Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Maybe not all that much happened, but I liked this week's episode. It delved into some of the characters' deeper feelings as well as ceasing to artificially extend the drama of the Elric brothers and Winry not knowing what happened. If the episode itself wasn't enough already, that last scene with Winry was a definite tearjerker.

Jury's still out as to what the eastern envoy is up to, last I saw him he was on the roof saying "something's rotten in the state of Denmark" in his own way. Also, Lust is finally living up to her name. I don't like the character type, but I've seen it enough to know it is wasted potential if their femme fatale doesn't get involved with the good guys.

Interesting way to throw Roy Mustang off the scent, but he's pretty clever. He might be able to determine the the deception too fast for his own good. (Which is fine by me, I'm still eagerly awaiting his first real confrontation with the homonculi)

About the episode preview for episode 60...
Actually, I'm a bit concerned. Apparently, the show is gonna end this month... but they're only as far as Chapter 102, circa the end of episode 59, and, well, these chapters get long. How much are they gonna have to cut to get it all to fit...?

(Re: This week's episode "Palm of an Arrogant Child")

Ah, I thought as much, although I imagined the series would have sit on this one a little longer. I was expecting it, but not so soon. 66 is a riot anyway, and I suspect this plot with Mustang that is just dying to unfold is finally starting to come to the surface.

And I expect to see Fullmetal and Scar in battle again soon. Of course, I was hoping he'd be more of an antihero, but it appears he's more likely to represent a different kind of threat.
If it were any other show I'd say that the little girl he's traveling with now ends up being important to him and will later bring about his redemption just in time for him to make a heroic sacrifice to make up for his heinous deeds. Probably not so likely. She's in the opening which means at least at some point in this season she'll be important. More likely she'll end up some yandere addition to Fullmetal's entourage.

Xing seems to be growing more important to the series. There are characters from Xing in the middle of things here and a more familiar character in the middle of Xing. This would be the ideal time to start a war between the two factions while there are characters the viewers care about on both ends, but chances are it has more to do with the alkahestry and its relationship with achemy.

Let's leave it at this: you're going to love the next episode, where shit gets real. The name of the episode says it all. Not sure if it qualifies as a spoiler, though.

Also, remember what you've learned about Xerxes here. It's meaningless banter right now, but these aren't ruins for ruins' sake.

Moving on to the subs:
And although I haven't seen this episode yet (not 'til Thursday): This is going to be a fun ending.

Yes, this is definitely the episode I've been wanting to see for weeks now. Not only did I get to see Roy in action, but Al got a little bit of time to share the spotlight too.

Narm Incarnate.

Less narm in the context of the episode, and I think that the series is doing far better in that regard than season 1. Then again, I doubt anything can be as narm as the girl in Liore. I'm just glad that doesn't fit into the homonculi's plan anymore, that episode was just hard to watch.

Really, I think they should've done what the first anime (and more importantly, the manga) did and start at Liore. The whole point of that plotline was to introduce you to the heroes and the important concepts of alchemy. Doing it after you're already introduced the heroes and the important concepts of alchemy kind of defeats the point.

Still, Liore comes back up in episodes numbering somewhere in the '40s. No more Cornello, if it's worth anything. Rose is still there, but she's not really a major character or anything (unlike the first anime, where, well, hell yeah she was). After all, the homunculi have done what they needed to do there already (what, specifically, I'll leave ambiguous for now).

I'm not sure how much I like Van Hohenheim's voice. I'm too used to imagining something like the first anime's (Scott McNeil, aka Piccolo or Koga), but this guy (John Swasey) is literally channeling Gendo Ikari (actually being the actor for Gendo Ikari helps). It works fine for episode 20 here, where he's emotionally void and stern, but the guy really becomes laidback later on - I'm just not sure how well this guy could pull that sort of thing off. I suppose episode 27 will be interesting to watch for once, then... considering it kind of focuses on the guy. (And it's a recap episode; meaningless filler when they're released every week, but [adult swim] only purchased 26 of the episodes for now, so when they start airing the next batch - likely after a large hiatus, similar to how they did it for the first anime - a refresher makes perfect sense. I wonder if that's the reason the animators made it in the first place? Thinking ahead...)

Its great to finally see everybody on the same side. Normally, I don't like the gag scenes, but I couldn't help but laugh at the scene where Fullmetal was actually jeering at Roy (who he seemed to intimidated by in season 1). And to see him actually supporting one of his crazy schemes was excellent.

Naw, Mustang doesn't know that Fuhrer King Bradley is Wrath.

By the way, the ending was nice, but I think the drama over...
... was overblown.

Shadow Hog said:

Naw, Mustang doesn't know that Fuhrer King Bradley is Wrath.

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Well of course he doesn't think he's some sort of homonculus, but he doesn't appear to trust King Bradley either. Of course...

Fullmetal Alchemist

Like, who watches it? I recently went to the bookstore at my mall, where they had the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. I read a little bit of volume 1, and it was pretty interesting, so I watched some of the anime (FMA, not Brotherhood). What I've watched is pretty good so far, and I'd like to know what you guys think.

If you're going to watch the anime, I'd suggest brotherhood instead as it actually follows the manga storyline. The original, while as good as it may be, doesn't neccesarily follow all the way through, and about halfway, I believe, changes plot. Nonetheless it's still an awesome anime.

Episode 27's dub is taking an awful long time. :\

Thanks for moving this.
I've actually watched a bit of both, after I tried to stay up till 4 AM to watch an episode of Brotherhood on Adult Swim. It was... uh... "Miracle at Rush Valley" I believe. I haven't seen much before, but I think I'll like Brotherhood better because I'm going to start buying all the volumes of the manga. (I'm not a pirate!)
BTW, the opening theme is awesome.
Edit: I almost had a seizure- http://www.amazon.com/Full-Metal-Alchemist-Alphonse-8-inch/dp/B000GXE4VM/ref=pd_sbs_t_3

Ha, Al plush.

I have nothing bad to say about this anime(Brotherhoood, not the original FMA)because I simply love it. I'm just hoping Adult Swim won't drop it. Not really in to reading manga, so I don't have an opinion on that, nor do I have one on the original FMA.

I think the cliffhanger makes it worth the wait, but I don't think its coming back until the winter, if other television series are any indication. I really liked where they stopped. The only problem with a show that does this kind of hiatus is that I'll forget to tune back in by the time it comes back and miss a few episodes.

If I weren't so busy with classes, I'd be tempted to watch the subs and then just watch everything over again when its dubbed.

ThunderNova said:

Ha, Al plush.

I have nothing bad to say about this anime(Brotherhoood, not the original FMA)because I simply love it. I'm just hoping Adult Swim won't drop it. Not really in to reading manga, so I don't have an opinion on that, nor do I have one on the original FMA.

Click to expand...

Haha, I love reading manga. If Adult Swim dropped it (which I'm sure they won't), you'd be outta luck finding it on TV, unlike us manga readers who can just go get it at a bookstore. :P