Whoa, an entire episode dedicated to the background of the Ishbal Massacre. It shows how Roy, Hawkeye and Hughes met and how their experiences in the war changed them into trying to find a way out of this endless violence. Usually in when a massacre in anime takes place, you get a bit of depth on the ones who ordered it, but not often do you see an in-depth look to the ones who actually carry out those orders.
There are two major questions that have arisen from this episode: First of all: what was up with that tattoo covering Hawkeye’s back? In this episode, we learn how she’s the daughter of the alchemist who taught Roy Mustang his tricks, but there seems to be much more to her than just that. I’m not even sure whether Roy knows about that tattoo, but my guess is that it has something to do with her father.
Second of all: we meet Kimbley. This guy was one of the worst characters of the first season: the creators set him up as a competent and ruthless criminal… only to abandon this halfway through and turn him into an incompetent imbecile afterwards. My guess is that even though the creators came up with a very nice alternative story for this setting, they never really knew what to do with him, or they realized too late that that bomb guy also needed a part.
In any case, in this episode we learn where the Philosopher’s stone that was made from the Ishbalians went to: Kimbley. I’m surprised at how little of these people were actually needed, and really wonder why an entire city needed to be wiped out, just for ten guys who could also be simply taken from the prisoners on death row. The big question also is: why Kimbly? Why entrust something as important as that stone to someone like him? And where the hell is he right now? My guess is that since there already were seven humonculi at that point, Father was experimenting with new ways to use the Philosopher’s stones, but there still remain a lot of question marks in the Ishbal chapter.
And yeah, Scar also now has a new target for revenge. I’m not sure whether he’s really going to be an ally of Ed now, however. It’s all going to depend on whether or not he can forgive the guy for killing Winry’s parents…
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Although this might be considered a small spoiler, I’ll just keep it simple:
Riza’s tattoo has a big burn mark now (in the eyecatch you can see before and after quite well). She asked Roy to do this. So yea, he knows about it.
I don’t know if it will be shown in the future (as it was supposed to be in this episode), plus it’s sort of shown in the OP.
Kimbley is in prison right now. They’re shown short blips of him during a couple parts of the anime (including the first episode). Also, the reason why they massacred the whole place has to do with Father’s intentions.
And again a post-credits scene this week, which made it the third one in a row.(They sure like to do this a lot!)
Well, most of your questions should have already been answered in this episode (or rather in these Ishval flashbacks) if it weren’t for all the cuts they made (and a fairly large amount at that). But they may show them later so explaining them now may become a spoiler.
About Kimblee, yeah he is in prison right now, rewatch episode 1 and the end of episode 8, he made his appearance way back then (in ep 1, he’s the one Issac talked to in the prison)
Love FMA! Seriously it just keeps getting better and better
An entire region was needed so that they could do experiments. The philosopher’s stone had never been created on a small scale before. The manga showed that the philosopher’s stone wasn’t the only thing they did experiments for, too-they totally cut out Knox’s part. And the tattoo, as they should’ve told you this episode, is the manner in which the alchemist Hawkeye chose to pass on his knowledge, such that nobody would attain it but who gained his daughter’s trust. And Kimbley just happens to be an amoral guy happy to test out the results of questionable research.
And they should’ve spent two episodes on the Ishbal flashback-there’s more than enough material. They cut out so much that it’s caused confusion.
I recommend everyone who is watching the anime (and not reading the manga) to at least read Vol. 15 chapters 58-61 because they missed a lot of important stuff in this episode.
I agree with the above poster that it would be a good idea to read volume 15. Not only because it provides some important information that this episode left out but because it’s really so much better done than it was in the anime. I mean, the manga’s better than the anime in most things, but out of all of the volumes of FMA #15 is probably the most worthy of being read. The anime should have at least spent a few episodes on it-hell, they could have made a fine movie out of it xD I was really dissapointed in how they changed so much of the execution of this story.
I’d be really disapointed in Ed if he forgave Scar for killing Winry’s parents.:( Well, if worse came to worse and they had to tolerate each other in a team-up kind of way to help save the day then fine…but Ed flat out forgiving him…seems wrong.
Haven’t watched the episode yet but I remember getting to this point in the manga and wondering what they where doing but I think if you sit back and look to Loir you might just notice something, the Story will throw afew more hints out there as it continues
such a dissapointment, they cut so much! they took out all the scenes with knox, who by the way, is supposed to be telling al about ishbal while ed is told by hawkeye. they took out a lot of stuff that built up kimblees charachter,such as him being orderd to kill winrys parents but scar killing them first. they took out knox meeting marcoh during the war, Brasque killing a general to allow a chance at peace(that made me like his character alot!), and all the scenes with winrys parents! they just cut so much that made it feel like a horrible war. These four pages really had an impact on me. http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/59/12/
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/59/13/
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/59/14/
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/59/15/
…. so yeah,they should have made it two episodes. anime readers should definitly read volume 15, the author interviewed world war 2 veterans to make it and its great!
I am gonna have ta disagree with posters 6and 7 while some bits were left out understandably they dont have that big an impact on the story. there might be one or two areas that will be coverd further down the line where they come back to the Ishbal war(God knows they do that often enough) but at the momment there was no need to go into it.
This is actually from something I posted on another forum but I think it servers the same purpose here.
I didn’t like it. And for the basic reasons that everyone listed but also for this:
When you’ve got a really good manga it’s not just good because of the story but the way the story is presented.
The Brotherhood anime has already messed around with a few ways that the material was presented and I’ve let it slide because it still served the purpose and was well-done. But out of all that Akawara has done with FMA I really believe that volume 15-all of the Ishbal flashback-was some of her most stellar work at presenting a story in a way that really sucked you in and emotionally shook you (not to mention revealed so much of the plot and characters). It’s absolutely my favorite volume and can only be rivaled by things like Maria Ross’ conviction and Ed, Ling, and Envy in Gluttony’s stomach to seeing Al’s body at the door.
Brotherhood did really well with the latter and even though they did mess with Maria Ross’ story it was okay. But what they did with Ishbal…it near disgusted me. And I think that’s one of the little problems with Brotherhood. They’re focusing solely on the marketing idea that they’re re-doing FMA telling the manga story. And as a result they’re not putting enough attention on translating how Akawara presents the story and more on just telling it. That may be why some viewers find Brohterhood ’empty’ compared to the first anime and the manga.
Not that Brotherhood hasn’t been beyond amazing in a lot of ways and they are doing one hell of a job but this whole thing with Ishbal is really getting to me. Out of everything they should have kept almost exactly in line with manga…how Ishbal was told-epically-and spanning it over several episodes if they needed to, was it. I don’t care about their budget, they should’ve found a way to make it work. How phony and rushed is it to have Riza just suddenly walk up behind Roy and Hughes talking as compared to her saving them? How much is lacking when you don’t go the extra bit to have Riza rushing in when her father dies?
Not to mention I now really disagree with the reordering it so Scar’s story was earlier. Who else agrees with me that placing the whole of his story where they did took away from Winry? (I don’t care if you don’t like Winry-she’s an important character) and having the reveal in the Ishbal flashback left the viewer/reader in more suspense and wondering why Scar hesitated when Ed jumped in front of Winry and why he had that memory of his brother.
I was just really disappointed in this episode. It should have been epic. Instead it was a regular little flashback on something that is massively important to the story and effects every character. It was so epic in the manga…I’m just disappointed.
I’m beginning to think that Bones believes the viewers won’t be interested unless the plot constantly revolves around Ed. So any portion of the story that doesn’t focus on him, they try to minimize or plain remove from the story.
Thus they cut so much out of the ishbalan arc that it barely had half the impact that the manga chapters on this material did. Seriously; they could have easily made 2 eps, and it would have been much better for it. And more comprehensible too.
did anyone see the the dvd-only OVA The Blind Alchemist? it was pretty damn awesome..
i agree they definitely left out some things i would have loved to see, two things not mentioned here so far are armstrong allowing two ishbalans a chance to escape only for kimbley to kill them, and hughes’ comment about ishbal’s god forsaking them after wrath/bradley basically ignores the surrender offer by the leader.
again i’m giving Bones a little more leeway in cuts cuz to be fair, a manga gives a mangaka muuuuuuuuch more time/room for development where a finite number of anime eps forces cuts and reorganizing of plot elements in the interest of time. example: in all honesty knox isn’t a BIG character as far as the overall series goes so if his stuff is cut down in lieu of more relevant/imporatnt characters, tough luck. it sucks but it’s a logical decision. basque grand only appeared in like 15 secs of brotherhood till this ep so what’s the need to develop his character’s tough yet fair nature shown in killing the douchey officer as the manga did? if you have a gazillion eps to work with like bleach then fine – brotherhood doesn’t have that luxury.
as for having two eps, i could see the sense there (esp. since 27 was an unnecessary ep) but i also see the point in getting through this flashback sequence in one standalone ep and keeping things moving. the manga doesn’t seem to be finishing any time soon, maybe the brisk pacing now will allow them to slow down and more faithfully render the later chapters as they wait for Arakawa to finish.
Volume 15 of the manga floored me completely. This chapter? Not so much.
It really should have been 2, maybe 3 episodes. I certainly hope they go back to it in the future. Plus, they missed out on the most epic scene of all – http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/60/31/
(amongst others)
When working with a comic-related adaptation, there’s always sacrifices guys! It’s a miracle that FMA’s escence survived even when they had to cut so much. And that’s huge credit for the writers. I mean, we’ve got more than 100 manga chapters, 40 pages each. That’s quite a plot to animate in a medium-lenght anime as Brotherhood.
If they were to animate the WHOLE story (considering this would take arround 100 anime eps), everybody would be happy with the content but criying about the animation quality and possible fillers (remember what the last anime had to do to adaptate some plots such as Lior’s, Coal Mine, the events at the train or even Shou Tucker’s experiment?).
And if you are thinking ‘they could just have cutted the recap episode’, I belive that was a nice move, since Brotherhood needed to put things clear to those who are new to FMA. As I said before, FMAB is not an user-friendly story due to the fast peace they work with.
But seems like some people can’t judge the product for itself and enjoy it instead of comparing it all the time, so this is the last time I waste my breath explaining obvious decitions while working with adaptations!
I liked episode 27…but, it makes no sense.
If Brotherhood is cutting SO MUCH for whatever, they could have handed ALL of episode 27 with that scene in the manga (of the stagecoach being shot up) that would have taken no more than FIVE MINUTES in anime version.
Not to mention, they didn’t get anything important from that scene either. Hohenheim with the names, saying “A monster…” None of that.
I just hate how in the past few episodes, everything was 99% accurate, then, suddenly, CUT CUT CUT.
I did like the replacement of Scar’s portion of the flashback, but cutting out Knox and Grand, I just have to wonder why they even bothered with this anime if they’re not going to do it right.
If it really is because of the “We need Ed to make people like it”
That’s BS. They should re-evaluate why the manga is so popular to begin with.
yeah i wonderd about that stagecoach scene too. if they were going to have an episode about hohenhim they really should have added that stagecoach scene. it really made me curious about hohenhim. i liked the flashback episode, but i feel like it threw off the pace of this series. in the manga we go through gluttonys stomach, seeing al at the gate, and then straight into fathers place and lin/greed with no interuptions. Then after all that the pace slows down and moves into ishbal flashback and everything after that (which i felt was kinda slow paced) with the anime we have a break right in the middle of all that action. it feels weird.
Okay, I understand that I should pretty much be judging FMAB on its own as best I can (though not completely because it IS an adaptation of the manga so if you stop comparing altogether it may as well be its own story like the first) and for everything else I have, and will, give massive leeway for this series. Because it’s awesome and they’ve done such a GREAT job with the last few episodes in Gluttony’s stomach and such. Like someone else said: 99% accurate. But for Ishbal…Ishbal is different. I won’t (don’t want to) give any slack because to me the whole Ishbal flashback is some of Akawara’s best work and if you’re going to cut and reorder something in the series the Ishbal story should be the one of the LAST things you do that to. It should be one of the ones you DON’T do that to at all. So the fact that they DID (and to such an extent) really doesn’t sit with me well.
Yeah, it’s awful to see that they skipped stuff you loved. I didin’t mind the cuts with the first Greed, but I hated when the masked man did not appear on the island; just to give an example. And I really missed the Coal Mine or the train. About Ishval, there is some great and epic scenes that I would love to see animated, but for some reason It doesn’t bother me that much. Hawkeye’s narrative was good enough to get some of the escence of Ishval’s massacre.
However, a couple of OVA’s expanding Ishval’s story arc would be nice heh!
The ishbal war was not made so they could use some people and create a stone for Kimblee. that was just something made to help kimblee, since kimblee is one of the most powerful alchemists that the bad guys know they can use.
about Riza, I think it was obvious when her father said that his research was with her. haven’t we learned that alchemists like to store their researchs in strange ways? well, he wroter his on her daughters back. about Mustang, he surely knows about that, because that was where he learnt flame alchemy