Comments on: Still Not Sure About This Fullmetal Reboot

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:40:00 +0000

I told myself I’d read the manga when it finished, so there!

By: Omisyth

Omisyth — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:15:00 +0000

I think his character’s pretty similar in the manga. I only picked it up at around the point the anime diverged, though, so different things could have happened before hand.

Also, read the manga! for it is awesome :P

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:00:00 +0000

@TJ: The thing is, as a new, theoretically standalone series, there IS a point in repeating parts that were already covered in the first anime. This is not a sequel, this is a remake. As such, important things will need to be covered again and it should be coherent to start with.

@Harry: Mustang is the only notable character to have a new voice, as far as I know, but yeah, I think it suited him fine, so whatever. I didn’t think the blood lance was too amazing, but I guess it takes more to impress me? XD Dunno! I like the boiling thing though.

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:55:00 +0000

My head's not really working right now, so I'll keep this brief.

This episode is NOT friendly to newcomers. This is absolutely true.

It is definitely a good example of things to come. I'm digging the more serious tone, and the production values thus far are very close to how they were near the end of the original series, if not a bit better. And having watched the entire series in Japanese several times, it certainly seems like they've gotten the original cast back. At least, for the characters thus far.

Issac was a bit one dimensional. Seemed pretty cookie-cutter to me, though I'd have to say his alchemical specialty is certainly a first, and on that same token, his . Um. Killing style. I have to bring this up, though: if the man had one redeeming thing going for him, it's that HE MADE A LANCE OUT OF HIS OWN BLOOD. That's a level of hardcore I haven't seen in a while. Even if Bradley makes short, badass work out of him in the end.

And I also loved the opening and ending bits. The ending in particular. Very cute. :D

By: TJ

TJ — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Yeah, it definitely helps if you watched the older series (and is reading the manga) before watching this one. This was an anime-original episode not based on the manga, and Bones did this because the first portion of the manga has already been covered by the old series, so there is no point repeating some of the parts. The story will become more coherent once we steer back on to the manga storyline… I hope.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:24:00 +0000

@Omisyth: Yeah, I love pretty much everything about the original anime up until the last two or three episodes.

Really? It might just be because I'm not new to the series that I immediately thought Isaac would try and pull some fancy shenanigans since he was drawing circles all over town, and the way Bradley's character acted -- all calm and badass -- really gave away that he was going to kick ass. (I also wasn't fond of the animation of the ice covering the town, especially when it was traveling around like a giant wave.)

I'm also disappointed that Mustang's been softened, though I'm hoping the banter picks up as the series continues. Is his character softer in the manga or is this a whole new thing?

Oh, awesome, manga spoilers! I'm glad I still haven't read the manga yet. :P It makes this more interesting for me, I think.

@P. Static: Yeah, I'm really happy with all of FUNi's streams. Not sure what they're going to do about the bandwidth overload though. I'm in class when the episode goes up in the morning and I'll be damned if I have to wait longer to watch the episode every week, haha.

I kind of think they did this kind of opening to purposefully stray from the original anime, which is silly, especially if the original was closer to the manga to begin with.

By: P. Static

P. Static — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:46:00 +0000

I just watched the FUNImation stream, and was pleasantly surprised. The only thing the fansubs really have over them is HD video, and I can’t really blame them for not streaming in HD, The entire thing loaded at 2 MB/s for me, so I think the bandwidth issues you saw were just because of the traffic spike from everybody hitting it at once.

As for the episode itself, it wouldn’t have felt out of place a few episodes into the series, but IMO it’s a bad way to start off. :/

By: Omisyth

Omisyth — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:32:00 +0000

BONES decided to change the entire plot of the first series surprisingly early, like a quarter way through at the most (and they did a fantastic job with the anime original plot).

I don't think that the episode was predictable. Sure, you knew Ed and Al were going to win, but if you were new to the series you wouldn't expect the Ice Alchemist to try and cover Central in ice, or that King Bradley would completely pwn the way that he did.

Mustang being an asshole was great in the last series, and I'm disappointed that they've made him soften up slightly since the banter between him and Ed was one of the best parts of the show.

As for the OP- woops, manga spoilers there :P

It seemed like this episode was made more to endear new watchers than to appeal to fans of the original series. Perhaps now they'll develop the characters as well as they did before.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:34:00 +0000

I also really enjoyed how the first series paced everything. We transitioned a lot between flashbacks and the current story, but it still felt very connected and fluid and definitely helped the audience understand the characters’ histories and motivations better. That we’re thrown into everything at once in this new series is pretty jarring.

I guess we’ll cover Lior in the next episode along with a more detailed explanation of what happened back at Resembool. I don’t like that it’s set up the past to compete with the present because I’m not too confident that they’ll be able to weave the stories together smoothly.

And yeah, I hope FUNi will be able to fix whatever issues they’re having with the stream in the coming weeks — it’s not as smooth as Crunchyroll at the moment, but I have faiiiiith. :D

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:18:00 +0000

I just watched this, and I largely agree with your review here. They really did seem to be trying to stuff so much info into one episode I am guessing many new viewers will be lost–I could only follow because I know the first series very thoroughly. I liked how gradual the first series was, and in the way it told emotionally compelling short stories to get you used to the ideas and the world before the brothers go to Central to become State Alchemists.

This first episode is, incidentally, NOT how the manga starts. The manga starts with the story in Lior, just like in the first series, which is hinted in the very brief scene with Lust and Gluttony at the episode’s conclusion. My guess is that this will be covered in episode 2?

Anyways, only now it seems I could get the Funimation stream to work, and I agree with and am also supporting Funimation’s effort to stream it legally rather than downloading the fansub for this one. This is what I’ve always thought the companies ought to do, and I feel we’ve got to encourage the industry to take these steps.