Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - 47
Contrary to the large scale of the past number of episodes, this one was nearly entirely focused on the group of Ed, Greed and those two Chimera. But that still didn’t prevent it from being as excellent as usual. I really have to admit that the way in which the action scenes of this series is written is stuffed with a ton of creativity. That fight against pride was really excellent, especially in the way that we finally get to see one of his major weaknesses.
What I also liked is how this series shows that not all human experiment victims are dissatisfied with their bodies, and want to go back to who they originally were. Like the two chimeras in this episode said: at times it’s pretty convenient to have such a body. With Al, it’s of course an entirely different story. Convenient as it may be to have a mechanical body, he’s completely under Pride’s control now, not to mention that the link between the armor and his mind can sever any minute now.
There was a little Deus ex Machina in this episode, though. While it’s awesome to see Lan Fan back, I do wonder how she 1) knew where Lin was at the time when Ed put a lot of emphasis on secrecy, and 2) knew where the heck she should look for in the total dark.
In any case, I’m expecting a very long finale here. I mean, the promised day is like what? The next day? At this point there still are 16 episodes left. Overall though, I’m very glad that for once we get a series that gets enough time to tell its entire story, rather than it being cut off at a random point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
“There was a little Deus ex Machina in this episode, though. While it’s awesome to see Lan Fan back, I do wonder how she 1) knew where Lin was at the time when Ed put a lot of emphasis on secrecy, and 2) knew where the heck she should look for in the total dark.”
Both of these should be answered next episode, so it’s not a total asspull.
Comment by garik16 — March 7, 2010 @ 18:30
In fact, they should have been answered long ago, but they cut that out >_>
Comment by Serpit — March 7, 2010 @ 18:34
did the manga end
Comment by cx — March 7, 2010 @ 18:53
Sorry to say but you’ll have to be satisfied with the deus ex machina. I don’t remember that part being explained in the manga.
@cx
No, the manga is still ongoing. 105 is expected to arrive at your favourite manga website sometime this week. :)
Comment by egress63 — March 7, 2010 @ 19:02
umm i dont understand how its a deus ex machina, xing characters can sense people remember? they have done it in the past, they can sense the presence of homunculi. thats how she knew where gluttony was. as for finding them, idk, cant remember, but it will probobly be explained next episode
Comment by TakashiD — March 7, 2010 @ 19:39
That Xing thing was only sort of hinted at in this anime, but fully explained in the manga. It’s not really a spoiler so…
The Xing have the ability to sort of sense people. So a homunculous, which has a philosopher as its core, will feel like a whole lot of people to them. The used this to find a disguised Envy in the manga a while back, but the scene was cut out of the anime.
Comment by Lieb — March 7, 2010 @ 20:40
Yes! The climax essentially begins now. I really praise FMA for making the ending take up literally about 1/5 of the length of the story.
Comment by Keith — March 7, 2010 @ 20:44
Yeah, the Xing people read the flow of chi, right? So for them, a homunculi feels like thousands of souls stacked together. There was an entire scene with Ran Fan and Envy in the manga that was cut out where Envy tried to change into different forms (like dogs) to escape her, but she found him every time, and kept on killing him.
I’m fine if the anime cuts out unimportant parts, but yeesh, at least explain the major plot points.
Comment by Ebod — March 7, 2010 @ 20:50
@Ebod, what chapter was that?
Comment by Bruce — March 7, 2010 @ 21:46
>>Bruce
Chapter 38: A Counterattack Signal. :)
Comment by Ebod — March 7, 2010 @ 22:10
I love what Ed does with his arm next episode :D
Comment by Wren — March 7, 2010 @ 23:43
You know what’s kinda cool? Next episode, it’s corresponding manga chapter, is the chapter that announced Brotherhood.
Comment by Jack — March 8, 2010 @ 0:58
@Jack
You know, I was thinking about the same thing. xD
Comment by Acylia — March 8, 2010 @ 8:47
Notice that Ling can also fight in the dark along with Heinkel.
She can sense Gluttony (and him, or Greed) and can function just well in the dark.
Remember how in episode 15, both her and Fuu immediately find him just after like two seconds of smoke signals? It’s not really that much of a stretch.
Comment by Cornwiggle — March 8, 2010 @ 23:37
Cut out scenes from the anime, Lan Fan sensing/chasing envy:
http://manga.bleachexile.com/fullmetal-alchemist-chapter-38-page-6.html
http://manga.bleachexile.com/fullmetal-alchemist-chapter-38-page-7.html
http://manga.bleachexile.com/fullmetal-alchemist-chapter-38-page-8.html
http://manga.bleachexile.com/fullmetal-alchemist-chapter-38-page-14.html
http://manga.bleachexile.com/fullmetal-alchemist-chapter-38-page-15.html
Explanation:
http://manga.bleachexile.com/fullmetal-alchemist-chapter-37-page-35.html
Comment by Moo? — March 9, 2010 @ 2:02
ugh i probably double posted, didn’t think posts take this long to update.
Comment by Moo? — March 9, 2010 @ 2:15
Explanation:
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/37/34/
When Lan Fan chased Envy in various forms:
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/38/06/
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/38/07/
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/38/08/
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/38/14/
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/38/15/
Comment by Moo? — March 9, 2010 @ 2:20
Mores:
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/45/19/
onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/45/42/
Don’t know if it’ll be important later on, but they also explained Wrath was the only homunculi they could not sense, appears as a normal human.
Havn’t followed the anime but should have been mentioned by now, but if not, Wrath is also the only homunculi that could age which is why he appears old as of now, something about experimenting on him to reproduce… or something.
Comment by Moo? — March 9, 2010 @ 2:38
@Moo?
Thanks :D
Comment by Acylia — March 9, 2010 @ 8:17
So with the anime still ongoing, how will Brotherhood manage to completly end?
Comment by Azule — March 9, 2010 @ 14:23
I don’t get it,why Greed/ling not using is ultimate shield form? seems to be effective against pride. also,speaking of pride,it seems he has more weak points that I thought he have.
seems like they need to balance him.
Comment by Jack — March 9, 2010 @ 18:51
@Jack
I think that greed/ling is unable to fully enter his ultimate shield mode because neither is in total control of ling’s body. I imagine the shield takes a long of control and concentration and at the moment both greed and ling are unable to do much other take turns on one body (now that doesn’t sound right…). Maybe if they truly work together rather than opposing each other.
Either that or they don’t want to rip their shirt and jacket. Homunculi are notoriously cheap… probably
Comment by fathomlessblue — March 9, 2010 @ 19:57
btw,why in the first Warth VS Greed battle in episode 14,Greed with is original body didn’t use if Ultimate shield form when Warth kick is ass?
Comment by Jack — March 9, 2010 @ 20:43
@Jack
he probably would have but by the time greed realised how badass wrath actually was he was being cut into pieces, and therefore unable to create a shield as all of his energy was being used to heal from wounds instead. you can’t really do both at the same time. wrath didn’t give him a chance to change.
Comment by fathomlessblue — March 9, 2010 @ 22:08
Why has this happened twice now on two different Brotherhood blogs? Another Jack pops up shortly after I comment as just “Jack”
Oh well.
@Moo: I seem to recall all that being stated in the anime (more or less) but I don’t think that kind of information is absorbed as well when your watching a TV show as opposed to reading it in a manga.
Anyway, I’m excited about next episode :D Like Wren said, Ed does something pretty cool with his automail. I always loved that scene. It was reminiscent of when he learned how to kick Greed’s ass.
But the new chapter needs to come out sooner >.>
Comment by JackDawkins — March 10, 2010 @ 1:43
great episode. in the manga i thought pride not having ANY nighttime shadows after ed took out the lights was kinda iffy but here it was better “explained” (cloudy night LOL)
@Jack
yeah i kinda wonder about if the battle with wrath would have gone differently if he had gone FULL shield from the start. i mean, wrath is definitely a better fighter, but HOW would he actually defeat an opponent he couldn’t pierce?
PS just splitting hairs here but of the 4 chimeras in their animal forms Heinkel hasn’t translated as well from manga to anime IMHO. look at the manga panel in which he first attacks selim/pride:
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/86/22/
just badass. now this is probably just the skill of the manga artist being able to use just three colors (black/white/grey) to effectively convey the situation, especially bleak/sinister situations where more colors tend to lessen the dramatic impact.
Comment by Bobby — March 10, 2010 @ 14:56
Pride is so overpowered. I can’t wait to see how he is defeated.
Comment by Reltair — March 11, 2010 @ 9:37
Why is it that whenever Gluttony attacks, he rips trees apart?
Not very green of him! :D
And Ed knocking out the power supply was cool, but how the hell did he knock out camp fires? AND all other sources of light?
Comment by scytheslash — March 12, 2010 @ 22:05