When I saw that Mark was going to be watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I got all excited about following along and writing it up. Of course for some reason I thought he was going to alternate with another series, like with his books, instead of watching an episode each weekday. So I'm not going to follow day-by-day because I can't post every day, but I will shoot for a catch-up at least every weekend. I'm also going to skim the corresponding manga chapters. I've been thinking about doing this for a while—even pitched it as a blog series that didn't work out—so keeping up with Mark will be good external motivation, plus it'll be fun to enjoy someone else's first-time reactions.
(I've read the manga, but many of the last chapters only in fan translations, and watched Brotherhood, but during the sleep-deprived haze of the Pip's early life, so while I remember a lot of the broad outline, many details will be fresh to me this time through.)
I should say initially that while I very much enjoyed the first anime, and wrote literally thousands of words about it back in the day, once I caught up with the manga (which Brotherhood closely follows) I loved it even better. The first anime diverges from the manga about halfway through (as the manga wasn't complete then), and the manga/Brotherhood has more, and more awesome, women; more, and more awesome, characters of color; and a notably more epic plot.
You can watch the sub at YouTube (requires sign-in since it's viewer discretion advised). I believe the dub is streaming on various services, but I don't have them so I can't check. You can also buy the episodes on iTunes, since that's what Mark is doing.
Okay! One more prefatory thing. This is going to be an ALL-SPOILER zone. If you are watching for the first time, I am excited and that is awesome! If you want someplace spoiler-free to talk about it with people here, instead of at Mark's, tell me and I will set something up. But the reason I'm doing this here is to interact with all of you and to re-watch and re-read.
( Episode 1 )
( Episode 2 )
( Episode 3 )
( Episode 4 )
Overall: a rockier start than I remembered. New viewers, if you're interested but unsure when you start, I would recommend giving it at least until episode 4 (they're short, especially if you skip the opening and closing songs, and the awful voiceover from episode 2 on).
(If you are not a regular DW reader, here is an RSS feed of just these posts.)
[Edit 2013-08-09:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lettered is watching for the first time, too, and I'm updating with links to her episode posts as well.]
(I've read the manga, but many of the last chapters only in fan translations, and watched Brotherhood, but during the sleep-deprived haze of the Pip's early life, so while I remember a lot of the broad outline, many details will be fresh to me this time through.)
I should say initially that while I very much enjoyed the first anime, and wrote literally thousands of words about it back in the day, once I caught up with the manga (which Brotherhood closely follows) I loved it even better. The first anime diverges from the manga about halfway through (as the manga wasn't complete then), and the manga/Brotherhood has more, and more awesome, women; more, and more awesome, characters of color; and a notably more epic plot.
You can watch the sub at YouTube (requires sign-in since it's viewer discretion advised). I believe the dub is streaming on various services, but I don't have them so I can't check. You can also buy the episodes on iTunes, since that's what Mark is doing.
Okay! One more prefatory thing. This is going to be an ALL-SPOILER zone. If you are watching for the first time, I am excited and that is awesome! If you want someplace spoiler-free to talk about it with people here, instead of at Mark's, tell me and I will set something up. But the reason I'm doing this here is to interact with all of you and to re-watch and re-read.
( Episode 1 )
( Episode 2 )
( Episode 3 )
( Episode 4 )
Overall: a rockier start than I remembered. New viewers, if you're interested but unsure when you start, I would recommend giving it at least until episode 4 (they're short, especially if you skip the opening and closing songs, and the awful voiceover from episode 2 on).
(If you are not a regular DW reader, here is an RSS feed of just these posts.)
[Edit 2013-08-09:
lettered is watching for the first time, too, and I'm updating with links to her episode posts as well.]
