Back when I was just getting into anime, a
friend of mine told me to watch Fullmetal Alchemist. “But not the first adaptation,” he
said. “That one wasn't as good anyway.” So he told me to make sure that I just watched
Brotherhood - the second adaptation that stays closer to its source material -
and to leave it at that. Unfortunately, being the fool I am, I listened to him and I
watched a Brotherhood first. In the beginning, I was honestly pretty confused. Sure, it
wasn't terrible or anything like that, but it was far from the masterwork many had made
it out to be. In fact, I considered dropping it altogether. Of course, I didn't and I'm glad that
I kept going with it. After all, it does get great but boy does it take a while to get there. And
there's a simple reason for that: Brotherhood was almost certainly created under the assumption
that the viewer had either already read the manga or seen the 2003 anime. In case you don't know
about the 2003 anime, it's a series that was made while the manga was still ongoing and, instead
of adding in a ton of filler episodes while they waited for the manga to get further along or
delaying the series for large stretches of time, the creators decided to take the story in an
entirely different direction. But Brotherhood and the 2003 anime still start off in a fairly similar
manner and covers similar ground. Or do they? So let's explore that question together by discussing
all the common ground these series cover. Spoilers for the entirety of these stories lie ahead,
of course. Without further ado, let's do this. Right from the beginning, the 2003 adaptation
of Fullmetal Alchemist is brimming with its own personality - a personality that's far darker
than the manga’s or Brotherhood's. The manga only takes a page to show us this scene, where Ed
and Al have failed at transmuting their mother. This is a smart move for a number of reason,
but the most important one to consider here is that the chapter isn't going to focus on Ed
and Al's botched human transmutation. Instead, it's about someone grappling with the truth and
realizing how hard it can be to accept the truth. As that general concept is more important to
the manga’s overall structure and themes than human transmutation itself is, this makes a
lot of sense. However, this still serves as an intriguing set of images for the reader to
think about - a way to pull them into the tale. Meanwhile, the 2003 anime focuses heavily on this
moment, showing us all the supplies Ed and Al have for their experiment and, because of all these
supplies, it's obvious that this is exactly what it is: An experiment, and one that sounds like it
should be successful, at least based on the music, with the horn playing a fairly simple and
victorious melody. And then the music swells into a crescendo of strings and brass, resolving up as
the boys stare at their experiment . . . But then, as we're told about the laws of alchemy, things
start to go wrong. The music is still energetic, but it's also now brooding. The once bright
experiment turns dark as the screen goes black. As we're told about equivalent exchange,
we’re shown a stormy night. Winry and her grandma bursting out of their home and Mustang standing
in the rain. Lightning flashes across the sky. Rain falls down from above. Everything about
this moment is oppressively atmospheric. And when Ed sees what he's created - a monster
- the screen goes black. And he screams. In 2003, the focus on this moment right at the
beginning of the series is so important because this anime, more than the manga or Brotherhood,
focuses on human transmutation. Brotherhood, meanwhile, doesn't open up with this scene at
all and instead begins with an anime-original episode that serves as a reintroduction to the
characters you all know and love. Or, well, that you hopefully know and love because otherwise
this episode doesn't have that much merit. This episode, if viewed by someone who hasn't read
the manga or seen the 2003 anime, attempts to introduce us to Mustang, Bradley, Ed, Al, Hughes,
Hawkeye, this anime-original character, Kimblee, and many more characters. It’s an overload
of information for someone who isn’t at all familiar with the story and, unfortunately,
I'm speaking from personal experience. But if we view this as the reintroduction it was
almost certainly meant to be, where every moment gets the audience excited because they're getting
to see some of their favorite characters again, then this is pretty good. There's some solid
fights, an entirely new soundtrack that suits this anime well, and concepts like the Ishval Civil
War and the idea of human sacrifices are brought up earlier here than they are in the manga. All in
all, if you're already familiar with this world, its characters, and some of the manga’s major plot
points, this isn't so bad. However, as far as I'm concerned, it has nothing on the way the manga
introduces us to the themes of truth and ignorance through the Liore chapters and it definitely
isn't as powerful as the disturbing introduction to the 2003 anime. So let's talk about the Leore
section of the story, starting with the manga. In all three versions of the story, the Liore
section serves a very similar purpose. We're supposed to see the danger of a man who views
himself as God, Ed’s amazing abilities, the ramifications of his and Al's decision, and the
harm that can come from ignoring the truth. The manga, more than either of the two shows, focuses
on that last one here. The most impactful moments in these chapters are ones where Rose is forced to
choose between her blind faith in Father Cornello or Ed and Al's logic and rationalization. As she
wants to bring her dead boyfriend back to life, it's hard for her to accept what Ed is trying to
tell her: that human transmutation can't happen, that it won't happen, and that she needs
to just accept that and move on. In fact, even after learning that Cornello’s words are
lies, she still won't turn away from them because, then, what does she have left? The truth? A truth
that's cruel, harsh, cold, and relentless? She's faced with a moral dilemma - a dilemma similar
to the one that Ed and Al encountered long ago, though we as readers of the manga don't know that
yet if we've only consumed the manga. In this way, Ed and Al’s fears and the tragedy that so often
defines their character is explored through Rose. The 2003 adaptation and Brotherhood both largely
keep these ideas intact, but the situation that Rose is put in when she makes her decision of
who she'll trust is very different. In both of these versions, Rose is smuggled into the
room when Ed and Al go to confront Cornello, and she isn’t hidden while he gives his
very typical villain speech, going over how stupid all his believers are and how he's
the best and so on. Instead, in the 2003 series, she's standing beside Cornelllo, and although
he does some incredibly questionable things, he never reveals all his cards like he does in
the manga. Because of that, she's not quite put in the same situation as the manga. She isn't
choosing between her own willful ignorance and the truth anymore. Later she is, but in a more
subtle way that's only present in the 2003 anime, when she sees her boyfriend silhouette, but
then notices the feathers that surround his bed. Though it's never stated, the intent
here is clear: She knows something's wrong, but she doesn't want to admit that. Basically,
in 2003, there's more room for interpretation, but it doesn't change that much about the overall
message of the importance of choosing truth over lies, even if it is a bit less direct with its
characters and with the viewer about these things. On the other hand, Brotherhood does something
very strange considering that it's made with the intent of following the manga closer than
the 2003 series. Rose doesn't come to know if Cornello is blatant evil until everyone else
in the city knows, when Ed broadcast Cornelis voice to everyone. The reason for this is that,
in Brotherhood, she isn't smuggled into the room where they talk to Cornello. Instead, he's aware
of her presence throughout the conversation and never says anything that's entirely damning.
Again, he does some very questionable things, but not anything that makes it immediately obvious
to Rose that he's been lying about everything. Now, this might not seem like that big of a
deal. After all, she still learns that there's definitely something up with cornello, but there's
not the same personal weight behind it. When she makes the decision to follow lies that she knows
are lies, it's both frustrating and sad in the manga and the 2003 adaptation. Thematically, it's
also part of the point. If she doesn't know that one side of the argument is full of blatant lies,
then this choice really isn't as much about the truth. It’s between right and wrong. Even if that
is an important choice to make, it's not the same, and doesn't tie into the story’s central
themes in the same manner. On top of that, this episode in Brotherhood feels so routine.
It feels like the creator's are just going, “You've almost certainly already seen this,
but we better still show it quickly for those who haven't.” And that mentality is evident
in many of Brotherhood's earlier episodes. One example of this can be found in this episode's
shot composition. Maybe this is a personal thing, but I really don't like it when TV shows or movies
mimic comic book’s or manga’s page layouts without any particular meaning behind it. Anime and film
are different mediums than comics and manga so, in my mind, this sort of composition should almost
never be happening, never mind as much as it does in this episode. Sure, there's one cool moment
where Ed and Al become these sorts of silhouettes and their bodies are filled with an image of
the sun god, a visual way of reminding us that these two people have encroached upon God’s
territory by attempting human transmutation, but other than that I don't have all that much
positive to say about this episode. Basically, as far as adapting the manga faithfully here
goes, Brotherhood's done a pretty bad job. You know how I mentioned that the manga only
spends a page dwelling on the Elric brother’s horrifying past in its opening chapters? Well,
Brotherhood chooses to show Ed and Al’s past far earlier, despite the fact that it takes a
very long time for us to see nearly that much detail about Ed and Al’s past in the manga. To
me, it's very strange that Brotherhood does this, as the Liore incident does a great job
of showing the main themes of the series, so letting us see the brother’s tragic
past first seems a bit backwards to me. Putting this close to the start of the series
puts a lot of emphasis on the truth and the gate, both of which are central to the plot, so in some
ways this is an intelligent decision that both highlights Ed's major character traits early on
and establishes some elements of the story that are going to be integral in its end. But it also
makes the Liore incident feel a bit redundant. If we've already seen Ed do this and get back
on his feet, why do we need to see him telling Rose to do the same thing? Of course, the Liore
incident has greater significance to the plot that goes beyond Rose, but it seems that, if we see the
section of the story first, we didn't need to see so much of Rose. Overall, my point is that this
reordering makes her struggle seem less important. But the more important problem with this becomes
evident when we consider the manga’s structure in its first five chapters. In my opinion, the manga
has the stronger structure in its early sections when compared with either of the anime. It begins
in many ways with typical wish-fulfillment. In the first and second chapters of the story, in which
we see the Liore Incident, Ed is this snobbish kid who can do whatever he wants because he's cool,
smart, and powerful. He’s the type of guy your average young kid would want to be pretty similar
to you, or that they'd at least look up to. Then, in the third chapter, we see Ed's actions
in the mining town. In this section of the story, we see three very important things: Ed's
kindness; his willingness to pit himself against the government if he sees good reason
to; and his ability to create and execute a plan if given the chance to sit down and think.
In other words, we get to see that he's a nice, smart person who has his own ideals that he's
going to put above those of the people he technically works for. Ed's kindness is shown when
he helps the people who live in this town, despite the fact that they've been downright horrible to
him because they lump him in with other members of the military who've been cruel to them. Ed hates
seeing them mistreated, so he creates a scheme that ends with the mining town’s people owning
the mining town itself. This whole section then also shows us that, for better or worse, Ed is
treated differently because of his status. But it also shows that he doesn't usually let this
alter his actions all that much. Ed's willingness to pit himself against the government is shown
through his interactions with Yoki and the way he ultimately fools Yoki into giving him the rights
to the mining town by transmuting gold. This, in and of itself, is illegal, but that's just how
far Ed is willing to go to help others. However, he gets around this legality, because Ed has this
deal written in a very vague way basically saying that he got the town for free and is only able
to convince Yoki to do this because they both know he's done something illegal by transmitting
gold. But Yoki doesn't think that Ed might change the gold back into what it used to be, which he
of course does. Thus, Ed protects himself while also helping others. Nothing negative comes from
this. All in all, this is just a fantastic plan thatmakes Ed seem like a strategic mastermind.
Furthermore, we’re also introduced here to just how corrupt the government can be, and how the way
the government handles things facilitates abuse, which is also an incredibly important
thing to establish early on in the series. The battle on the train is next. Here, Ed's
ability to think on his feet and fight like a champ come to the forefront. Again, he's being
built up as a wish-fulfillment type of character, or at the least as an ideal, or as someone
who can't seem to do any wrong. After all, we've heard about their mistakes
involving human transmutation, but we haven't seen that stuff yet. As far
as what we've directly experienced goes, he's the type of guy who gets things done.
Because of this, it seems as though this is going to be a rick-rollicking good adventure.
Everything's going great. Hop on the train, boys and girls. We're gonna go get the philosopher's
stone. It's all gonna be fun, right? Right? Except that's not quite right. Because the next
chapter after this is the one where, you know, Nina might kind of . . . yeah, well, we'll
get to that later. But having these events happen specifically in this order shows that
Ed isn’t all we thought he was. He's not invincible. He's not able to do everything
right. He makes mistakes and, sometimes, those mistakes can't be fixed later. He’s weaker
than we originally imagined. He’s just some kid who can't even save a little girl. And this is
the first time we've seen him this weakened. Brotherhood, meanwhile, tosses the structure
out the window by reordering things and changing things early on in such an extreme fashion.
Before the Nina incident, we've already seen their botched human transmutation in detail, and
we've skipped the battle on the train and the mining town. This means that Edisn't defined by
his strengths here. He’s defined by his weakness. This is completely contrary to the story it's
attempting to adapt, and it's not even done in a particularly interesting way. In my mind, this
is one of the weakest aspects of Brotherhood, and one of the most major reasons that its earlier
episodes aren't anywhere near as good as the chapters they're based on, or the 2003 adaptation.
So, you might be wondering about the 2003 anime’s structure then. What does it do? Well, it changes
things almost entirely (as it does in many cases). So, we aren't going to talk about its structure
much here, but we will come back to it later. Now that we've talked about the structure,
let's go through Ed and Al's botched human transmutation, starting with the manga’s version
of these events. In the manga, these events are framed as Ed telling Izumi about the past. While
this doesn't change anything about the failed human transmutation in and of itself, it creates
a natural reason for us to go back and experience this moment in more detail. Unlike in either of
the anime, we see Ed and Al’s mother die, then their training with Izumi, and then their attempt
at human transmutation. This creates a narrative throughline that involves Izumi’s total failure to
teach the boys and puts a lot of emphasis on how her training failed them where it mattered most.
We also get the sense that, until now, Ed and Al haven't quite returned to this moment, even though
they need to before they can truly move on. So, in some manner, we're experiencing this with
them again. And, just as they've glossed over specifics in their mind while they were on their
journey, we did before as well. And just as they finally really focus on it, we do, too. It helps
us relate to the characters in a powerful manner. I also just like a lot about how the manga handles
these events. Arakawa usually presents her story in a simple manner, sticking with squares
and rectangles for the panel shapes. This is something I actually really like about her
work. If there's no reason to, why break away from the ordinary? After all, this means that
when she does break away from conventions, it stands out all the more. Like in this scene with
the Truth, I love how the shapes of the panels get stranger and more dynamic as the events unfold.
As Ed realizes just how grave his mistake was, I love how the backgrounds get more chaotic and how
the images get darker. Arakwa is truly a master of her craft and, at least in terms of panel layouts
and shading, knows that subtlety goes a long way. Now, Brotherhood's adaptation of these moments
is a bit mixed. The first problem is that, because of how things have been reordered,
this is no longer framed as Ed telling Izumi what's happened to them. By extension,
we don't see their training yet. Instead, we skim over their training, and we aren't shown
much about Ed and Al's resolve. The second problem comes from aspects of the adaptation that are
more based on execution than anything else. This section where Ed and Al attempt to transmute
their mother fails to adapt the tone of the manga, as it takes all the creepiness of the scene and
amplifies it too much. The house is bathed in garish red light. Ed and Al’s eyes aren't shown
for a large chunk of the scene. The camera angle here is wonky. All of these things telegraph to
the audience how wrong this moment is going to go. However, in the manga, Ed and Al go into this
with a childish light-heartedness that makes this moment all the more heartbreaking and Arakawa’s
simple panel construction remains constant until the transmutation goes wrong. Essentially, because
of the subtlety of the manga, the bad moments hit all the harder. None of this is to say that
Brotherhood does a bad job overall. On the contrary, its use of music is strong, and many
of the changes make a lot of sense. For example, while this scene where Ed encounters the Truth
contains many shots that are directly taken from the manga, certain changes are made to properly
move the scene over into animation while still maintaining the ideas that were present in
the manga. Here, movement replaces changing panel shapes and changes in shading in order to
still build to the moment Ed enters the gate. I have another video where I go deeper into why
I think Brotherhood adapted this scene well. so you can check that out if you care to.
A link to it is in the description below. Basically, all this is to say that for the most
part Brotherhood does a good job of adapting Ed and Al's attempt to bring their mother back to
life, despite the fact that I have some mixed feelings about how the actual transmutation itself
was handled. However, 2003 has a similar flashback in its third episode, and I prefer to both the
manga’s and Brotherhood's version of these events. To begin, it expands on Ed and Al's relationship
with Winry, as the brothers try to make her a gift using alchemy. But Winry is afraid of it and ends
up crying. It's a great way of showing how the general public and non-alchemists may feel about
how powerful alchemy is, and about the dangers that may come with it. But, more importantly, it
makes it clear that Ed and Al simple and pleasant rural life is going to be disrupted by alchemy
in ways that they cannot begin to even imagine. Then there are all these added moments between
Ed, Al, and their mother, which takes her from being a figure who hardly appears in this
section of the story to being a fairly fleshed out character. We see so much more of her
loneliness and of Ed and Al’s care for her here, in the moments where she falls silent and makes
the strange face that Ed talks about. The extra emphasis on her feelings also naturally results
in more focus being placed on Ed and Al's feelings about their father. It really feels like we're
learning all about their childhood, instead of just about their mother's death and the aftermath
of that. Specifically, we see Winry crying after learning about her parents death, more of Ed and
Al’s friendship with her, more of Ed’s tendency to think he can do anything, more of Ed and Al’s
worry that they could ever lose their mother, and more of their mother's suffering. Then, there's
the extra emphasis on Ed's active personality, on how the first thing he does when confronting
death is to try and fix things, whether that be by bringing the person back to life, or by sending
letters to their father to get him to come back. And that's just the plot. I also like the
tone of 2003's early episodes far more. The art style is a bit less polished, but
there's a certain seriousness that comes with that that suits these very dark moments
well. Brotherhood's art style, meanwhile, works better for the shonen adventure the
series is going to become, but that's not what the series is in these moments. Here, it's
a character piece about two young boys who lose their mother, the loss they feel, the foolish
mistake they make, and the bond they share. The bond they share. That’s something
that's so important in 2003. Oddly enough, 2003 is more about Brotherhood than
Brotherhood is and that's part of why putting this episode early on
makes sense here. One of the most major ideas in this series is that Ed and
Al just want to be close together again, both in body and mind, so in the end I think
including this flashback here is intelligent. At this point, 2003 starts to have
episodes that have no counterpart in Brotherhood or the manga. The first of these
episodes is “A Forger’s Love”. In the manga, this is where Ed and Al went to the mining town,
but that section was moved later into 2003, as it serves a different purpose in this
series. Instead, this episode attempts to cover some of the same ideas that Ed's exploits
in the mining town did, both in terms of world building and themes. Unfortunately, however,
it's not nearly as strong as that chapter, and stands out as one of the only episodes
in 2003 that I consider to be flat-out bad. It starts with Al stopping a purse-snatcher
using an alchemy circle that's just kind of lying around. Yeah, I guess they just leave those lying
there. But whatever. Here, it's made clear that alchemists aren't exactly common in this world,
and that they're often revered by regular folks. In some part, this probably feeds Ed's bloated
ego, so showing it now makes a lot of sense. The next major thing we learn about in this
episode is that the dead are rumored to be coming back to life in some village, which is
a strong concept for a side story, considering that we only just experienced Ed and Al’s botched
human transmutation. The brothers choose to go and speak with an alchemist in the town that their
father used to know and, from this point on, the episode basically becomes about how crazy
this guy is. See, he wants to bring his lover back to life, and this means that he's using some
strange form of human transmutation that combines mannequins that look like the person used to and
younger women or girls in attempt to get her back. Now, this is a pretty cool idea, but it covers
something that's going to be covered later. After all, we're going to see an insane alchemist
using human transmutation for nefarious purposes with Nina and Shou Tucker, and that part of the
story isn't far away. Besides, that section is way more powerful, and it has a long-lasting
implications for the rest of the series. This, on the other hand, is an isolated incident
that is rarely, if ever, referenced later on, despite the fact that some things happen here that
would likely be traumatic for Ed and Al. Plus, we've already seen how harmful alchemy can be
through Ed and Al’s failed human transmutation. I mean, our protagonist lost an arm and a leg
and his brother lost his entire body to it, so I don't think we need to be reminded of that
at this point. The message is pretty clear. Yet that seems to be a big reason why
this episode was included. As Al even says to Ed at the end of the episode,
“Alchemy can be used for bad purposes, too, huh?” And, at the beginning
of the episode, Al mentions that he's glad that they could use alchemy to
help that lady who got her purse snatched, so it's obvious that the episode was attempting
to explore the different facets of alchemy. We're essentially being told that alchemy is just a
tool that it can be used for good or bad purposes. The problem here is that the show is treating
this like something we don't realize, but we definitely know that already. Honestly, the way
the show presents these ideas is a bit silly and feels almost condescending. It’s one of the few
moments with 2003 that I feel like I'm watching something that was somewhat made with children
in mind. All in all, 2003 would be better with this episode removed entirely. As it stands now,
it only serves to explore ideas that are going to be explored later in a more interesting manner
anyway, and to break up the flow of the story. While Brotherhood skips chapter four of the
manga entirely, 2003 adapts it in its fifth episode. In both the manga and 2003, this section
serves to show Ed's ability to think on his feet and how he can fight competently with little
to no planning. From this point on in 2003, many of the events are going to be similar to
what happens in the manga, but take place at different points in the story, resulting
in Ed being younger and, in this episode, not even being a state alchemist yet. This fact,
though it might not seem important on the surface, changes a lot about Mustang's character
and the meaning of these events. After all, here Ed needs to prove himself, so that he can
become a state alchemist despite the age limit that has been added to the story in the 2003
anime. In the manga, Mustang doesn't plan to have Ed and Al on the train for this attack, and
definitely doesn't get them to go on the train because he's suspicious an attack may happen. It’s
just dumb luck, which is totally fine. However, in 2003, Mustang specifically tells Ed to get
on the train because he's already received a threat on the general’s life and realizes that
this could turn out badly. Of course, he doesn't explain all this to Ed. He just yells at him to
get on the train now. So he just put two kids in a life-threatening scenario so that they can maybe
become state alchemist and so that he may end up looking better and, thus, be able to become a
more powerful figure in the government. Now, I'm not saying that I don't like this decision.
Thiis actually places a lot of emphasis on how cruel the world can be and on just how hard Ed
and Al are going to need to fight to even really begin their journey to get their bodies back.
It's also fine to crank up that ruthless part of Mustang’s personality to eleven. It's simply
something that I felt was worth pointing out. In 2003, there are also a number of things
added. One of the largest additions is this little girl who Ed and Al interact
with before the terrorists take over the train. Adding this in is a really smart move.
Since Ed isn’t already a sate alchemist here, he doesn't have the same obligation to stop
these terrorists and protect people involved with the government. However, he is still
likely to want to protect common people, and this little girl exemplifies those people.
It’s almost always better to have an individual, at least in part, represent a group in
a narrative, as that makes it easier for the audience to relate to the characters on
both a small and large scale. In other words, this little girl's inclusion gives the audience
something to latch onto and a reason to care more about Ed saving these people, even if her
role is incredibly minor. On top of this, their interaction with this little girl reveals
the shy side of Al - the side that's afraid of being judged for his new body - as she comments
on how strange she thinks he looks. Ed, of course, goes to stick up for his brother after this,
but quickly gets shy when he sees this train car full of strangers, and he just sits back down.
Little character moments like this are abundant in 2003 and remind us of more minor aspects of Ed's
character, and they enhance his personality and character growth overall. After all, it makes
sense that he'd be a bit shy. He's from out in the country and likely hasn't been around this
many people very often. This Ed isn't the same confident Ed we saw during the Liore episodes, and
showing him acting this way creates a fantastic level of depth that simply isn't present in the
manga or Brotherhood at this point in the story. Another addition to the sense that we're
watching Ed grow up is the fact that we see him still fighting without a transmutation circle
because he still hasn't figured out that he can transmute without one. In the manga, he just kind
of knows how to do that after he sees the Truth, but it takes him time to understand this
in the 2003 anime. And he only discovers this in a moment of intense stress later
on. Having him not know things like this, letting the audience watch him learn, is an
example of how his character has been made more childish at this point in the series,
and that gives him more room to change. Yet another change is that Hughes is introduced
here. This is great because we get to witness Hughes out in the field, doing the physical
aspects of his job, being intelligent, brave, and competent. It also gives us the sense
that Ed can't handle this yet on his own, that he needs someone else here to help
him. After all, if Hughes weren't involved, Ed would have died here. It gives Ed
and Hughes a great dynamic right off the bat - a father-son deal that is going to be
emphasized even more as the series moves forward. The only change I'm not fond of with this
episode is the fact that Bald the terrorist explains his motivations to Ed. First of all,
it's just weird that this crazy guys is telling Ed about all the inner workings of his mind. I
mean, I get that he looked at Ed and kind of saw some similarity between them, so he opened
up, but this feels very ham-fisted. Second, the whole idea that this guy got surgery done
to have his arm replaced with guns because he wants to be stronger is a bit too silly. More
importantly though, giving him this very personal reason for fighting takes away from his space
in the show as a terrorist and an extremist, and this episode sets up the idea that
something happened that caused these sorts of terrorists to exist. Of course, that
something is the Ishbal war. In other words, giving this terrorist a personal motivation
takes away from his place in the show as a deluded terrorist, who's presumably upset
because his home was ravaged by the army. Still, in 2003, this is a strong episode
for all the reasons I've outlined, and in the manga it's great in that it works perfectly
as far as the manga’s structure is concerned. In the manga and Brotherhood, the state alchemist
exam is over incredibly fast. Ed goes to prove his abilities to Bradley and, bam, he's a state
Alchemist. It's effective in that this moment doesn't carry much weight in the manga. After
all, we've already seen so much of Ed’s abilities, so going back and showing him prove himself at
length could feel a bit redundant. Meanwhile, in Brotherhood, some added emphasis may have
been useful, since the exam takes place so early in the series. And, since it's going
to skip some of Ed’s more impressive feats that involve alchemy, the more we can
see of his abilities here, the better. On the other hand, the state alchemist exam
receives far more emphasis and time in 2003. Here, only a chosen few will make it through
and people are pretty much put in direct competition with one another. We see Ed
and Al training and trying to learn more at length as they prepare for the exam.
And, yeah, Al's training too because, unlike in the manga and Brotherhood,
he's planning to take it alongside Ed. I really like this change, as it allows for
a more even focus on Ed and Al, which results in Al feeling more important and like he has more
agency at this point in the story. It also allows for this moment, where Al needs to give up on
taking the exam because, if he moves forward, it's more likely that someone could discover that
he and Ed attempted human transmutation. Having Al give up on this thing that he's worked so hard for
reminds us of how much he cares for his brother, and of how much he trusts him to succeed.
Because of this, their bond is stronger in 2003. Other parts of this episode also strengthen their
bond: Namely, when Ed and Al are sitting in their room and Al starts talking about how he can't
remember how other people feel physically. This is a reminder to both the audience and Ed that
it isn't easy for Al to deal with this situation, and that he's slowly losing a part of himself
that makes him feel human. As far as Ed's actual test goes: First, there's the written portion
of the exam where we see Ed writing in a room full of other people. This really brings home
just how competitive this process is and how focused and diligent Ed needed to be to pass.
Second, there's the interview, where Ed needs to sit on this golden chair. Here, we see that Ed
clearly has the maturity and life experience to make his way through this rigorous process.
Third is the physical portion of the exam, where people are trying to prove how good they
are at alchemy by transmuting. In this part, it becomes obvious just how skilled Ed is
with alchemy. Where other, older alchemists grow tired after performing alchemy, Ed uses
his with ease. He is truly on another level. My only complaint with how 2003
adapts this section is a small one, but it is important to bring up. Due to how
much has been added to this part of the story, the show's pacing gets much slower. While slow
pacing isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think that this could have been more interesting if we
didn't already know that Ed passes. After all, since we've already seen him later on in his
life, it's clear that he's already passed and, thus, some of the tension of these moments just
doesn't land the way it could have. Of course, this negative does not mean that this is
a bad section of the story. All of those positive aspects I discussed are more than
enough to make these episodes really good.
