NOOOO!!! Why is she my sister, I can't even ENJOY THIS :'( NOOOO!!!
Summary:
Pride is such a bastard
Jumping right into the fight from the end of the previous episode, Pride who’s not amused looks on as Wrath and Greed fight it out. Having fully regained his memories of his past, Greed takes out his revenge on Wrath as the guy who killed all of his former underlings.
This battle was pretty epic
After a super epic battle, Wrath manages to put Greed back into the same position he was the last time when he was defeated (on the ground with a sword to the neck). Fortunately for Greed, this time he’s able to escape by jumping out the window.
Meet the Armstrongs!
Meanwhile at the Armstrong mansion, Olivier tells her father to retire as the head of the household and to give control over to her, and also tells her parents to go take a long vacation out of the country. When he tells her that he’s always meant for Alex to take it over, she fully objects even when he walks into the room. Their father has another idea, for the siblings to fight it out, winner take all. With that his father immediately retires, and the entire family empties out the vault and decides to go to Xing for their vacation, while cutie Catherine is all too happy to go along. As the Armstrong clan packs up, we get to see Olivier totally own Alex completely and totally. After some awesome “nooooooooooooo!!!!”s Alex concedes and Olivier is the new head of the Armstrong family.
Out in the East, May Chang is about to leave to Xing when a random group of townsfolk decide to take care of her before her long journey. Sensing that she is moved by all of these kind people, Envy uses the opportunity to trick May into going back to Central to ‘save these people’ and being the impressionable little girl she is, she goes along with Envy’s rouse.
Meanwhile Ed travels back to the hideout from a while back (the place where Gluttony first ate Ed) to find Al, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Amazingly though he runs into Ling who’s temporarily taken over his body back from the distraught Greed. He manages to let Al know that there’s a particular date that Father is going to run this plan into motion but before he can say more Greed comes back. Apparently Greed who now realizes that he’s alienated himself from the rest of the Homunculus, has decided to live alone, and Ed’s pleads to become friends come unheard. Ed finally begs Greed to be his subordinate though, telling him that he’d be a fool to pass up this opportunity to know some of the information that Greed knows even if he’s his subordinate.
That's some fine, fine ass
The rest of the episode deals with the beginning of Al’s plan as he sets into motion all of their allies by letting them know of the ‘promised date’. Everyone then contacts each other and pledges to all that on the promised day, the East and the North will move.
I like Riza in her casual clothes
Reaction:
Wow such an amazing episode. It’s hard to believe that within the first 6 minutes we get two of the most awesome fights in the last 10 episodes all plunked together. It almost felt as if those 6 minutes was the full episode when I was watching as time seemed to go a bit slower. It was THAT GOOD.
The second Greed/Wrath fight was all the more awesome because Pride was looking on, even as mommy was hugging Selim. The fact that GreedLing seemed to be stronger than the previous Greed also made for a better and more balanced fight.
Of course the highlight of the week was the Armstrong family battle. Olivier obviously intended to get her family out of the country and out of harm’s way, but she also seems to genuinely think that her little brother Alex is a loser. She makes short work of him in a ridiculously one sided battle. I’m pretty sad though that while the ‘battle’ saw Alex get his ass kicked over and over and getting thrown around, we don’t actually see Olivier doing her moves. It’s all implied that she’s doing crazy moves, but we don’t see anything. I’m also sure that of you many readers out there, you probably wish it was YOU that was owned by Olivier totally and completely.
The little bit of seeing Catherine was awesome too. I wish we got to see more of her and her amazing powers (as evidenced by Yoki).
The Ed/GreedLing pairing was a bit unexpected, but it’s good to see the two back together. Their little banter was always fun, although I wonder if that will be lost if Greed is in control most of the time.
Having Envy being able to trick May into going back to Central was somewhat expected. I mean the stupidity of NOT KILLING ENVY is just… stupid. Man you’d think they would not do something so obviously dumb, but… they did.
Finally we get to see all the ‘forces of good’ set into motion. As Ling mentions, the promised day is still a few seasons away. So will we suddenly flash forward into the future and thus see the fruits of a lot of preparation, or will the series still move at this ‘day at a time’ pace for a while longer before skipping to the end?
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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! |
14 Comments
Keep in mind, it was May’s mission to bring back the secret to immortality. Therefore, killing Envy would only hurt her goal (“What? This dead worm is supposed to be the corpse of an immortal (lol!) Homunculus?”)
Mission or not, sending her back with a Homunculus as sneaky as Envy was their first dumb move. If they really thought it through, it’s not hard to see how Envy could trick them all just like Father did when he destroyed Xerxes.
Seriously, what are Ed and Al gonna do when they find that Envy summoned enough energy to transform into a bishie and seduced May?
We’re missing the omnipresent (in the manga anyway) bishie sparkles around the Armstrong family this time around, but that’s okay, since the free-for-all between Olivier and Louis (even when we’re not actually shown the details) makes up for it.
the whole scene with may and the townfolk at youswell mine (formally owned by yoki) seemed a bit forced but that because the anime cut out her official introduction. in the manga you first see her arriving at youswell half-starved (must be a trait among the emperors children) before being fed by the miners kid. then theres a huge mine collapse, but may manages to save everyone with her long range alchemy. there is some history between may and the townsfolk but as the material wasn’t included the scene seems less genuine. Why they cut out so much from the xing arc (at least until the ling/ran-fan vs wrath fight) is beyond me. at least the pace is pretty spot on now.
the armstrong fight scene is the same in the manga. its disappointing not to see them actually fight but overall more memorable that they put he focus on the indifferent response the rest of the family have to their home collapsing around them. the armstrongs seriously need their own sitcom… with general grumann added for good measure.
i love the v. brief flashback bradley has of fighting ling during the greed battle. it seems to either imply that ling takes back his body during the actual battle (greeds facial expersion are v. ling-esqe) or that greed is using lings memories and skills to fight better. its still not good enough yet though.
also the end credits this week ruled!
Yeah, man. They even included Maison in this episode, working for Sig and Izumi no less… even though they cut out every other scene with him.
Which begs the question… if they included both Youswell and Maison in this episode, why did they cut them to begin with?
I’ve been wondering that myself. obviously i get why the beginning arcs were shortened, seeing as they’ve already been shown. I also get why alot of the flashbacks were cut as the anime wants to focus on ed and present events but… i dont know. theres certainly not only a change in pace from the first 22-23 episodes but a change in focus. its almost like they were looking at the anime as an adaptation for the first half of the currently released eps, then around the point ed and ling became trapped in gluttony’s stomach they started making it as close to the original source as possible (again barring the ishbal flashbacks). the briggs arc in particular has nearly mirrored the manga
Maybe it was down to a fan backlash that got royally pissed that when the new material arrived important and exciting scenes where still being cut (the infamously omitted fan-fan/ling vs envy/gluttony being the best example, seeing as that has not only prides manga introduction
but the reveal that the xingese could sense the homunculi; leading to lings later confidence that he could help ed find and capture one). i personally suspect that the anime producers only got part way through the series before actually realising that the best approach of doing it justice was to stick to the mangas already spot-on pace, and that even the small roled characters are vital and fit into the big picture/plan in the fma universe. thats the main reason i like it so much.
Make a lot more sense now that you’ve let me know in the manga that May already knew those people… the scene itself in the anime looked really strange to me otherwise.
I think they rushed through the first half because they probably felt that as the first half was similar to the first half of the original FMA, if they lingered too long people would get antsy because they’re seeing the same stuff over and over again. But when they safely passed where the first show left off (with a bit of padding) they started being faithful again… or maybe they realized they were catching up to the manga too quickly and had to slow down.
The thing that bothered me most was episode 15-19. That’s my absolute favorite part of the manga and all completely new material… and they still basically abridged it.
Barry and Falman’s interaction is what made that so good. Like, Falman is there at the interrogation in both, but in the anime, you don’t know why he’s there.
If only they could have worked in “He’s a walking database of information” as his skill (they have yet to do so), it wouldn’t have been so out in the open when Ed asks him to list the country’s entire military history. When you know that Falman has that ability and incredible memory, of course he would be the one able to do that. In the anime though, he’s never said to have it, so it’s just like “Tell me every single fact and detail over 500 years, red coat”
“Ok”
my guess is that they rushed through the xing introduction to get to the part the the story properly builds up with the big fights and the first hints that theres a mastermind (father) behind the homunculi. i heard the viewer ratings in japan were steadily dropping during the first 18 episodes so it was possibly a marketing decision.
my fave cut scene was when barrys body attacked barrys soul and falman. In the manga ling leaves ran-fan to protect them (when he goes to ask al about immortality) and when the fight break out she senses somebody watching on the roof, then five people, then ten, then twenty… etc. it was a really suspenseful section as everyone (viewer included) thought there was a army of enemies about to strike them. ran-fan investigates to find a startled… envy. epic!
I still can’t help but think that if they had slowed down at episode 15, the ratings might not have continued to drop. It’s seems at 19, that’s finally when the pacing sloooowed down, that they were like “Oh yeah, I guess we’re at the new material, we should slow down now”
It’s like sprinting so fast that you overshoot your goal without realizing it.
18 episode’s left let the long finale starting and your right about Envy but i like him so i cant wait for him to get a stone
also were is Kimblee he disappered also Gluttony is back (for about 2 seconds in the credits) after not appearing for a big 15 episodes
Envys a nasty bastard and i would not want to run into in a dark alley the with him im sure he would kill me plus he can beat Wrath in fight (i would not be surprised if they fought after all when Bradley was going out with his wife he had no idea what to do and asked Lust and Envy for advice. bad idea Lust gave the advice and his wife thought he was a perv. He then went to Envy who purposely gave him horrible advice (the advice that got him slapped) and actually went to the restaurant just to see Wrath mess up on his date)
when is the next reivew going to be up i dieing over here
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[...] of the fight when Al first uses his philosopher’s stone, to Olivier’s beatdowns of his little brother and that of Sloth, to the various Wrath fights, to the first big Envy fight, to Mustang roasting [...]