:::join my 03 appreciation wagon. yeah fmab is good too i guess:::
main @aanau in case you see me responding in comments. sometimes i get critical of fmab fyi when 03/fmab comparison comes up in meta posts, so fans beware
the virgin fmab: two named/prominent brown characters and one is a man fighting systemic injustice after the genocide of his race except his violent means are labelled as revenge and unnecessary murder, and the other is a cop. one unnamed ishvalan says “we know not all amestrians are bad” and aspects of the genocide are told from soldiers’ perspectives and their angst instead of the actual people who were traumatized by the military’s actions against them. also the main character says “we should look past race” or something dumb like that when confronted by an ishvalan with the fact that he works under a military that tried to slaughter a whole race of people
the chad fma 2003: multiple named/prominent brown characters each with backstories, showing the harmful effects the military had on then from THEIR perspective, scar is a hero for fighting systemic injustice and ultimately killing 7000 soldiers who were about to carry out another genocide on more people of color, and the main character admits he’s racist and that everyone is responsible for their ignorance and apathy as it contributes to war. the biggest military character sacrifices his career to overthrow the system because him being complacent in a corrupt system, even if he intends to get high enough to try and change it, is not worth turning a blind eye to atrocity after atrocity
fma 03’s animation budget was like 15 euros and a shoestring but the animators were god’s strongest soldiers and almost every episode tried to put it the most gorgeous sunset you could think of. i can barely think of an ep where there isn’t at least one scene where characters and/or the setting are bathed in the warm orange light and the basking shadows of the end of the day. it’s so endearing. maybe nobody noticed this but i did. 03 animators love love love a good sunset and i love them for it
After ‘03 diverges from brotherhood, it still includes a plot point being Ed and Al chasing after a different country/culture’s version of alchemy in an attempt to find a different way to get their bodies back. In BH this is Xing’s alkahestry of course, but I really like how in ‘03 the alternative to alchemy they pursue is Ishbal’s version. Instead of introducing a whole new country (which we never see and has minimal baring on the story) it focuses in on one of the most important people groups in the story, and gives a reason for Ishbal’s condemnation of alchemy to boot (because they recognize it as being the atomic bomb that it is).
“I just mean that I have a different definition of soulmate than everyone else,” he said, running his hand through his bangs with a sigh. “I don’t think there was some grand plan or destiny leading Winry and me together, and I don’t think she’s the only person I could ever love.”
“Well, how would you define a soulmate then?”
“A soulmate is…” Ed frowned and thought for a minute. “A soulmate is… Home.”
i just cannot wrap my head around this kind of fma 03 critique. so because you personally enjoy reading about “a world of badass people of steel,” you get “really uncomfortable” w/ people who enjoy something a little more nuanced? you get “really uncomfortable” with a show that has bad things happen to good people? a fourteen-year-old feeling hurt/betrayed when the people he loves hit him strips him of his agency?? deconstructing the implications of shōnen/wish-fulfillment fantasy (in 2003, by the way, nearly twenty fucking years ago) is cringe and bad?? what’s up?
All of the reasons that 03 is better than the second anime and IMO also the manga is specifically because of the elements it confronts and deconstructs from the original version, especially because those elements are often extremely incongruous with the nature of FMA as a series that tackles things like war and genocide and by treating them more seriously it makes the entire narrative more cohesive as a whole rather than just dropping random comedy into scenes that are made worse by their inclusion. This is more admittedly jarring in brotherhood than the manga even though both have these problems because the manga’s pacing works well for a comic and brotherhood adapts it unquestioningly even when the pacing of the joke utterly ruins the scene when it’s depicted in motion.
The enlightened fandomer: Agency is when you suffer no long lasting consequences, when you’re always badass, and when you never get upset about the horrific actions and circumstances you have done/have had done to you/have participated in against other people. Knowing that there are far reaching and often devastating consequences to my actions, beliefs, and experiences actually removes agency. Nuance <33333
Summary: In the seven years since Edward Elric had last seen the Gate, he really felt he’d pulled his life together. He’d gotten married, had a couple of kids, and actually managed to settle down. But when his life is thrown into chaos, he finds himself suddenly waking up somewhere he’s never seen before: 1927 Germany. In the four years since Edward Elric had last seen the Gate, he really felt he’d pulled his life together. He’d managed to get Al adjusted to this world, got an apartment, and even found himself a best friend in Noah. But when his life is thrown into chaos, he finds himself suddenly waking up somewhere familiar: Amestris. Except… this isn’t his Amestris. (Also known as “BH Ed and 03 Ed switch bodies and cause chaos in the other’s life.”)
sometimes i wonder if people take my “this is so upsetting!” fma blog posts as criticism of 03 (they probably do because when the posts get attention there are always a few people who are like “and this is why i hate the 2003 anime” or worse “why it sucks!”) but no i actually love it and im praising the series for it because fma03 is a tragedy and challenges the philosophy of the main characters of equivalent exchange (meanwhile fmab plays that philosophy straight and commits to it iirc) in saying “actually no, nothing is equivalent about loss or tragedy or suffering but you move forward anyway and our main characters have to learn this because theyre stuck in the past trying to Trade and Bargain for it to be restored but thats not how life works, and every mistake they make does not exist in a vacuum thats fixed and consequences dont occur” which rocks to me
so when im making a post about how much it sucks that the elric brothers irreparably hurt their relationship with each other at the end of the series and it ends on a note where none of the conflict between them is resolved because there’s no going back from the things they said and did, but theyre gonna move forward anyway
