...anyone for it? That thread is a year old, so... time to start a new one. Also, I will just say now that I plan on writing some spoilers in this thread, so don't read on if you're worried about that.
Just recently, Adult Swim has started to air "Brotherhood" on Saturday nights. I caught a few episodes a few months ago, which rekindled my interest in the franchise as a whole. Admittedly, however, until this last month, I had never watched all the episodes in the original anime, much less from start to finish. That changed when my sis got me Season 1 for my birthday. I didn't watch the first two episodes, because I pretty much hate those episodes, but I watched all the rest in chronological order, from start to finish, the movie included. Awesome series, though a little bit slow in places. More often than not in a good, thoughtful way.
Took a break for a few weeks, and then started watching Brotherhood this past week on Hulu at about the point where the military go into the Devil's Nest to exterminate the chimera-ie the point where the two series begin to greatly diverge. That was episode 14. I am now already on episode 31. I watched 10 episodes last night alone. This new series is a little bit like cocaine, and I don't remember the last anime that did this to me, where I just wanted to watch for hours on end. Maybe Bleach was the last one (during the Soul Society Arc, before it started to get fucking repetitive and "OMG epic battle!!"-heavy.) Nothing seems slow-paced or filler-tastic about this version of this show; everything is very intriguing and entertaining. Except maybe the recap episode with Hohenheim that I just watched.
Watching Brotherhood also reinforces to me my favorite characters in the series: Hughes-well, maybe not so much him, as he's already dead at the diverging point-Armstrong, Hawkeye, and Havoc. Havoc in particular took a level in badass, it seems. I hope we get to see him some more. Also, I really liked how Armstrong reacted when he thought that Mustang had killed Maria Ross; that look in his eyes as he was "apologizing" to Mustang for her. Also, Hawkeye's recount of the Ishvalon war, and her reaction when she thinks Mustang is dead. The military characters just seem more important in this show, as opposed to background characters we might occasionally visit. I was also impressed that they actually managed to make Barry the Chopper somewhat likeable in his last few appearances; thought he was pretty funny.
I was a little disappointed that the chimera died in this version too, and perhaps even faster than in the original; I really liked them. Thought they were cool. I also liked Rose better in the original, as she didn't pull a gun on them in that version, and generally seemed nicer. Was one of my favorite characters, in fact. I liked Edward's line to her that she had two good legs, and that she should use them in the original too, which seems to be missing here, if I remember correctly (one of the few good things to come out of that early scenario in Liore.) Also, I thought at first that the original anime handled Hughes' death better, but then I saw the episode in Brotherhood where Ed, Al, and Winry find out he's dead for the first time, and decided they both actually did a really good job in different ways.
Got a lot left of Brotherhood yet to watch. We'll see how long it takes me. So to ask a few questions, who were your favorite characters, and why? And what do you like and dislike about the original anime series and Brotherhood? Anyhoo...
Wuv, Yer Mom
PS: Made this, posting it here since I probably won't be changing my sig for a while:
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