Board 8 > Hey, anime fans, I've got questions about a couple of shows

(+) Yeah! (+)

OK, first off, in the charity shop near my office they had the complete series of Wolf's Rain for 2.50, so I bought it on account of being a thing I'd heard of and being cheap. Watched one episode so far, seems alright, wondered what the general view of it was.

Secondly- Full Metal Alchemist. There's two versions of the anime, right? Both on Netflix (as well as that new film, and I think one older film). And from what I've heard, the first started out close to the manga but then veered off when it caught up, and the second kind of rushes through the parts of the manga the first covered then adapts the rest? So is it worth watching both, or skipping straight to Brotherhood?

That's all, thanks.
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Can't comment on Wolf's Rain, but Brotherhood tells a complete story. It skips through early chapters of the manga, but at that time the story hadn't been set and so those chapters are mostly filler. You're fine just watching that, and it would be my recommendation.
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I liked Wolf's Rain a good bit, but it has a very particular mood and tone that's not for everyone.

I'd agree that you're good just watching Brotherhood and skipping the first series. The beginning parts are indeed a bit rushed, but it's because most folks had already seen that stuff twice by that point, and the versions here are still serviceable.

Keep in mind the very first episode of Brotherhood is basically just a fanservicey filler adventure that partially serves to introduce characters, then the story starts proper from the beginning in ep 2.
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I recommend watching Brotherhood first; it's a more faithful adaptation. You can watch the original series if you like it enough later. It gets a bit darker after the divergence from the manga, and doesn't conclude well imo.

Wolf's Rain was mostly average. Worth watching once, I'd say.
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Just watch Brotherhood. Ignore the original FMA series, since it's not nearly as good.

Wolf's Rain is a pretty good show, though it has some issues. Episodes 15-18 are all recap episodes, so you should safely skip those.
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I've only watched Brotherhood, but I didn't notice any problems just watching that series without the original FMA.

Wolf's Rain is a series I've meant to watch for a while but never got around to.
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I thought Wolf's Rain was bad but it's been a while since I watched it.
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Wolf's Rain is on a production standpoint a great show for the time it aired and a great world for the characters to be in. But I did find other areas in the show to decent at best.

As for FMA

Both versions are good. FMABH is the better version and honestly you really only have to see that one because it covers everything the first show did before the branch off and then completes the story. I will say though that the first part of FMA prebranch is better than FMABH epsidoes that cover the same thing... by a pretty significant margin imo. This is mainly because of the pacing of which it goes at. I do think too that the original had some really good ideas but just could not execute them properly to really turn the series into GOAT status like FMABH has become.
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