Category: Finished Series: Action

Whoa, that was intense. It’s one thing to show gore and decapitate random goons in the most gruesome manners, but when it’s done 1) to a well loved character 2) very detailed and 3) doesn’t make the gore too extreme and actually tries to make it believable… it makes so much more impact. Just as this episode showed. That scene in which Ed was entirely impaled by a small steel beam was hard to watch at times, that’s how well it was portrayed.

In any case, about the rest of this episode, I’m getting more and more excited about this series. The past number of episodes have really been a roller-coaster ride. In this episode, Kimblee also stops being nice, and reveals that he’s seen through Ed’s plans (probably in the really bad way in which eh tried to cover up for Al).

The two remaining chimera also gave a bit more insight into why the first two deserted: while they’re obeying Kimblee and all, they do seem to hate the guy. Quite reasonable, I can imagine how many people must be unhappy with their bosses. Since their lives have basically been ruined, I can imagine how they’re easy to desert if they run into someone whose ideals they support (like what happened with Ed in this episode). One thing that I’m noticing in a lot of anime is that the random goons have no personality whatsoever. It’s great to see that this series is trying to change that with characters like them: some of the guards indeed just carry out their jobs and are loyal, but there are others who have a different personality and set of ideals.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

I really want to thank all of the manga readers who drop by here to leave a comment for staying away from the spoilers. Even though I don’t reply often, I do read all of the comments that get posted, and they’re often insightful, yet don’t give away what’s going to happen next. That’s something I realized especially after this episode, where we suddenly get treated to Hohenheim and Father’s backstory!

This was an awesome episode, that filled in a lot of the blanks in the back-story. As it turns out, everything started with a king, tempted with the prospects of eternal life. It all started with one successful attempt to create a homunculus, if I understood correctly. In order to create it, the blood of a slave was used, who would later become Hohenheim. The problem was that that was a really weak homunculus, who could only exist within a glass flask. That homunculus tricked the king of the country (who was really gullible, apparently), to create a huge transmutation circle, which sacrificed the entire population of the country to create two philosopher’s stones: Hohenheim and Father.

Now we also know why it was so easy for Father to take control of an entire country: everyone was killed off in the first place so he could very easily take control. Now, one thing that this episode seemed to hint at was that there are philosophers’ stones of different levels, depending on how much people are sacrificed. In fact, note that huge picture that we also saw earlier on the ruins? This episode only showed the inner points in that picture to be lit. currently, father is trying to lay out a transmutation circle that covers the outer reaches of the circle.

Also, what about the door? This episode also showed that “the truth” was already there before father arrived: it was probably this truth that showed our little homunculus how he should create such a philosopher’s stone. My guess is that for Homunculi, it somehow is very easy to get to this door. So here’s my guess as to Father’s plans: the philosopher’s stones that he’s made of is very powerful, but not exactly the “perfect” thing, the thing that will give him true freedom. My guess is that he has to make use of people who have seen “the truth”, and create an even bigger transmutation circle to achieve full immortality. This episode established him again as a patient person who’s willing to go through great lengths in order to accomplish his goals. It’s perhaps a bit cliched for a villain, but at this point I really think that he’s trying to become superior to whatever is on the opposite side of that door, “the truth” that showed him about alchemy, and who keeps taking away body parts from people who attempt human transmutation.

There are still a lot of questions lingering, though. What kind of homunculus was Father before this transmutation? Was he an early form of Pride, or were there actually more homunculi? I also now see that homunculi need a philosopher’s stone to function properly. And only one stone per homunculus seems to be the limit, otherwise he’d just keep feeding them these stones in order to make them more powerful and efficient.

Also, what has Hohenheim been doing for the past centuries, really? It took him something like five centuries to figure out something that Ed and Al figured out in a couple of years. A lot of his life is still a puzzle at this point.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

There are no screenshots because it’s a pain to take them from a streaming site and I’m feeling lazy

Well, because you kept bugging me about it: Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood seems to have a set of OVAs episodes, of about 13 minutes in length, which deal with some background issues here and there. The second one talks about Winry’s earrings. At the latest episode I was already wondering what was up with them. I never knew that she had that many of them.

And as it turns out, they were gifts from Ed and Al in order to make up for how Ed kept breaking his metal arm. It makes sense for Ed to hold on to them, and actually have it as a meaningful symbol for the danger that she has put herself in.

During the first twenty episodes of this series, I really disliked Winry, as some of you may remember. Now I see that this wasn’t just her character there that got on my nerves, but also the way that the first Full Metal Alchemist used her series. For some characters, it actually created a very interesting story opposed to the manga, but the other characters received such pathetic roles that it completely prevented them from getting any depth, and Winry was one of those. I never really understood why she kept tagging along, and the situations and adventures that the creators put her in were uninspired and lazy.

I think that the biggest mistake that the first season made was that it tried way too hard to give every character something to do. It’s one of the strengths of the Brotherhood series, but the first series did that up to the point that these reappearances made no sense whatsoever, or like with Kimblee, Winry and that Library girl, just felt so out of place and pointless. The overall story was good, and isntead of the politics that Brotherhood has it instead was much more about morals and values.

But yeah, I like the Winry of Brotherhood much more than her first season version. She feels much less ditzy here, and especially in this episode you could see that she really cares about Ed and Al. She really ditched her old earrings, and instead kept all six of them on at all times. At least until the latest episode.
Rating: * (Good)

Great to see this series back again, especially after that cliff-hanger after the previous episode. Like most people expected, it was set in stage. I really like how Ed and Al are gradually gathering more and more allies in their fight against father. With things like these, there are plenty of people who would oppose his ideals, and the challenge is to unite them without causing suspicion, and that’s what this episode did really well.

A for Kimbley, he got a much better role than in the first series. In the first, he never really served a purpose. And even though most of his actions have failed in Brotherhood, he still has this air of danger around him, rather than devolving into that deranged homicidal maniac. At this point he still has the potential to screw all of Ed’s plans up.

And also, in this episode something happens that gives a complete new twist to Al’s story: for some reason, without ever initiating it, he walks through a very cold environment and suddenly sees his real body at the end of the gate. This is about the first time that the gate appears to someone who hasn’t called it, and it was more like an illusion anyway. What was behind it?

Speaking of which… that gate may have a completely different meaning in this series. At the end of this episode, we see Father list Ed and Al among Hohenheim and probably even Izumi. Could he have some sort of plan that involves people who have seen the gates? Does this also involve his plans of blowing up the country? And more importantly: who is going to be that fifth person to see the gates? Apparently, homunculi don’t count, even those who were human once.

Also, the new OP and ED are pretty good. Probably the best of Brotherhood so far, however there are nasty spoilers in them about Pride. If someone who’s behind were to watch them, he’d be totally spoiled about their identity. My question therefore is to the people who post them on sites as YouTube, etc, to include some sort of spoiler-warning.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Well, so next week there’s unfortunately going to be a hiatus, but as if to make up for it the creators tried extra hard this episode. The direction was really among the best we’ve seen from this show in a long while, which made for a really entertaining episode.

I like how the creators decided to tell Yoki’s story through a quick flashback. It allowed them to rush through a story that wasn’t really that good or important, and yet it finally explained where this guy came from. Very clever. This also brings up hope that the creators are saving the Ishbal background for later. In any case, that flashback scene was utterly hilarious. In fact, nearly all the facial expressions of Ed were brilliant, and Al also had his moments of greatness.

And I admit. Twenty episodes ago I rather disliked Winry and her uselessness, but at least it built up her character for this episode very nicely, and this episode used it very nicely in her development. And sure, at the end she just got kidnapped again, but something tells me that she’s not going to be a damsel in distress in the next episode. I mean, Scar kills a lot, but Winry’s parents were the only ones he killed without a reason. Let’s see him make up for that in that next episode.

Then, the Chimera. It shows that Father has been working on them for quite a while. which begs the question: what about Shou Tucker? Why was he special for making a chimera that understood words? Why did he become a state alchemist for it even though Father could achieve much more? Or was this simply used as a cover? Something like “making chimeras is very hard, so don’t bother with it”.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Whoa! Shadow! Spoilers ahead! Do not read if you didn’t watch this episode yet!

I was already told that Pride’s identity would be the biggest spoiler of the series, that we’ve already seen his human form. Because of that, I occasionally imagined who the hell he could be, but who it eventually turned out to be… I never considered that option. I really thought that it was going to be some sort of obscure adult.

There still are a lot of questions remained about why the son of Bradley of all people turned out to be Pride. Out of all the disguises, that has to be one of hardest to keep up. The people around him (maids, et cetera) should all be aware that something is wrong with a kid after a few years. I especially wonder how long Pride has been playing for Bradley’s son anyway: if he doesn’t age, then there are bound to be people who find it strange what’s happening to this kid, and why he refuses to grow up.

One theory is that he can take up multiple forms, and only recently decided to play for Wrath’s son, because Father’s plan is about to come to fruition. In this episode we’re shown that Kimbley wasn’t just set out to catch Scar, but also to instigate the final massacre at Briggs. And finally I’ve gotten my respect for Winry: she finally ends up doing something relevant, and I admire her courage in this episode despite finding out that she’s basically a hostage.

With this, I can see the big lines of the plot that’s currently still left: protect Briggs, go after Father, and in the meantime provide adequate background for all of the important characters. Sounds promising!
Rating: ** (Excellent)