And so, we’ve finally moved on to the second part and the point at which the two FMA-series have turned completely different. At this point in the original series, the creators were busy to turn Lust and Scar into nice characters. Brotherhood instead makes the setting a whole lot bigger by introducing a Chinese-inspired country that lies next to Amestris, which is apparently what the country that Ed and Al live in is called. It also shocked me how small their country actually is, especially because there are several other huge countries that surround it, including a huge country called Drachma (as in… the Greek currency?).
Anyway, this episode introduces a bunch of new characters from
This episode also had a new OP and ED, though both of them aren’t really my tastes. I’m not really a fan of J-pop and J-rock, and these two songs didn’t make it any different. For me, they didn’t really set themselves apart from all of the other OPs and EDs out there.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Introduction episode for the characters from Xing. Finally this show is 100% different from the original series!
Well I think Ling’s guards being an old guy and a young girl is sort of the point. They aren’t typically what you would think of as guards but that doesn’t mean they should be underestimated.
Finally, the Xingese and Rentanjutsu, and the world beyond Amestris!
These 2 strange choice of bodyguards will actually make sense later as the story progress. 😉
FINALLY! I’ve been holding off to watch FMA:B until it reached this point. Can’t wait to hear the Xing characters’ voices!
When you dig up some wiki, you’ll know that Amestris, in history, is the Greek name for Vashti, Artaxerxes’s wife, queen of Persian Empire, in the time of Esther – known for her cruelty. Yep, Drachma for Greek currency.
The naming had been quite a clue from the very beginning, and it kind of shows how the author had the end in mind from the very beginning (as early as Envy rescuing Ed, well.. to tell you more is like giving out massive spoiler, unless you’ve read till vol. 23 and up)
I still haven’t watched the episode, since my subbers are kind of late this week (hope they release it later today), but I’ve been waiting for this episode ever since Brotherhood started and I’m very, very excited. I can’t wait to hear Xing people’s voices, especially Lin, as he is probably my favourite manga character (I’m a total Lin-fangirl :P).
Even though the story doesn’t seem to be anything special right now, it’ll get to the good part very soon and then it’ll be mind-blowing, trust me (assuming that anime creators don’t screw anything up, that is) 😉
Yeah, the subbers were a bit late, and whoever ended up doing it didn’t do as good a job as the people who did the earlier ones. Still, they’re giving us a free service, so I guess we can’t complain too much.
I’m actually a bit surprised how much I liked this episode. I didn’t really care much for this portion of the manga, but something about it seemed to work better once it was animated.
I’m definitely excited by the part coming up, though. Next week will probably be pretty quiet, but after that they should get right into one of the more exciting sequences in the manga.
Does anyone know how many episodes the first season of this manga will be? I could easily see this part coming up taking four or maybe even five episodes, and the ending of it seems like it would be a solid place to end the season.
***SPOILER***
In particular, if I were planning it, I’d probably end it with the scene with Wrath and Father. Though I would also move the hospital scene so that it came afterwards. Then, I’d open up the next season with Ed reaching the ruins of Xerxes.
***END SPOILER***
Finally, I’ve watched the episode after 3 days of waiting for my favourite subbers’ release, which was extra late this week 😛
So, I absolutely love Lin’s voice(it’s funny how I actually didn’t recognize it was Miyano Mamoru… a total fail on my part :P) and from now on I’ll be probably fangirling over Lin even more than I already have *__*
What I didn’t like about this episode was that they have cut out some dialogues and interactions between Riza, Barry and Roy (especially Barry and Roy’s meeting) that in manga were hilarious, priceless and generally made of win. I was looking forward to seeing them animated, so I was kind of disappointed when I didn’t :/ I’m afraid there’ll be more cuts like those in the future, as far as those funny and light-hearted moments go, but, oh well… Anyway, Lin made it up to me 😛
As for the new OP song – it didn’t impress me at first (even though I rather like the band performing it), but it kinda grew on me later, when I rewatched the opening a few times. As for the ED song, I absolutely loved it from the first hearing 🙂
I loved this ep. 🙂
I always thought Ling was funny in the manga, but I’d never thought he’d be so funny here 😀