Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 30 November 1
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Summary:
Sometime after joining the military, Mustang had paid a visit to his sick teacher. Back then, Mustang believed that strengthening the military was needed and that alchemy in particular could help protect the people. He had also urged his teacher to become a state alchemist to get out of poverty and to continue with his research, but Mustang’s teacher felt that his research on the strongest alchemy had been completed long ago. He had conjectured that alchemists cannot help but seek the truth and that they die when they stop thinking, and he considered himself dead. Mustang’s teacher had actually died shortly thereafter, leaving his daughter - who had all of his research - in Mustang’s care, and that daughter was none other than Hawkeye. After the burial, Mustang had told Hawkeye that, as a soldier, he might one day die like garbage on the roadside, but he still wanted to protect everyone and become part of the foundation of the country. Hawkeye had thought that this was wonderful and wanted to believe in a future where everyone could live happily, and she had entrusted him with her father’s dream.
Back in the present, Ed pays a visit to Hawkeye and returns her gun. He tells her about his own inability to shoot and about what happened between Scar and Winry, and Hawkeye apologizes because she realizes that the gun became a heavy burden. This leads to the two talking about what happened during the Ishval conflict, and Hawkeye tells of how it started, how the Fuhrer had ordered the beginning of the Ishval annihilation, and all the killing that resulted. She herself had been a sniper, and she had been reunited with Mustang on the battlefield. Back then, she had questioned why soldiers who should be protecting the people were killing them instead, and the answer didn’t come from Mustang but rather from Kimblee who had overheard. Kimblee’s answer was that it’s their job, and he had suggested that even Hawkeye had felt some sense of accomplishment in her own sniping skills. He had gone on to assert that they shouldn’t turn their eyes away from death and to not forget since the enemy wouldn’t forget either.
When Mustang had asked Hughes why he was fighting, Hughes had simply said that it was because he didn’t want to die. That had left Mustang questioning what the reason for the fighting was, and unbeknownst to him, the real reason was so that Ishval people could be sacrificed to create a Philosopher’s Stone. Marcoh had presided over this, and that Philosopher’s Stone had ended up in the hands of Kimblee. Towards the end of the conflict, the leader of the Ishval people had come to King Bradley to try to give himself up so that the rest of his people would be spared. King Bradley, however, had rejected the deal because he believed that one life was worth just one life, and he had made it a point to deny the existence of the Ishval god and its ability to do anything to him. In the aftermath of the conflict, Hawkeye had reported to Mustang and had joined him believing that she and her generation would have to get themselves dirty to make things better for the next generation.
Having heard all this, Ed realizes now that even if Mustang took over the military, it wouldn’t change the fact that they live in a military nation. Hawkeye knows that he’s right and that they need to switch to a democratic system, but she also feels that it would be necessary to bring war criminals of the Ishval conflict to justice. That includes themselves, and Hawkeye realizes that even if it was the Homunculus behind it all, it was they who carried it out. This frustrates Ed, but Hawkeye points out that he should be more concerned right now about returning himself and Al to their former bodies. At that moment, Al is about to leave Knox’s place and is stopped by May Chang because she wants to thank him. It is here that she finally learns that Al is Ed’s brother, and Al paints a very rosy picture of himself to her. Meanwhile, back at Marcoh’s prison, Envy arrives with food and is surprised to find a corpse with the word Vengeance written in blood on the wall.
Preview
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So I saw that many of the commenters last week were highly anticipating this Ishval flashback part of the story. That may have raised my expectations a bit, and I came out of this episode feeling that it wasn’t anything particularly special. Certainly it was nice to see Hughes again (Kimblee too), and I liked the Mustang and Hawkeye character development, but there wasn’t any particular part of the flashback that really made a big impact. The beginning parts of it even felt a tad bit like recap with Hawkeye talking over scenes we’ve already seen. Come to think of it, maybe it’s because they’ve already shown so much of this in past episodes that this one didn’t feel that special - this mainly just brought everything together.
I also thought that they were headed for a pretty meh ending to the episode with the Al and May Chang stuff, but then the epilogue came back and surprised me a bit with Marcoh’s apparent (and rather grisly) death. I did notice though that in the preview for next week, Scar is with a hooded person… On a different note, I included both eye-catches this week in the screencaps above because it’s Hawkeye fanservice and because it emphasizes even more the tattoo on her back, which I don’t remember coming up much at all in the actual episode (and thus I’m quite curious about). I’m also curious to see more of what happened with Kimblee since they didn’t really say in this episode.
penguintruth at 5:25 am on November 1st, 2009
So…
Am I supposed to like this? Hate this? Be aroused by the naked Riza eyecatch and wonder about the commercial for Gangan that had Olivia Armstrong, animated, and talking?
Volume 15 is my FAVORITE VOLUME of Fullmetal Alchemist. It’s… well, pretty much perfect. It may be the greatest volume of manga ever penned. Or one of them, anyway. And this… this is… so little of it.
We miss the scene where Armstrong tries to help Ishbalans escape, the bit where the military locks up Ishbalan officers, the part where Kimbley is sent to kill the Rockbells, but then sees Scar has beaten him to it.
I… just. I don’t know. What they did show was pretty great, but they could have done two episodes and it would have been the best two episodes yet, but instead did one that felt… incomplete.
I’d be interested in other peoples’ opinions on this.
liborek3 at 5:29 am on November 1st, 2009
penguintruth: I think, they will add missing scenes later
CS at 5:31 am on November 1st, 2009
I think I tend to agree with you penguintruth. As much as I wanted to see this ep, it was part let-down, part awesomeness. Considering the amount of love (which is immense) that I have for Volume 15, this actually doesn’t even get any close to it.
Probably, having bits and pieces of flashcbak in other episodes lessened the impact, plus there are other scenes - Show Spoiler ▼
- which should have been shown.
Feels slightly rushed and that’s what bugs me.
But seeing Olivier in the ad was awesome XD
liborek3 at 5:38 am on November 1st, 2009
CS: Her voice is great
penguintruth at 5:43 am on November 1st, 2009
I’d like to know who it was who did Olivia’s voice.
Anyway, like I’ve said before, Bones needs to get to a full-length Ishbal war movie. Ashes of Ishbal!
CS at 6:01 am on November 1st, 2009
@penguintruth: I second your idea, would be so awesome! *__*
OMG at 6:05 am on November 1st, 2009
Wew Riza look hots
liborek3 at 6:11 am on November 1st, 2009
penguintruth: yeah, it would be fuckin’ awesome movie
Siddharth at 6:54 am on November 1st, 2009
Riza should let her hair down more often, she looks good like that!
mads at 7:29 am on November 1st, 2009
http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/Fullmetal%20Alchemist/Fullmetal%20Alchemist%20-%2030%20-%2002.jpg looks like kenpachi o.O
Lagunamov at 8:25 am on November 1st, 2009
From what I’ve read, I think the only scene I’m actually gonna miss is Gran shooting that commanding officer and everyone just shrugging it off and calling it a ’stray bullet’. Always thought that scene showed exactly how disgusted everyone who was not corrupted or battle crazy was about the whole extermination, specially since Show Spoiler ▼
Riza asking Roy to burn her back will also be missed, but we see her back is burnt, so anyone who can put 2+2 together can figure what happened there.
Kim at 9:05 am on November 1st, 2009
Wow not only did animate a complete volume in this episode (sans a few Ishbal scenes they already covered) they also animated a little of Vol. 16. I have not watched the episode yet but I can imagine they had to skip a lot which is a real shame. And yes 2 episodes would have made much more sense. And besides the recap episode they had been doing so well lately too.
jackelbeaver at 9:40 am on November 1st, 2009
naked back service
Magical Poof at 9:55 am on November 1st, 2009
Personally, I thought the entire Ishbal flashback arc was dreadfully boring and it appears I’d been under the mistaken assumption that everyone else found it boring, too. It certainly seemed that way since almost the entire fandom community died during this arc and many of the people I’ve talked to thought it was boring. It was really a chore to get through, I thought. Nothing important happens and all we get to see if some Roy angst and a bit of Riza’s past. I’m glad they didn’t try to drag it out.
Flappy at 9:55 am on November 1st, 2009
YAY! Hawkeye based EPISODE! luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!luv it!
Kim at 10:04 am on November 1st, 2009
@ Magical Poof you might dislike the Ishbal arc but your opinion is not shared by the majority of the fandom. And having been in the fandom at the time it most certainly did not die.
ChocoBar at 10:08 am on November 1st, 2009
I doubt they’ll add anything more to the DVD, I was anticipating this and it felt meh. I’ll agree with Magical Poof that it wasn’t the highlight of the series in general.
Siege at 10:33 am on November 1st, 2009
I was expecting this flashback to be more solid and last a least 2 episodes, instead they jumped around to the important stuff from the manga. That’s why this episode didn’t feel anything special, and the tatoo on Hawkeye back felt like an afterthought.
info600 at 11:00 am on November 1st, 2009
dang, cramped much? (but then each episode IS supposed to be 2 manga chapters, should’ve seen that coming)
… must’ve been how they compressed it this time around
at least they still have something remaining such as:
http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/Fullmetal%20Alchemist/Fullmetal%20Alchemist%20-%2030%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
fyi, I REALLY want to spoil you guys…but I’m not gonna (Omni already did…sort of)
kanaria at 11:12 am on November 1st, 2009
Aww…. cut out a lot of good stuff.. This was easily the best volume of the manga (so you should go read it, those of you who haven’t!) And for the record, the tattoo should have been mentioned again towards the end, but they left that out too.