Summary:

After leaving Hawkeye’s place, Ed runs into Al, and the two talk about what they want to do after they return to their original bodies. Al wants to eat Winry’s apple pie, and Ed just wants to tell Pinako and Izumi that he’s back. Ed also reveals his realization that Scar and May Chang’s alchemy is different, but when they try to find May Chang the next day, they discover that she’s already left Knox’s home. Meanwhile, Mustang’s former subordinates say their farewells before departing, and Hawkeye pays Mustang a visit to pass along a message from Ed that Scar is still around. Afterward, Mustang reflects on the emptiness of his office and on his subordinates, and he decides to enact a certain plan. He then heads out and finds Ed and Al who have been searching for May Chang. After they tell him what’s going on, he asks Ed to return the money he borrowed, but Ed decides that he’ll pay it back once Mustang becomes Fuhrer. In fact, Ed promises to continue borrowing money and attaching each amount with one of Mustang’s goals for the country. Mustang then drops the brothers off at their hotel and heads to a bar where he has the madam call a special number, that of Lt. General Grumman.

The Elric brothers meanwhile find Fu waiting for them in their room, and they take him to see Lan Fan at Knox’s place. Though angry at her, Fu is also devastated that his granddaughter lost an arm, and he ends up turning down the brothers’ offer to introduce her to an automail mechanic because he decides that they’ll find a way on their own. Both he and Lan Fan thank Knox before leaving, and this plus May Chang’s earlier gratitude has Knox reflecting on his profession. After everyone leaves, Knox receives more visitors, this time his son and wife. His son is actually aiming to be a doctor like him, and Knox invites them in, happy to have family to share coffee with. Sometime the next day, over at the prison, Solf J. Kimblee is suddenly released after having spent all this time incarcerated for killing his superiors at the end of the Ishval conflict so that he could keep his Philosopher’s Stone. The Homunculus are behind his release, and Envy picks him up to give him a mission: to kill Scar and to recapture Marcoh who had likely faked his death and escaped. As it turns out, Marcoh had indeed escaped because Scar still wanted him alive to help decipher some of his brother’s research concerning the strangeness of alchemy in Amestris. Scar also intentionally disfigures Marcoh to disguise him, and he has the newly returned May Chang heal Marcoh before heading North to where the research is hidden.

Preview

For the most part, this was another decent episode that was light on the action and heavy on the plot. It’s got its share of good scenes though, like the one where Mustang compares his ex-subordinates to chess pieces (with Hawkeye as the queen of course and him as the king), and I found it very curious that he got back in contact with his old boss. Fu also appeared and took Lan Fan away in what was a nice scene, but I found the Knox stuff directly after to be much more powerful. It’s funny too because my initial reaction to his family showing up was that it was really random, but I ended up really liking seeing that side of him.

As for Marcoh, he did survive after all, and Scar has now disfigured him. Poor Marcoh, the man just can’t catch a break. They’re heading North too, so I imagine the stuff in the OP will be showing up soon. On the other side, the Ishval stuff with Kimblee has built up nicely to his reappearance here, and it looks like we’re headed for a Kimblee and Scar confrontation too at some point which should be pretty interesting to see. For whatever reason, I don’t quite see Kimblee as a villain yet (maybe because his voice still reminds me of Allelujah), but I’m sure that can change quickly. I also found it a bit odd that the preview indicates that next episode will be focused on, of all people, King Bradley’s son…

59 Comments

  1. Nice to see Kimblee is also getting some screen time – but are they giving away Philosopher’s Stones like breakfast serial prizes now or something?

    As far as the focus on Selim goes, I’m not surprised. He’s a good way to characterise the human side of Bradley. As well as giving a unique perspective on other things.

    Sol Fury
  2. Thank god they kept in the scene with Knox’s family, I thought they where going to get rid of it because they removed the scene where Al found the picture. It really caps an ending to Knox part in the story, and is easily one of the most powerful scenes in the series.

    Selim will be appearing a lot more often during the next arc.

    Charred Knight
  3. The scene with Knox’s family… who cares? The character is barely in the story and we’re expected to care about whether his family returns or not? I was insulted when I came across this part in the manga. Arakawa was just trying to wring some tears out of the reader for nothing, and that takes away from her legitimately touching scenes.

    Oh, look, an Ishbal flashback that should have been in the Ishbal flashback episode! Nice.

    1. I agree, but I liked it better in the anime because they ditched the borderline cruel line about his discouragement from practising his doctor skills being an act of cowardice, in the manga. Good call, because that kind of judgment was NOT cool. But yeah the emotion was completely unearned and made this show looked typical for a second.

      Bebe Sneed
  4. [quote]-I found it a bit odd that the preview indicates that next episode will be focused on, of all people, King Bradley’s son…[/quote]

    you haven’t see anything yet !

    wait untill they reveal his true identity

    inc
  5. It seems a lot of people already know about Selim and since it’s a very big spoiler, I won’t even put in under a spoiler tag.
    Things are advancing rather rapidly; I like it 😀

    ciq666
  6. Okay since people do not understand about not giving hints. When you say big things are going to happen with such and such character’s name..that’s almost the same as a spoiler. We didn’t have those types of hints when we read the manga so do not be giving hints to people who are watching the story unfold for the first time. Although I hope people who have not read the manga are smart enough to not read this blog considering how lax people are with spoilers in the comments.

    Kim
  7. @ Charred Knight – the scene where Al finds the photo was still in there. Happened in episode 28. Only a brief scene though so maybe something was cut? Don’t know myself, I’ve mostly avoided the manga since I don’t want to spoil myself.

    Sol Fury
  8. People who don’t want to spoil themselves should stop readin’ comments on blogs like this. Some people just don’t know how to keep their mouths shut. What Kim said is all truth. =(

    tanukichan
  9. Oh sigh. People who are throwing ‘hints’ everywhere are pretty much being spoiler trolls. Just because you’ve read the manga, doesn’t mean everyone else has, so what right do you have to spoil their experience?

    Anyway, this is the 520 cenz promise episode, isn’t it? (I shall watch it after school)

    Satoida
  10. They’re slowing down the pace again.. and I don’t like it one bit. They seem to speed up all the best things the fans like (i.e.Mustang vs Lust, Ishval flashback, and just about EVERY chapter under the Greed arc), yet slow down to a grueling halt in these in-between chapters that really should not take that long. Honestly, that stuff that happened in this episode and what’s going to happen in the next one (which I assure you, is not much), could have been put into one solid episode. I was honestly expecting the next episode to be the Elrics heading north already to Briggs…not Grumman in drag…

    Homuncurus!
  11. I’m sure manga readers can appreciate the extra Selim screen time but… It still doesn’t mean it will make up for how the Ishval war was trimmed badly to fit in one episode, even more so that a summary and now a filler are in place I mean if they needed to waste time then why didn’t they just animate a good chunk of the extermination. Ah the mystery of selective animation.

    Machi
  12. Selim’s story is definitely not filler, and I’ll leave that there.
    @Scampie
    The title for this episode, and many others, is the exact title of one of the manga chapters. Next week in an exception, but I can almost guarantee that the title for the episode after next will be “The Northern Cliff of Briggs.” Of course, it may already be published somewhere that I haven’t seen.

    curious one
  13. seriously why do people keep posting about selim? a lot of people including the blogger havent read the manga and although i have ur purposely ruining the story for them. no one has asked anything about selim and im fairly certain that the next episode isnt going to reveal anything so just shut up plz

    sean
  14. DO NOT READ THESE COMMENTS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE MANGA. Certain a$$holes who like to think they’re being SO subtle will most definitely spoil the storyline for you. I remember reading the manga, and finding all the little surprises and plot twists were a shock, but a pleasant one, and add to the captivating experience of the manga. People who have never read the manga deserve to be able to experience this story like it was meant to.

    bicor
  15. What’s the big deal..?
    This scene with Selim in the library is in the manga, except they seem to have added Bradley into it as well. Originally, it was just Selim with his mother, oggling the Elric brothers, but I think I see what they’re trying to do by adding in Wrath to the mix..
    The name of the episode comes directly from that one scene, just like “The 520 Cenz Promise”.

    Homuncurus!
  16. While Envy’s obnoxiousness annoys me to no end, I find Kimblee’s sadistic personality very enjoying to watch. Maybe it has something to do with Kimblee not having any loyalty to anyone whatsoever, and is only in for the fun of killing, while Envy has an agenda which he heartlessly carries out, not to mention the fact that he killed Hughes means he’s beyond redemption for me.

    Kinny Riddle
    1. I don’t really understand your distinctions, they’re both cut from the same sadistic cloth. Kimblee steeling the nerves of his fellow soldiers by telling them to really accept what they’re doing and what they owe their victims just makes it even more messed up to me that someone with that kind of basic empathy can still delight in evilness. Imagine trying to make art out of your war crimes… there’s something so obscene about that. I don’t see how having an agenda is somehow worse than Kimblee’s playful predatory violence.

      Bebe Sneed
  17. I should have just posted my thoughts and then not just walk away rather than stay behind to read the comments. Thanks to some of you spoiling assholes, now I know who all the homunculi are.

    Kinny Riddle
  18. ^
    Welcome to the internet, dude..
    You should have known better than to come to a forum where you know little dickhead fail trolls are sure to lurk.
    . . . and speaking of Homunculi.. I MISS LUST!! D8

    Homuncurus!
  19. The whole talk Ed and Al had after meeting up just felt empty when compared to the manga. I just didn’t like it.

    I wish we could have seen Envy after Kimblee killed those guys in the flashback (his shot in the opening), would have tied it together as to why they let him keep the stone for all those years.

    Cornwiggle
  20. well, I might be weird but this is my favorite episode after 26.
    There is no fighting, and I like that. There’s Happy Ed and Al again full of new hope, sad scene where the military gang is splitting up, but hopefull ’cause Mustang got some tricks up his sl…I mean up his chess-piece, Havoc feels better (mentally), the scene with Roy and Ed (and Al) in the car was, I don’t know, lovely, it rocked, and Mustang looked totally hot (and I don’t like him normally), and so did Ed, and it was moving when Ed trusted Roy, in a manly, gruffy way, to save the country from the führer’s evil authority. (And the animation during the car-scene was ‘ohh!’-good. Defenetly worth groaning for.) And Hu came and everyone thanked Knox and he felt unworthy, and, uh God I feel so sorry for him, he is so scared (as in ‘has scars’), and his family… *tears*

    I still hate Kimlee, though…

    And when Selim met Ed in the manga was really funny!

    And, oh lol, Mei Chan and Xiao Mei blink with their eyes at the same time!

    Lily

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