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Post #1372492

Author
ChainsawAsh
Parent topic
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - The Manga Cut (* on hiatus *)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1372492/action/topic#1372492
Date created
1-Sep-2020, 8:43 PM

I’ve watched a good chunk of it, and I think it’s very well done, though there are a couple things here and there I would have done differently (you cut out Al’s identity crisis entirely!)

But I actually have one big and two less-big problems with your first episode.

The big problem is the manga scan inserts. They’re immensely distracting and they aren’t necessary to use in any way. That scene can easily be edited using only FMA03 and FMA:B footage (or just pick one or the other) - using manga scans takes me out of it and doesn’t make me want to continue watching for fear of that being a recurring element in your edit. Thankfully, this is (so far) the only place you use this, but that makes it even a bigger head-scratching moment that you do it at all.

The first of the two smaller problems are the opening of the first episode - it shouldn’t be the “Alchemy…” narration, it should be a very abbreviated version of the immediate aftermath of their failed transmutation. Both 2003 and the manga do this (though 2003’s is too long) and it’s easily the best “hook” for the series before it shifts to the Lior story. I would just use what Brotherhood uses as a flashback at around the 17m15s mark of Brotherhood’s first episode (the Ice Alchemist one), though I haven’t gotten to your flashback episode yet so I dunno which version you went with for the actual flashback.

The second smaller problem is Cornello at the very end - he suddenly has his “gun arm” from Brotherhood even though you used the 2003 version of his downfall. This really needs to be rectified somehow, it’s the only glaring continuity error I’ve noticed so far.

After that, episodes 2-8 are pretty close to perfect, though I think there might be a minor continuity issue with Ed’s age being stated in the train episode (since 2003 places that before the alchemy test so he’s younger than he should be), and I don’t know what I think about the little 2003 insert of Winry asking to take apart Ed’s watch since I don’t think the manga or Brotherhood ever imply that the watch has “alchemy enhancers” the way 2003 does. And again, I don’t like cutting Al’s identity crisis since that’s in the manga and both anime adaptations - whether I love the story beat or not (I don’t all that much), I don’t like cutting it, especially when it ends up making the episode only 13 minutes long.

Looking forward to checking out episodes 9-14, and overall excellent work! I really love how you dealt with Hughes and the boys’ meeting by repurposing footage from Brotherhood’s first episode, that was a very smart choice and works wonderfully (and you also did an excellent job of editing the train episode to serve as Ed and Al’s first meeting with him and as his and Mustang’s main introduction to the audience).

Thanks so much for letting me know about your project!