I liked the FMA anime, but part of that was probably because I hadn't gotten into the manga until after the anime ended. (Okay, I could have done without the
; between that and
in Eureka Seven, I start to wonder if I'm seeing a trend in Studio Bones's work.) And I can understand Hiromu Arakawa asking the animators not to go with her ending so that fans wouldn't be spoiled about how the manga ends*.
* Supposedly. Can't cite sources here, besides TVTropes.
Still I am cautiously optimistic about this. I'd like to see a new take on the material. I'd like the anime to add enough to the previous series and the manga that it is worth seeing, while staying true to the characters and world.
Maybe I should take my friends' attitude and set the bar low, though. I am asking a lot for this. (My friends seem to take Fullmetal Alchemist things about the way Yahtzee from ZeroPunctiation takes new video games -- assume it will be bad and then be occasionally pleasantly surprised when it isn't that bad, rather than assume it'll be good and be disappointed when it isn't that good.)