Summary:

The battle at Briggs is over soon after it begins, with the Drachma side getting utterly annihilated, but Kimblee has fulfilled his duty of creating a crest of blood. Over in Central, King Bradley asks Hawkeye what she thinks of him and Selim being Homunculus, so she compares it to a game of house. King Bradley thinks that it’s more like he gets to play a person of power with all of the things given to him, but he notes that he got to choose his own wife. Back in the north, Zampano meets Envy and leads him to Marcoh. As it turns out though, it was all a set-up, and Zampano had been intentionally luring Envy here. Marcoh and May Chang had hidden many transmutation circles in the snowfield, so every step Envy takes activates another trap. This forces Envy to change into his huge form, and so everyone joins in the fight, including the Chimera and Scar. Right when they think they have Envy beat though, he grabs Marcoh with his tongue and holds him hostage. Envy taunts Marcoh with the idea of making the nearby villagers into Philosopher’s Stones and brings up how Marcoh has experience doing so, and although Marcoh acknowledges this, he reveals that he also knows how to destroy them.

Marcoh then directs his alchemy towards Envy and destroys most of the souls in Envy’s Philosopher’s Stone. This causes Envy to revert to his tiny true form which the group takes back to the village. When Winry asks Marcoh why he did something like this, he explains that he wanted to settle this on his own instead of doing what other people said, and he compares himself to Winry’s parents. Envy then latches onto and tries to take over Yoki, but the group pretends not to care about him, and Al recaptures the Homunculus. Once they put Envy into a bottle, they try to interrogate him, but the only thing he reveals is that he heard Ed is missing. Al, however, decides to do as his brother would and keep moving forward, and he specifically wants to go to Lior. Scar, on the other hand, opts to go with Marcoh in a different direction to do something to change the country, and he gives May Chang the bottle with Envy inside to bring back to Xing. He feels that she should go back now and let them take care of matters in their own country, and so May Chang departs on her own after a tearful farewell.

Meanwhile, in Dublith, the Chimera Bido is still mourning Greed and overhears some soldiers looking for Izumi on King Bradley’s orders, and he decides to follow them. Back in Central, after treating her brother gruffly, Olivier is led by another officer to a secret underground lair where a Homunculus army is being kept. Sometime later, Al, Winry, Yoki, and the Chimera arrive in Lior and find both Rosé and Hohenheim there.

Preview

So I thought the beginning of this episode was a little disappointing because the battle with the Drachma forces was pretty much over by the time the episode started, and Kimblee was still alive. I had been hoping for a bit more action from that. The battle against Envy, fortunately, was a lot of fun to watch. Last week’s preview made me think that Marcoh might die, but instead he showed a lot of strength in facing off (literally) and winning against Envy. Everyone helping him early in the battle was very cool too. As for Envy’s true form, it was pretty cute, and I laughed at the scene where he tried to take Yoki hostage. I get the feeling though that it’s a bad idea for them to let May Chang have Envy. She’s not the strongest character and could be the kind that Envy can manipulate, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets free again. They probably should have just destroyed him for good.

The end of the episode had another nice pair of cliffhangers with the apparent Homunculus army that Olivier was shown and with the after-ED segment that had Al and Winry running into Hohenheim. Since the preview showed Ed alive and well too, maybe it’s finally time for father and sons to join up. I do wonder though what they’re doing with the return of that Chimera Bido from the Greed arc. It’s probably a sign that we’ll be seeing more of Greed and/or Ling soon.

63 Comments

  1. Very nice. Pretty much everything I expected it would be.
    By the looks of these screencaps, though, it appears they toned down Marcoh’s “traps” for Envy. In the manga they were spikes and spears going through him, and.. it looks like its just some sort of ice cage here.

    Homuncurus!
  2. Maybe it’s because when I read it in the manga it was a surprise, but that scene with Marcoh and Envy just wasn’t nearly as good in this episode. I guess I overhyped myself, though, since it’s probably my favorite scene in the manga.

    Any episode with Olivier in it can’t be too bad. It’s too bad that lame white zombie army was there, too. Not one of Arakawa’s better ideas.

  3. Omg. Envy was SO cute. xD Looking forward to the next episode. I thought it would be longer until Ed came back, but I guess it’s been a while since I read this part of the manga… or maybe they’re just going at full speed.

    Acylia
  4. They better keep the line between Ho-ho, Al and Winry at the start of next episode.

    And Envy’s trueform is so cute in this anime (he’s kinda gross in the manga) but with that little voice and everything…I wanna Envy plushie.

    And I was right about Bido, he’s been moved up so the next episode will have what he brings about. ^^ And Edo will return. 😀

    JackDawkins
  5. Looks like they cut the Izumi part with the Military looking for her.

    Dammit. I hope I’m not thinking too negative, but it looks like Bido just appears out of nowhere instead of staying in Dublith and watching Izumi and following the soldiers to Central like in the manga.

    Is it that hard to just to draw in Maison and be like “They just hired me”? Really?

    Cornwiggle
  6. @Cornwiggle

    Watch the episode before you fuckin complain.

    Anyways, I like that they actually showed Marcoh and Scar leaving the group. In the manga, they’re with Al last time we see them, and when the group get to Lior, they’re nowhere to be found and you dont find out that they’ve traveling together until the end of volume 20.

    damian
  7. @Cornwiggle: They showed Bido in Dublith, they showed the soldiers coming out of Izumi’s shop and talking about not being able to find her, and then they showed Bido following the soldiers.

    JackDawkins
  8. @penguintruth – seen all of it plus some translations. Show Spoiler ▼

    bgi
  9. @penguintruth, @bgi Thanks for reminding that newest manga chapter 104 was leaked this weekend. Indeed, it IS really unbelievably epically epic, with all those two-page drawn panels. But now I need a place to talk about it without spoiling things for the rest… Show Spoiler ▼

    Stonehead
  10. Now that was a smart way to complete the transmutation circle, kudos to you Kimblee. I’m wondering if they can end the series (not to mention the manga) in 7 episodes (I’m assuming there will be 50 eps). FMA has come a long way, so I hope it gets a good ending, cause if it doesn’t I think people are gonna be very pissed, just like with NGE. The last thing we need is people mailing death threats to Arakawa. O_O

    Choko
  11. More love for Brotherhood, what a great show. 😀

    @ Homuncurus!–Goddess I hope not, the whole “Gate-leads-to-pre-WW2-Germany” was a retarded twist they threw into the first show that made absolutely no sense. I don’t know if they wound up throwing that into the manga or not (I haven’t read it yet), but I’ll be very annoyed if Ed stops fighting Homunculi to fight Nazis instead. 😛

    Guardian
  12. BTW, I’m a little sad to see Mei leave the show, though she didn’t seem very popular around here. I thought she kicked a lot of ass, esp against the Homunculi and Chimera beneath Central. Hopefully she (and Envy) will come back into the story before its conclusion – seems odd to have all three “original” Homunculi gone already (unless Gluttony’s done regeneration in Father’s robes).

    Guardian
  13. Well…

    (idiots who don’t read manga, don’t click on this)

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Hagaren
  14. I don’t know. A week isn’t really that long. It could be worse. Think of the monthly schedule like the manga. That would be long.

    @Penguintruth: The first anime deserves to be oversimplified. It had a bogus story that made next to no sense. I’ve been rewatching it every week on Adult Swim (just to see it again for myself) and it possibly one of the worst series I’ve seen in quite awhile. Some parts are okay and some of the liberties they took were unique, but it’s just really bad in plot.

    Fullmetal Alchemist: Deus ex Machina

    should be its name.

    Cornwiggle
  15. My favorite episode so far. Fantastic action scenes. I don’t understand how one can create such beautiful plot. I’m talking about the act of Zampano and the counter attack of Marcoh. And I’m in love these shocking ending scenes as well. This series get better and better every episode. Pure genius. BTW, I think envy’s true form is SO cute, honest.

    aycan
  16. The monthly wait for the manga is brutal. You all don’t know how lucky you are only having a weekly wait. And the anime covers about 2 chapters each episode, so manga readers have even less material after the month long wait than you have after one little week xD
    I can’t wait till the manga ends, then I can just sit back and watch Brotherhood and giggle like a little girl at all of you freaking out. And you will, this story really picks up speed starting now, and so many amazing and soul-crushing things happen.

    JackDawkins
  17. People just posting spoilers about the newest manga chapters really piss me off.

    “I’m on a blog talking about the anime, I think I’ll talk about the latest manga chapter without hiding anything”

    Idiots.

    Cornwiggle
  18. @aycan

    dont worry about the manga trollers, they did the same thing with another character a few months back which turned to be totaly wrong. i’ve read the latest chapter and sure the same thing will apply. cliffhangers do not equal facts and the story aint over yet

    fathomlessblue
  19. @cornwiggle

    Agreed about both manga spoilers and evangelion!(mind you, I never read manga)

    I can’t wait for Greed/Lin next week. Also, with Al hoping to break the circle in Lior, might we see a Pride fight soon?! I know how deceptive credits can be, but those Pride scenes are my faves from the new opener.

    hms-one
  20. (speculation from a non-manga-reader. no spoiler responses Please!)

    I fear that Alphonse will never see his poor body again in this life. If V.H. couldn’t give back Izumi’s organs because they were taken for sacrifce, then how could he possibly bring back Al’s whole body?(hypothetical!) He’s a living P.S. and the Sage of the East, a medical alchemy expert. If he can’t do it who can?(hypothetical!) It seems that the only way the two will be reunited is on the other side of the gate, where his soul seems to want to go ASAP. Things aren’t looking good for Alphonse.

    hms-one

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