I explained in my last article some of the reasons I consider the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga by Hiromu Arakawa to be superior to the 2003 anime, whose plot was utterly removed from that of the source material.
The 2003 anime does have its fans, though, and that’s completely fine. However, a strange thing happened when a more faithful adaptation was made in 2009; many fans of the 2003 anime railed against the newer adaptation for allegedly being “unfaithful to the spirit of the original anime.”
Indeed, even many fans of the 2009 anime (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) refer to the 2003 anime as “the original Fullmetal Alchemist” as though ignorant of the manga’s existence. To an extent I understand this, as the 2003 anime’s fans have clearly gone to great lengths to cement its status as such.
What’s more, there’s a tendency to view earlier adaptations as more definitive than later ones if one is unfamiliar with the source material—particularly if one grew up with one and not the other. Today I will explain why people need to stop calling the 2003 anime “the original,” whether you prefer it or not.
Acknowledgements
This is not an article about the quality of the 2003 anime; I’ve already written that article. Now, I prefer the manga over the 2003 version, but my preference is irrelevant to this article. I believe that the manga is a better story than the 2003 anime, but my opinion is irrelevant to this article.
Deliberately Misleading
When fans of Brotherhood call the 2003 anime “the original,” I believe this is simply because they’ve heard others refer to it thusly.
After reading a number of articles by fans of the 2003 series, however, I am convinced they do so as a deliberate attempt to make their show sound like it’s at least as valid a version of Fullmetal Alchemist as the manga.
They have seemingly convinced themselves that Brotherhood is a remake of the 2003 anime as opposed to an adaptation of the same source material. Not only do they consider the 2003 anime to be the original, but they even say things like:
“Brotherhood betrays the original 2003 anime.”
It must be noted that one seldom hears a fan of the 2003 anime compare it directly to the manga; rather, they compare it with Brotherhood.
I think this is because saying an adaptation is better than the source material is more likely to raise eyebrows than if you say an older adaptation is better than the “remake.”
Think about it; if you say “this movie was way better than the book,” people won’t necessarily take you seriously, but if you tell them that “the original is so much better than the remake,” they’ll instantly assume you know what you’re talking about.
Calling the 2003 anime “the original” is deliberately misleading. Even saying “the original anime” is dubious. The 2003 anime is not the original; this is because the manga is the original.
Superiority vs. Validity
Even if you think you can argue for the 2003 anime’s superiority, you cannot argue for its validity. The question of which one is the original is independent of which one is superior; it is a question of how “Fullmetal Alchemist” is to be defined.
If you are a fan of the 2003 anime, then let me be as clear as I can be: what you love is not Fullmetal Alchemist; what you love is a 2003 anime loosely based on Fullmetal Alchemist.
Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is Fullmetal Alchemist to a lesser extent than Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is Fullmetal Alchemist.
Brotherhood is Fullmetal Alchemist to a greater extent than the 2003 anime but to a lesser extent than the manga, which is Fullmetal Alchemist at its most Fullmetal Alchemist.
The 2003 anime is wrong. It is wrong in the same way as all adaptations are to some degree wrong. It is wrong in the same way as certain scenes in Brotherhood are wrong. The 2003 anime is far more wrong than Brotherhood, however. This is because it is an adaptation, and the only true Fullmetal Alchemist is the manga that Hiromu Arakawa wrote.
It doesn’t matter if you’re someone who prefers the 2003 anime; that doesn’t make it Fullmetal Alchemist. If you don’t like the manga, that means you dislike Fullmetal Alchemist—plain and simple.
“But the 2003 Anime Came First!”
One of the most common arguments that the 2003 series is more valid than the manga is this: “the 2003 anime came first because, despite starting out as an adaptation, it finished its story years before the manga did.”
Any argument with which you might assert that the 2003 anime is an equally valid version of Fullmetal Alchemist is also an argument one could use to assert that Vídeo Brinquedo’s Ratatoing is the original version of Pixar’s Ratatouille.
Brinquedo saw the trailer for Ratatouille and rushed to create their rip-off, and in the end Ratatoing premiered before Ratatouille did. To this you might say that Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is good and Ratatoing is bad, to which I would say that if you scour the world you’ll find some who prefer Brinquedo’s film over Pixar’s.
Which one is good is irrelevant to this particular discussion; the adaptation is not the original.
Concerning Bad Original Works
Quality cannot add validity to an adaptation such that it becomes the original work. Even if the manga were Black Clover-grade schlock, in which case the 2003 anime would indeed be superior to it, that would not make the manga any less the definitive version.
Just because people all over the world have tried their hand at rewriting Sword Art Online and improved it doesn’t mean you can define Sword Art Online as anything other than what Reki Kawahara wrote. It doesn’t matter if Kawahara is one of the worst writers in Japan; what he wrote is still Sword Art Online.
The Manga Is the Original
Once again, it’s completely fine if you happen to prefer the 2003 anime to Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist—just as it’s fine if you prefer Ralph Bakshi’s rotoscoped film to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Some stories just resonate with a person, and it’s different for everyone.
I prefer Arakawa’s manga to its adaptations, and I prefer Tolkien’s books to their adaptations; those are my preferences, and they’re irrelevant to the point I’m trying to make. Fullmetal Alchemist is a manga, and the adaptations are just that: adaptations.