FMA: Brotherhood

This past weekend, my cosplay group got together to work on our cosplays and skit for Animazement. Only one of us actually got cosplay work done. I got sick again--that's my excuse. I spent Saturday curled up in a ball on the couch trying not to be too close to anyone. We did get our skit written, so I won't say the day was a complete flop--at least as far as intended work goes. One of our members had recently acquired Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and she brought it with her. So, most of us spent Saturday distracted by that.

Sketch by Christopher Sabat

I've heard all kinds of comparisons between Brotherhood and the original FMA, from art style to story and so on. I'm not going to compare the two. The original FMA was awesome. I will concede that the ending was a bit weird, but compared with, say, the end of Evangelion... I could live with it. Otherwise, the story was good. Above all, I loved the characters in FMA. I especially loved Armstrong--off topic: At Anime USA last year, I got a signed sketch by Armstrong's voice actor! *squee* It lives next to my sewing machine (see picture).

*cough* Back on topic... I think the only thing that disappointed me about the original FMA was the fact that it ended. It left me wanting more... a lot more. I was very excited to hear about the release of Brotherhood. Supposedly it follows the manga better. I've only read the first 3 volumes of the manga, so I can't say. I can say, however, that Brotherhood is giving me exactly what I wanted. I'm getting more Full Metal Alchemist. It's kind of like reading a really good fanfiction, except better, and it's official instead of fan-produced.

If I had to choose, I do think I like Brotherhood better so far; I like the faster pace, and I feel like the characters are a little more dynamic. For example, in Mustang's fight with Lust, he transmutes the air into hydrogen while Havoc tosses in a lighter (Mustang's gloves are wet, so he can't do his standard snap explosion thing). To my knowledge, Mustang never did anything other than the snap explosion in the original FMA. After watching this combat, I was like: =O I didn't know Mustang could actually transmute something other than "make it go boom" (even if indirectly something still went "boom" in this fight too). I still like the original, but I have to say I'm completely enamored with Brotherhood, and I can't wait to watch the rest.