First Impressions / Fullmetal Alchemist

Summary:

Hohenheim and Al don’t have much to say to each other at first, and Hohenheim gets pulled away to help with the rebuilding effort. Al decides to help as well, and in the meantime, Rosé sets up a bath for Winry. Rosé also brings up how Winry helped her out indirectly by making Ed’s automail, and she recounts how Ed had aided her and the town. Meanwhile, over in Central, the Chimera Bido is lost underground, and he stumbles upon the underground army right before Olivier and the other officer get there. The officer explains that these soldiers will have souls put into them and will be an immortal bunch, with those souls coming from battlefields. This is all Bido hears before he flees the area, but he then runs into Greed. Back in Lior, Al reveals what he knows about the underground tunnel to Hohenheim, and he also mentions the existence of Father. In response, Hohenheim brings up the possibility that he personally is on the Homunculus side, but he’s also grateful that Al trusts him. He decides to tell Al everything, though he wishes that Ed were there too to hear it.

At that moment, Kimblee’s two other Chimera are in a northern town and withdraw some money from Ed’s bank account to pay for medical treatment. When they are found by the military, Ed joins the fight, and the group escapes by car with a little help from Ed’s alchemy. The problem is that Ed doesn’t know what’s going on with Al and Winry, and he tries to figure out where his brother would have gone. By now, Hohenheim has finished telling his story to Al, and Al believes him and wonders what it’s like not to die. Hohenheim explains that it’s useful, but he doesn’t like seeing loved ones pass away before him. The two also talk about Father, and Al shows Hohenheim the research that they’ve deciphered. Hohenheim in turn warns against trying to destroy the underground tunnel because Pride is down there, and he’s not in a hurry because he knows that it’s not a certain day yet. Back in Central, Bido tries to remind Greed of who he is, but Greed just kills him because he was associated with the previous Greed. After doing this however, Greed gets flashbacks of his Dublith gang, and, inside of himself, Ling confronts Greed for attacking old friends. Ling believes that friends are connected by their souls, and Greed has thus tossed away his own soul’s family. This throws Greed into a state of turmoil, and sometime later, he arrives at King Bradley’s house and attacks the Homunculus in front of his family.

Preview

So Al and Hohenheim’s initial meeting turned out to be a bit more subdued than I thought it’d be, but it was nice to see father and son eventually communicating and teaming up. Now if only Ed could join them too without circumstance breaking the group apart. Speaking of which, I loved the scenes with Ed and those two Chimera. It was a lot of action, but it also had a good dose of comedy – I certainly got a laugh out of how they got away and how Ed transmuted the car. Oh and of course I have to give mention to the Winry fanservice this week too, including in the eye-catch.

As for Bido, I thought him seeing the underground army might be important, but he was then killed by Greed. I feel sort of bad for his character, but it’s good to see that he at least served a purpose in bringing out the inner conflict in Greed. Ling certainly made a nice speech (very shounen manga-esque) to finish out the episode, and there was then that great cliffhanger with Greed/Ling attacking King Bradley at home. I assume we’re moving towards the point where Ling takes back control of his body, and maybe it’s time for Lan Fan and her grandfather to return too.

On a side note, I noticed they’ve started advertising Gundam Unicorn stuff during FMA’s commercial breaks. I think the PlayStation Store version of episode one debuts next week…

77 Comments

  7. It’s nice to see the main character again after a couple of episodes without him. It’s also nice to see Greed again, even if he’s Greedling, and being talked down to by that Xingese brat. Looks like they might be stretching out his fight with Bradley next week, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

    Oooh, Armstrong sibling battle next week!

    penguintruth
    Reply

  12. Ed looks older !!!! Or is it just that ponytail? Who cares, though. At least in the manga, you notice how the characters get older from beginning to end (without those loong timeskips, they just slooowly change). xD

    Acylia
    Reply

  13. @megalith

    If you think Ed looks more badass than before, then they did a great job with that scene! 🙂
    I loved the return of Ed in the manga, and they adapted this scene very well here, which made me very happy!^^

    tanukichan
    Reply

  14. @Phocus
    Of course, there’s going to be more in the next episode…? o_ô and if your answer to that is spoilerish, then don’t answer! xD It’s not the biggest surprise of FMA if it is, though. They don’t look like best friends exactly…

    Sis
    Reply

  19. I kinda wished that they would end the season in the next episode, since the last page in volume 20 felt like it could be appropiate to take a break, and let the manga series end.

    A little off-topic, but I think the bank receptinist is pretty cute in this episode.

    Karis
    Reply

  23. anyone notice how suspiously close the eyecatch of bathtub winry and badass Ed are together, its like the Ed eyecatch with his hand out and pissed is telling the viewer. “okay pervert, one more peak on my girl in the bath and I’ll kick your ass!!”

    rzerox21xx
    Reply

  28. I always thought the bank receptionist was WHITE!!! haha i mistook the screenshots for the manga pages for a sec… because they are straight from it.
    @megalith: ed started looking so cool when arakawa-sensei decided its time for him to age haha(that shot is literally straight out of the manga) otherwise how can he be taller than winry?

    qntiria
    Reply

  34. @Cornwiggle: I never noticed that! Wow… O_o… wait does that mean that Ling starts the fight and then Greed takes over (based on preview shots). I’m gonna go read these chapters again, I reckon.

    Satoida
    Reply

  35. tman :
    Show Spoiler ▼

    they did a great job animating the awesome look ed got in the manga.

    Zeross
    Reply

  40. The bangs thing is true in the manga but it looks like it won’t be in the anime, as Vlyse pointed out.

    @Acylia: They made a joke of that in the manga. Hohenheim said please to not pull things out of his crotch…

    I’m glad they got the badass shot of Ed just as in the manga. He’s growing up…episode coming up soon there will be a noticeable height difference 😀

    And omg, but the anime actually made the scene of Winry in the tub less revealing than the manga did o_o Those perverts at Bones are holding back more than the female manga-ka xD

    JackDawkins
    Reply

  42. Yeah, screencap 30 does make Al look uncomfortably similar to a certain self-pleasuring bear Conan used to have on his show …

    This show is the highlight of my week. Love Brotherhood so much. Lots of cool fights next episode! Greed vs Wrath, Round 2 and from the comments I have a feeling the Armstrong siblings are going to be squabbling …

    Guardian
    Reply

  44. Winry fanservice! Awesome! Reminded me of the first time I saw bulma in the bath on dragonball, lolz. All around great episode. Dont move or the alchemist gets it! rotfflol. That moment was so blazing saddles to me. Also I get to see the greed/wrath and Ling/Bradley rivalries tied up in one bad-ass grudgematch! It was really only a matter of time once greedling was born, if you think about it, but somehow I still didn’t see it coming. [Eclipse] had their sub up same day on this one, frickin’ awesome. Can’t wait for next week!

    hms-one
    Reply

  45. @andrea
    I’m not going to speculate about ending for a variety of reasons, especially spoilers. As for number of episodes, this episode covers up to about midway through chapter 82. So roughly, they’ve gone about 2 chapters an episode, give or take. The manga’s up to 104 currently, and should be ending within the next 5 or so chapters, so let’s assume 110 total. Unless they go filler heavy all of a sudden, that means probably around another 14-20 episodes, depending on how long they cover the fights (some of the recent fights could easily take up whole episodes), for a total of around 60. That’s just a guess, though.

    Bakodo
    Reply

  49. Goddammit, they DID cut out the armor line.

    These are things I hate about this anime; they always cut out everything fun that you’re looking forward to.

    How does Hohenheim just know it’s Al? Could it be that someone else has the same armor? Ed never told him “Hey, by the way, Al has the old armor body now”

    It makes no sense.

    Cornwiggle
    Reply

  51. Oh wow, Cornwiggle is disappointed in something in the translation, what a frikkin surprise …

    The “vintage armor” joke would’ve been funny but the primary tone of Al/Van at the start of the ep was one of discomfort and awkwardness. BONES either felt it would disrupt the feel of the scene or they just didn’t have time to include every single line in the manga and didn’t think it was as funny as a lot of you did. *shrugs*

    And why are people still trying to figure out how many episodes there will be? This discussion happens every week in this thread. It’ll be 63 episodes, we’ve known this since the start of the series practically.

    Guardian
    Reply

  53. It’s just disappointing to see them rush through some things. Why couldn’t Bido also see the Chimeras? I like the little details like that. One of my favorite characters is Falman, yet all the humorous stuff I love about him got cut. Including as to how he just magically knows the entire country’s war history. Yes, it’s not a stretch, but just establishing “Human record book” would have been perfectly clear.

    It bugs because it’s like they’re just TRYING to catch up with the manga. Why couldn’t everything covered in here be two episodes, rather than one? No one complained about the manga’s pacing, I just don’t get that, and it bugs, Guardian.

    Cornwiggle
    Reply

  54. Same with Bido, I think of little details. How long has it been since Dublith? I’m guessing at least a month or two, at max.

    Why is Bido still crying over Greed after two long months? The way it’s presented makes it seem like it’s the next day or something. That’s why I liked it a bit earlier in the manga and I like that Arkawa doesn’t just set things up, only to have them RESOLVED in the very next chapter. Bido is a great example of that.

    I love this anime, but it still rubs me the wrong way with things like this. I can understand rushing the first 15 episodes, but they still rushed 15-19, which was my favorite part of the manga. For what reason? None. It’s dumb.

    At least they did a good job with Greed in this one. That was my favorite part.

    Cornwiggle
    Reply

  56. Actually, Hohenheim knows about Al’s body because Pinako told him about it. He says as much in the manga at that part. He just temporarily forgot, and that’s why he reacted that way to first seeing Al.

    penguintruth
    Reply

  57. Did anyone notice that Ed never put down his groceries through the course of beating up the police? Ridiculous but funny as hell. Also, is it possible that Ed got older all of a sudden because he used up some of his youth to heal up?

    George Ou
    Reply

  58. Cornwiggle => i agree, can’t understand why they rush so much (And they have also cut the part with the medecin puting an act to protect ed.). Maybe they try to finish it with the end of a season of show to fit in tv program.

    but they should slow down, i mean manga have at least 6 more mounth to live i think. That’s 24 episodes. We are around chapter 82 now… Even if they do one chapter = one episode from now, manga will end when they’ll be animating chapter 106/110.
    It’s close and don’t allow some delay in the manga. But if they keep going for 1episode = 1.5~2 chapter, they’ll catch up with the manga before it end.

    Zeross
    Reply

  60. @Zerosss

    Yeah, I won’t ever EVER forgive them if they go through all this and just mess up the ending. Hopefully they’ve got it all planned out… (right? :S). Anyway; I guess they’ll be doing recap episodes or something (NOOooo… well, better than BAAAD ending, though). But then again, there would be no need for that if they’d just SLOW DOWN a bit, right??

    But there’s really no way they haven’t noticed the pace they’re going at and how they’re close to catching up… There’s no way they haven’t figured something out. I choose to trust them (with a tiny bit of nervousness lurking in the back of my head). x)

    Acylia
    Reply

  63. @Zeross
    Think about like this instead: I’m guessing the manga will be at maybe… let’s say 108 chapters. This seems more likely atm because of the meaning of that number in buddhism. Though, I don’t know if Arakawa’s thought that much about it. xD

    Anyway. The anime has at the end of this week 45 episodes. It will probably have 63 episodes in total. That’s another 18 episodes left. 18 weeks. Ending in june.

    If the manga has 108 chapters it will be 4 more months. Probably ending in … june… as well… … … err…

    Okay, I just realized something myself while typing this… they are playing with fire here. If there are 63 episodes the anime will end about 10 days after the manga… shit. There can’t be any more chapters than that, at least! O_O

    Sis
    Reply

    1. Fuck off, man. You can express your love for her without insulting the viewers who don’t. I personally can’t stand how often the anime goes out of its way to fellate and her extraordinary normal-ness. THAT’S overt fanservice, not the shots of the tub

      StankyKong
      Reply

  66. Ed, I couldn’t agree with you any more. I love Winry, I love her character, she’s cute and very beautiful and I want our favorite badass fullmetal alchemist to end up with her and make babies with her. lol. I could understand not liking winry based on anime1 but manga and brotherhood winry definitely owns.

    Rzerox21xx
    Reply

  67. When I think about it, I don’t think there’s any fullmetal alchemist character I dislike at all in the manga and brotherhood. I can name a few from the first anime but to be honest, I love all the characters especially the minor. Hienkel, Darius, Marcoh and Yoki(got killed very quickly and downplayed). Thats the beauty of the series, ever character has their crowning moments from Marcoh owning Envy to Hienkel injuried telling Al to give them hell.

    Rzerox21xx
    Reply

  68. @Acylia
    i’ll never forgive you to adding an extra “s” T_T (=p)

    @Sis
    yeah like i said, they play with fire with tight schedule and if Arakawa take a little break or decide to do few more chapters they will be fu**ed :/
    Like acylia said they’ll probably make some recap at this point, but please god, no filler 🙁

    Zeross
    Reply

    1. Right on bro. He had some interesting insights in the war flashback, but that’s the extent of my appreciation of him. We already have Envy to fill in the psychopath role

      StankyKong
      Reply

  71. @JeffryZain2010 -heavy spoilers ! spoil up to chapter 93 (around episode 50 on anime)-
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Zeross
    Reply

  72. @Sis

    the manga will be published and out by early June, while the last 4 episodes will be shown throughout june, which means that even if they decide to make the last chapter into two episodes instead of one, they will still have 2 weeks to animate/voice it

    Labyrinth
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *