kiarou: After watching FMA: Brotherhood with @mouiface, we decided to rewatch FMA 03 as well. I have

kiarou:

After watching FMA: Brotherhood with @mouiface, we decided to rewatch FMA 03 as well. I haven’t seen this show since way back in 2005-ish.
It was in interesting watching experience. I never found myself emotionally invested into the characters or intrigued by the story.

The revisit revealed 03 to be an incredibly flawed series, riddled with character inconsistencies, plot conveniences and a general lack of direction. Despite all of that, I still found an appreciation for this series. The execution was not great by modern standards, but the concepts and thematic backings were fascinating.

FMA03, in comparison to its counterpart, has an arguably more intriguing theme of equivalent exchange in relation to entropy and the ideal state vs the imperfect reality. This leaves the series with a much more tragic ending, which in turn leaves the world full of gaps for the viewer to fill with their own imagination. So while feeling incomplete, it also feels more interactive.

Furthermore, a retrospective look at this series makes it clear, to me anyways, that this series was a corner stone for better storytelling to come in the anime medium. I also believe that because of the flaws and missteps this series took, it made Arakawa write her manga better, which in turn made FMA:B better than it potentially could have been.

While this series sits at a 6/10 for me, oddly enough, the flaws and open ended nature make this a must-watch, to me.