The 2003 Adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist is underrated and overhated. I heard a few bad things about this adaptation and how Brotherhood is leagues above it, which caused my first experience with FMA to be the Brotherhood Adaptation. Now don't get me wrong, I ultimately still prefer Brotherhood over 03 FMA but...03 FMA is rly nowhere as "bad" as some people claim it to be.
As far as I'm aware, 03 followed the canon manga stuff in the first half but it eventually became anime original stuff because (I think?) the manga was still ongoing when this adaptation came out. But even in the first half,
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I noticed that some things were slightly different. For example: Nina's Death. The first half of the 03 Adaptation was slow and allowed the viewer to spend more time with characters like Hughes and Nina than the manga or Brotherhood adaptation did, because the first half was very rushed in both of them. Due to more screentime, Hughes and Nina's deaths hit the most in the 03 Adaptation imo because they gave Hughes a lot of screentime in the first half, with him being introduced on the train Ed and Al were on, and him often talking to Ed, and generally having more screentime. I did like Hughes in Brotherhood but he didn't have that much screentime so his death didn't hit as much as it did when I eventually watched 03 FMA, especially when this adaptation gave us a scene of Ed looking out of the train and seeing Hughes (just after he died) wave at him as if he was saying goodbye, which caused his death to hit more.
Genres: It has an overall darker tone than Brotherhood. The way Scar killed people was a lot more brutal, and the adaptation generally had a darker atmosphere than BH did, which is probably due to the art style and the adaptation feeling more like a drama and character study of Ed, compared to BH which looks and feels like a Shounen, has a lighter tone, and is more of a adventure-conspiracy-action. BH also had a lot more comedy than 03 FMA did, although both adaptations have the overused running jokes about Ed's height.
Art: I really liked the art, with the vivid colors and how it looks more artistic than cartoonish. I prefer O3 FMA's Art over Brotherhood, but Brotherhood's animation over 03 FMA, since it had many impressive and well animated fights.
Characters: Not sure if this is controversial but I prefer 03 Ed over the Ed from Brotherhood. The 03 Adaptation questions his morals on a much larger scale than Brotherhood does because he ends up killing Greed in this version and never forgave himself. 03 Ed starts out the same as Brotherhood Ed but due to circumstances and actions that had consequences that he wasn't aware of, he goes down a much darker path than BH Ed did, and is less heroic than his Brotherhood version. 03 Ed reacts "immaturely" and emotionally to certain things. He runs away, gives up his title of a state alchemist whenever something stressful is happening to him, and reacts more realistic to traumatic situations than his Brotherhood version did. Best example for this is probably his first encounter with Barry the Chopper. The 2003 Version didn't hold back from depicting Ed as a scared kid as Barry chases him, showing that no matter how strong of an alchemist Ed may be, he's still just a kid and was getting chased by a mass murderer, so he was obviously fearing for his life.
As for the Homunculis, it's a toss up. I quite enjoyed the idea of the Homunculis in this version being the result of failed human transmutations and wanting nothing more than to be humans, compared to their Brotherhood versions where they're parts of Father/Dwarf in the Flask, and have no redeemable attributes, while their 03 versions were humanized and weren't pure evil (Except Envy and Bradley) My fave all time FMA character is Greed BY FAR (Especially when he and Ling were together, Greedling was S Tier) and while his 03 version was still good, he was underutilized here. His introduction, final fight with Ed, and death were all great, don't get me wrong, but after how much Sloth and Gluttony were scared of Greed and hyped him up, I don't understand why he had to be the first Homunculi to die. Though I guess Ling not being present in the 03 adaptation caused 03 Greed's character to suffer as well since he was unable to be brought back into the story. Envy and Gluttony were pretty much the same, though Envy was even more of a vile rat in this version. 03 Bradley was Pride instead of Wrath and while I think being Wrath fits Bradley more, 03 Bradley was still a menacing force (Though Brotherhood Bradley aka Wrath is far superior and may fave character after Greed). And while Sloth was the worst Homunculi in Brotherhood and had no character, they were actually complex in this version. The 03 Homunculi that surprised me the most was definitely Lust though. While her Brotherhood version was nothing more than pure evil, she was probably the most complex character in 2003 FMA after Ed. Her character genuinely surprised me. I have no big opinion of 2003 Wrath as he is a completely anime original character that isn't present in Brotherhood, though I liked the idea of him being Izumi's stillborn son who aged inside the gate. He annoyed me at the later half of the story due to him keep getting in Ed's way and trying to rip his limbs off, but the movie (Conqueror of Shamballa) redeemed his character.
When it comes to the other characters, Sheska had a much bigger role in this version, I prefer Brotherhood Riza over her 03 self, and Hohenheim was like Greed, underutilized. He appeared into the story at the end and was there for like what, 3 episodes? 03 Scar didn't have as much character development as Brotherhood Scar but he was still great and one of my favorite FMA quotes is said by 03 Scar ("Those who receive pain can still sleep. Those who give pain cannot sleep"). Mustang's PTSD and Guilt is a lot more present in this version and it makes sense as in this version, he's the one who killed Winry's parents, and not Scar. His revenge plot is however not present here, he never found out that Envy is the one who killed Hughes and therefore never seeked out revenge against Envy for what they did. Mustang's moment against Envy when they finally met, with him chasing Envy like The Terminator, was one of my favorite moments in Brotherhood, so seeing that being not present in this version is the reason why I prefer the Mustang from Brotherhood. As for the final villain, Dante, she's a anime original character and was underutilized so I therefore couldn't care less about her, she was a slightly better villain than Father which doesn't say much because I despised Father. Like, Dante appeared at the very end and ended up being killed by Hyper-Gluttony or whatever. She cleared/erased Gluttony's mind after he was sad about Lust's death and turned him into a pure eating machine, only to get killed by him lmfao, it was so pathetic and badđź’€.
Characters like Ling, Olivier, May, etc, weren't present in this version.
Music: Every opening in this adaptation was a banger and the show itself had some godly OST during certain moments.
Overall: While there were certain writing decisions I didn't agree with, the 2003 Version of Fullmetal Alchemist isn't bad at all. I still prefer Brotherhood but I would totally understand if someone were to prefer this version. I really enjoyed the darker tone of it, as it was more serious than Brotherhood and less Shounen-like, and it doesn't have a perfect, happy ending like Brotherhood did, but more of a realistic and bittersweet ending. Even though I wasn't the biggest fan of the Shamballa movie, I recommend watching it as it finishes the 2003 story.
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Apr 19, 2022
Fullmetal Alchemist
(Anime)
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The 2003 Adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist is underrated and overhated. I heard a few bad things about this adaptation and how Brotherhood is leagues above it, which caused my first experience with FMA to be the Brotherhood Adaptation. Now don't get me wrong, I ultimately still prefer Brotherhood over 03 FMA but...03 FMA is rly nowhere as "bad" as some people claim it to be.
As far as I'm aware, 03 followed the canon manga stuff in the first half but it eventually became anime original stuff because (I think?) the manga was still ongoing when this adaptation came out. But even in the first half, ... 
Oct 5, 2021
Painter of the Night
(Manga)
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Story: Nakyum, a peasant who loves to draw erotic images of men just so happend to get kidnapped by a handsome, sex-obsessed nobleman, Seungho. As if that already didn't feel forced enough, the story BARELY progresses. Seungho basically fucks ... |
