Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood 19

Summary:

Episode 19 picks up right where 18 left off, with the fate of Riza Hawkeye hanging in the balance. Incidentally, ‘Riza’ seems like a Japanese version of ‘Lisa’ which of course is short for and related to ‘Elizabeth’, which is Riza’s codename in the sting operation. Riza manages to put up quite a fight but just cannot kill Gluttony, whose regenerative powers are too powerful for her guns. With all hope lost help arrives at the last second in the form of Hayate and the Sargent. (BTW just how does a normal human hit a brick wall, make a huge dent and not be hurt in any way?)

Gluttony proves too powerful for the two of them, but before he can make a move, Roy Mustang manages to get there to save the day with his fire. With Gluttony out of the way, the chase begins as Barry’s body makes a run for it. Hearing the story, Al joins the chase and while in the car with everyone reveals the existence of the Homunculus. The chase eventually leads everyone to Research Laboratory 3. Unable to stop himself, Barry chases after his body and Roy uses that as an opportunity to ‘officially’ enter the building in ‘chase’ of Barry. Coming to a dead end, they decide to split up, Roy with Havoc and Al with Riza.

Unfortunately for Roy and Havoc, they run into Lust and Havoc realizes that his big-boobed girlfriend Solaris is actually a Homunculus. It is there she reveals that her power comes from a Philosopher’s Stone instilled at her very core. Roy manages to temporarily incapacitate her with an explosion of hydrogen, but her powers prove too great as she stabs both men while they search for her body. After destroying Roy’s transmutation circle glove, Lust leaves them to die and goes to search for Al and Riza.

Meanwhile Al and Riza catch up to Barry who has found his now dead and bloody body lying in front of a replica of ‘The Door’. Before Al has a chance to get a closer look at the door, Lust steps in. Barry charges at her but is split into hundreds of pieces by Lady Deathstrike’s Lust’s claws. As she closes in on Riza and Al, Roy suddenly appears. Using Havoc’s ruined lighter and his own blood to create a new transmutation circle he burns Lust over and over while Al and Riza hide behind a wall. With the power of his flames, Roy ‘kills’ Lust enough times to finally overwhelm her Philosopher’s Stone and with that she is vanquished.

The episode ends with a quick change back to Ed who on his way home to pay his respects to his mother’s gravestone when he suddenly encounters his long lost father…

Reaction:

This was one of the best episodes of this redo of FMA so far. One of the things that always defines a good fantasy/sci-fi show is how consistent the show deals with its world. Not so good fantasy or sci-fi animes will always resort to the power of FIGHTING SPIRIT or deus ex machina in the form of ever better technology (Gundam I’m looking at you) to solve problems. Good shows meanwhile will always stay consistent with what the world presents. It doesn’t matter if the actual world is fantastical, such as the idea that alchemy can actually exist; what matters is that the idea of alchemy is always dealt with consistently.

A few episodes back when Ed figured out how to defeat Greed, it wasn’t merely by FIGHTING SPIRIT. Sure that helped in charging him up, but in the end Ed figured out how to defeat the ultimate shield by changing its molecular structure on the fly. Similarly in this episode we see Roy Mustang presented with a problem. How do you defeat something that doesn’t die? The answer lies in the question ‘How do you manage to become such a survivor that you are known as The Hero of Ishbal?’. Basically, you think on your feet and defeat your enemy using your wits. In one of those great rare moments when characters on the screen actually do what you think a smart person would actually do, Roy Mustang shoots Lust in the chest and rips out her Philosopher’s Stone to both kill her and to save Havoc. Not since Han Solo shot at Darth Vader on Cloud City have I see such an obviously-smart-yet-something-you-never-see-people-doing-in-a-show-type-move. Well maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but I really liked that scene.

Of course as we know Roy’s actions weren’t enough to kill Lust, and she makes the classic villain mistake of not finishing off her prey before she leaves which is fine. She’s arrogant and that fits in with this world. This allows Roy to show his colours yet again a few minutes later. Thinking on his feet, he creates a new transmutation circle on his hand with blood, and burns Lust until her Philosopher’s Stone runs out of power and she finally dies. There’s just something about that entire scene that was just very spectacular. It would have been easy for the show to have used some silly trick to defeat Lust. Perhaps Roy could have suddenly had some super fireball power that we haven’t seen before, or he figures out some stupid trick to kill her, but no. He was consistent to the end with the world, it’s limitations and his character in how he handled things. Roy didn’t use any tricks, he just gambled that no Philosopher’s Stone is endless and that by hurting her enough he would use up her stone’s power.

Unfortunately this show is not all completely consistent. While a minor point, I find it a bit silly how it took Roy 30 seconds to run from headquarters to where Riza was fighting Gluttony and even manage to run up the stairs in that short period of time. I mean it was pretty clear the sting operation wasn’t happening next door to HQ, but I guess they couldn’t find a more believable way for him to save Riza.

As for the rest of the episode, we are told by Lust that Roy is a candidate for sacrifice. So is Al. So is Ed as we learned earlier, and so is Ed and Al’s teacher. What exactly are these sacrifices, and why do only alchemists qualify? I suspect that the sacrifices have something to do with creating more Philosopher’s Stones (thus their need to try and kill off Scar who was killing off state alchemists in the beginning) but I can’t be sure.

And how about Barry? At the very end, we clearly see Barry’s body scratching off the blood symbol that held Barry’s soul onto the suit of armour. With it scratched out, did he really die? Can we expect sometime later in the series a magically restored Barry (soul merged back with the body) to return and save the day? This is an important point because as we see, it’s clearly Barry’s body that scratched out his symbol, and Barry clearly states over and over that his soul aches to return. If Barry is actually restored (instead of dead as we’re made to believe), this raises hope for Al’s eventual restoration back to his body as long as he’s able to recover it.

Finally the episode ends with Ed’s long awaited meet up with his father… at least they’re not in World War II London this time…

P.S. I’m really sad that Lust is dead. Kikuko Inoue really showed everyone how amazing a Seiyuu she was back in Macross Frontier when she finally played a villain. Similarly she’s been spectacular as Lust, and I’m sad to see her go. She needs to play more badguys, she’s too damn good at it.

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