Riza's shocked by Nama-ko's awesome figure in the shower...
Summary:
The episode starts off with Riza acting all paranoid after being threatened by Pride, even imagining Hayate as an evil monster out to get her. She’s interrupted by Roy checking up on her, but as she hangs up on him he realizes somethings wrong.
Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, darling you give love a bad name...
Meanwhile back in the North Ed, Al, Winry, Miles, Kimblee and everyone has traveled to the ghost town of Baschool where Scar was last sighted. As they split up, two of Kimblee’s ‘bodyguards’ accompany Ed and Al, but the brothers manage to run off with some quick thinking. As they search for Scar, the brothers are tracked down by May Chang and Xiao May as the girl gets all giddy at the prospect of the two brothers looking for her (ignoring that fact that they just wanted to know about Eastern alchemy). After Winry pops out of Al’s armour, May’s heart is broken though by the ‘other’ woman.
Armstrong family = PURE WIN
Following May are Dr. Marcoh and Yoki, who is crushed that Ed does not remember him. Apparently Yoki was a crooked mine operator (was that from the first series?! Looks strangely familiar…) that Ed had tricked to drive out of town, and had lived a life of hilarious misery including trying to rob the Armstrong household before he was picked up by Scar.
Not bad for Red Shirted Ensigns
Meanwhile Scar runs into Zampano and Jerso, two of Kimblee’s ‘bodyguards’ who were actually chimera agents sent from Central to kill Scar. As Dr. Marcoh explains to the brothers about Scar’s brother’s book and the truth of eastern alchemy, Scar starts his fight and the Elric brothers rush towards where he is. The chimeras have done their homework as they figure out a way to trap Scar, but before they can finish their job, the brothers arrive and pretend not to know the chimeras (they ARE suddenly monsterly after all) as Ed manages to beat down the chimeras with his new lightning quick speed using his new lighter automail. As the brothers go to finish off Scar, Winry accompanied by Miles bursts on the scene to stop them.
I'm the King of the World!!
Back at Briggs, Buccaneer’s team arrives back at the entrance to the tunnel after the 24-hour deadline. Fearing that their fate is sealed, the door opens from above and they are saved. Apparently Olivier decided to ignore the 24-hour deadline because of her faith in her men. Afterwards, a newly arrived officer (probably some guy from Central) confronts Olivier (probably about the missing General Raven).
The episode ends as Kimblee becomes aware of the Scar fight, only to arrive after a huge explosion with Scar carrying Winry away.
Reaction:
Overall this was an average episode. The fight scene was pretty good, but the plot did not really advance too much as it was more of an episode where everyone was just meeting up again, rather than new things developing. There were two crucial things that happened of course.
Firstly, we see Riza’s unbridled fear of Pride. Considering how brave she has always been shown to be, as a war veteran and someone who even fought Gluttony head-on it’s pretty important that she’s scared of Pride. That guy really got under her skin in more ways than one, if you as a viewer weren’t already scared of him, you should be now.
Secondly, we get to see just how much Olivier cares for and trusts her men. It’s amazing that the ice queen herself completely ignored the deadline. Now With that new army dude coming to ask her to explain herself about what I can only imagine to be about General Raven, the game is upped yet another level as we’ll have to see what kind of excuse she comes up with, or if she’ll just kill this guy too. Perhaps Buccaneer would now that he’s totally blushing at Olivier’s kindness, especially if the new guy is like Raven and tries to pick her up.
Finally for the end of the episode we see Scar carrying away Winry. The episode of course purposefully doesn’t show us exactly what has happened. My theory is that Scar took away Winry on purpose as part of some plan to make everyone believe that she’s a hostage. It’s implied that Marcoh told them how crucial Scar is to figuring out everything, so I doubt the brothers were ever going to kill the guy. Considering she’s not safe at all with the Elric brothers (as they are with Kimblee) removing her would be a good thing to do. Why Scar would so quickly go along with their plan is a mystery. Perhaps Miles was part of this plan too, as he was clearly there and no real conversation could have happened without Miles knowing about it.
Oh yeah one last thing… Yoki’s story was totally awesome in every way. I like how his ‘reliable investment’ was gambling LOL. And of course robbing the Armstrong household was the icing on the cake, especially the RIDICULOUSLY STRONG LITTLE SISTER.
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About Epi: As a huge fan of all things mecha, high school and tsundere, I've been writing for SSAB! since the summer of 2009, although my love of anime spreads through all genres. I'm not as witty as some, but I aim to bring comprehensive and well-written anime reviews out there for you all out there to enjoy! |
15 Comments
the yoki/mine story was one of the first chapters in the manga and was also an early episode in the first series. obviously it was cut from this series to get to the new material, although im really glad how they did a summary in a silent movie vibe. incidentally, everything after yoki being thrown out by the mine workers was new material. the gambling scene was ace and the omake-referencing armstrong family scenes were sheer gold.
although as psgels mentioned the direction in this ep was outstanding this part of the manga has always left me a bit cold (no pun intended). im not a huge fan of the chimera for a start. greeds henchmen were tastefully done but everytime i look at jerso and zampano, i have horrible flashbacks of the guyver. they’re a little too over the top for my liking anyway
The two chimeras kept making me think of Tokka and Razhar from the Ninja Turtle movies haha.
OMFGLOL!!! Next we need Rocksteady and Bebop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9GK377xYhU
Cathrine Elle Armstrong the little sister was in the old series Major armstrong tried to set her up with Havoc then he found out that she wants to meet some one just like him but buff like her bro
Maybe that’s why she seems so familiar… been years since I’ve seen the original series.
Yoki’s flashback is hilarious; I cracked up through the whole thing. Frankly, it’s a hell of a lot better than the episode from the original series, which bored the hell out of me.
Yeah the episode from the original series was completely and totally forgettable.
yet it is Vic the guy that will do Ed’s english dub’s favorite episode
Lol love the caption with the Bon Jovi lyrics.
I liked this episode. Sure the plot doesn’t progress much, but I liked the comedy. Bones did a good job telling Yoki’s story and adding in some hilarious segments. It seems like two of Armstrong’s sisters are even bigger than he is.
I think I speak for all of us when I say FMA needs more of the Armstrong family. Considering it seems that this addition of them wasn’t canon (aka not part of the manga) it seems BONES realizes this too.
they sould make another apperence latter in the series
also the elrics never were going to kill him they were just trying to capture him i thought it was sort of easy to see remember Ed’s resolve not to kill
FYI, in your caption on the chimeras “Not bad for typical redshirts”
The best thing about all 4 of Kimblee’s men are that they are anything but redshirts. Wait and see, but soon all 4 of them will become just as important as any of the other allies they have. And they all get quite a bit of screentime, character personalities, and important tasks they help out with. That’s why they’re so awesome. You don’t expect them to become important players.
The fighting sequence is a wee bit hilarious but entertaining but it leaves me hanging right now on the next episode ..erkh!!! Are the boys in cahoots with Scar to trick Kimblee? And when is my Roy Mustang gonna have his appearance with the rest of his team?!
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[...] episode then turns back to flashback mode. As we learn that my conclusions from the previous episode, it seems that after Scar gave Winry the choice to have her way with him kill him or not, she [...]