[Official] Anime/Manga Thread

[deletedxyz]

I thought it was well done in a way that it keeps you still wondering bout their world and lives, but gives you enough to be happy with the ending. A clean cut ending wrapping up all ties is always good, but it kills off the ability to wonder about what else. This ending leaves it open if they ever wanted to, to start on a new story, but closed enough to where if they don't, you know how everything sort of turned out.

I liked how everything was explained, how the bad guy lost, why he lost (specifically), and what the brothers continued to do after all of it. Seeing Mustang still not as the leader and having some of the people doing what they are doing ( can't spoil much for those who missed it ) were good unexpected side events.

What do you feel could have been done better? I understand how the Manga version of these can be a little lack luster and not reveal or show everything how it might be animated, so maybe the Anime will be a little better....

I do wish they went a little more into Edward and Winery, instead of leaving it how they left off lol, but everything else I felt was just right for the setting of the story to this point.

FMA spoiler:

It's not clean cut. The ending was very abrupt. Remember how the whole team ends up fighting against "God" and how he tries sucking all the souls to become powerful which makes everyone faint? Yeah, it took only a few chapters more to jump to an epilogue of Edward "Lack of Alchemy" Elric proposing to Winry. FMA had great potential to make a longer, greater manga series or a shorter manga with less absurd "I will destroy the world to become God" moments. The random Chinese prince and princess made the story take a turn for the bad since their characters did not have the chemistry as the older cast. Another thing that stood out was the "elevator" chapter where some people were randomly using their alchemy powers to go up down the large like some sort of elevator. The list goes on...

The mangaka chose the middle ground and went from fantastic to meh. FMA is a great example of what happens when a mangaka is rushed to conclude a story for the sake of the industry rather than fully exploring the amazing world she created. IMO, FMA's universe had the potential to become one of the greatest. Instead, we end up with a cool parallel story that ends with a movie that doesn't conclude the story and an original "manga to anime" translation. 'Tis a pity that the manga ended this way instead of stretching its wings and securing its position as one of the best ever. Unfortunately, it's not the best ever due to the anti climatic ending.

In conclusion, I prefer the previous Fullmetal Alchemist anime story than what the manga offered. I would like the story to continue instead of Brotherhood ending the FMA anime franchise forever. The cast members were in their proper places and parallel worlds really matched the "Fair trade" concept of alchemy. It's a much more entertaining scenario compared to the "I can just use a circle and throw anything I want without fear of fair trade" in the manga.

[SidVicious]

Ritsu talking like Lum on K-On!! ep. 11 was awesome. :laugh:

[Jamushroom Veteran]

@Masked Forever: Though that's not what FMA:B was about.

I guess that I'll be enjoying some Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory, Dragonball Kai and Durarara tomorrow :D

[deletedxyz]

@Masked Forever: Though that's not what FMA:B was about.

It is. Ed and Al only start the adventure because they are in search of a way to perform a fair trade to gain back their normal bodies, which results in them getting caught up in weird military politics and meet really weird sketchy people. Fair trade gets thrown away at the end of the manga because the mangaka decides to

throw in some god particle nonesense based on ying and yang

. >_>

[Jamushroom Veteran]

^You obviously didn't see what it was really about. Oh well..

[RadishTM Veteran]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ-hKq9G4lI

Clannad FTW, I LOL'd at the ending :rofl:

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Haha, that ending looked funny as hell! :p Should probably watch that anime sometime :unsure:

[deletedxyz]

^You obviously didn't see what it was really about. Oh well..

What was it about then? :/

[Azusa]

What was it about then? :/

it's about a boy with a hight complex.

[rustix]

it's about a boy with a hight complex.

:rofl: Well put sir! :busted:

On a side note, I just reached the Battle of Marineford in One Piece manga and it is epic! I absolutely can NOT wait till this is animated.

EDIT: Reading it while having Future World Music playing in the background just made the reading all that more pleasurable!

[Jamushroom Veteran]

What was it about then? :/

Didn't you see how the Homunculus where questioning everything that Ed/All/the humans did and believed etc? This is just 1 of the things it was about. What I basically mean is, like Ghost In The Shell, FMA:B kinda was about what it is to be human. Less brain cracking then GiTS, but still about that same thing.

Honestly, the whole anime wasn't about the fighting what you're talking about.

Anyways, we've already discussed this several pages back and I'm actually done with it. If you want to dumb it down the way you did, then that's fine by me.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Capric0rn

[deletedxyz]

Didn't you see how the Homunculus where questioning everything that Ed/All/the humans did and believed etc? This is just 1 of the things it was about. What I basically mean is, like Ghost In The Shell, FMA:B kinda was about what it is to be human. Less brain cracking then GiTS, but still about that same thing.

Honestly, the whole anime wasn't about the fighting what you're talking about.

Anyways, we've already discussed this several pages back and I'm actually done with it. If you want to dumb it down the way you did, then that's fine by me.

I wasn't dumbing it down. I was just upset how the Homunculus were treated. The "end boss fight" ruined it for me. In the end, I wasn't impressed by the philosophy (apart from the fair trade, cool alchemy stuff) since the "aren't we human too?" debate always shows up in shounen and seinen manga that it gets quite dull. One of the reasons I gave Gits 8's, 9's and 10's was how the producers described the world it presented in impressive detail from the tiny, no name serial murderer cases to full on geopolitical issues at the international level. I wanted FMA to cover the interesting character dynamic it presented like in the first anime series and first few volumes of the manga, discuss in detail how the "Surprise! I can manipulate metal and other alchemical ingredients" would work into the Fair Trade philosophy while also discussing how the Homunculus came to be. I'm just upset that the manga didn't capture it.

The End.

[-Vivicidal-]

I might be 15 years late when I say this, but:

I finished watching Mobile Suit 08th Team last night. I was blown away! It was loads better than all the other MS series I've watched. It was a shame it only had 12 episodes :(

[Jamushroom Veteran]

^Not too late at all. I'm gonna be rewatching it soon probably :D You also might like the newer Unicorn series. Though there's only 1 episode so far which is 50 minutes long. Each episode will be that long and will be released twice each year. It's an anime which showes off classic character designs mixed with new anime technologies. It also has those classic Gundam sounds upgraded to today standards. The first episode was pretty amazing and a good kick-off.

On a Gundam related note; The remastered version of Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory is pretty great! It's really great to be rewatching it again with updated sounds :D

@Masked Forever: To each their own :p I have nothing negative to say about the current series. And I've still got that "Wow!" factor with each episode :p

[-Vivicidal-]

^Not too late at all. I'm gonna be rewatching it soon probably :D You also might like the newer Unicorn series. Though there's only 1 episode so far which is 50 minutes long. Each episode will be that long and will be released twice each year. It's an anime which showes off classic character designs mixed with new anime technologies. It also has those classic Gundam sounds upgraded to today standards. The first episode was pretty amazing and a good kick-off.

On a Gundam related note; The remastered version of Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory is pretty great! It's really great to be rewatching it again with updated sounds :D

@Masked Forever: To each their own :p I have nothing negative to say about the current series. And I've still got that "Wow!" factor with each episode :p

Yeah, the classic sound when a Zaku's eye lights up gets me every time!

[Azusa]

Just seen the SS thread on 2chan and it looks like in this week's B gata H kei it's put in time!

[shakey]

Masked, you seem to have missed a lot, or you are dumbing it down too much lol.

You mentioned how they went from the bad guy swallowing god up and everyone dieing to it going in just a couple chapters to just an all out battle and it being the end.

Each chapter was about 50 pages, so they were not really short. Also, they explained how alchemy in this one really worked. The "equal exchange" rule was a very broad meaning. Alchemy could only be used by those who figured out how, and then you could only make what the material could actually do, and it was all based upon your power as an alchemist. There was no real "danger" of using alchemy too much, just as with the first Full Metal Anime, as long as it was basic things; And they had rules and laws against making gold and stuff. The real "equal" exchange came in when you opened the "gate". This forced the user to then give up something that was almost equal to what they wanted. As long as they did not directly access the gate, there were no real consequences. The first Full Metal Anime sort of twisted the line of alchemy, making it where anyone who used alchemy was actually using some poor soul from our world, in which this was totally non-existent in this version.

They also went along the lines of saying how there are different forms of alchemy, all using different "powers" from the earth.

There was a lot to this anime, which is why I like it so much. The homonculi who hated us be wanted to be us secretly, the great Coup d'?tat and all that went with it, as well as the struggle for the brothers to finally come to peace with themselves and actions.

I'm glad they did not make the fights take multiple chapters. The story moved just right to keep you on the edge of your seat at all times, and did not let it slow down.

They explained how the bad guy gained and lost his power, what caused him losing it, and everything else just perfectly, except for the ending with Ed and Winrey and them not really doing anything but saying words lol. If they had drug out ending longer, it would have become stale. What they did was they threw one event at you, explained the event, then showed the counter attack and explained the counter attack, followed by the next step and so on. The last 107 chapters was the set up and execution of everything that ended. This story was drawn out insanely long, but done very very well, and I feel the ending was just right almost.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Yeah, the classic sound when a Zaku's eye lights up gets me every time!

Heck yes! :D

[deletedxyz]

They explained how the bad guy gained and lost his power, what caused him losing it, and everything else just perfectly, except for the ending with Ed and Winrey and them not really doing anything but saying words lol. If they had drug out ending longer, it would have become stale. What they did was they threw one event at you, explained the event, then showed the counter attack and explained the counter attack, followed by the next step and so on. The last 107 chapters was the set up and execution of everything that ended. This story was drawn out insanely long, but done very very well, and I feel the ending was just right almost.

There is one thing that made me get very annoyed. It kind of ****es me off that this WHOLE story's starting point is explained by a slave's story of meeting some evil entity in a flask. Ugh, when I start thinking of the mangaka trying to develop the WinryxEd romance, it was an absolute cheese fest. "Look how broad his shoulders are now..." lolwut?! If shoulders turn her on that much, then she should choose Al because he's a huge knight in armor and bigger than his brother. There are too many things with the ending arc that I have problems. The ridiculous religious symbolism and Nazi fascism illustrations were very questionable. Scar's ridiculous eureka moment of "Oh look, my other arm is for reconstruction" was quite boring. He then starts giving out long, boring lectures to all the other characters about how the circle of revenge is awful. Ed's father being Jesus with 500,000+ in him and the fascist leader of Ed's country being Hitler, I was wondering what other overused symbol she was planning to smash my face with. The Chinese prince and princess seemed very out of place and the whole "Greed was greedy for friendship not power" ending was cringe worthy. I would give the all the volumes before the Ed's Northern journey arc a 9.5/10 and everything after that a 6/10.

I thought the events moved too quickly. Despite the last volume having long chapters, it was more of a encyclopedia of what each action means instead of having that beautiful, fluent narration the first few volumes of the manga had. The last volume was more of a JRPG turn based video game like Final Fantasy, in which each character is allowed one turn to do some super combo before allowing the enemy to react, which annoyed me. There is a stark difference between the first half (before Ed goes North) and the second half.

I definitely would criticized the manga version of the first anime quite harshly since there are way too many manga that have the same dynamic. The first anime series was a fantastic watch despite the

"Surprise, the little catholic girl got raped and has a baby! story and welcome to 1940's Nazi Germany parallel universe"

I haven't watched the new anime series yet so I will go with Capric0rn said and believe that it's a different experience reading and watching FMA. If Capric0rn says there's a wow factor for each episode, then it has to be good and very different from flipping pages of a manga.

[SidVicious]

B Gata H Kei needs a second season and more Misato. :shiftyninja:

[HilariousNinja]

Finished the main story arc for Rurouni Kenshin. The Kyoto arc was superb especially the final few scenes during the battle with Shishio. Now just fillers remain.

Also am beginning to read the Vagabond manga, saw it was a similar samurai manga. Read the first 60 or so chapters, really enjoying it so far.

[deletedxyz]

Finished the main story arc for Rurouni Kenshin. The Kyoto arc was superb especially the final few scenes during the battle with Shishio. Now just fillers remain.

Also am beginning to read the Vagabond manga, saw it was a similar samurai manga. Read the first 60 or so chapters, really enjoying it so far.

Start reading volumes 18-28 of RK. It covers the last "revenge" arc. The last OVA is nothing more than a Clannad type silly drama with really inconsistent personalities and absolute drama rubbish despite the amazing animation. It was so blasphemous than the mangaka withdrew any relations with that OVA.

Once you're done with Vagabond, add Lone Wolf and Cub (can be considered the best Samurai manga ever to be penned), Blade of the Immortal (amazing and intense unlike its awful anime) and Shin Angyo Onshi (imagine Berserk written by a Korean mangaka).

[shakey]

There is one thing that made me get very annoyed. It kind of ****es me off that this WHOLE story's starting point is explained by a slave's story of meeting some evil entity in a flask. Ugh, when I start thinking of the mangaka trying to develop the WinryxEd romance, it was an absolute cheese fest. "Look how broad his shoulders are now..." lolwut?! If shoulders turn her on that much, then she should choose Al because he's a huge knight in armor and bigger than his brother. There are too many things with the ending arc that I have problems. The ridiculous religious symbolism and Nazi fascism illustrations were very questionable. Scar's ridiculous eureka moment of "Oh look, my other arm is for reconstruction" was quite boring. He then starts giving out long, boring lectures to all the other characters about how the circle of revenge is awful. Ed's father being Jesus with 500,000+ in him and the fascist leader of Ed's country being Hitler, I was wondering what other overused symbol she was planning to smash my face with. The Chinese prince and princess seemed very out of place and the whole "Greed was greedy for friendship not power" ending was cringe worthy. I would give the all the volumes before the Ed's Northern journey arc a 9.5/10 and everything after that a 6/10.

I thought the events moved too quickly. Despite the last volume having long chapters, it was more of a encyclopedia of what each action means instead of having that beautiful, fluent narration the first few volumes of the manga had. The last volume was more of a JRPG turn based video game like Final Fantasy, in which each character is allowed one turn to do some super combo before allowing the enemy to react, which annoyed me. There is a stark difference between the first half (before Ed goes North) and the second half.

I definitely would criticized the manga version of the first anime quite harshly since there are way too many manga that have the same dynamic. The first anime series was a fantastic watch despite the

"Surprise, the little catholic girl got raped and has a baby! story and welcome to 1940's Nazi Germany parallel universe"

I haven't watched the new anime series yet so I will go with Capric0rn said and believe that it's a different experience reading and watching FMA. If Capric0rn says there's a wow factor for each episode, then it has to be good and very different from flipping pages of a manga.

The Anime sure does give you that extra wow factor for sure. It actually revived my interest in the manga. So I may be clouded by the anime with how it ended, as the anime has just been amazing to watch, and I think this ending will be done justice in animated form.

[HilariousNinja]

Start reading volumes 18-28 of RK. It covers the last "revenge" arc. The last OVA is nothing more than a Clannad type silly drama with really inconsistent personalities and absolute drama rubbish despite the amazing animation. It was so blasphemous than the mangaka withdrew any relations with that OVA.

Once you're done with Vagabond, add Lone Wolf and Cub (can be considered the best Samurai manga ever to be penned), Blade of the Immortal (amazing and intense unlike its awful anime) and Shin Angyo Onshi (imagine Berserk written by a Korean mangaka).

Ah ok will do. Also I've started reading the GTO manga as you recommended, I just couldn't stand baring with the open ending in the anime. Shame that their anime counterparts don't live up to the quality's of the manga.

[deletedxyz]

There are subtle, significant differences between the anime and the manga. I actually prefer the anime when it comes to Onizuka since the music, voice acting and animated awesomeness brings him to life. Story wise, the manga provides more content with some major deviations in story line in the middle.

I'm actually reading and watching Gokusen, which is a josei version of GTO. So far, it's quite entertaining and I plan to finish it by the end of the week.