At least kaoishitheadsama does post here anymore.

Personally I think a few people are approaching this the wrong way, its not a season 2 or retelling of the first series, infact both series are stand alone stories sharing only characters and setting. The first series was produced during the middle of the manga which recently has begun its climax so it follows the manga untill greed is introduced were it ran out of material. After that it produced a climax of its own making.

You said this is like watching Naruto filler. Why? unlike filler this is acutally part of the plot and part of the story.

@ Mareo
Trust me, there’s a need for this episode to be here

In fact, I don’t think a remake was necessary. But I don’t think either it was a bad idea, I know many people wanted to see the manga animated, and I had nothing against that. My point was : you can make bad remakes and good remakes. I was hoping it would be a good, fun, interesting remake, and that third episode, for reasons I’ve given, was shallow and uninteresting, so I’m disappointed. I sure hope we are both proven wrong and the next episode is not another already seen arc summary with stale joke.
When I said manga fanboys, I meant people who WILL be satisfied by anything that follows the manga, regardless of whether it’s actually a good anime or not. An anime is not a manga, there are decisions to be made ; depending on the choices of the staff, the anime can be good or bad, even if it follows to the letter the manga. I like the fights, the characters, the “clap in your hand zoom stuff happens” dynamics, the story (I like the manga’s overall story better too, though I find the first anime had very clever ideas and was very coherent, two reasons why I liked that show) ; this episode provided nothing of that (in my humble opinion).

I don’t find the art style and the chara design much different ; maybe that’s just because I don’t pay enough attention to these points (I draw like a paralysed monkey). I also agree that the actors coming back is nice (I was really surprised at Mustang’s voice, so I get what you mean).

On the Bones study – like I said, it’s a great study, but to me there are reason to doubt. Again, I just hope I’ll eat my words and have a great and entertaining anime, when the original manga arc starts. Let it start, let it shine, show us the good manga stuffs (of which Lior isn’t). Show us some Father goodness. No hard feelings in two replies though, I totally understand your point of view ; I was just bored during that episode, so I’m trying to explain that, looking for reasons that make sense, and overall hoping the next one will be fun. I’m not biased against a remake or anything (like I said I love Birdy’s).

If you don’t think a remake was necessary, don’t watch the show. It is perfectly understandable to be satisfied with the first version, it was great. There is no reason to hope for something you won’t get and then end up being disappointed. The studio chose to make a direct adaptation of the manga and not a completely new original series, and their decision had nothing to do with the, uhh, rabid manga fanboys.

There are plenty of new things in FMA2, including the design of the characters and the art style. Personally, I think that the voice actors making a comeback is a wonderful idea; if people are struggling to adjust to Mustang’s new voice, it’s not hard to imagine how difficult it would be getting used to Ed or Al being portrayed by someone else.

BONES can indeed produce wonderful shows. They didn’t screw up FMA the first time, and so far there is no reason to believe they are going to mess up this time.

Was a remake necessary ? I’m not sure. They could very well have started a “manga restart” in medias res, or even made new and original episodes to introduce things (but wow that would mean being original, and obviously there are some rabid manga fanboys around there, are there not ?). In my eyes, it’s poorly rehashed content, with an hectic pace and unfunny jokes ; of course I wouldn’t mind if they slowed down, because right now it’s like watching a quick summary. They don’t have a “large amount of material to cover” ; they can do what they see fit, it just happens that they chose to redo things.

Regarding the whole “remake” nature of the stuff, there are remakes and remakes. I mean, Birdy is a great anime, but was also a remake from an OVA. They changed the graphics, the cast, the story, and in my opinion it got much improved, and felt like a different experience the second time. On the other hand, FMA2 has almost the same graphics, the same voice actors for the main cast, a very close plot (right now, and I liked how they tried to deviate from the manga in the first ; it seems it even was suggested by the author too). It’s not anime making, it’s recycling.

Finally – Bones can make great shows. They are also very good at screwing endings, so I’ll be careful… I wasn’t very careful, but it also seemed to me the animation was lazy in many parts. Maybe they’re keeping their budget for later episodes, who knows.

Anyhow, BONES is doing a fantastic job so far, and I am enjoying every minute of the show.