With this episode you can really see that the pacing has slowed down: an entire episode was dedicated to just one fight, save from two or three scenes about Mustang. It makes you wonder: did the creators at the start of this series know how many series they were going to have to work with? Or did they intentionally rush the first half of this series, in order to give the finale ample time to play out? It’s refreshing to see though: most endings of long series are rushed, but by the looks of it this series is going to get all of the time it needs.
In any case, for the supposedly “strongest homunculus”, Pride looked pretty pathetic in this episode at first, when he couldn’t even beat Ed. Wouldn’t it just be easy to surround Ed with his powers and strike him from multiple sides? It looks to me that while Pride may have the most convenient ability, he’s also quite uninventive, and instead had to actually eat Gluttony in order to gain the upper hand. It’s probably because he’s not used to these “cleanup” duties, which seem to have been part of Lust and Envy’s role, when they were still alive/free.
I thought that Wrath would be back for revenge quite quickly, but surprisingly he’s hiding somewhere. This series has been quite skillful in having characters carry out their own agenda when they’re not on the screen, so who knows what he’s been up to.
Rating: * (Good)
FTR, this is NOT the fault of the anime creators. For some reason, the Pride-Gluttony vs Good Guys battle lasts 2+ chapters (and chapters are monthly)
So this is a slowdown in the manga too. It’s the only point of this tho here.
Wow, only “good”? I actually thought this episode was pretty epic. :O Maybe especially Gluttony vs. Lan-Fan… I dunno. I guess all episodes can’t be AWESOME, huh? xD
My feeling was they were rushing through the previously animated part so that they could take their time with new material.
Well, in the Ed-Pride fight, I’d say that Pride had the disadvantage of not being allowed to kill Ed (remember, Father wants them for some sinister purpose).
I’ a bit sad that Gluttony’s death didn’t translate better into animated form. That moment at the end where he’s crying out for Lust always seemed really sad to me, but it didn’t really seem to carry the same emotional weight in animated form.
the only reason ed can take Pride on like that is becasue he took a lesson from greed and hardened his auto mail arm like greed so it cant be sliced of by pride
Clinton: my issue isn’t really with the harness of the metal, but rather that Pride kept striking at it, rather than going after Ed’s much more vulnerable’s flesh. For a shadow like him, it should be easy to avoid that arm of Ed if he would have attacked from multiple sides.
Manga-readers: How far have we come so far, and (in average) how many manga chapter are used per episode?
psgels:
If Pride struck Ed’s flesh, how will he know that the wound will not be fatal to Ed?
Therefore I think Pride intentionally struck at Ed’s automail hoping to disable it and make Ed unable to continue fighting.
psgels:
How can Pride know that the flesh wounds made on Ed will not be fatal?
Therefore I think Pride intentionally struck at Ed’s automail to disable it. If the automail is disabled then Ed will be unable to fight. Since his purpose was to subdue/capture Ed, this makes more sense than to wound him.
to be fair, post ep 19 (the mustang vs lust fight) the pace of fma has been mostly consistant (bar flashbacks) so most episodes cover 1.5-2 chapters. thats still happening now and obviously the pace will feel slowed down because all the events are happening over the course of a few days.
Its also important to note the the size of manga chapters vary throughout the series, generally getting bigger as the series progresses; eg through the briggs arc there as on average 33 pages per chapter while the current material has about 45 pages. the most recent chapters have been verging on 70 pages, proof if needed that the anime doesn’t need to slow down to overtake the manga.
As for pride, i suppose you could argue reasons why he didn’t go all out against ed but he could have done better. I suppose thats the problem with such overpowerful characters in manga, either theres going to be a trick to nullify their power or they just won’t end up fighting to their full strength.
ps don’t expect every character to be in each episode. from this point on the manga started focusing on extended segments with various goups. usually you would see 1-2 different groups per chapter. A few times the reader was waiting 6 months+ before the focus went back to a particular group/character.
i have to agree with Sis on the “only Good?” rating? that was a pretty sweet episode. it also cleared up my confusion with the manga about how merely cutting Gluttony in half “ate him”.
as for Ed being able to withstand Pride alone, yeah that was kind of a stretch but being unable to go out all has to play a role, plus since Ed gone the northern armor he’s being overwhelming his opponents with sheer speed alone so it’ll stand to reason his defense has improved as well… still, a little of a stretch…
i’m actually glad they’ve slowed down. the rest of this series is basically going to be fighting EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. that is completely fine with me.
@darkerthanblackswordsman:
This most recent episode covered chapter 87 of the manga (incidentally also the chapter that announced that Brotherhood was in production)and so far there are a total of 105 chapters (looking to be around 108 in the end) and each Brotherhood episode covers anywhere from 2, 1.5, or 1 chapter of the manga but lately has been slowing down and covering just one chapter per episode.
Awesome!Can’t wait to marathon come summer vacation…
Mustang vs Lust is still my favourite battle, nothing else has been able to compare. I think it’ll probably end that way.
does anyone know how long it takes to do an fma ep.
is pride has an oroboros’s tatto?
Pride’s power comes from the shadows radiating out from his ‘main body’ his ‘container’. That’s why he wasn’t attacking Ed from behind as so many have questioned. Bright light disintigrates them, so closer to the light source (the fire in this case) they would become separated… or ‘dispersed’ maybe. Still, you do think he could have ‘looped’ his tentacles around or something…
I don’t think we’ve ever been told where Pride’s tattoo is
keep in mind its PRIDE ed is fighting. It makes sense he’d be too prideful to go all out on a weakling like ED.
I guess Wrath is busy trying to get out of a wrecked train fallen from a bridge after an explosion.. if he somehow managed to survive it.
So, I guess it will take him some time come back, if he’s alive. He’s not somewhere preparing for anything, he follows “Father’s” agenda, and that’s for him to come back to Central.
I thought the pacing was excellent.
I think this whole “Why didn’t Pride hit Ed anywhere but the Automail” question is really dumb.
Did anyone not notice that Ed is BLOCKING with his arm? When fighting a Knight with a shield, do you aim for the shield? No, but he blocks with it. He was using his arm to block. What a stupid question. Seriously.
Cornwiggle: if Pride was a regular human, then yeah. But here he’s got these countless of arms that can hit from any angle he’d like on multiple places at the same time. No matter how good Ed is, he couldn’t have blocked all of them if Pride really wanted to strike his flesh.
the issue is that pride needs ed alive for his father.
I think it’s all about Being PRIDE ! … maybe we wont understand it as regular humans , but you are a 100% Pride , like you are the Pride it self and nothing else! … it will be a sword for a sword and no cheating …. maybe he’s too pride to cheat!
I wouldn’t disagree. He is the embodiment of being prideful. Also ed and friends are ants to him.