First off, let us address the new opening and ending theme songs. I’m not exactly sure of their titles, but I’ll try and track down a translation as soon as possible; if not, they will be available on youtube, no doubt. In terms of animation content, the opening theme seems to be a little darker this time around – depressing, if you will. The atmosphere is gloomy, using dark colors, rainy themes and captures the sorrow of the show rather than epic fight scenes we normally see. As for the ending, which I much prefer in regards to the music, the animation context uses a lot of still shots with minimal movement; for instance, a shot of Hoenheim as a young man and his hair blowing in the wind and a shot of someone hiking through the desert. It is much more hopeful than the opening theme, ending with the rising sun.

If I had to rate both the opening and the ending themes in comparison to the previous ones, I would say that they are most definitely not the best. In my opinion, they have been getting worse with each change, but they’re not so horrible that I need to skip through them (except for the opening theme). I’m sure some other fans will enjoy them, though. But enough about that; let us get to the episode!

Oh, God…the dolls – the dolls! Remind you of Silent Hill, much? Let me first start with a disclaimer about this episode. It skips around quite a bit in the first half, much more than the first 50 episodes, which can be difficult to keep up with and also to write a not so confusing review. I hope that this is easy to keep up with. We pick up in the laboratory where said general has unleashed the immortal army. In an attempt to give them orders, he ends up getting…well, pretty much eaten to death; the dolls do not take orders from anyone and kill the researcher as well. Having come across the immortal army as well, Ed, Scar and the chimeras attempt to hold them back, the gang realizes they cannot fight them as they are. The least they can do is close off the exit to prevent any of the dolls from escaping.

Meanwhile, Olivier has taken one of the higher ups hostage as a means of getting the army to back down. When he refuses to call off their defense, she gives him a quick stab to the foot, but it does little to sway his mind. Before Olivier can injure him any further, she senses a presence behind them and jumps out of the way before being smashed by the heavy hand of homunculus Sloth. He pretty much flattens that poor man and makes quite a mess as well. Like I said, the episode skips around, but we do return to the scene to find Olivier attempting to stop Sloth. She comes to realize that it is impossible with just her pistol and sword and ends up getting trapped and injured as a result. Fortunately, Alex, her brother, comes to the rescue in his shirtless, sparkling glory. Olivier tells him that they will need much more firepower than this; a cannon, perhaps.

Back outside of the city, Heinkel comes to the realization that the noises he’s been hearing coming from the dome is an effort on Pride’s part to contact his comrades. It is much too late to warm Al when none other than Kimblee shows up, wounding the chimera too the point where he can no longer even stand. To make matters worse, May-chan has come across the dolls and frantically tries to protect herself and the jar that Envy is in. Much to her dismay, one of the dolls catches it in its mouth, crushing the glass and swallowing Envy. This allows the homunculus to invade the body and use it as a host. We skip back to the forest to find Al attempting to save Heinkel without the lower part of his legs. To his surprise, Heinkel has been carrying a Philosopher’s stone, which gives Al the power he needs to fight back.

And that is the end of the episode. Can you believe it? I sure can’t. This one went by pretty fast, both a good and a bad thing; good because I was enjoying myself and bad because I have to wait another week for the next episode! Overall, it was a pretty good episode. The return of Envy had me giddy. I don’t know what it is about him, but I just love his character. As much of a disappointment as it was to have Kimblee return and for the episode to end so quickly, I am looking forward to the coming events.