Tuesday 13 December 2011

Fullmetal Alchemist vs Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist is series created by Hiromu Arakawa for Manga. While the Manga story was still incomplete, it was animated by Bones and aired from October 2003 – October 2004, during that time the animators did most of the work by directing and reinterpretation of the story while it was incomplete, making it fitting for TV airing. By the time the series was over Arakawa added the finishing touches to her original Manga story, giving her and Bones the opportunity to re-launch the series and air it in April 2009 – July 2010 under the name of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. One year later for each series (2004-2005 and 2010-2011) the Fullmetal Alchemist series were aired in the United States and Canada by Funimation Entertainment.

The story itself is about two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric who live in a village of Resembool in the country of Amestris in a fictional Universe, in an era and place similar to Europe's Industrial Revolution but where alchemy is a powerful source of energy and dominant than the steam powered engines and other engineering.

The young brothers live with their mother, Trisha Elric and with their father gone away, they had nothing to do but to read his books and study alchemy on their own. Their mother and neighbors are impressed but Trisha dies years later because of a terminal disease, leaving her sons alone with no one to take care of them but their neighbor Winry and her grandmother. The Elric brothers have nothing else to do but to continue studying alchemy and find out about Human Transmutation – a forbidden part of alchemy that allows bringing back to life and modifying human life. Normally alchemy has a basic rule called The Equivalent Exchange, one can't create something out of nothing, in order to transmute / to gain something of a value, he must lose something else of the same value.

The brothers try to bring back their mother back to life but they don't do the transmutation correctly, costing Edward his left leg and Al's entire body and instead of bringing their mother back to life, they end up with grotesque malformed homunculus that was supposed to be Trisha. In an attempt to bring his brother back to life, Ed gives up his right arm, to bring back his brother's soul and attach it to a suit of armor.

This act is discovered by a state alchemist named Roy Mustang who offers them a place in the military as state alchemists, giving them opportunity to learn more alchemy and secrets that will allow them to get their bodies back. Years spend at Winry's home; Edward gets new automail limbs (advanced artificial limbs) and go to Central to register themselves as State Alchemists. Afterwards they are assigned to investigate different locations of the country in search of the Philosopher's Stone, a great catalyst in alchemy, but the brothers mainly search for it in order to use it for themselves to get back their bodies.

What is the difference between the series released in 2004 and the one in 2009? Hiromu Arakawa was working on the Manga version of the series and while this was taking place, she let Bones to animate her creation but without her help. She actually allowed it and wanted to see how the animators would roll her story without her involvement. Arakawa was very impressed and using the tv series as a help to improve her Manga version. It took her longer than it took Bones. However, by the time she was done, she went back to Bones and decided to re-launch the series now based after her story, and in 2009 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was aired.

There is no specific appreciation for the first series and Brotherhood from a fan base point of view, they are both pleasing for most of the audience and since most of it is in general anime fans, they don't really see much difference. From an objective point of view, of a non anime fan one, the first series had a more impact and more meaning than Brotherhood who follows more anime specific standards than to give quality to the story.

Fullmetal Alchemist , the series of 2004 starts with the episode Those who challenge the Sun with a scene showing the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, drawing a runic circle (also known as the transmutation circle) in a basement, doing alchemy with them trying to bring back their mother to life. While they do this, Edward narrated the scene as if it is a memory, describing what alchemy is, how it is preformed and what were they doing. The principles of alchemy are to gain something if you give in return something of equal value; this is known as the law of equal exchange. Their mother died soon and they tried to bring her back to life giving materials in return that represent the natural fabric of a human being, but what they gave was not enough, they had to lose more. Edward lost a leg, his brother Alphonse but his mother was brought back to life in a disfigured manner. The flash back ends here and it next scene takes us to the main time-line of the show.

The Elric brothers are now (older, and Alphonse in a suit of armor) wandering through the desert and arrive in a small town called Lior to find something they were assigned for as state alchemists. They are taken at a small tavern by a barman who thought they were from town. They find out from him about a much known prophet from their area known as Cornello. The Elric Brothers were very famous as well but not in the area of Lior. Alphone accidentally breaks a radio that the barman uses to listen to Cornello's broadcasts and quickly repairs it with alchemy. The barman and the crowd are all surprised and they believe that they are doing miracles just like Cornello. A young girl called Rose appears, that makes introduction with the Elric brothers and takes them to the prophet to help them.

Later at a Miracle Gathering, the 2 brothers observe Cornello's performance and realize that he's simply using alchemy but he is ignoring the law of Equivalent Exchange – they believe he uses the philosopher stone. Rose is quite a faithful girl and believes in the prophet but finds it outrageous what the Elric brothers are saying. Later in the temple, after Cornello heard that the Elric brothers are sent by the state, he sends his right hand man, Cray, to take care of them. He shoots Al but fails, since he is already dead but his soul is attached to the suit of armor that he controls. Rose is frightened by this and runs quickly to the prophet.

The Elric brothers follow her into a big room where Cornello sends a chimera and a parrot beast to fight them but Edward succeeds to beat them, leaving him with his automail (his artificial arm and leg) exposed. Then Cornello realizes why he is known as the Fullmetal Alchemist and why he has no arm and no leg, and why his brother was in a suit of armor. What they've tried when they were little was a sin, a human transmutation. They tried to bring back their mother back to life and that was forbidden – that's why Ed lost a leg and Al but he then lost his right arm after he brought back his brother's soul back into his world. Even though they were sent by the state to confiscate the philosopher stone that Cornello uses to perform alchemy without the Equivalent Exchange, they want to use it for them to set everything back.

The second episode is called Body of the Sanctioned. The Elric borthers admit that they've tried to bring back their mother to life but failed and they warned Rose not to count on Cornello on bringing her boyfriend, Cain, back to life because it will only end up the same. Edward and Al then escape but they are overrun by the prophet's mob. In the meantime Cornello pretends to prove Rose that he managed to bring back Cain to life, showing her him in a curtain bed but he can't be recognized, only as a shape. She actually believes the figure in the bed was her lover and turns against the Elric brothers, encouraging the mob to seize them.

With Edward captured and sent into a prison, Alphonse steals the monastery's bell and tries to dig his way in to save his brother. Meanwhile, Rose tries to sneak into Cain's room to assure that he is actually himself but she is caught by Cornello and finds out that she was tricked; the figure she saw earlier was just a transfigured parrot. The prophet locks her in the room to be killed by the parrot but she is quickly saved by Al.

The scene switches on a balcony of the monastery where Rose watches Alphonse install a broadcasting system using Cornello's set and the monastery bell as a giant speaker, with the microphone set all the way down to prison behind Edward. There the prophet was admitting that he was fooling the citizens of Lior to become his faithful soldiers in the future, until he found out that he was tricked with the microphone. Edward chased him outside where the entire town was after Cornello. The two, had a small alchemy showdown until the prophet's stone exploded, letting Edward realize that it was not the actual Philosopher's Stone. Soon after the two brothers leave the town, Rose came upset on them cause now she has no faith to live for, the real Cornello dead and an antagonist disguised as him tries to set the town as calm as before.

The Brotherhood version of the two episodes of the series of 2004 takes place actually as a single episode and the third one. It is called City of Heresy, the Elric brothers arrived to Lior by train (Lior is not a desert town in this series), everybody looks at them with impression, knowing that they are famous. The brothers then go the temple to speak to father Cornello regarding his business, but they meet inside a girl called Rose who is highly faithful and believes in the religion Lior's prophet is teaching them. Cornello who is aware of the state alchemist's threat, orders his men to ambush them and shoot the Fullmetal Alchemist. The brothers fight Cornello's men and they believe he has a philosopher stone, they ask for it so they can leave him alone but the prophet commands Rose to shoot Edward. She accidentally shoots Alphonse and discovers that the armor is empty. The prophet realizes they tried a sin, a human transmutation and gives Rose more motives to believe that they are evil.

The Elric brothers escape taking Rose with them. Ed hides inside Cornello's office while Al installs a giant speaker to and tells Rose what really happened to them, why he's in a suit of armor and why Ed has no arm and leg. While Cornello finds Fullmetal, he admits to him the truth about fooling the citizens of Lior becoming his faithful soldiers to take over the country. He then finds out that he was tricket and that the entire town heard about his confession. He then starts a showdown with Edward but he is defeated and his gem on his ring is disintegrated, revealing as a fake. When the brothers were set to leave Lior, they were confronted by Rose who wanted to steal the Philosopher Stone from them to bring back her boyfriend back to life, she then cried that her faith was taken away from her and that she has nothing to live for now. Edward told her that the dead can never be brought back, and that she should keep on walking and searching.

The third episode of the series of 2004 is called Mother it is character origin flashback episode where the Elric brothers little around 6 years old, and try to make a gift for their neighbor and friend Winry, using alchemy. They try to make a doll but during the process the doll takes a ghostly humanoid shape that scares Winry away. This causes her parents and the brothers' mother to have a discussion about what happened but Winry's mother defends being impressed with their alchemy skill at their very young age. Trisha, their mother, is also impressed how Ed and Al started using alchemy at this very young age; she encouraged them and let them use their father's study (who ran away from home when Al was still young to remember him) to learn more. As they get older and practice more alchemy, their mother gets prouder – they go to show off their skills to Winry as well but they fid her crying because she just found out that her parents died in a war. After some time Trisha Elric dies as well due to a terminal disease, the two brothers are left all alone with no one to take care of them but Winry and her grandmother. Meanwhile Ed and Al find another alchemist and are train by her (to use both body and mind).
After a long time of learning they try to practice a forbidden part of alchemy: human transmutation. They use all the necessary ingredients they think it's equivalent right to bring back their mother back to life, but instead Al is sucked by the transmutation circle, Edward loses his left leg and wakes up with their mother in front of them, but instead of her, he finds a grotesque malformed presence. The next moment, at Winry's home, her grandmother opens the house door to find a suit of armor (that was actually Al) holding Ed without his limbs. Moments later, a military man named Roy Mustang comes at their house and offers the two brothers the opportunity to join the army as state alchemists, giving them the opportunity to learn more about this science and access to hidden information. Edward pays Winry and Pinako (her grandmother) to make him automail limbs so he can later go to register himself as a state alchemist to learn more and to get his limbs and his brother's body back to normal.

The second episode of the Brotherhood series is called The First Day. It starts with the Elric brothers on a train to Lior, speaking about a task to meet the prophet Cornello and see if he had the Philosopher Stone with him, but right after we are being shown the past of the two brothers, and most of the episode is a character origin flashback. It shows them when they were younger practicing alchemy from their father's books, and their mother impressed by their doing. She dies right after a couple of days, with no one to take care of them but their two neighbors. Edward comes with the idea of bringing their mother back to life, so he studies more alchemy with his brother, until he finds the supposing right transmutation requirements to revive Trisha. They set a transmutation circle, put all the materials a human body is composed of, and they add a drop of blood from each other as 'soul data'.
What they've added was not enough, so the transmutation circle sucks Alphonse into it and a leg of Edward along. In the meantime Edward is having an epiphany, finding himself in front of a black gate with a disembodied figure known as 'the universe', 'one' and 'you'. He then shows Edward "The Truth", as he wanted, the gate opens and a shadowy figure takes Edward trough it, filling his mind with useful information, the truth of everything, but is pulled out right before learning the secret behind perfect human transmutation. Edwards asks to be taken through the gate again but he is denied by the disembodied figure, telling him that he already paid for the first ride trough the gate and that was his left leg.
Ed then wakes up from his epiphany, with Al gone, but with his mother brought back to life. However, it was not really their mother, but a grotesque malformed humanoid that was supposed to be her but was not. Using whatever information he acquired during his ride through the gate, Edward brings down a suit of armor, draws a transmutation circle inside it using his blood, and offering his right hand in exchange for his brother's soul back.
Taken at their neighbors house, they are both visited by Mustang who surprised and impressed at the same time by their actions, invite them to join the military as state alchemists. Years later, after Edward was given a mechanic new arm and leg, he managed to do alchemy without transmutation circles, and passed the exam at Central becoming a true state alchemist and he was given the title of Fullmetal.

In the sixth episode of the series of 2004, called The Alchemy Exam the Elric brothers arrive to Central (the main city in Amestris) and are taken to the house of Shou Tucker by Roy Mustang so they can live there several days while they will be using Tucker's library to study for the exam. They learn that Tucker is also known as The Sewing-Life Alchemist and that managed to create a talking chimera in the past but died right after it was created. While at the mansion, they befriend Tucker's daughter Nina and their dog Alexander. Later Maes Hughes invites them to his house to celebrate Edwards birthday, while there, Mrs. Hughes goes into labor and in an attempt to help her, Ed finds out by fluke he can perform alchemy without the help of a transmutation circle.
Later after the Elric brothers pass the exams for the state alchemy credentials; Roy forces Al to drop out so that their taboo is never revealed to the public. Edward however passes his interview and his practical part of the exam by using transmutation without the help of a circle, saving the other participants that were in danger.
In the seventh episode, Night of the Chimera's Cry, Edward receives his credentials and his state alchemist pocket watch (a watch that augments an alchemist's abilities) from Roy Mustang. He spends a couple of more days at Tucker's home, where he finds out from Shou that his wife left him before he got his own alchemist credentials, when they were poor. Now he has to do a research every year to keep his credentials and his status, his last year's project wasn't impressive enough and now he has to do a better one in order to remain a state alchemist. But Edward finds out from Hughes that Tucker's wife died right before she got to Central, this cause suspicion and only made Ed investigate this matter even more. After a while when a general by the name of Basque Gran who is in charge of Tucker, find out about Ed's investigations, he orders him to leave the residence, Shou being his responsibility and that he won't allow anyone around him. This again made Fullmetal even more suspicious, so he infiltrated Tucker's home later at night to see what was going on. He saw Show's new creation, a talking chimera, but Edward realizes that the former chimera that died was actually his wife and the one that was just created moments ago was actually Nina and Alexander. Tucker defends himself by saying that he was progressing in the name of science and that Edward is just like him, making a reference to the human transmutation he tried when he was little but is almost beaten to death by him for saying that.
They are then discovered by Brasque Gran and his men, Edward accusing Shou for his act. The general says he will take Tucker to trial and hide the chimera, commanding the Elrics not to tell any one about what he saw. Fullmetal enraged by Gran's attempt to cover everything up sets Nina free, but she runs off around the city finding a man by the name of Scar who tries to untransmute Nina and Alexander but he ends up killing the chimera. The remains are then found by the Elrics with no sign of Scar.

In the Brotherhood version of these two episodes is called An Alchemist's Anguish and is the fourth one in the series. Gran wanders around Central when he encounters Scar but he is then murdered by him, causing a serious case of loose serial killer for the state to handle. Back from Lior, the Elric brothers are sent to Shou Tucker by Roy Mustang, as a favor so they can use his library. While they were on their way there, Edwards finds out that Tucker created a talking chimera in the past but it only said that it wanted to die, so it refused to eat until it got its wish. At Tucker's mansion, Shou finds out about the Elric's case and they quickly befriend him along with Nina and their dog Alexander. Later Edward finds out about Shou's case how he has to prepare himself for an assessment to keep his credentials, and he finds a new talking chimera but he realizes that the chimera is actually a combination of Nina and Alexander. While Tucker waits for the authorities to come and arrest him, he is visited by Scar who kills him and the chimera.

These were examples of certain episodes of each series. In the series of 2004, the animators from Bones were more in charge of the story so they managed it in a way to appeal for the TV audience, they did a very good job and managed to do what some anime series barely succeed in managing and that is, telling a story. At first they seem as if they are trying to beat everything around the bush just to extend the episodes but this is organized very well not only that it takes the Manga story lightly, but it also makes it more gore and keeps the audience attracted, keeping them in a cliff hanger until the next episode.

Brotherhood however is rushing to get the story done. Arakawa states that she spend more time on creating the story for the second series especially using inspirations from the real alchemy's philosophy and real life stories from different people and scenarios. With all this work, she does not really succeed to make her series as appealing as her previous one, but rather more childish. The reason why they rush the episodes in Brotherhood is because they want to leave enough space for the actual cliff hanging episodes from the end, but even this one is not managed very well. The first impression always matters, but only the series of 2004 takes note of this and manages it very well to keep the audience attracted and provide a satisfying ending as well. An example of rushing the story is seen in the content of episodes of Brotherhood as well as their placing them in the series. The character origin flash back episode called "Mother…" is the third one in the series and is dedicated to the Elric brothers' childhood and their motives for where they are now. In Brotherhood, this takes place in the second episode "The First Day" and it shows everything, how they found out about alchemy, how they progressed with it, the way they tried to bring their mother back to life, the epiphany about The Truth, why Al is in a suit of armor, how Ed can perform alchemy without a circle and he already got to central and passed the exam. With all these events compressed together in a single episode, there is no room for pure admiration and cliff hangers. The series of 2004 however systemizes all these events in various story arcs, giving you enough time to enjoy the story and find its conspiracies giving you an impression of "so that's what actually happened". Here for example, Edward does not recall seeing The Truth, does not recall how exactly he bound Al's soul to the suit of armor and he finds out that he can use alchemy without a circle by a fluke later in the series before he passes the exam. How he actually managed to do that, how he bound Al and what actually happened with their failed attempt to revive their mother are all solved one by one later during the series so it can fit the climax.

Manga stories are known to be black and white. Of course Arakawa provided character designs and different color details for the animators at Bones but even these seem to be slightly altered by them, or maybe not at all. Graphic speaking, the two series have noticeable changes but we are not 100% sure if in the series of 2004 the animators altered the graphic details in their favor, or if those were the actual designs at that time and got improved in the new series with Arakawa's indications. Most characters look the same in both series but the one that has a large modification is Edward, the only thing is that he looks younger in Brotherhood. The backgrounds and environment in general looks interesting but sometimes it has moments as if it was simply created by a Photoshop novice.

Like mentioned before, the series of 2004 has more impact and it has more emotional value than its sibling where Brotherhood rushes everything. For example the death of Maes Hughes is unexpected and more emotional than the one in Brotherhood where is barely emphasized. There are multiple scenes with such example, like the events in Lior: Cornello actually fools Rose with a horrific mutation claiming to be her boyfriend but in Brotherhood he is not showed at all; Gran actually makes an anti-hero manifestation in the first series and his death leaves a small impact no matter negative or positive, but in Brotherhood he is seen for the first time in the third episode and killed on sight, not leaving us enough background of him; at Tucker's home Edward is shocked with he hears that he is compared to Shou, very sad for Nina-Alexander, he actually attempts to split them back to their original form or even revive them after he sees them dead, in Brotherhood he simply walks away from Tucker's home and he is killed with his chimera in him home –there are countless examples.

Brotherhood loses its effectiveness to an objective audience, but it's constant for a regular anima fan base. Not only the rush of episodes and its content loses its charm compare to its sibling series but it's also the way they handle the effects. The series of 2004 allowed itself to show more gore scenes where Brotherhood kind of censors them. The last and unpleasant element that makes the first series the winner is its sense of handling the audience emotions. For example in Lior when Edward explains to Rose about his beliefs, she is outraged, while in Brotherhood she turns into a comic chibi not understanding what he tells her; also when Cornello orders her to shoot Edward and she confuses Al with his brother this triggers another chibi comic moment. All these are not well placed, especially in between climactic scenes leaving the audience not sure how to feel about what he is shown. Brotherhood may keep its place in the fan's hearts but the first series will always be an exceptional anime who really caught the heart of western audience.

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