Sherlock is stunning as always. Second season's first episode picked the best possible story and ran with it, managing to incorporate all the major characters in the process. And it did something else, too, something I didn't quite appreciate as much as I wanted to but which very much made Moffat's Holmes the best of them. Moving on.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is... a little weird.

It's an anime based off a manga, the second one of its kind, only this one was made after the manga finished and therefore it can follow it perfectly because that's what you want to do with film adaptations. Of course, the early episodes are still perfectly in line with the early episodes of the first series because those were perfectly in line with the manga - but knowing this, they don't take their time, rushing to get as much information out as possible so that they can (assumably) get to the meaty bits.

Huh.

This irks me a bit. For one thing, I have the DVD's of Full Metal Alchemist. It's the only anime series I own, and I knew I'd want to watch it again someday. I remember the little private moment of catharsis I had, a somewhat life-changing realization mostly unrelated to the show itself, but which I tend to only get after chewing on something of its caliber for a suitably long period of time. That show means something to me. But I'm somewhat incapable of starting it over when there is a remixed version that I haven't seen - that kind of stodgy tenacity to nostalgia is to say that something told well could never be told better, and that is not how stories work. Our words and pictures have never been immortal - the best a writer can hope for is to be a part of that grand, ever-expanding eidolon of knowledge and imagination. I can't disrespect a second draft by saying the first was 'gud nuff. But I also can't watch it without drawing comparisons.

And in comparison, it's kind of not as good. The storytelling is hasty and haphazard, well aware that we've seen everything before but still willing to intersperse as many short jokes as possible. Characters go chibi at weirdly dramatic moments. The animation is cleaner but not as atmospheric. The voice actors are the same but a little worse. Scenes don't have the same emotional weight, villains are less frightening, narration is constant and overbearing. I'm not sure if the feeling I'm getting here is "please bear with us while we get to the point where we can tell the story the way we want to" or "oh gosh, isn't money delicious?"

I still have high hopes. All the characters are there, all the little defining moments. There's just enough new with the old that I'm interested in seeing where it goes. And it's REALLY QUITE FRUSTRATING THAT I CARE.

At least there will be more Scieszka. Swoon. <3.