Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 20

Epi on August 19, 2009 · in Full Metal Alchemist 2

Summary:

After a particularly action-packed last week, episode 20 was much more plot oriented as we finally get to meet Gendo Ikari Yuuichi Kirisaki Hohenheim — Ed and Al’s dad. In the typical tough-loving-anime-dad way, Hohenheim expresses his love for Ed by basically telling Ed that he’s a whiny kid who’s running away from all his troubles using the most mocking voice ever. After catching up on old times with Pinako (Winry’s Grandmother) Hohenheim leaves, but not before warning Pinako that the entire country is about to fall apart soon. She doesn’t take him seriously though, and he walks away noting that he’ll never see her again.

Meanwhile, jolted by his dad confronting him, Ed suddenly starts to wonder if what he transmuted when he did the ‘forbidden’ transmutation was really his mother at all. With that Ed decides to dig up the remains of his transmutation and after some measurements by Pinako (who by the way is used to measuring stuff for her automails I assume) realizes that what he created wasn’t his mother at all, but something completely different. With this knowledge Ed suddenly comes to a realization: he knows how to get Al back into his body.

Meanwhile back in Central, Ling Yao questions Al about his body and exclaims that it must be great to never have to sleep or eat. On hearing that Winry runs away crying as she realizes how painful it must be for Al to bear all of that. Al exclaims that if Winry and Ed always act before he does, he doesn’t ever have a chance to be sad himself.

After visiting Winry’s parents graves and letting Pinako know about their last moments in Ishbal, Ed calls up his Sensei and asks her if the ‘child’ that she transmuted was really her child. Stunned she hangs up on him.

With that Ed returns to Central. There he lets Al know that he finally knows how to save him. Since Al has memories that Ed does not share with him but does share with Winry, there’s no way that Al’s soul is just a creation of Ed’s. Furthermore, if there is a soul, there must be a body somewhere. With this line of thought Ed believes that Al’s body is still trapped in the world of the ‘Truth’ and waiting to be plucked back. Finally Sensei calls back, and after doing some checking she realizes that it couldn’t have been her child after all, as everything about the child was off including the hair and eye colour and she thanks Ed for what he has made her realize. Perplexed by her being thankful, Al explains. He had always felt remorseful that when he first came back from ‘The Truth’ he saw Al through the transmutated ‘mother’s’ eyes and that he had somehow replaced his Mother’s soul and directly led to the deterioration of the transmutated body. But now with the knowledge that the body was not his mother, Al realized that the entire thing was just never meant to be. With that, Ed and Al once again renew their pledge to restore Al back to his body.

Reaction:

After a really action-packed episode 19, it was nice to get a change of pace. Sometimes when shows are forced too much to have constant action there ends up being too much of a ‘battle of the week’ type thing and the story suffers. I’m glad that FMA has stuck to being a story first, with action second.

The most obviously important thing about this entire episode was Ed’s multiple realizations. Firstly that he did not transmute his mother, and in fact it’s impossible to bring back the dead. Secondly the fact that it may be possible to restore Al to his real body. Whether or not bringing back Al’s body from the world of ‘The Truth’ is actually possible though, I have my doubts, and with this show which isn’t so straightforward it’s hard to say as well. I also wonder if they’d get the original 10 year old Al or get a slightly older version.

I also wonder if the manga version had ANYTHING to do whatsoever with the original anime and the whole World War 2 London thing. I mean obviously if transmutated bodies were just dead guys from London with no souls, then what you give up might just end up in London (i.e. dead Al with no soul, random Ed arm, and Sensei’s internal organs found on the floor at Piccadilly Circus). Of course that was probably a first anime construct, so I wonder what the real answer will turn out to be. Perhaps all that happened was that Ed created a replica body, much like Mustang’s replica Maria Ross from a few episodes back, but since this replica held Al’s soul, it deteriorated very quickly due to soul rejection (sounds like a fighting game).

The more critical thing in this episode though is Hohenheim’s return. Firstly he seems to know a lot about human transmutation in that what you create isn’t necessarily what you were trying to make. Does his mean that he tried something similar in the past as well? And what exactly was his promise to his wife? If Pinako didn’t make such a big deal of it, I would have just attributed it to the standard ‘I won’t die before you do anata~~~!’ but now I’m not so sure. Finally, what does Hohenheim know about what’s going to happen? He seems to know something ‘big’ is going to happen soon which will involve the entire country, but what does he really know? Does he already know all about the Homunculus or what?

And one last thing. How the hell does Pinako keep her glasses clear and usable in the rain? I know I can’t!