Ask John: How Common Are Remakes Like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?

Question:
I’ve seen the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Funimation’s official site and I was wondering if there are many second anime series that basically tell the original series’ story again, just tweaked, twisted, and even lengthened?

Answer:
Judging by the first opening animation sequence and early episodes of the second Fullmetal Alchemist television series, the new series does appear to be fundamentally a remake of the 2003 series. Sequels and remakes aren’t especially uncommon in the anime world, but such a faithful re-make so soon after the original series is a bit unusual. I’m honestly not familiar enough with every existing anime title to be able to cite numerous examples of near identical remakes, but I can provide some elaboration.

Successful anime series get new series or seasons more often than literal remakes. Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro has had five television series, each of them beginning with an introduction to the characters, but the events within each series have been different. The Himitsu no Akko-chan anime premiered in 1969 and was re-made in 1988 and 1998. But while fundamental concepts and situations remained the same in the ’88 and ’98 re-makes, both re-makes had enough distinct changes to feel like new interpretations of the original story rather than literal re-makes. The original 1963 Tetsuwan Atom was re-made in 1980 and 2003, but with enough changes to make each series distinct. Similarly, the 2001 Hanaukyo Maid-tai television series was re-made just three years later as Hanaukyo Maid-tai La Verite, but plot situations within the re-make differed from the earlier series.

Remakes and retellings that differ in format are relatively common. The 1982 Superdimensional Fortress Macross television series was reimagined in the 1984 Superdimensional Fortress Macross ~Love, Do You Remember~ motion picture. Similarly, the 1999 Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescense Mokushiroku motion picture is a condensed thematic recreation of the earlier television series. The near simultaneously released 1995 Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard OVA and TV series depict the same story. The 2007 Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone motion picture recreates the first six episodes of the 1995 television series. The unfinished story of the Munto OVA series was re-told and completed in the form of the recent Sora o Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai television series. It makes some sense for these type of re-makes because the audience for commercial OVAs or long TV series may not be the same audience that watches TV shows broadcast for free or the audience willing to watch singular, self-contained movies.

Extended and literal remakes are a bit less common. If I recall correctly, at least the first episodes of the 1989 Maho Tsukai Sally and 1990 Moretsu Ataro are color recreations of the earlier black & white 1966 & 1969 originals. The 1980 and 2004 Tetsujin 28-gou television series are rather faithful recreations of the original 1963 television anime. Partially due to its rushed and insufficient production, the 2005 Mahou Sensei Negima! television series was recreated a year later as Negima!? Toei Animation’s 13 episode adaptation of Kanon, produced in 2002, was remade as a 24 episode adaptation by Kyoto Animation in 2006, providing one of the best examples of a situation directly comparable to the Fullmetal Alchemist re-make, although the Kanon re-make was produced by a different studio while both Fullmetal Alchemist series have been animated by the same studio.

Despite my eagerness to assert the artistic nature of anime, I have to also concede the influence of capitalism. There can be little doubt that the second Fullmetal Alchemist television series was created in response to the success of the earlier anime. But the narrative development of the previous television series and movie left the franchise in a state which would make a direct sequel difficult to compose, and even more difficult to market to a large audience. Simply re-making the original television series is both the easiest way to approach a new production, and almost inevitably the only way to make a new production accessible to a sizable audience. The status of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (as it’s known here in America) as a literal remake of a previous anime isn’t the first such production of its kind, but it is still an unusual case due, in part, to the unusually great international success of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime franchise compared to the success and vintage of other anime that have been remade.