Naruto filler for me.
Interesting. They did this arc (which was already pretty short) in one episode, but still great because it wasn’t rushed like you said. I didn’t mind the ‘you’re the fullmetal alchemist?’ gag because that and the short jokes are really part of the show, or at least the first anime. You can’t not have that there; it’s important! lol that doesn’t mean that i don’t know when it’s overkill, but to my standards, this wasn’t.
The gag-suspense hybird is much better used as a series starter I guess.
@ Mareo
Trust me, there’s a need for this episode to be here
@ Mareo
Personally I think a few people are approaching this the wrong way, its not a season 2 or retelling of the first series, infact both series are stand alone stories sharing only characters and setting. The first series was produced during the middle of the manga which recently has begun its climax so it follows the manga untill greed is introduced were it ran out of material. After that it produced a climax of its own making.
You said this is like watching Naruto filler. Why? unlike filler this is acutally part of the plot and part of the story.
Wow why is everyone complaining like a little bitch here? I understand consenting opinions its just seems like annoying whining, I mean really its a remake so of course its going to be almost the same thing and since they want to make it close to the manga and its how it happened in the manga, thats fine to have a comment on how some parts in the manga weren’t really necessarily, but to have a full on useless discussion about “omg you’re watching it twice1111!1″ if you’re that adamant about not watching something twice, go watch gay tentacle porn instead ffs.
At least kaoishitheadsama does post here anymore.
Well they either had to re-tell parts of the story or drop into the middle of the story around where the plot-split truly happened. If they hadn’t cooked up their own ridiculous, plot-hole-riddled ending for the first anime and just left it open-ended until there was more manga material we wouldn’t have this problem. But hey I’m grateful for an anime reboot that follows the manga plot, I never thought they’d actually do it. They’re at least doing a good job with the episodes, even if this one was a bit cluittered.
I AM SO DISAPPOINTED!!! let me start by saying i knew this show was a retelling and not a 2nd season. i was actually really pumped to see a more true to the source version. i had never read the manga. only saw the original FMA by bones which i loved. As far as re-telling the story, it had to be done. so i dont understand why people are complaining about that. my main problem with the show is the nauseating pace. I dont even care about the characters. i dont know them well enough. i about cried when nina died in the first because i felt for the girl. In this series it was “oh that kid i dont care about died”. Even when hughes died, argueably the most amazing part in the first series. in this one i didnt care. he was some background character with a few lines. The gags, although in the first series, are waaaaaaaaaaaay overdone here. True, it may be that way in the manga but i dont like it. If i would’ve saw this “excel saga with alchemists” version first i would have been an avid hater of the series. Luckily Bones gave us the amazing first series. Now its time for me to sell my Brotherhood Bluray. Cause i frankly dont care what happens to this ed and al. I dont know these characters and i dont wanna get to know them..