The GHZ Forum

Fullmetal Alchemist got a reboot recently. Funimation's subbing. Incredibly fast, in fact; the second episode hasn't aired in Japan yet, and the first is already officially subbed in English.

Being a big fan of the first series when it aired on Adult Swim, I think I'll be keeping an eye on this one. Seems to have all the right elements in place; they even got the original seiyuus for Ed, Al, Bradley and Armstrong to reprise their roles... Really, the only gripe I have is that Michiru Oshima's not composing (meaning no "Brothers" and similarly epic music), but the new guy's music works as well; he just has big shoes to fill, is all. Damn big shoes.

Anyone else see it?

I'm sure I could find this answer some where else on the interwebs but I'll ask here anyway. Why is FMA being rebooted? I mean, it's only four years old or something right?

Hey let's make this a Spring Anime topic.

I'm really pleased with Dragon Ball Kai. It really reminds you just how fucking shitty anime looks today with its fucking shitty vectorized lines and under saturated colors.

Radrappy wrote:I'm sure I could find this answer some where else on the interwebs but I'll ask here anyway. Why is FMA being rebooted? I mean, it's only four years old or something right?

Six, I think. First aired in 2003. Dub aired in late 2004.

Anyway, it's being rebooted, since shortly after Maes Hughes gets offed, the plot of the anime and the manga go off in drastically different directions. This time they're attempting to be a lot closer to the manga (since it's been ongoing for a lot longer at this point than it had when they first adapted it).

Nobody seems to be able to agree on whether DBK is an actual re-scan/re-shoot of the original animation cels or just an upscale. It certainly does look a bit fuzzy in screenshots. Hell, I still see some people asking why it's not a full remake, which baffles me.

Also K-On looks hilariously awful. Or maybe it's not even hilarious. Kyoani seem to have really dropped the ball since Haruhi, or have they always done shit like this? (I've only followed them since Haruhi)

This is the longest in a while I've been looking forward to an anime, and even though the last few episodes and the movie of the first series really dropped the ball I still look back on it fondly. It's interesting they'd have an original beginning this time around, but I thought it worked fine since it doesn't contradict anything from the manga. It's also kind of interesting they'd show Hohenheim so early in the opening, and a younger version of him too since that hasn't been shown in the manga I don't think. Good opening and ending songs too.

The only thing that bothers me is they haven't said how long it's going to be, and based on the quality of the animation it's hard to believe this would go on for more then 50 episodes, which is a shame since it would take more then that for them to adapt all of the manga. It's hard to say with a series this popular.

Dragonball Kai looked kind of blurry but it was nice and smooth. I already knew that Goku's voice was going to be just as whiny as his kid voice, but man, hearing Bardock have that same whiny voice was just.....disheartening or something. Other then that I hope they'll pick up the pace soon.

Shangri-la was dissapointing, Natsu no Arashi was kind of good, K-ON! was tolerant but not very good (they need to do more Haruhi and FMP instead), Mazinger was fucking insane in the membrane, might also try Cross Game and Guin Saga soon.

I'm still waiting for someone to sub/release that new Urusei Yatsura OVA they made several months ago.

Protodude wrote: The only thing that bothers me is they haven't said how long it's going to be, and based on the quality of the animation it's hard to believe this would go on for more then 50 episodes, which is a shame since it would take more then that for them to adapt all of the manga. It's hard to say with a series this popular.

As far as I know, the manga is getting close to it's conclusion, so they might get at least the ending "right". Can't tell the same for the whole story, tough.

Speaking of Gangan Comics-related anime reboots, I still wonder why they don't do the same thing with The Violinist of Hamelin.

Yami CJMErl wrote:I'm still waiting for someone to sub/release that new Urusei Yatsura OVA they made several months ago.

Was that even publicly released yet? Even if it was, the Ranma 1/2 and the freakin' InuYasha OVAs would be out first no doubt.

K-ON! is kind of like a slightly less awful Lucky Star with "older looking" character designs? They spend the entire first episode getting a girl to join some school band to meet the 4-person requirement. Then they the entire second episode buying a guitar. I'm dead serious.

The only other anime I've watched so far this spring is Natsu no Arashi, which looks like they're just going to use the characters' time traveling abilities as a gigantic gimmick. Still, it's nice to see a pre-teen boy who hangs around an older girl and their actually getting along for once in an anime. That happens so rare in the anime I've watched.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:K-ON! is kind of like a slightly less awful Lucky Star with "older looking" character designs? They spend the entire first episode getting a girl to join some school band to meet the 4-person requirement. Then they the entire second episode buying a guitar. I'm dead serious.

LESS awful? Really? I was actually able to enjoy Lucky Star because, even though it was terrible, it was so transparent and obvious about its pathetic otaku pandering that I couldn't actually dislike it for it. I was able to laugh AT it if not WITH it. I've only seen the first episode of K-On but I couldn't even do that. It was so bad.

Honestly I don't like either show. K-ON at least has a plot (albeit a slow one), whereas Lucky Star has a lot of stupid in-jokes and anime references they put together until they fill up 22 minutes worth of air time. I would suggest you at least see episode 2 of K-ON before giving up on it; it's better than the first episode.

It doesn't help that I've watching lots of the excellent Urusei Yatsura TV series lately, making both Lucky Star and K-ON look unfunny in comparison.

Lucky Star and every other anime series featuring underage schoolgirls sitting around doing nothing but hanging out in cafeterias having talks about anime and food and acting cutesy and rapable need to burn in hell.

I watched that show a few days ago. Every episode in little over a day.




I still don't know why.

Incidentally, it would appear this new FMA is no slouch. In one episode, Tricia Elric (the mother) dies, the transmutation occurs that messes up Ed/Al's bodies, and Ed's already a state alchemist. I believe the mother dying and transmutation scenes took place in the same episode in the original series, but it took at least another one or two for Ed to officially become Fullmetal. Wonder if their adaptation of the Father Cornello scandal will similarly be condensed from a two-parter in the original anime to a single episode?

Some Japanese magazine or something gave synopsis' up to episode 5 or so. 4 is apparently about Nina/Tucker, and 5 is Scar wrecking shit up or whatever. This came out right after the first episode, and they were right about Lior being the 3rd episode so I'm inclined to believe it. Seems they're moving at a brisk pace of about 1-2 chapters an episode, so it'll probably be around episode 15-20 for the stuff the first anime didn't adapt.

I hope Nina gets killed off before she has a chance to talk this time. God that voice.

My problem with the manga is the chinese guy and the god like enemy... thats all I can say to avoid spoilers. So Im not going to see it, but I do want to get "Avatar: The Last Airbender" DVDs, and I saving money for that. FMA and Trigun where good animated shows, I do not wish to see a diferent version of any of them. If I cared about that, I would have got the mangas, but I dont.

I got an used "Okami" for the Wii, so I I will be busy for weeks...I want to rule in the game...

Back to Dragonball Kai, apparently when Piccolo kills Goku and Raditz they completely edited out the blood and made the holes in their chests look like bruises (wow, sounds like Toonami). And I've seen evidence that the new widescreen stuff is actually just cropped vertically from the old 4:3 footage, rather than extended sideways like it should be.

Sounds like a bit of a farce, to me.

Crowbar wrote:Back to Dragonball Kai, apparently when Piccolo kills Goku and Raditz they completely edited out the blood and made the holes in their chests look like bruises (wow, sounds like Toonami). And I've seen evidence that the new widescreen stuff is actually just cropped vertically from the old 4:3 footage, rather than extended sideways like it should be.

Sounds like a bit of a farce, to me.

What would you expect? The show was animated and shot on film at an aspect radio of 4:3. Widescreen was never an option when this show was produced.

These DBZ "remasters" are a fucking joke. They crop the format, run the transfer through DVNR and make it a jumbled soft smear of a mess and bump the color saturation to a point of artifacting.

Actually the colours are one thing that hasn't been ruined. They were for Toonami's old airing, I think, but the colours in DBK from what I've seen are pretty subtle (some complain that they're too washed out).

I definitely heard they were actually redrawing some frames to extend them, though, and I've seen proof that at least some backgrounds have been redone, so I'm really confused about why it seems to be ending up like this.

And the censorship is just bizarre.

Well, a lot of the stuff that passed as shonen back then, such as Fist of the North Star, City Hunter, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, were pretty graphic compared to most modern day shonen fare. Sure, Dragonball was fairly tame in comparison, but it certainly had it's share of brutal fights at times.

But man, I really wish they had just started at the beginning of the story instead of going straight into Z. It's also kind of disappointing that it's moving at about the same crawl of a pace as the first series. If they moved at the pace of the manga it would actually be a tolerable show.

Really, compared to stuff like Hellsing, Dragon ball Z was tame, Dragon ball Kai is crap, and you should avoid it. like you should have avoided that live action Sailor Moon if you had any love for the animated series.

Is just made for money, a cheapo edit of the real animated series, and some of the fillers of Dragon Ball Z where funny, remenber that one about Goku and Picollo learning to drive?.

"I am a movie critic by trade and until recently, I got paid to tell you people which movies merely stink and which ones you shouldn’t screen near an open flame. Well, I’m putting the burden of lousy movie back on you. It’s very simple: if you stop going to bad movies, they’ll stop making bad movies. If the movie used to be a TV show, just don’t go. After Roman numeral II, give it a rest. If the movie is a remake of a classic, rent the classic. Tell them you want stories about people, not a hundred million dollars of stunts and explosives. People, it’s up to you. If the movie stinks, just don’t go." Jay Sherman The Critic

The car filler was the highlight of the entire series.

Shadow Hog wrote:Wonder if their adaptation of the Father Cornello scandal will similarly be condensed from a two-parter in the original anime to a single episode?

It was.

Dr. BUGMAN wrote:I hope Nina gets killed off before she has a chance to talk this time. God that voice.

She doesn't. Although Scar comes in and kills both of them off at the very end. The episode preview implies Ed's gonna learn of this next episode, too. Just as depressing as ever.