But I'd prefer to let you judge for yourselves. Here's the opening. For more info (like, a spoiler-filled review of the first episode), click the blog title.
The original series had what is perhaps the best opening 7 minutes in the history of anime; and so recognizing this fact, the team heading up 2009's FMA remake decided to do the only other thing they could: start the series off at a point in the story where viewers could be (re-)introduced to as many of their favorite characters as possible. Hence our story begins with the Elric brothers' arrival in the Central capital, when they first meet (and move in with) Maes Hughes. Prior to this, they have already met Roy Mustang, Armstrong, the Führer, and other State Alchemists whom we get to catch glimpses of. The episode briefly shows us Kimblee (the psychotic "Crimson Alchemist") in prison during a conversation between him and the episode's antagonist. We also get a brief look at Lust and Gluttony at the very end of the episode.
This episode introduces (if not flat-out inventing? I don't know) a new alchemist to fans of the first series. He's the Ice Alchemist, Isaac. He has a special affinity for water-based transmutations and specializes in making liquid water turn into ice or turn into steam, allowing him to either crystallize his enemies liquid N2-style or else bake them instantaneously. Pretty deadly! He's a convenient villain for the first episode because:
- his water affinity makes him a great foil for Roy "the Flame Alchemist" Mustang
- his technique takes advantage of water contained inside the human body, which gave the writers an easy means to introducing for first-time viewers the fact that Edward's right arm and left leg are metallic and Alphonse's entire body is the steel-armor suit we see.
- being able to control water makes him a larger-than-life character throughout the episode, allowing both Armstrong as well as the rarely-seen Führer to flex their muscles in dealing with this traitor
Overall, I'd say 9 out of 10 to the first episode. It met or maybe barely exceeded my expectations, but at the same time I wasn't blown away by it like I was by the first episode of the original series. Then again, I suppose it's not a fair comparison: in many ways, this episode felt like a 20-minute FMA fanfic to me, albeit an incredibly well-written fanfic! And of course it's not going to feel like that at all to a first-time viewer of the franchise. The animation is generally as good as the original's (technically it's less lavish, but I actually like the simpler "cel shading"-esque color pallet they've got going here), but there are numerous scenes where they do Vaudevillian pantomime stuff and those scenes always have really atrocious animation (not to mention painfully-familiar stock sound effects!). The cool thing is, the voices are all the same (or if they're not then they're better and I just didn't notice they're new!), which should come as a delight to squeamish fans of the original.
Also, the dialogue seems almost wholly new, although -- I'll repeat one last time -- this episode dealt with a new character not seen in the original series, so it's entirely possible that the upcoming episodes (which will take us back to the boys' beginnings) will have lots in common with Series #1. We'll just have to wait to see and find out!
EDIT: I see that they're being especially vigilant about taking down the opening sequence. I've no idea why, seeing as (a) from the music industry's POV, this is free press for the CD, which featured a longer, better-quality song file, and (b) from the anime industry's POV, this is free press for their remake. Whatever. (1) (2) (3)
In other news, you can watch the show streaming starting on April 9.
5 comments:
It looks...the same to me. They're remaking the whole series? Why would they do that? It's got to be different somehow, right? Slightly different storyline or something?
your information has created a minor stir on facebook!
lol, I see. Well, here comes the longer reply to what I told you on Facebook:
The original cartoon, with the mangaka's blessing, swerved into uncharted territory around the halfway point. She emphasized to the writers that she didn't want them to tell the same story as her (because she felt that if they did then it would make things boring for fans of the manga), and she also (according to Wiki) was quite intrigued by the conclusions they came up with regarding certain characters' identities, agendas, and fates. (*cough* The Führer, perhaps? *cough*)
If you want spoiler-examples of how the manga and the original show differed in major ways, ask me and I can reply with some of the ones I've heard. Indeed, I've never read the manga for myself, so there are sure to be some surprises in store for me as well.
I keep thinking about buying Funi's Viridian Collection versions of FMA, but maybe i'll just pirate this as it shows. I haven't downloaded anime as it showed in ages.
I'm leaning the other way: I've rewatched the first episode a sickening number of times* for lack of better anime to watch, so I'm thinking I should probably hold off on watching any more until they've at least aired the first 26 episodes or so. That, and if this series is going to be 52+ episodes, then it'll take a full year to broadcast, in which case it could always make for good Summer 2010 weekend entertainment.
* About 3 solid times, and about 3 other times fast forwarding to here or there. In my opinion, that's inappropriate, especially as busy as I am.
Never had heard of Viridian Collection until just now so I'll be sure to look into that. I must admit that I hear the word "viridian" and my mind immediately pictures a densely-packed forest.
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