A very powerful episode. I’m glad to see that the creators aren’t rushing things, and if they are then I sure as heck am not noticing anything yet. This episode was mostly about Ed, Al and Winry arriving back in Central City and finding out that Hughes died. It was well built up and made for a number of very gripping scenes, not just when the two of them found out about the death, but also when they apologized to Hughes wife for getting her involved, and the aftermath in which all three of them had their own ways of distracting themselves.
As for the Xing people, they didn’t really play a big role in this episode. May Chang didn’t appear at all, and Ling basically spent the episode missing and dehydrated, apparently. The rest of this episode pushed the Homunculus plot further. You can see Envy still spying around in different disguises and when he finds out which people are investigating the cause of Hughes’ death he sends a Lust in disguise to go after them, and she introduces herself as Jean Havoc’s new date. This could go horribly wrong for either of the parties: either Lust succeeds and continues the Homunculus’ killing spree, or she gets discovered and Ed and Al finally get themselves a valuable link to who the Homunculi are.
On top of that, I wonder why Lieutenant Ross had to be arrested, of all people. I didn’t quite pick up whether the Homunculi were behind that, or whether there’s another reason for her arrest, but it’s definitely an interesting plot twist. Especially after she basically went against Mustang who wanted to keep Hughes’ death a bit more secret.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I won’t spoil, but they majorly changed the passage of events for this and the next few episodes. I think it has to do with how they’ve been changing Ed’s and Mustang’s personalities, but the outcome is a LOT less powerful than the manga.
I won’t bitch on them for anything else, but I feel the need to remark that Mustang in Broterhood is a lot less jaded and much friendlier than in the manga. The manga portrays him as a polite and kind of idealistic guy pre-Ishbal the way Brotherhood seems to have been depicting him the whole time, and puts an emphasis on how the war affected him, and more subtlely on how anger, vengeance and ‘atonement’ play a role against his nicer motives. I’ve actually dropped the new series because they’ve been cutting out most of the moments focused on character development and the themes. I know they’ve been rushing to get to the new material and make an impact, and that especially small moments are the fairest game to cut out and speed things up, but something like 3/4ths of what I wanted to squee over and a nice chunk of the characters’ substance has just been left out entirely.
Mustang didn’t want to keep Hughes death secret at all. The issue is he just couldn’t bring himself to tell Ed and Al because he knew how much it would upset them.
On another note in the manga Ed and Al actually find out that Hughes died from a newspaper article not Maria at all. Which I personally like better because it added to how impersonal the whole thing was. Everyone was afraid to tell them so they find out in a way that no one would have wanted (but them finding out from Maria worked out better than I thought because it was still by accident).
As for why Maria was arrested, well it was basically to stop Mustang fron snooping into the Hughes incident (I am not sure if this episode made it clear but I figure that’s not really a spoiler)
Oh and the Xing characters will play a large part in the whole scheme of things so don’t worry. 🙂
Oh and the pace still isn’t perfect but it’s gotten a bit better for sure.
I pretty much agree with everything senerikfred said. Those small moments, that they tend to cut out, are actually what I love the most about FMA manga and not seeing them animated saddens me greatly. I wouldn’t really mind if FMA was treated as your another standard shounen anime and given 200+ episodes with every last little scene and every dialogue faithfully animated, ’cause I find the manga to be just that great – it’s among my five favourite manga titles ever (next to Blade of the Immortal, Eden ~ It’s an Endless World, Battle Angel Alita and GTO)… but it’s simply impossible. When I started watching Brotherhood, it was already pretty clear to me that the creators had planned the series to close in 50+ episodes, and now, seeing that in 16th episode they already reached volume 9 (and with the manga itself slowly reaching its conclusion), I’m 100% sure that actually will be the case. So, the cuts are inevitable, whether we like it or not.
About changing the chronology of events, I don’t really mind it that much, as long as all the main events from the manga are there. And, judging from the opening, which probably couldn’t be more spiolery, they surely will.
All in all, I find the new FMA a hundred times better and more enjoyable than the first anime (which was a total failure and disaster), so it’s already a good thing, right? And the most important for me right now is the fact that all those people, who were praising the first anime and bitching about Brotherhood not being a continuation (heaven forbid), will have the occasion to actually see the original manga storyline and copare themselves, which one is better.
Also, psgels, I’m really glad you’re enjoying the anime so far 🙂
Bleh, sorry for another long-ass comment which probably didn’t make much sense. I’ll try to restrain myself in the future 😛
Guys I completely understand being upset at the cuts and changes (trust me as a manga fan I upset about them too). However Psgels doesn’t read the manga and telling him about them is sort of counterproductive. Brotherhood still tells the manga storyline. It might not be as good as us manga fans would like but that doesn’t mean it is bad by any means. And I would much rather people experience the manga storyline in Brotherhood than not at all.
@Kim
That was supposed to be the point of my comment – that even though I’m dissapointed by some of the cuts, I still enjoy the new anime and I’m glad people will be able to get to know the original manga storyline. Seems it didn’t get through 😉
@Kagura yeah I read your post again more carefully and realized you were saying basically the same thing that I was. So anyways as you can see from my post I completely agree with you. 🙂
Not a bad episode this week. I don’t think it turned out as well as it did in the manga, but I don’t think they did a terrible job with it. Other than that, it was a pretty quiet week that helps set up several really good episodes to follow.
If they pull it off right, next week should be a pretty good one.
@Kim
Yeah, it’s all good now 🙂
Regarding Ross’ arrest, it was the Homunculi’s idea, so that Mustang would stop snooping around.
I believe that Ross was chosen because that was the first disguise Envy took on when he was about to kill him and there is a possibility that someone spotted Ross/Envy in that area,
Looking at the comments, I guess it’s a good thing that my memories of this part of the manga was a little sketchy, so i thought this episode was pretty decent. better than i expected it would be.
Ross was picked because Envy used her to kill Hughes and Envy used her because he spotted her at the lab with Ed and Al.
I feel differently about Mustang and his reasoning for keeping Hughes death a secret. He basically says he doesn’t want the brothers to be distracted from their investigation. Is he just using the two so that he can get closer to the Philosophers Stone or maybe so that he can get closer to Hughes murderers for revenge (seems to be his main motivator)? As Hawkeye says, its not kind to keep that secret, its cruel.
As Hawkeye says, its not kind to keep that secret, its cruel.
Hawkeye actually doesn’t say that in the manga, I don’t know what BONES tried to pull there. Roy isn’t interested in the Philosopher’s Stone (nor it’s said at any point) so I don’t know how he could have second intentions.
He just couldn’t bring himself to tell the brothers – that’s why he first says Armstrong is “too kind” and then rectifies saying he can’t say that now because he just did the same thing. Hawkeye, despite questioning the decision to treat them as kids in this situation, ultimately understands that is Roy’s kindness what prevents him from telling them, and nothing else.
Apparently BONES decided a strong-willed person is someone who bitches at/questions somebody about his decisions concerning his dead best friend. Nice one.
about the Ross, just remember how envy said “best way to make a dogo shut up, is to give him food”. what does mustang not “shut up” about, what does he need closure with?
i think it’s about that
I’d actually prefer it if they didn’t always show whether it’s Envy or genuine characters, so they’d keep you wondering. I liked the feeling of seeing people going about their everyday activities knowing Envy could be one of them. But who knows – maybe they’ve already done it, having Envy disguise a second time in this episode and fooling me. In any case, I think it’d be a missed opportunity if they just keep us informed all the time.
Good episode, this anime keeps the awesome coming.
For anyone who is looking, you can direct download the complete Series of Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Brotherhood for free at http://www.crankitanime.com/anime-direct-downloads-h/5528-fullmetal-alchemist-2-brotherhood-ongoing-series-english-subtitles.html
I personally felt that Brotherhood was simply unbearable compared to the original anime. It’s hurried and ends up making jokes of what should be serious scenes.
Here’s a post of mine with a more exaggerated, heartfelt criticism of the new series
http://anubhavb.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/full-metal-frat-fest-a-requim-for-an-anime/
A lot of people feel like you Alva, probably the people that liked more the 1st series dislike more this 2nd one and vice versa, people that didn’t like the 1st series a lot like this 2nd one.
For me, I treat them like if they were two different series with nothing in common.
Its a bad adaptation of the manga.
Tries to stay loyal..but not that successful imo
Mangas a lot better.
first anime was shit plot-wise and character-wise, this one is just a mediocre attempt at adapting the far superior manga, which is btw the original work (people forget this sometimes).
I think that “bad adaptation” is going a little far. It’s imperfect, but they’re mostly doing an ok job adapting it.
There’s been some rough spots, but there’ve been a lot of high points as well.
I’ve actually don’t read the manga, so I’m not too concerned with how well it follows it =\ unfortunately. I did, however, see the first FMA. Doesn’t bother me that its different. I watch it BECAUSE its different. But, they skipped so many things that I considered key. Like when Ed achieved State Alchemist. The competition and how he made jaws drop. There’s far less emphasis of his power as an alchemist.
Also, the relationship with Hughes and his death were rushed to the point where his death ultimately made no difference. Had no chance to value Hughes’ character.
I’m no artist n’ stuff so I can’t give the terminologies for the artistic differences or anything, but I like the artwork in the original anime the best as well. And the music lol. Yeah HEHE ^_^;;… Guess that’s it!