The old series pwns this one! (And it’s not even manga based entirely) *rolls eyes*

This first ep is rubbish. The writers got some serious hard-ons for Al in the first introduction, trying to make him sound all awsome with the big bad guy recognising him and complimenting his awsomeness and all this rubbish. It instantly reveals his arm and leg WAY faster then the original ever did, infact right up. It straight away throws in a short joke EVERY time they meet a new character, all the characters jump in with thier catch phrases right off the bat before even being introduced, and the plot element of the hman transformation… That was the most artificial emo-moment on ed and al’s behalf ever. “omg you mentioned my mum, look at me, I’m emotionally scared and you brought up my terrible past! Super-Saiyan emo-attack11!!1!!” Seriously, that was dumb.

To top it all off they totally spoiled the ending of the series. Like the big twist at the end, with you know who being evil, right at the start, they just blew it away, what the hell? Yep, this show somehow managed to do a quick one eighty from the original. Oh, and the backgrounds which in the original were beutiful, are now quick crayon drawings. Well done.

Poor writing and directing; all I should say.

It seemed a forced attempt at re0-introducing characters, just in case we forgot ALL of their idiosyncrasies. The action was cliche, and they gave away a HUGE ploy element far to early: i.e. ITS THE FIRST FUCKING EPISODE, MAKE US TRUST THE KING BEFORE YOU WANT US TO BE SUSPICIOUS OF HIM. Now we already know what was revealed up by hughes’ investigations.

The dialogue was awful; and while the first episode of FMA(1) left me charmed by the characters, and eager for the next episode, this one left me saying “how pretty” and “how disappointing”.

Check the manga, it’s in there too. The first one is exactly how Ed looks in a Rush Valley scene.

As for the cartoony style, I don’t mind at all. I haven’t seen the first series, but the manga also shifts from its normal style to that cartoony style during comical moments.

There’s no need to break the style of the show to make it look like a Warner’s Bros cartoon. That kind of think works for a straight up comedy, but not in a show/story with more of a serious tone.

I’ll continue to watch this, but it will most likely be low on my rankings for the season.

that or at the least the 2nd half of the series follows the manga a bit more closely. I’m hoping for a proper ending to it this time round.

Nice to see I’m not the only blogger who was first exposed to the series through the dub.

So I’m the same in that respect, the voices don’t bother since I don’t know what the originals sound like. I only hope Funimation gets the old crew back together for the dub of this, since I don’t think I could imagine anyone other than Vic and Aaron as Ed and Al.

There has been so little that has interested me of late, so this show is very welcome. Its got all the class of the first go so I have no doubts I’m going to continue to enjoy it.

If this comes out in English soon, I hope Scott McNeil does the dub soon.

@Calawain: Cruusader might love this little tidbit as well. The character Lust (lady seen at the end of episode 1 talking to someone through some sort of telephone) is apparently voiced by “Grace O’ Connor.”