Fairly good episode. The story still feels like it's not really coming together and has a rushed feeling. There was some new story segments and scenes that weren't in the original and those were interesting to see. I still am not getting a defined sense of the storytelling though. For example Ed's test scene, what? Please tell me there will be more of that (showing more of the test process), that felt so underwhelming and rushed. I did like the gate scene and the next episode is one I'm looking forward to seeing how they'll handle.

As for the dub I agree with you both as I felt that same way with ep. 1 as I briefly mentioned in the initial post and feel it's more of an issue here due to the various time shifts. Not bad by any means, but it's nowhere as natural or as comfortable as the first season. I wonder if Vic just recorded these episodes at his home studio in Los Angeles remotely vs recording it in the Funi studios. If that is the case, I wonder if it's affecting anything. Something is off.

Maxey continues to do a fine job filling the shoes of Aaron though in comparison these are really tough shoes to fill as Aaron nailed it in the first season.

dragoon wrote:
Sadly, a good portion of the begining has that really rushed feeling, possibly due to already being covered by the first series (or possibly due to that's how the manga is from what I've heard), and has been one of my major complaints about this series, at least until it starts to truely vear from the first.

TCG is correct. You're gonna be getting that same rushed feeling throughout the first 13 or so eps. because they're speeding through the first season of the first FMA so they can get to the "truer faithful manga-adapted episodes".

As for the dub, it's either one of three things:

1. Because we're feeling rushed through the first batch of episodes, it might be affecting our sense of...appreciation? of the dub even after they did a good job.

2. The VA's were being rushed to get these first batch ready for tv so they didn't to a good job at all. The newere stuff will be different.

...or...

3. It's another example of what I like to call "Funi's dub-by-numbers" approach that they've been using a lot recently. So what u hear now is what u'll be getting throughout the series.

And that's my two centabos.

I'd say it's safe to rule out #2, as these have been in production a while ago, so that's given them plenty of time compared to the TV schedule. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if the shorter timetable available nowadays has some form of effect and some form of pressure.

To be fair, this is true for all production companies nowadays - less budget and time lines, stuff has to get pumped out and out to the market and move onto the next job/production task - whereas before there was a lot more back and forth time to redo stuff if necessary. People didn't want to pay for the cost of high production before so now we're getting the new market mode with the industry adapting to the market contraction.

Dragoon you missing the point of the begin of Brotherhood. The point of Brotherhood is just to show the differents in the Old anime and the New one. 85% of the stuff that happens in the old anime episode 1-24 happen in Brotherhood episode 1-13. The man point of the first season was to make you focus on the differents and to call them out.

I can assure you I'm not missing any point. I've heard all about it from people in the industry and fans talking about the anime well before it aired - so I already knew what to expect.

It doesn't change that I think the storytelling and pacing is rushed and lacking direction at this point, maybe even disjointed. If I feel about it this way, I'd venture to say the new viewers coming into this series via AS who never saw the first series would be rather confounded.

dragoon wrote:


You know I never thought about that. I was thinking, well it is a nice compact way to get through the first part of FMA fast. But, if you just happen to have not already seen the first series you might not get all the nuances.

hmm, it would be nice to see a response of a first time viewer.


(going to look over older posts too see if anyone matches that discription)

I got home in time so I turned on the 4:00 am air of the second episode, about 5 minutes in.

I thought to myself, "this is like the original show, on speed" because they went through things so quickly. It still has some of the emotional impact, but I think only because I've already seen this story before and I know more about what was going on. The different perspectives and story changes were interesting, though.

And I agree, Vic does sound a little "phoned in" on his parts.

On the bright side, for at least 13 episodes if I miss one or part of one it shouldn't be a big deal to come back on the other side and stay up to speed.

Well, last night's ep basically boils the first few episodes of the original into one show, if anyone watched it. Other than some details and the pacing it was fairly similar.

Next week, looks like they go to stay with Tucker and his little girl. Might keep a hankie handy for that one, it was rough enough in the original series.

I thought Maxey Whitehead sounded more like Al and less like a little girl. She's getting better at her part. I also thought Ed sounded more like Ed than a tired Vic. It's getting better!