Why I Love Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 and Only 2003

Fullmetal Alchemist (Which will he by be known as FMA) the first animated series (2003) has not gotten me through anything in my life, or anything like that. FMA was the first, and one of the only animated series from Japan that I actually liked. This series unlike the original storyline of the manga makes the Homunculus storyline much deeper and have their hatred towards humanity more real.  The relationship of Edward and Alphonse is more caring then that of the manga. The rest of the cast also seem more human, and less 1 dimensional in FMA then in the manga and even more then the -1D in the manga's poor adaptation (Brotherhood) Even the ending was more realistic and more moving then the rainbow bunny ending of the manga. Now it's not to say that I never liked the manga's storyline, in fact my username is a character's name from the story, but with the ending of the manga came my hatred for the series. When it comes to the poor adaptation of the manga (Brotherhood) I never liked, in this article I will explain my reasoning's for why I love the 2003 Adaptation more than the original storyline.

I was introduced to FMA by my brother, whom wanted me to record the movie (Conquer of Shamballa) for him when it aired on Starz. I sat there and watched it; and I fell in love with the story of Edward and Alphonse Elric, two brothers separated by worlds but they would do anything to be reunited. The scene when Edward and Alphonse are separated after being reunited after so long actually made me tear up a little. The movie alone made me want to go out and watch the series in full. I had to wait three mouths to see Series 2 because it was not for sale yet. But I barrowed my brothers friends Copy of Series 1, Part 1 and watched it all in one day. Then I barrowed Part 2 and I continued to love it. For the first time I was going to buy something before watching it and I bought Series 2 parts 1 and 2 before I even saw the episodes.  While I waited for Series 2 to go on sale I began to buy the manga volumes from the book store and was buying them one, two, three times a week. If I had the money I bought the next volume. I was actually enjoying both storylines equally, but then I joined an internet community and the fans there convinced me to begin reading online. When Chapter105 came out I began to see the series was going downhill fast. I continued to read the series and purchased the volumes newer volumes that where coming out. But Chapters 106 and 107 were so stupid that they made me actually hate the entire series. I hated them so much that I was contemplating burning them. But this is a story for another article (Located Here - ) let's get back on track and go into why I love FMA more than the original storyline.

Well first off let's start out by me saying why I love FMA in the first place. Unlike other animes it is not just a bunch of morons hitting each other yelling about their destinies. FMA is actually character driven, the characters have thoughts and feelings other then, 'Oh I don't like that guy, I need to hit him'. When it comes to the reason I like FMA over the manga and brotherhood my reasoning is as fallowed. When it comes to the Homunculus storyline and why they hate the human race it is a lot deeper and more powerful than that of the original storyline. In the manga they just hate them because they think themselves more advanced beings then the humans and hate them because their creator Father,  whom emotions they are made from hates them. In FMA the Homunculi are made when Alchemist break one a law of Alchemy which states that an alchemist cannot bring someone back from the dead. When the homunculi are born, they are not complete they actually have body parts turned inside out and have to eat stones made from human souls to become whole. That pain alone makes them hate the alchemist that created them, and they make it their purpose in life to destroy that human, (IE Envy and Hohenim, Greed and Dante, Wrath and Izumi, and Sloth with Edward and Alphonse) they may work for Dante, but she promises that which what the alchemist that created them could not give them, she would use the Philosopher's stone to make them Human. Also while working for Dante they continue to hunt down their creator, so that they can destroy them. The rest of the characters (Edward, Alphonse, Roy, and Winry) seem more human in FMA. In the manga and brotherhood, Ed and Al do have a brotherly relationship, but they split up more than they do stay together. The Elric's of FMA need to be together, they are like one another's security blanket. The two times they are separated, Edward fights to get back to Alphonse's side. Roy Mustang,  instead of being just a solider who went away to the war and came back basically the same man but he now has morals, FMA Roy comes back with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Every time Roy has to point his figures to snap at someone (Minus Episode 3, but that was still Manga Roy's storyline they were working with, and in Shamballa he is snapping at Zombies) he cannot pull himself together to do so. Also instead of Scar being the one to kill Winry's parents Roy is ordered to shot them, causing him to not be able to look Winry in the face once he realizes she is their child. He has remorse about killing her parents, Scar shows none. In FMA, Roy loses his eye to a bullet shot out of Riza Hawkeye's gun and he never gets that eye back, in the Manga he loses his eyesight and it seems that on the exact same day he gets it back. In the manga, Winry seems to be just the hurt little girl who waits for her hero, in FMA she is a strong woman and only cries once when Ed and Al burn their house down (But once again, this was when they were still working off the manga).

The ending of the series was a lot more believable then the one of the manga. In FMA both Edward and Alphonse sacrifice their lives for one another, while in the manga Roy states that Edward would never do such a thing. In the FMA series end Edward and Alphonse become separated and go on a journey to be reunited which leads to the Movie. the  In FMA's ending (Conquer of Shamballa) Edward and Alphonse find a way to the other side, Edward by the Natzi's capturing Envy and Hohienhim and allowing Envy to finally kill his creator to open Earth's gate, Alphonse ends up sacrificing both Wrath and Gluttony to open Shamballa's gate.  At the end Edward makes the ultimate sacrifice and vows to go back to Earth to save Shamballa from the hell the Nazis would bring, and with that forever be separated from the people he loves. Not knowing it, Alphonse not being able to handle the thought of losing his brother forever sinks onto Edward's ship and they are reunited, forever. In the manga, Alphonse sacrifices his soul to the gate and he is reunited with his body so Edward can have his arm back. Edward after the battle with Father (Which he wins by punching him in his face) ends up sacrificing is ability to use Alchemy, and he is allowed to bring Alphonse back with him. At the end of Shamballa, the main character death toll adds up to 15 (All the Homunculi, Izumi, Kimbly, Scar, Dr. Marcho, Hohenim, Dante, Archer, Hughes) at the end of both the manga and brotherhood the toll is 10 (With all the Homunculi minus Pride who is turned into baby, Kimbly (who still lives inside Pride so he technically doesn't count so really its 9) Hohenim (who wanted to die to be with Trisha) Three popular minor characters die in the manga (Old man Fo, Brigadier Croc Arm, and Barry (who dies in both versions of the story), but if you count toughs you have to count all the minors of FMA, and when you do FMA still wins. In a war, which is what both versions of the storyline was people die, not everyone gets to go home. In the manga, everyone gets what they want, the good buys win. Roy regains his eyesight and watches the old man become Furhur who he helped to get there. Riza gets her voice back, Lin becomes Emperor and Mai's clan becomes taken care of do to Lin's promises. Alphonse gets his body back, and Edward denies wanting his leg so Winry can have something to fix. Winry and Edward get married and have babies. Havoc regains his legs, Scar is no longer a fugitive, and the list goes on. The only people who were denied happiness was the bad guys. In Shamballa, Roy never regains his eyesight in his eye that he loses, Edward and Winry are separated forever, and Edward never regains his arm and leg, all though Alphonse does get his body back. So FMA shows war in a much better light, only one good thing happens. In the manga, after Edward and Alphonse return home for a while, they decide to once again leave. Edward who cannot do alchemy anymore will study the Xing Alchemy so he can teach it to Alphonse (Toughs who cannot do teach I guess) and Alphonse goes to the west to learn their alchemy, so that they can learn how to split Camera's back into their two separate animals (Or humans) . So after all that work, Edward and Alphonse split up.

I will now explain why I hate brotherhood. What separated FMA from Brotherhood was the art work that was involved. FMA's art work was detailed, dark colors, and changed as the series went on. Brotherhood's stayed the same, and had light colors, harldy any detailing and was over powered by the over the top animation that I call Chibi scenes. Another thing I did not like about bhood was the voice acting. Even though some returned from 2003, the ones that didn't left a huge hole. Alphonse sounded like a little girl, Lin and Mai where just to annoying to even want to lesson to and the Second Greed (Greedlin, which was played by the same actor that played Greed 1 in Japan) was played by the man who voiced Archer from FMA. He sounded nothing like Greed, not even a Lin doing an impersonation of Greed. Another thing that ticked me off about it was the fact they said it was going to be a direct adaptation, and they completely butchered the beginning. Well that is my reasoning for loving FMA in the first place as well as more than the other two versions of the storylines. I like the art work, the acting and the overall story.