I've just finished reading the manga full metal alchemist and it was a great manga. The first time i watched full metal alchemist was the 2013 anime and i liked it a lot, the concept, the characters, the plot...everything. It only followed the initial premise of the manga before diverging but i truly like the efforts they made to stay true to the spirit of the manga. Many people believes that FMA was far superior to it and i disagree. Indeed, in terms of visual, animation it was better and it's true that it followed the manga until the end so many consider it to be the only official anime. But if you think about it, the 2013 manga's story was great as well, with an interesting plot, especially concerning the origin of the homonculus. The plot was consistent and original. I liked the way they introduced and gives importance to lyra making her far more than just an addition. I liked how they gave a crucial role to Rose and how they built the "romance"(?) between her and Ed. I liked how the Door/Truth worked differently in the first Anime of 2013. I liked the Evil mastermind and how flawed she was. In fact i can't but just consider that FMA 2013 is canon but in a parallel universe (It's just my opinion). FMA Brotherhood was great and entertaining, i liked everything but i just can't say that the first anime was worse, i believe they were just as great.
You put 2013 instead of 2003 which made what you meant hard to understand. Look as that the 2003 anime as an alternative story with most of the same characters.
I think you probably mix up FMA with FMA:B... FMA:B follow manga storyline while FMA like many short term anime add new character and alternate ending
I think you mixed up FMA Brotherhood and older FMA anime a few times, making what you said a bit confusing. The thing is that the original anime caught up to the manga and the mangaka told them it was fine to do their own thing. Apparently, they even said that they liked the anime's ending more than their own planned ending. So your opinion lines up with the manga's creator somewhat. I personally like Brotherhood more since it follows the manga more closely, but FMA original is nice to have as like an alternative story. They're like their own two stories. Compare that to like Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate. Hellsing original decided to be closer to lore with vampires turning to dust upon death, but the problem is that Hellsing manga is well-liked because it's an epic gorefest. So Hellsing Ultimate comes as an OVA out with 45 minute long episodes and back to blood and gore from the vampires plus being closer to the manga. Though I suppose that's more due to the difference in rules and regulations on TV anime and OVAs.
There is also a live action of Full Metal Alchemist out now as well and it's so awful that it's good. I highly recommend watching if you're a fan of FMA and want to laugh. If you go in expecting it to be serious you'll be disappointed. Unlike most live actions of anime, it follows the story of the manga/brotherhood quite well. It also used some decent CG work to actually reproduce some of the fights without being too cheesy. It's just that I can't take the characters seriously and they look like they got picked up from a Final Fantasy cosplay event. Also, Winry's casting and acting are terrible. Best casting would be Hughes as they managed to find someone who actually looks somewhat like Hughes. Spoiler: Hughes Still all good fun as you can see Spoiler
I know it's a minority opinion, but I loved the 2003 anime more than brotherhood. I don't think it was bad at all, but I was perfectly satisfied with 2003 and to this day consider it a masterpiece of anime history. It should be noted I didn't discover FMA had a manga until much later on, like six months after brotherhood began, so my first impression was the first anime. So for me I felt anything else was wrong, so I couldn't enjoy it that much. I did read the manga and it was okay.
......the CGI was terrible, especially at the beginning. It was moreso cheesy rather than comedic. Hughes got to me though, F for respects.
FMA(B) is just awesome. The source material itself is so good that the anime adaptations naturally tend to be awesome
I like FMA well enough, but i guess deep down I like Arakawa for her characters and how she tells a story, cause without the magic and action, I find myself liking Silver spoon quite a lot, and marginally more than FMA