Full Metal Alchemist General

The manga is full of nice moments that for some reason didn't make the transition to anime.

Finished vol 10.

The author's note is fun. Reader: "Mustang looks so cool with his Badass Back." Arakawa: "Eh, I was too lazy to draw his face.' Also, the literal cost for showing your work.

Haha, Envy keeps transforming while Lan Fan keeps kicking their ass. Why isn't this in the anime?

Wow, Mustang ordered Breda to kill Ross if she were Hughes' killer. Dude's unhinged.

Aww, don't be embarrassed, Havoc. Arakawa likes big boobs too

Pride calls Envy an indolent brat. Priceless.

I want a spin-off of this.

edited 9th Nov '16 8:22:57 AM by RAlexa21th

Finished vol 11.

So Ed deduces that Al has memories pre-armor => He has a functioning brain => His body is still alive.

Izumi lamshades the Symbolic Mutilation before Father does.

We actually see Marcoh get kidnapped by Envy and Gluttony.

"What if the Fuhrer was a homunculus?" "Hahahahahaha yeah sure." Don't jinx it, kids.

"We have no quarrel with a human." If only you knew, Lan Fan. Still, foreshadowing for Wrath's nature.

edited 9th Nov '16 8:51:05 AM by RAlexa21th

Mustang unhinged: Every Ishvall veteran with a bit moral will have... issues. In this case, Hughes is two-case; not only that Hughes basically the one that pulling him together during worst time in Ishvall, he's also act as his anchor to "normal" word and moral (and maybe also social) compass besides Hawkeye. If you have someone basically pulling you out from the brink and bleeding, physically and emotionally for you, when you are this close from eating your gun, you'll get attached to that person real hard, too.

Finished Vol 12

Scar makes the best facial expressions. Only Ed can make better faces.

Hey, Ed, GET YOUR FINGER AWAY FROM THE TRIGGER AND STOP POINTING IT AT THE LIEUTENANT! Hawkeye, DON'T GIVE THE GUN TO A PINT-SIZED BRAT!

"I wish the Colonel were here. I wonder if that thing will calm down if I feed the Colonel to it." What with Ed always trying to kill his allies? Is that Envy in disquise? Not it's not. Envy disguises as a horse in the manga as opposed to a dog in the anime.

It is clearer in the manga that Gluttony uses his ribs to pull people into his stomach.

Arakawa Q&A highlights:

"Men should be buff and women should be vavoom."

edited 10th Nov '16 8:47:35 PM by RAlexa21th

The face Cowakawa makes when she says that is burned into my head.

FMA's little author bits and omakes were fantastic. I was shocked when I started buying other manga, and found out they weren't standard issue.

I'm still waiting on copies 4-6 and 7-9 before my revisit of FMA. The collection is almost complete

edited 10th Nov '16 8:38:56 PM by mrsunshinesprinkles

I'm actually pretty sure Arakawa invented the "gag under the cover" thing…

I don't remember how it was in 03 but I love how here in Brotherhood Ed defeats the Slicers through the equivalent of going "Look! A helicopter!"

edited 11th Nov '16 11:24:39 AM by LinkToTheFuture

That's how he defeats the older one. He defeats the younger one by getting mid battle upgrade.

It's interesting to see how different the Fifth Laboratory stuff plays out in this version. Doesn't quite have the climactic feel of the '03 version but still a nice episode.

Episode 9 launches straight into the OP. Huh.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:39:13 PM by LinkToTheFuture

Yeah I tried watching the first anime again and was like, "How have we been here for FOUR EPISODES?!"

"Are we still in the Tuckers' house?"

I feel like the Tucker arc is the one that benefits the most from being stretched out though

Ed, stop trying to deny it, we all know it's true.

edited 11th Nov '16 9:10:23 PM by LinkToTheFuture

I agree that the Tucker stuff works better with more than one episode dedicated to it.

It's more unexpected that way.

Trailer for the live action movie.

It has Liore, some earth monster, and a complete lack of electric crackles.

Haven't seen enough Brotherhood to make a comment on that, but I love 03's soundtrack. Like, Brothers is really the only truly standout piece (and by gawd it is amazing) but every other track does a great job of setting the mood. I'm especially partial to "Philosopher's Stone", "Aishou", "Ishbal", and "Amestris", among others.

Huh... The lack of lightning is baffling indeed, but otherwise it doesn't look that bad?

I ain't hype.

It looks fine, it looks alright. The CG has that distinct live action Japanese CG feel but you get used to it. I'm not going to get excited, because we saw little, and what little we saw wasn't mindblowing.

I hope they go with the Rurouni Kenshin route for adaptation. That one followed the same general beats of the segment of the manga it was adapting, but made its own twist, cut out on the "cartoony" moments to give the whole thing its own grounded, unique feel

This might be just me and I've only seen 14 episodes but Wrath!Bradley seems to be much cooler than Pride!Bradley so far

That's the general consensus yes. Manga Bradley gets in more fight than 2003 Bradley (who loses the only fight he's in if I remember right). Which makes sense. He's very good at spreading violence.

edited 19th Nov '16 7:12:00 PM by RAlexa21th

Son....you have not seen anything yet.

Bradley has only just begun to fight.

The most interesting thing about him is that he's both stronger and weaker than 2003 Bradley at the same time.

You'll understand soon how that works.

He certainly doesn't do the "Hey this is my weakness, shoot it" thing.

The final fight with Mustang in '03 was pretty sweet though. Him dunking on Greed and his friends with no trouble at all was totally awesome though in a villainous way

I also expect him to be a better character this time. Pretty flat in '03.

Bradley is a much better character here, yes.

That's a benefit of having his true nature revealed so early - it gives him time for actual focus.

I dunno, he's certainly a better character in FMAB but I liked Kind Ol' Grandpa Bradley who marched out in his pajamas to save the Elric brothers.

And then later blithely murdered Marta who is a much more substantial character in FMA '03 so her death means a lot more.

It's hard not to like Bradley in either version but I still never recalled so viscerally hating FMAB Bradley like I did FMA '03 Bradley.