Spoiler Does the OG Fullmetal Alchemist anime have the worst plot twist ever?

[Oheao]

FMA was one of the first anime I ever watched (I think only Yu-Gi-Oh for ones I watched seriously) but wow, did the ending kill my thoughts on the series. For those who haven't watched, the anime diverged from the manga as the manga was still ongoing (they eventually did make another manga that attempted to be more faithful), so they had to come up with their own ending. Well, it was batshit insane. They transported the main character, Edward Elric, from a fantasy world into Europe during World War II. Like what the fuck? Beforehand there was no indication that their world had anything to do with Earth, it's like they made a reverse isekai out of nowhere, with Elric going from a fictional world to the real world. It just made no sense and to this day I have no idea what they were thinking and why it was ever thought this was a good idea. Also, that the deaths of the real world somehow fuel the alchemy in the fictional world?

 

[Serif]

I liked it - I was also like 9 years old so I wasn't particularly discerning ¯\(ツ)/¯ I wasn't reading the manga at the time. I prefer the manga/Brotherhood ending overall.

It helped that Amestris resembled early 20th century Europe anyway, so when Ed was transported to our world in WWII it felt 'familiar' to him, down to the racism and militant society. It also meant that Ed could use some of the engineering he learned in Amestris to build steampunk tools when he didn't have alchemy, which fit the setting. It is nice to see Ed in his scientific pursuits despite losing alchemy which mirrors the ending of Brotherhood.

'Real world' Maes Hughes being a Nazi is yuck though he does leave the party by the end of that movie.

I didn't think much of Earth deaths fueling alchemy, it's not too far off from the Philosopher's Stone using human souls. However it seems to violate equivalent exchange, I'm thinking there should be something in our world fueled by Amestrian souls or alchemy.

 

[Brock Reiher]

that kind of owns. was this when band of brothers was really popular or something?

 

[ermitron2]

I liked it when it was released, like their original world was already too similar to 20th century europe already so it kinda make sense there was a world where they focused on alchemy and other in technology as a counterpart. I totally understand it wasn't the best option, but it was the best they could do at the moment, other than just leaving an open ending,

People always forget when the original was running the manga was just about the hafl part (IIRC around when May appears) and some homunculi and mportant characters weren't even introduced yet

 

[SammyJ9]

I liked it a lot, actually, the FMA world already felt like an alternate-Germany so it was a way to lean into that with the real world being another version.

But I also LOOOOVE the original FMA, it’s a top 5 anime to me easily so I may be biased.

 

[Leo]

It was shocking, bad not necessarily bad. If anything it was very inconsequential since it happened in the last episode anyway.

Overall OG FMA had a much bigger impact on me. I watched it as a teenager and it impressed me in a way that the manga failed to. I thought the manga felt like a regular battle shounen while the anime tackled some mature topics in a way that felt very emotional.

I reread the manga a while ago and I maintain the opinion that it's not anything special, but I would have to rewatch the first anime to see what I think about it these days.

 

[kennzoil]

FMA was one of the first anime I ever watched (I think only Yu-Gi-Oh for ones I watched seriously) but wow, did the ending kill my thoughts on the series. For those who haven't watched, the anime diverged from the manga as the manga was still ongoing (they eventually did make another manga that attempted to be more faithful), so they had to come up with their own ending. Well, it was batshit insane. They transported the main character, Edward Elric, from a fantasy world into Europe during World War II. Like what the fuck? Beforehand there was no indication that their world had anything to do with Earth, it's like they made a reverse isekai out of nowhere, with Elric going from a fictional world to the real world. It just made no sense and to this day I have no idea what they were thinking and why it was ever thought this was a good idea. Also, that the deaths of the real world somehow fuel the alchemy in the fictional world?

they eventually did make another manga that attempted to be more faithful

I know this is a misstatement but I can't help thinking about Hiromu Arakawa watching that horrendous plot twist and being like 'holy crap, I have to write this over again'

 

[Yoshifan31]

While there wasn’t that much foreshadowing it still made sense, the world was clearly an alternate version of Germany. You had the city of Munich that was explicitly mentioned several times, the leader was a Fuhrer, what more do you need. The only fictional part besides the alchemy was Ishval really. There’s a bunch of twists out there that are actual copouts that diminish the whole journey, like everything that goes “it was all a dream” or introduces amnesia. From the top of my head in anime there’s the Mai Hime ending which is pretty terrible, also the sequel baiting ending from the first Sailor Moon season is kind of lame as well. In games I haven’t played it but people always complain about Star Ocean 3. That being said I kind of had this feeling about (spoilers for a Nintendo JRPG)

Spoiler

Xenoblade’s twist. Like people say SO3 is bad because it retroactively makes the series look bad if it was all a videogame. Xenoblade basically makes it was all a simulation. Like if the explanation for the Bionis and Mechonis was simply that they were gods or whatever, that would have been more satisfying

Anyway I won’t go too deeply into this but the 2003 version is better than Brotherhood is pretty much every possible metric. It’s funny how the main argument for fans of the latter is that “it follows the manga”. That’s why no one takes anime fans seriously, they will stan for the version of the story that is merely a basic fighting shonen with bad comedy where the superpower is alchemy now just because that’s the source material. Film buffs don’t act like that when movies are based on books, they accept and appreciate the differences. Anyway 2003 FMA is one of my favorite and most formative anime but I don’t think about it much lately because I associate it with the dub since that was how I watched it back in the day. I have personally a problem with Vic, hope he doesn’t get credited in the P3P rerelease

 

[Weebos]

As far as anime original endings it wasn't a total trash fire, but it didn't feel earned or foreshadowed at all (because it wasn't lol).

They passed the manga and had to end it somehow.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

There's a lot of problems with both versions of the story. People who like both will generally tell you that Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood gets the literal points down better (a.k.a the plot), and that Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 gets the more metaphorical parts down better (a.k.a the themes). I agree with this 100%. And this isn't untrue for the ending, either. While FMA 03's out-of-nowhere twist isn't great, it's not as if the entire Fullmetal Alchemist universe wasn't a metaphor for World War 1/2 era europe to begin with(which is extra funny, because 03 goes even further and adds in iraq war themes). The idea of alchemy being fueled by the death of others in an alternate universe is really not much different from the philosopher stone. And Edward facing consequences that actually feel like something he wouldn't have agreed to in the first place is very important, Ed losing the ability to see Al feels like the kind of conclusion to the story that leaves both unsatisfied, but willing to continue living for a better tomorrow. This isn't done well in Brotherhood at all , where all Ed has to give up is alchemy, despite the fact that the Brotherhood version of Ed is already disillusioned to alchemy by the end and isn't obsessed with it to the same extent as 03's Ed (who over the course of the series becomes more and more like his enemies), so it's not even a fitting sacrifice to begin with.

There's other parts in Brotherhood's ending that are just straight up kind of bad. Roy gaining back his eyesight by using a philosopher's stone because Riza doesn't think the Ishvalen's would care and in fact actually thinks they'd support that so that he can save them is such a betrayal of a lot of the themes of the show, particularly when Riza reason is very close to white savior bs. Scar just being forgiven and becoming a political leader is so bizarre when it's established his crimes affected people who were either innocent or essentially innocent (those whose inventions were used against their will). This kind of stuff is very eh.

That being said, yeah, Brotherhood's ending is way better. In general though I think the themeing of 03 is something that could have been taken more to heart in the original source material, which isn't crazy to say, given Hiromu from what I remember did take inspiration from the anime original stuff. Honestly, anime is not generally very good at making plots which are without holes or logical fallacies, I find most anime to be better as a thematic experience anyways.

 

[Oheao]

I actually haven't watched Brotherhood, I guess I justt got burned out after watching the original series and never got back to it.

 

[YoboD]

This isn’t even that bad, you could probably name 5 worse plot twists than this in the Rise of Skywalker alone.

 

[freedomseekr]

also the sequel baiting ending from the first Sailor Moon season is kind of lame as well.

I think it wraps the season up nicely and allows it to stand on its own while also allowing there to be the possibility of a second season. Which, nowadays, you likely wouldn't get in an adaptation - it would be a weird kind of open ending or just have the story stop dead in its tracks.

Like when Lyrical Nanoha ViviD just straight up ends in the middle of a tournament story line without any form of conclusion.