Summary:

In the wake of her arrest, Ross is interrogated about her use of ammunition because it matches the bullet type used to kill Hughes. Henry Douglas doesn’t believe her claim that she used her bullet at the Fifth Laboratory or that she was with her parents when Hughes died, and he’s not accepting either the fact that Brosh fired his gun at the lab too. Unaware of this, Ed, Al, and Winry are unsure of what to do with themselves now, and Ed asks for Winry’s opinion. Winry admits to being scared that the two brothers are fighting in dangerous places because she doesn’t want to lose them like she did her parents. She still wants them to get their old bodies back, but at the same time, she wants them to stop their dangerous journeys, so in the end, she admits that she doesn’t know what she wants. A little later, Ed and Al find out about Ross’s conviction through the newspaper, so they head out to try to figure out what’s going on. Falman meanwhile is still babysitting Barry the Chopper and finds out about Ross’s conviction through the newspaper as well, so he calls up Mustang.

Later that night, Barry attacks the prison where Ross is being kept, and he frees both her and Ling after he finds out where Ling is from. When he hears about it, Henry Douglas puts out an order for Ross’s capture with the provision that she can be killed if she resists. By chance, Ed and Al run into the escaping Ross and Barry, but Barry covers for her and has her escape down an alleyway before the brothers can really talk to her. Unfortunately, this leads her straight to Mustang, and he proceeds to use his flame powers on her. Seeing the ensuing explosion, Ed rushes to the scene and finds Mustang with Ross’s charred body. He’s angry that Mustang didn’t tell him anything, and Al has to keep him from hitting a superior officer. Mustang only reveals that a kill order went out on Ross, and he apologizes to the brothers for hiding Hughes’ death from them. When Douglas arrives to question Mustang about it, he claims that he killed her after she resisted, and he denies that his subordinates had anything to do with her jailbreak.

At the morgue later, Armstrong also apologizes to the brothers for not telling them about Hughes’ death. The coroner then comes out to confirm that the dead body did belong to Ross based on her dental records, and he chides Mustang for the excessive damage done to her body. When Armstrong tries to apologize to Mustang for his subordinate, Mustang suggests that Armstrong take a vacation out East where there are a lot of beautiful girls. Barry meanwhile has returned to Falman with Ling, and Ling is able to summon his two bodyguards using smoke signals. Back at Mustang’s office, Hawkeye asks for and is granted some time off. While she’s gone, Mustang spends his time chatting on the phone with someone he calls Elizabeth. Ed meanwhile gets dragged off by Armstrong under the pretense that they’re going back to Resembool to get his arm fixed, leaving Al and Winry behind. When Mustang hears about this, he smiles because it means that there are now no more obstacles. During all this, Lust and Envy have continued to spy on him and have figured out Barry’s involvement, so Lust decides to employ a creature she calls Barry the Chopper.

Preview

The beginning of the episode felt a little slow (that Winry scene in particular), but it was otherwise quite interesting, and watching Barry run amok was fun. I actually want Barry to stick around now, and I wonder if the Barry the Chopper that Lust has is his clone or original body or what. Speaking of fun, Ling still isn’t serving as anything other than brief comedic relief. I’m not sure what his role is supposed to be here, but I doubt that’s it. We haven’t seen much of the other Xing girl either whose name I’ve already forgotten. As for Mustang, with all the hints he gives, it’s pretty clear that he didn’t really kill Ross, but if he faked her death, then where’d he get a spare body with matching dentals, and how’d he get it all switched out so quickly? I also wonder what he’s planning now with Ed out of the way (I was surprised that the brothers didn’t insist on sticking together for once), and I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

56 Comments

  1. I haven’t seen this yet, but it looks pretty good. Except the part with the hotel room in the beginning and in the end, they’re supposed to happen after eachother, so it feels a little wierd.

    idaaa
  2. They wasted an opportunity in all this shuffling of material by not having the scene in the alley as the final scene in an episode. By doing that scene halfway into the episode it ruined some of its impact. Not to mention it felt a little hurried along.

    And can we get a new piece of music for this show? It’s been the same damn five or six tracks since episode 4, and they’re not so good as to be repeated so often.

    Still, while a little run-of-the-mill (I might’ve set my expectations too high), a decent episode. It’s too bad they’ll be ruining the tension built by having Edward in the Xerxes ruins next episode, instead of after the Lust battle.

    penguintruth
  3. @penguintruth

    I…agree O_o

    Frankly this would have worked A LOT BETTER had they put the “burning” scene in the end of episode, with ending of Ed finding Mustang and burned body of Ross.

    The whole episode felt cheap. While I loved most of episodes, this, along with the greed arc felt flat stupid. Its as if the production group is not even trying.

    Well, I guess that’s one of my most awaited moments ruined…

    Unknown Voice
  4. @Omni:
    In the manga Ling was only for comedy relief in the beginning. Unfortunately we need to wait a bit longer for all the awesome stuff.
    Also concerning Ross Show Spoiler ▼

    Finally I’m a bit fed up with all the shuffling. If you’re making a second series, then do it right. No Bones, your shuffling doesn’t make it better. Quite the opposite, if I may say so.

    Zenzen
  5. OMNI you didn’t read the manga? 🙁

    I think you have to know that Brotherhood will never be better than the manga… more scènes were errazed 🙁 .

    Don’t worry: Lin is AWESOME! ^^ But you have to wait!

    Angous
  6. Not to mention, a lot of the shuffling seems abitrary. WHY have Izumi come in AFTER Ed in episode 13? WHY have Ed find out about Hughes’ death BEFORE the events of this episode? WHY have Ed wander around Xerxes before the fight with Lust? I keep waiting for the rearrangements to pan out to some great answer, but all I’m getting so far is… nothing. The only example I can think of that made sense was keeping Scar in the picture better by having him fight Joliot and meet May sooner. Otherwise, it just seems… weird. It’s like they’re changing it just for the sake of changing it.

    penguintruth
  7. I actually was quite happy with this episode (moreso than the last one). I admit I also think the alley scene should have been at the end of the episode for the greatest impact but the way they reshuffled events in the previous episode that just wasn’t possible. I mean most of the events leading up to that alley scene were already covered in the previous episode. So really the last episode was at fault. And I still thought the alley scene itself was done very well.

    As for Ling he is more than he appears that’s all I will say.

    Kim
  8. Damn I so wanna spoil you all……………..
    Here’s a small one Show Spoiler ▼

    Gundamaniac
  9. lol This episode ended exactly as I thought it would.

    Frankly, I stopped looking for flaws in the series. I did that with the first 15 episodes and I ended up not enjoying because I just kept comparing it to the manga. I liked this episode quite well for that reason; I just got the manga thoughts out of my head and go along with the motions.

    damian
  10. I feel as if they are rushing it too much!!!! They want to finish the anime in episode 51, like the first season…i mean, with that pace it seems like that what they want…
    I’m not comparing the manga with it, but I’m a little worried because I don’t want to see FMA:B be all rushed and all random because BONES is lazy to do their work!!!!
    I mean…come ON!!!!
    I used to like BONES a lot, but, now, I’m just disappointed.

    hey
  11. They just change the story a little (or quite a little) to let the manga be different, trying not to leave it senseless against a perfect adaptation.

    They obviously still want to sell manga xD Unlucky.

    Coralte
  12. @Gundam-sama:
    Knowing this now would spoil a lot for you…
    But if you really want to know: Show Spoiler ▼

    Zenzen
  13. even if the order of events in this arc is out of whack from the manga, the scene themselves were done faithfully…which unfortunately, thats not most ppl’s bottom lines are.

    another thing:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    info600
  14. I am thankful for Bones on what they doing now, sure they took some scenes but man the content and the series as a whole is really good. You know how rare it is for what Bones is doing right now compare to all the other anime that never got their complete story adapted. Rurouni Kenshin is up there with Fullmetal as my favorites and I would kill(not really) if they pick up the series and animated the Jinchu arc even if they should redo Tokyo and Kyoto. Took more than a decade for Saint Seiya to get the Hades arc animated finally. Some series are rarely fortunate enought to have this happen and its rare what is happen to Fullmetal which alot of animes are missing out on.

    rzerox21xx
  15. From a perspective view of a person whom haven’t read the manga, I think that Bones is doing a great job. Good animation, and entertaining.

    Personally, I am not particular if they are faithfully trying to adapt the manga version or not. Considering that the media used in delivering the storyline is different from one another, there would always be discrepancies.

    kabayongtao
  16. As a reviewer, it’s better that omni hasn’t read the manga so he gets an unbiased opinion and be able to see the actual good and bad points of the anime objectively and enjoy it, instead of constantly comparing every detail like some people here are doing.

    NaYa
  17. I doubt he Mustang killed Ross. He probably faked her death so that she can run away without having the army following her. He was also sure Ross didn’t kill Hughs. One thing Mustang doesn’t want to do is kill another innocent person. He is obviously hiding something that Elizabeth he is talking to on the phone is probably Ross or Lt Hawk taking a leave is probably just an act in front of the others but it truth she was probably sent to safely relocate Ross and her family to a place not under the army’s radar.

    roger
  18. All I got to say is that people need to stop complaining about the changes. For the most part, they don’t leave out too much from the source material and nothing of huge significance is lost from the show. Honestly, people who expect ANY manga to anime adaptation to be 100% faithful is deluding themselves, and will never be happy. Okay, most of the time at least…

    Looking forward to next week!

    spiral
  19. Rushed or not, this season is much better than the last and I commend Bones for that.

    The previous season was the story was boring, characters dry, the action limited, and the tone way too serious for shounen.

    In the words of Peter Griffin, “It insist upon itself.”

    AntiSpiral
  20. Honestly even as a huge fan of the manga I’d say bones is doing a very good job adapting this the second time, seeing I’m still at the edge of the seat after watching this episode.

    Bloby
  21. I was cracking up at how they put the sequence of Armstrong ”kidnapping” Ed to such serious, dramatic music. Fit perfectly. Knox’s voice is pretty fitting, and Barry was still funny, so thumbs up from me.

    Crossword
  22. the animation quality is pretty poor compared to recently released animes.
    Taking into account of the fact that the first FMA was such a huge hit (despite its difference with the manga i think most would agree that it was a pretty awesome series at that time), I think the production would have invested a little more into the animation quality. Im not saying they should try to make it look like appleseed or sth, but it is irritating to see that some scenes look as if they’ve been done half-assed.

    hm
  23. @hm
    in my opinion the animation of this particular anime is pretty good its fluid and fast, specially when you see it after an episode of naruto shippuuden, that is a really poor animated anime its almost as if someone just colored the pages of the manga and turn the pages himself excepting for two or three episodes.

    i think the next episode will cover part of the counterattack chapter of the manga because at the end of the episode the narrator said “humans, rise the signal of counterattack”

    jcmr
  24. @hm
    This is going to end up being well over 50 eps, and when comparing to other series of this length, FMA: Brotherhood is easily the best in terms of productions values I’ve seen.
    I think you’ve been watching too many films and 13 eps series to appreciate whats on show.

  25. @hm
    i hope you don`t wach the episodes on streaming sites because that decrease the quality of the video and belive me the 720p versions of this anime look awsome on lcd monitors.

    @juan
    i think that the people who hasn´t read the manga should not read it now, they will just spoil theirself and won`t enjoy the anime, they would be like those people complaning about the diferences, or could be worse and end up spoiling people like you did with your comment.

    jcmr
  26. Well, since I’m pretty sure this episode correlates with chapter 35, and the big Ling event happens in chapter 54, you’re probably going to have to wait a good 15 to 20 episodes to see him do something exciting.

    About the shuffling: I agree that the burning should’ve been at the end of the episode, but if you look at it as just an anime you’ll most likely enjoy it a lot more. I don’t see the need for all the nitpicking about this not being a perfect adaptation. No adaptation is. The first series was as far as you can get from faithful, and everyone loves it.

    Quali
  27. At “Attacking a superior? Know your place!” And then Ed’s face…I swear I was swaying weakly in my chair, wanting to smack Mustang and hide and cry in a corner!

    15:39, Edo’s face made me whimper out loud, seriously! I couldn’t stop it, it just slipped out. I sounded like a sad puppy… The face is like a mad, wet kitty! If I look at it for too long, my heart aches.

    meh, I want at least one time to have Ling do sneaky-sneak-eavesdropping! maybe next episode! *hope hope hope*

    Finally, love the ED! Has grown on me.

    Lilly

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