Category: Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood

This episode mostly followed the original series again, with only a few subtle differences here and there. The most notable event of course being Hughes. I remember, when I watched the first series that his death didn’t make that much of an impact, so I didn’t expect much of this episode. But damn… seeing his daughter at his funeral nearly got me a bit teary-eyed.

So again Hughes dies because he learns too much. I’m not exactly sure how Lust knew exactly when and where he would find this out (are uber-stalking powers also among the arsenal of the homunculus skills or something?), but in any case he realizes what the homunculi are planning, and also that something is very fishy with the Fuhrer, and thus gets killed off before he can spread the word.

One of the differences with the first series is that the creators here don’t try to hide the fact that the Fuhrer is a bad guy at all. In the first series, he looked more like a nice grandpa than anything else. That’s nice and all, but on retrospect I do have to wonder how that guy became a Fuhrer in the first place, and ended up ordering the Ishbal massacre.

Ed and Al meanwhile are busy with completely different things as they travel to their teacher in the search for answers to the Philosophers’ Stone. Unfortunately Winry ends up inviting herself again. I was hoping that she would have gotten to stay home this time, but let’s hope that she’s at least going to be more useful than she was in the first series. I never really understood her popularity. All she did was fix Ed’s limbs at the beginning of the series, and then just continued on in pointless adventures that didn’t really matter in the end.

Rating: * (Good)
Mostly the same as the first series, nevertheless it had one particularly touching scene.

Yeah, this episode proves it: the creators really were trying to rush through the first bunch of chapters for the sake of those who already watched the first series. This episode was much slower paced than the previous eight episodes, and it allowed for a lot of time to flesh out the characters. For once we have an episode without action that instead focuses on characters, and although quite a few parts of this episode did return in the anime at one point, it was an enjoyable episode.

The comedy was a bit overkill, though. It was definitely funny, but some of the jokes missed the mark; especially the ones in which Ed started yelling. Energetic jokes don’t suit this series: its humour is at its best when it’s subtle, not when the characters are jumping around and yelling like a bunch of overexcitable teenagers.

One big issue that was solved pretty fast was Al’s doubts about Ed’s intentions. If I recall correctly, in the original series it took him tens of episodes of emo-ing before he spoke up his mind, though here they managed to set their differences within an episode. It’s two different approaches which both make sense in their context. My only complaint about the way it was handled in the original series was that Al’s development wasn’t really moving in the time he was wondering whether he was brainwashed by Ed.

There was also a nice Easter-egg when Izumi and Sig Curtis walked past in the train station. That’s the second time that we see familiar faces at a train station, so perhaps it’s going to be used in the future again.

Another big difference with the first season is that the Humonculi don’t seem to want anyone to find out about the philosopher’s stone. They seemed to be using Lior in order to track down the idiots who were searching for it, kept track on them and whenever they’d get too close they seem to be destroying the evidence that was left. Their motive in the original series was to become human, but I don’t think that that’s their intention here.

Rating: (Enjoyable)
While the comedy didn’t always work, the new parts of this episode were pretty good.

Aha! And now we’ve really gotten to the good part! At the second half of this episode, the storyline finally completely diverges from that of the original series, and this is really the point I’ve been waiting for. And I must say, that something really strange has to happen in order to cause me to like the original series better. Even though at the same point, the original series had the advantage that it had already better fleshed out characters due to the bigger episode count, I still consider this episode to be better in every single way than its counterpart in the original series.

This episode really shows that this series was made for those who watched the original series. The point at which the story-lines diverge came at a point at which the fighting in the original series completely stopped, and instead Lust appears from out of nowhere and kills the armor that Ed had been fighting. And I must say that Envy also made a pretty large impression on me. In the original series, I never really knew what to think of him: he was there, he probably was the strongest of the Humonculi… and yet he never was involved in anything that important. For me, it just felt like he was a character for which the creators had no inspiration what to do with, yet had to include somewhere due to manga obligations.

This episode also saw the introduction of the Bomb Alchemist Kimblee, who in the original series felt rather annoying to me so I hope that this time he’s going to be better. In fact, the more I write about this series, the more I wonder why the heck I rated it so highly in the first place. The more I watch this series, the more flaws that seem to stand out (but then again, it did have a few parts it was great at).

But in any case, the thing I loved in this episode was the way it wasn’t afraid to quickly switch between tension and comedy to break up the mood. Especially Barry was hilarious, but even during the big climax, we quickly saw Ed’s arm failing and Envy joking around. These tactics are obviously very bad if a series doesn’t have a sense of humour, but in this case it really works well. There were many points later in this episode in which I had no idea whether to laugh or sympathize.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
We’ve finally arrived at the point where the series diverges from the original, and it’s starting off really well.

Well, the pacing is subtly getting slower, which is a good sign. The storytelling has as much energy as usual, but this episode spent quite a bit of scenes to the lighter comedy scenes when compared to the previous episodes so far. That’s definitely a good sign as we approach the point where first series went into its own direction.

In any case, this episode shows the library-arc and introduces Sheska. I liked her when she was first introduced, though her role in the second half of the series was just terribly redundant. Nevertheless, in this episode she was fun to watch, even though she only appeared for like, three minutes or something.

I also was surprised that Barry the Chopper does exist in the manga, meaning that the creators wrote an entire filler-episode just to introduce the guy. It was a nice idea, but the problem was that his story was just too filled with coincidences: he just “happens” to kidnap Winry who just “happens” to visit Central City, then he gets sent to prison and just “happens” to get turned into an armour rather than being turned into food for the Philosopher’s stone and after that he just “happens” to meet Ed again. Really, the creators of the first series had good intentions, but they simply weren’t the best storytellers out there.

And yeah, there was a lot of comedy and deformed characters in this episode. The contrast with the otherwise dark nature of this series works surprisingly well and it’s made this series much lighter than the original one. The downside of the new season is of course that the characters aren’t as fleshed out as they were in the original series at this point, with more than eleven episodes cut and all, but technically it’s been doing a very fine job: there haven’t been any headdesk-worthy moments, Ed and Al aren’t getting on my nerves and overall, the animation now is much more solid and detailed and overall I like it a lot more.

Rating: * (Good)
Lots of light moments, and we’re finally getting near the part we’ve all been waiting for.

Again an episode in which two chapters cropped in order to get to the new material as soon as possible. It was to be expected, but for once I have to say that the original series handled it better. Especially the return to Resembool-arc needs a full episode in order to have its full impact. Half an episode is just too little to make the most out of Armstrong gradually understanding the situation that Ed and Al are in.

In the first half of the episode, Marco suddenly turns up. It’s an interesting decision of the creators to introduce him like this: he simply was at the wrong time at the wrong place and Armstrong happened to see him. While chances of this happening are of course very slim, it could happen, since the guy seems to be travelling by train often. It’s obviously flawed, but somehow, I’m buying it. The short length and early death of Basque Gran also had also an extra advantage, since we didn’t have to watch endless scenes of Marco getting emo when Basque Gran discovers him.

But the interesting news is that we should be getting to the really new material in three or four episodes with a bit of luck, if my memory doesn’t fail me. The next episode is probably going to be about the research in the library, then the next episode is probably going to deal with Laboratory five, and after that it’s going to get interesting, since that bugger of a Shou Tucker is dead so someone else needs to guide Ed into trying to make that Philosopher’s stone (or whatever it was that they did in the manga).

Bones has been a strange production company in terms of adaptations. Ignoring that their endings usually fall short, they often try to add things to their adaptations to make them better. The original season did the same, and it really did some scenes well: some of the quiet scenes that were added really added more life to the characters, but yeah: the problem was that huge string of filler episodes that just wasn’t interesting at all. Arcs like the Phantom Thief, the Fake Brothers or that one in which the broken Al gets lost and they spend an entire episode chasing him just to return the status quo: what really was the point of that? They really were a pain to get through.

But looking back, it’s amazing how much the creators managed to cut: at this point, we’re eleven episodes ahead of the original series already, and the result is already looking pretty competent. The question is of course going to be: will the creators slow down once they reach the new stuff?

Rating: (Enjoyable)
A light and laid-back episode and still it’s rushed, but it’s pretty solid so far and Marco’s story was much better than in the original.

Finally! This is the point I’ve been waiting for, and finally it’s time for me to praise this show a bit. It’s good to see that this time, the annoying part only took up four episodes, rather than FOURTEEN, and not only that but this episode was also significantly better than its original counterpart.

Even though episode 3 didn’t introduce Envy, this episode was sufficient enough for an introduction of the guy. Scar’s appearance also made much more sense this time: he didn’t try to attack an entire army of state alchemists this time, but instead just went after Ed, and made the mistake of thinking that Ed would be easily taken out just like his other victims. The only reason why his face was shown this time was because he didn’t take into account that Ed and Al had metal body-parts, which allowed them to buy enough time for the military to show up (who were also in the neighbourhood).

And in this way, Scar was a much better way of showing Ed how cruel some people can be, compared to that strange butcher who just “happened” to kidnap Winry of all people. Overall, this episode really reminded me why this show has potential. It again was rushed, but things fell much more in their place, aside from the history of Ishbal perhaps, which was a bit too fast. It was nice to see a map of the world though. It gives a much better view of what goes on where. For example, I never knew that Ishbal and Resembool were that close together. And yet in a way this does make sense, as it makes the holiday of Winry’s parents much more plausible.

But what surprised me the most of this episode were the couple of experimental scenes. Especially for BONES, this is really rare: they’re really a studio that focuses on the solidness of their productions (which is quite ironic if you think about how a lot of series of them end up rushed in the end), and I can’t recall any of their series to be experimental, and especially not in the animation and storytelling department. That’s why I loved the sudden appearance of Scar: Ed was in the middle of something completely different, and you really don’t expect the guy to show up at such a moment. The few animations in the beginning also looked really nice.

And as for the bits of comedy amidst the fighting: I like them. The thing is, that the original series was just too emo at times. And with such a series, it’s hard to avoid. That’s why it’s good to see these moments brightening up the mood at times.

The biggest potential pitfall I see for this series is the typical weakness of a Bones’ series: its inability to properly fit its series into the proper time-frame. Out of all of their series I’ve seen (which are quite a few by now), the only show of them whose story fit exactly into its number of episodes was Angelic Layer. Aside from that one, all of the other Bones shows I’ve watched have either rushed endings or in Eureka7’s case 13 consecutive episodes in which nothing really happens, and I really hope that this show is going to be able to avoid it.

Rating: ** (Excellent)

Short Synopsis: The Shou Tucker arc, compressed into one episode.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
I’m amused at the people who are already disappointed by the new FMA series. I mean, it’s only been three episodes; what did you expect? The new series lacks the novelty of the original, and the series has mostly been simply building up. At the start of the season, did people expect the new Evangelion in only three episodes, or something?

Not that the new series is perfect and all, of course. The producers right now are trying to rush through the first few episodes a bit too badly, and hardly allow for any quiet moments right now, but at least these beginning episodes are a lot more easy to go through than the original series was. There were a few differences here and there, mostly involving Scar: this episode sees him kill off Basque Gran, right after he was introduced, and he kills off both Shou Tucker and his daughter. It’s good, since I never liked that guy anyway.

As for Basque Gran’s death, it was a shame he died so early. I remember his death in the original series as being one of the first memorable scenes, because it was so ironic: here the show was building him up as one of the major bad guys… and then he gets killed off so easily. But I do guess that it makes more sense this way: after all, Scar was a smart guy. Why the heck would he show his face in front of half a dozen officers. It’d be much harder for him to move around that way. Looking back, it was just another cheap trick to get Ed involved with the main storyline.

Strangely enough, this episode also showed that Scar has some sort of inside-knowledge of what’s going on inside the military. Otherwise he would never have known where Basque Gran would be, or where he could find Shou Tucker, right after he created his next chimera. At this point, I can’t remember whether or not the original series answered that question, though.

Normally I don’t mind when the creators of an anime insert their own stuff, insert fillers or go with a different storyline, but in the end it’s all going to depend on their ability to write a good storyline, which for the original FMA unfortunately didn’t go too well at certain times. The first thirteen episodes had their charms, definitely. The small scenes in which we see Scar, right before Ed arrives for the first time in Central City for example were a nice touch, as they showed how Scar was when he just received his arm (either that or my memory is deceiving me again and Brotherhood also had that scene… something must be wrong with either me or the series if I can’t remember a simple fact that happened two episodes ago…).

Anyway… it’s a shame that the fillers of Full Metal Alchemist were all just too formulaic, with dull characters and a predictable role for the two lead characters, with the only exception being the one with the dog and Armstrong’s family; that one was fun, granted. In the second half, the original material improved a lot, and the storyline was really competent, but at the same time it screwed up by trying too hard to make characters from the earlier episodes return, combined with a set of certain other characters that just got on my nerves. But I think that my biggest problem with the original series is that I could never really buy Ed and Al as the two lead characters. That’s why I appreciate Brotherhood’s attempts to make the two of them more likable.

Short Synopsis: The Lior-Episode.
Episode Rating: 6,5/10 (Lacking, but that was to be expected)
So yeah, with this you can consider Natsu no Arashi dropped and FMA picked up. Just don’t think that I’m going to sing continuous praises for this one though; be sure to expect me to whine about this series a lot during the beginning episodes. It took me three attempts before I managed to get through those very dull first thirteen episodes of the original series. Because of that, this episode was the fourth time I had to sit through the Lior-story, so yeah: it did get on my nerves.

Thankfully, Brotherhood handled it better than the original series did: it condensed everything effectively to only one episode and it still managed to show the most important things of this arc. What I’m hoping for with this series is the Glass Mask effect: the original Glass Mask series of 1984 was utterly terrible, but the 2005-remake, which adapted the exact same manga chapters and took nearly the exact same amount of time somehow made the exact same story awesome. While this episode wasn’t exactly good, I do have to admit that the first few episodes are a major improvement on their counterparts in the original series.

My only fear is that the creators may be trying to rush through the first chapters a bit too quickly. Rose and the priest for example, were just as dull as I remembered them, but what I really liked in this episode is how the chemistry between the characters is much more enjoyable: especially Ed and Al are now much more interesting to watch, and I wonder whether the creators can keep this up. One of the major flaws of the original series was that the creators wanted to show off Ed’s l33t-powers a bit too badly. While the radio in this episode was cute, in the subsequent arcs, whenever Ed and Al arrived in a new town, there was always some sort of Timmy that fell in some sort of well that happened to be near Ed so that he could show everyone how awesome his powers are by saving him. I’m interested to see how Brotherhood is going to avoid this.

Also, there’s one part I didn’t get about this episode, so perhaps the manga readers can fill this in for me: how exactly did the priest know exactly that Ed and Al performed human transmutation? I mean, there are other ways in which people can lose limbs, aren’t there? If Ed didn’t happen to live near a very good artificial limb creator (or whatever they’re called), he’d still be limp at this point, and I’m not sure why a body-less armor immediately means a failed human transmutation either. I mean, in the original series, none of the other people who transmuted brought whatever soul they sacrificed back into an armor, did they?

So yeah; I like Full Metal Alchemist, but just not the beginning. I believe that the turning point for me was the arrival of Armstrong, so until that point you can pretty much expect me to be rather negative on this series. Brotherhood really improved the chemistry between the characters, but the plot right now still is preachy and uninteresting.