What do you guys think of the original FMA anime (2003)? Did you like the original story? Even if you did, was the manga and Brotherhood better?

By the way, what did you think of the homunculus Sloth who looked like Trisha Elric?

ant123ant :

Yes.  Brotherhood is truer to the manga, but I still like the original series better. It was darker, funnier, and just had more heart. Other people don't agree with me, and that's fine, because they can like what they want, but honestly I liked the original plot better (though Dante got on my nerves. You said you were about a 1/4 through? Then you'll get to her later).

To be honest I watched Botherhood first so I was kinda spoiled.  I watched them both.  I like them both equaly very much the same.  I have to say that Brotherhood had a lot more action.  Brotherhood felt more of an action type anime while the first make felt like a mystery with some action.   I have to say in my opinion I liked Brotherhood a littled more then the original but I loved the originals story line just as much.  One of my favorite characters in Brotherhood was Sloth.  When he appeared man I thought Ed would lost his arm!  Haha.   Of course my opinion on all of this is biast as like I said I watched Brotherhood first if I watched the original first I'd probally say the original was better.  I mean really is anything not good when its new? lol 

Brotherhood did have a lot more action, though that's not always the best thing. I like my anime as bloodless as possible, and while I realize FMA is nowhere near that, the amount in Brotherhood was still rather shocking. I'm actually the kind of person who likes mystery/suspense over action (maybe that's why I like Fantastic Children so much), so I did like the original better. Also, I liked the darker themes to it, whereas Brotherhood had a lot of jokes sprinkled throughout it. The original had jokes too, but Brotherhood just had lighter colors and atmospheres.

Speaking of Brotherhood's colors, it gave me the impression that everyone is rather cuddly. I just loved watching Ed and Alphonse talk with Nina because they all looked so huggable. In the scene where Scar first shows up and it's raining, my sister came in and she started watching it. About halfway through, she randomly says, "Oh my gosh Scar is soooo cute!" The colors just... were cuddly.

I like both of them, but I have to like brotherhood better, because it just have more action than the original one. I only part I did not like about brotherhood is that there is to much blood. I do like that the original focused more on the story in my opinion.

Yeah, Brotherhood was really bloody... I guess story-oriented people go for the original, and action-oriented go for Brotherhood (unless they're FMA manga zealots who hate anything that doesn't follow the manga story). I liked the original's homunculii better than Brotherhood's because they seemed more human and seemed to have a soul (even though, according to Dante, they didn't).

After watching the first series, it was pretty sad ending. Then I realized that the developers for the anime made that all by themselves. That's pretty good for them. I enjoyed the off-manga topic storyline. However, I still prefer Brotherhood/Original Storyline. It just feels more natural. Plus, I just enjoy that one a bit better.

They're both amazing. I actually started watching the anime before I read the manga, so when I first read it, I thought, "Wow, this is nothing like the anime's storyline!" I thought that the manga came after the anime, but I guess that's not how things work in Japan...  I thought that Brotherhood's storyline was pretty good, but I'm only around vol. 15/16 right now and I'm still wondering how things will turn up. Some things really creeped me out. I did see the Brotherhood movie, though, since it had an original plot. It wasn't half-bad.