about Riza, I think it was obvious when her father said that his research was with her. haven’t we learned that alchemists like to store their researchs in strange ways? well, he wroter his on her daughters back. about Mustang, he surely knows about that, because that was where he learnt flame alchemy

However, a couple of OVA’s expanding Ishval’s story arc would be nice heh!

If Brotherhood is cutting SO MUCH for whatever, they could have handed ALL of episode 27 with that scene in the manga (of the stagecoach being shot up) that would have taken no more than FIVE MINUTES in anime version.

Not to mention, they didn’t get anything important from that scene either. Hohenheim with the names, saying “A monster…” None of that.

I just hate how in the past few episodes, everything was 99% accurate, then, suddenly, CUT CUT CUT.

I did like the replacement of Scar’s portion of the flashback, but cutting out Knox and Grand, I just have to wonder why they even bothered with this anime if they’re not going to do it right.

If it really is because of the “We need Ed to make people like it”

That’s BS. They should re-evaluate why the manga is so popular to begin with.

If they were to animate the WHOLE story (considering this would take arround 100 anime eps), everybody would be happy with the content but criying about the animation quality and possible fillers (remember what the last anime had to do to adaptate some plots such as Lior’s, Coal Mine, the events at the train or even Shou Tucker’s experiment?).

And if you are thinking ‘they could just have cutted the recap episode’, I belive that was a nice move, since Brotherhood needed to put things clear to those who are new to FMA. As I said before, FMAB is not an user-friendly story due to the fast peace they work with.

But seems like some people can’t judge the product for itself and enjoy it instead of comparing it all the time, so this is the last time I waste my breath explaining obvious decitions while working with adaptations!

It really should have been 2, maybe 3 episodes. I certainly hope they go back to it in the future. Plus, they missed out on the most epic scene of all - http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/60/31/

(amongst others)

again i’m giving Bones a little more leeway in cuts cuz to be fair, a manga gives a mangaka muuuuuuuuch more time/room for development where a finite number of anime eps forces cuts and reorganizing of plot elements in the interest of time. example: in all honesty knox isn’t a BIG character as far as the overall series goes so if his stuff is cut down in lieu of more relevant/imporatnt characters, tough luck. it sucks but it’s a logical decision. basque grand only appeared in like 15 secs of brotherhood till this ep so what’s the need to develop his character’s tough yet fair nature shown in killing the douchey officer as the manga did? if you have a gazillion eps to work with like bleach then fine - brotherhood doesn’t have that luxury.

as for having two eps, i could see the sense there (esp. since 27 was an unnecessary ep) but i also see the point in getting through this flashback sequence in one standalone ep and keeping things moving. the manga doesn’t seem to be finishing any time soon, maybe the brisk pacing now will allow them to slow down and more faithfully render the later chapters as they wait for Arakawa to finish.

Thus they cut so much out of the ishbalan arc that it barely had half the impact that the manga chapters on this material did. Seriously; they could have easily made 2 eps, and it would have been much better for it. And more comprehensible too.

I didn’t like it. And for the basic reasons that everyone listed but also for this:

When you’ve got a really good manga it’s not just good because of the story but the way the story is presented.

The Brotherhood anime has already messed around with a few ways that the material was presented and I’ve let it slide because it still served the purpose and was well-done. But out of all that Akawara has done with FMA I really believe that volume 15-all of the Ishbal flashback-was some of her most stellar work at presenting a story in a way that really sucked you in and emotionally shook you (not to mention revealed so much of the plot and characters). It’s absolutely my favorite volume and can only be rivaled by things like Maria Ross’ conviction and Ed, Ling, and Envy in Gluttony’s stomach to seeing Al’s body at the door.

Brotherhood did really well with the latter and even though they did mess with Maria Ross’ story it was okay. But what they did with Ishbal…it near disgusted me. And I think that’s one of the little problems with Brotherhood. They’re focusing solely on the marketing idea that they’re re-doing FMA telling the manga story. And as a result they’re not putting enough attention on translating how Akawara presents the story and more on just telling it. That may be why some viewers find Brohterhood ‘empty’ compared to the first anime and the manga.

Not that Brotherhood hasn’t been beyond amazing in a lot of ways and they are doing one hell of a job but this whole thing with Ishbal is really getting to me. Out of everything they should have kept almost exactly in line with manga…how Ishbal was told-epically-and spanning it over several episodes if they needed to, was it. I don’t care about their budget, they should’ve found a way to make it work. How phony and rushed is it to have Riza just suddenly walk up behind Roy and Hughes talking as compared to her saving them? How much is lacking when you don’t go the extra bit to have Riza rushing in when her father dies?

Not to mention I now really disagree with the reordering it so Scar’s story was earlier. Who else agrees with me that placing the whole of his story where they did took away from Winry? (I don’t care if you don’t like Winry-she’s an important character) and having the reveal in the Ishbal flashback left the viewer/reader in more suspense and wondering why Scar hesitated when Ed jumped in front of Winry and why he had that memory of his brother.

I was just really disappointed in this episode. It should have been epic. Instead it was a regular little flashback on something that is massively important to the story and effects every character. It was so epic in the manga…I’m just disappointed.

And they should’ve spent two episodes on the Ishbal flashback-there’s more than enough material. They cut out so much that it’s caused confusion.

Well, most of your questions should have already been answered in this episode (or rather in these Ishval flashbacks) if it weren’t for all the cuts they made (and a fairly large amount at that). But they may show them later so explaining them now may become a spoiler.

About Kimblee, yeah he is in prison right now, rewatch episode 1 and the end of episode 8, he made his appearance way back then (in ep 1, he’s the one Issac talked to in the prison)