Ah yes..The famous question.Let me cut straight to the chase.Fullmetal alchemist 2003,or Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood.Ugh..Okay,let me mention some traits about them.

Lets do some comparisons.
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1. 2003 Does not follow the manga,which is not always a bad thing.But in most cases..It does not turn out to well *Cough* Hellsing tv *Cough* Soul eater ending.

This is usually done because the writer has not finished the manga,and because of this they are forced to do there "Anime only" route of doing things.Its the reason there is so much filler in long running Shonen anime,or why they drag 1 FREAKING FIGHT ON FOR 20 EPISODES!

Getting a bit off topic,but let me give you an example here.I am completely up to date with the naruto manga.And i have a volume right here in my hand,and in this *Spoilers..Go away if you don't like them* Sakura fights Sasori for 1 volume...1,this takes about 15-20 min to read. And that is basically the end of the battle.But in the anime,it takes 9 episodes for this one fight to end..Are you kidding me?

Luckily,2003 does not suffer from this problem at all (As fma is not a shonen) There are some parts where you can tell the story is sort of..Getting screwed up,but you won't notice it unless you look hard enough.

2.In my opinion,the 2003 characters are a bit more likable,and you can see where there coming from.My biggest example is lust in the 2003 series,i will try not to spoil anything,but in the 2003 version her entire back story is completely changed..What.The.Fu-..Family site.Granted,this can be seen as a good thing,or a bad thing.I personally see it as a good change.Granted,one that does not make to much sense if you think about it to much,but i prefer her 2003 backs story much more than in the manga.

3.The ending is changed..Once again,you can see this as a good thing,or a bad thing.In this situation,and in my opinion.Its a bad thing.I Will once again try to spoil stuff,but i will say this.It pulls the most stupid crap right out of its rectum.It is so,so..Next number.

4.There are a few characters that are missing.And it hurts the show just a little bit.

5.The openings are..A little bit less satisfying in the 2003 version.This could be seen as unfair for a number of reasons.You could argue that an opening from 2003 should not be compared to an opening from 2009,as that would be completely unfair.But i don't believe in that to much.Not unless you are showing me something from 1980-2000.They are not even 10 years off.And even if you do believe in that argument there is still something you may be missing.ITS MUSIC,sure you may not understand what there saying unless you speak Japanese (Which i do) But its still music.Music is literally timeless.There was bad music in the 1990,and there is still bad music now.There was good music in 1990,and there is still good music now.The only difference is the time.One last thing.Let me judge them side by side.

(2003 opening 1 vs brotherhood opening 1.)

2003 wins.Sure its cheesy,but it is awesome.The brotherhood opening is good here,but it takes so long to build up.Its almost like listing to something like "Party rockers" Or some stupid Flo rida song.You just block out everything and wait for the chorus.And that's something that does effect the 2003 version to an extent.But the music is catchy enough to balance it out.

(2003 opening 2 vs Brotherhood opening 2)

Brotherhood wins.Done.Without a doubt.That is one of my favorite openings of all time.It encompasses everything brotherhood is.Ready steady go once again provides a catchy beat.But..Something just isn't clicking.I Am rarely ever biased but..I'm sorry.I have to go with Brotherhood.Just listen to that beat,it is addictive.And the way it picks up in the 2nd half of the song.Its just incredible.

I just..I'm sorry,i have to go with brotherhood.I will add one more thing though.You know how before i was saying that the beat does not kick up fast enough in the first brotherhood opening,and how the 2003 opening just crushes it? That is exactly whats happening here,but in reverse.the second opening of the 2003 series takes to long to pick up,its just not working for me.

(2003 opening 3 vs brotherhood opening 3)

Brotherhood wins,but just barely.In fact..These songs are rather similar if you think about it.They both have a beat that takes a while to kick in.They both are about facing a new villain.And they both are extremely awesome.But in this case brotherhood takes the cake,because of one small little thing that i myself did not even expect..The 2003 version takes slightly longer to kick in,and the opening scene for the 2003 anime is less satisfying.

In the 2003 series you open with Ed Alphonse,and Winry as children.Which is heartwarming,and a bit sad considering what is going to happen to them soon.

But in brotherhood you open up to Ed lying in the grass with his hand in the air,which is..Granted very basic,but also very sad if you get the symbolism behind it all (Which if you don't know it..Well,look it up.Okay fine,Have you ever heard of the story about the man who tried the reach the sun and burned? That is what the series is referencing.So i guess this all comes down to how you look at it.Do you look at it for fun,or do you want some stupid symbolism crap getting in the way of our anime action..? Well sadly for you 2003 guys,i am an elitist who likes to think that he is smart..sorry,Brotherhood wins this one.

(2003 opening 4 vs Brotherhood opening 4)

2003 without a doubt.My god rewrite is one of my favorite songs ever.And (imo) Its not just the song that's better,its the animation to..Okay.I guess technically that isn't true.But you got to admit,seeing this stuff is pretty awesome.I guess my primal instinct of wanting to watch people punch each other is taking over this round.Not much to say here.

Um...The 2003 series does not have a second opening here,so i guess its tied.I still like the openings of brotherhood more though.

6.The 2003 series focuses more on the concept of a Equivalent Exchange.You know? "Everything has a price" 

While the brotherhood series focuses more on a god complex.And what exactly the term "God" Can truly be defined as.

Um..Hmm..I will go with the 2003's series way of doing things.I really like the concept of Equivalent Exchange.Besides,hasn't the whole "God concept" Been used long enough...Sorry Death note.

And that is basically everything i got.So in the end who do i think wins? Hmms..Uh.

2003 is more likable,but pulls stuff out of its arse a bit to often.

2003 does have some cool fight scenes,but keeps them on reserve for a bit to often.And brotherhood looks better without a doubt.

Brotherhood has the better ending.But at some point in the series,the show just starts to drag a bit for some reason.

There are more characters in brotherhood,but the 2003 versions are more likable.

The music is completely subjective.

Well in the end i have to go with..Wait,why do you care about my opinion anyway? Don't care about me,tell me what you think

Oh yes,sorry for grammar as i am indeed an idiot.







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I personally prefer Brotherhood to the original adaptation. From what I can remember, it seemed to be a darker show in general. The music was better, and the characters seemed to act more in-line with, you know, their character. Even if some of them were not as likable (Lust is still awesome). Besides, I find it better when the anime sticks more closely to the manga. It was the artist's design, and it really should not be warped unless absolutely necessary. 

On a side note, I find it cool that you can actually speak Japanese. How did you learn it?

sop281 : "On a side note, I find it cool that you can actually speak Japanese. How did you learn it?"

Funny story actually.When i was a teenager i had a friend who was Japanese.He taught me the basic words and taught me the Japanese alphabet.I learned about 20% of the language,but after that i basically forget everything except the basics.However as i got older my love for anime started to grow,and i still remembered the basics so i decided to take some classes.And since i was already somewhat ahead it only took me about 6-7 months to master the whole thing.That's basically it  

I enjoyed both series actually save for the 2003 ending on such a depressing note 
 at least to me it did anyone else? I enjoyed brotherhood for giving me a animated
 visual to one of my top 10 favorite mangas and the 2003 had new characters and personality's and plots
 that when other animes try to do so they fall flat killing off said new character's or slowly pushing them out of
 the picture hoping no one remembers them fma 2003 was one of the few times iv cried over a character's death
 [both greed and lust they were awesome character's] and brotherhood again adapted everything I loved from the manga
 giving them voices that fit perfectly well 2003 was unothrdox and focused on some character's that were overlooked 
 so its a long winded way of saying that both are great in there own ways even if others found they had flaws I loved them

I enjoyed watching both series, but in my opinion, Brotherhood is easily the better adaptation of FMA.

relinquish022 : Very good post, I loved the 2003 version, I saw a bit of the brotherhood series, it looked very intriguing. I can't fully deny the brother hooded series, since I haven't watched the whole series. But the 2003 version was very well done

I think Brotherhood was a little better series i didnt like the ending in the 2003 one. Was just too depressing in my opinion. Brotherhood had better openings and had a better adaptation overall but 2003 had some interesting things in it like characters that weren't in the manga like Sloth that looked like the Elrics brothers mother.

Normally I'd say comparison threads aren't allowed et cetra but in this case I'll let it slide as it's the same series in one aspect or another, personally however I lean towards Brotherhood simply because it stays true to the manga while '03 strays off the beaten (While not yet finished.) path.

While both were fun, FMAB was more enjoyable to me, whichever floats your boat though.

I like both to be honest, but I like 2003 a lot better to be honest. I liked Wrath and Sloth better in it. Wrath is so adorable, and innocent. Which made the series a bit darker by having a child like character in it, same with Sloth being Wrath's mom and her looking like the Elric's brother's mother which again made things sad yet a good kind of sad. I remember when I first watched it when it came out in the USA and it was on Adult Swim. I think I was like 11 at the time if I remember correctly, but I was amused at the anime, especially at some of the blood scenes. I was a creepy child. XD

I enjoyed both of the adaptations but, like many people here, I enjoyed Brotherhood a lot more than I did the original. I am not saying the original is not as good, it was a good adaptation in it's own right, but the storyline and plot development of Brotherhood seemed more evenly paced and  the characters it introduced, like Ling and May and Lan Fan and Major General Olivier Armstrong, seemed to develop the story so much more. Also, as a Greed fangirl, I was overall very happy with the amount of screen time and character development he got. We really got to see his character change throughout the series. He kind of became a hero in his own way, and I was pleased with that.

Well, those are just my opinions but in closing, I feel Brotherhood was definitely my favorite of the two.