Poll of the Day > Just finished FMA '03; what next?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I sort of want to watch the movie as I guess it's the true ending to the '03 series? But I've also heard bad things about it and I'm perfectly content with the bittersweet ending of the anime.
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If you want to watch a movie then watch the Shamballa one but then just disregard it actually meaning anything.

Just take what happens in the 03 version and mix it up with Brotherhood. That's what I do.
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The movie is short and kinda interesting sooo I'd do that. It's not great, but it's not horrible and it adds a little bit of closure to the old series.

Perfectly skippable but it's worth watching too.
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The movie is indeed the proper conclusion to that series. I'm not really sure what people didn't like about it (that wasn't already a given from the show's ending), but if you're worried about it not having a bittersweet ending then you can put that fear to bed. No spoilers, but it remains perfectly in keeping with the show's themes of atonement and sacrifice for a greater good.

Also the movie's opening and ending themes are just perfect.
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keyblader1985 posted...

The movie is indeed the proper conclusion to that series. I'm not really sure what people didn't like about it (that wasn't already a given from the show's ending), but if you're worried about it not having a bittersweet ending then you can put that fear to bed. No spoilers, but it remains perfectly in keeping with the show's themes of atonement and sacrifice for a greater good.

Also the movie's opening and ending themes are just perfect.

I've never read the manga but I just assumed it wasn't the ending of the manga. That the manga wasn't over yet but they still needed to end the series. Then I thought that Brotherhood was how the series was meant to end.

That's just me assuming though. And I felt the movie's ending was just fine for the original series but I thought the Brotherhood ending was better for the overall series.

Also, Since you should know the homuculi are going to die, they all have better deaths in Brotherhood I felt.

Especially Lust!
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AllstarSniper32 posted...

Then I thought that Brotherhood was how the series was meant to end.

Brotherhood follows the manga very very closely so yes.
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The original anime caught up with the manga about halfway through its run, at which point it started doing its own thing.

The homunculi probably did have better deaths in Brotherhood, but mainly because they were mostly directly tied to their sin (or even for the ones only loosely connected, they were just plain cooler). But the deaths in the original were more personal, and not just tied to the sin.
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keyblader1985 posted...

The original anime caught up with the manga about halfway through its run, at which point it started doing its own thing.

In short this means:

'03 split of before: the introduction of the Manga Big Bad, meaning '03 introduced its own: Dante
Which was also before the Manga gets into the origin of the Homunculi, so '03 also did its own thing there.
Also, at this point not all Homunculi had been introduced or named yet, meaning '03 also came up with some of their own Homunculi

All in all, I always thought these additions/changes worked for the original anim and there was never a point where I was like: hey this doesn't work... Both the Manga and '03 have a good story, same beginnings, but different backstories and endings.
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That movie and the whole ending to the '03 anime in general was kinda sucky, but I suppose for having to come up with an original ending it wasn't the worst.
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What did they do to Rose?

Muh waifu T-T
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Krow_Incarnate posted...

What did they do to Rose?

Muh waifu T-T

She turned into present day Rose McGowan.
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Something to note when you do watch Brotherhood. Annoyingly, about 1/5 through the series, they start putting some scenes after the end credits sequence (and there is one episode with scenes during the end credits sequence). Some of these scenes are pretty important and can leave you with a "when did this happen?" moment down the road if you miss them.

Sheesh, thanks for the heads up.

Any idea which number episodes those are?
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Just watch them all and skip the ending if you need to.
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