>>3665175>Am I the only one who feels Brotherhood is the far inferior product?You're not the only one who feels that way. It's a common topic of conversation on /a/. It was plainly obvious to everyone who watched Brotherhood when it first aired that the series assumed viewers had already seen the first anime, so they put the absolute minimal amount of effort into adapting the part of the series that '03 had already covered. The claim that Brotherhood is better by default because it's more faithful to the manga only holds water if you believe that the manga's storyline is some great masterpiece in itself. If you ask me both are enjoyable and both have some flaws.
03 will always be my favorite. I love it's darker tone, I love how it focuses more on developing the characters we had known since the beginning. I think it has one of the greatest OSTs in anime history. The character designs were more visually attractive. I love the backstories it gave to the homunculi, it made them much more sympathetic characters. Compare it to Brotherhood on cinematography and visual direction on scenes like the human transmutation and Ninaxander's reveal and it blows the other out of the park. I found it's themes about religion, scientific dogmatism and sacrifice to be much more profound than whatever Brotherhood had going on. It legit played a part in shaping my worldview as a teenager. And sure 03 got a little goofy at the end with it's robo-Archers and its anime Hitler, but the ending to the series (not the movie) was bittersweet in the most heartwrenching way and it has always stuck with me. I honestly can't remember much about the ending of Brotherhood/the manga, and I experienced it at least twice. After a while it felt like it was just dragging on.
