Opinions (A+):

Amazing Episode hands down. This episode delivered on everything that shocked and awed everyone who saw the last episode. Mikado was indeed, the founder of the Dollars, and his whole back story, along with his entire plan, was amazing. (more…)

In this week’s episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it is Ed’s turn to have a heart-to-heart with his father; except, the scenario where they meet for the first time in quite a while does not exactly play out so sweetly. Ed’s first instinct is to punch his father in the face, but Hoenheim seems to understand and accept this. The reason why he had left them at such a young age is still a mystery to Ed. They get to talking about the fact that he is a Philosopher’s Stone and Hoenheim even offers himself in order to help the cause, but Ed refuses to use the souls of innocent people. When Ed begins to walk away, he pauses and, with his back turned, finally relays the message that his mother wanted Hoenheim to hear before she passed. Ed is surprised, however, when he sees his father expressing emotions of sadness for he has never seen the man do much of anything other than glower and hang his head. The Fullmetal Alchemist then takes his leave and prepares himself for the upcoming battle; eating a nice meal and buying a new red coat. On their way out of town into the woods, Ed wonders about the Chimera and asks if it is alright to stay with him. Donkey Kong speaks of his intuition, telling Ed that it is better if he they do; however, when asking the same as Greed, the Homunculus refuses to disclose his reason for not wanting to return to Central. During their conversation, the boys run into Al; or rather, Al’s armor. They learn quickly that it is most definitely not the young Alchemist and that Pride has taken control over his body.

Back in the East, Grumman and his men, along with Miles, are well into their search for any survivors. Grumman expresses that he cannot go back to Central for the sole purpose of needing to see Bradley’s corpse for himself to prove the Fuhrer truly did parish in the explosion; a short scene, and then back to the wilderness. Pride uses some rather dirty tactics to get what he wants: threatening to take the village, but Ed does not play into the Homunculus. He knows Pride’s weakness – an advantage that will buy them some time. Before Pride can do anything else, Ed quickly douses out the lights in the surrounding area; thereby dousing the woods in complete darkness. By doing this, there is no light for Pride to cast his shadow, but it makes it difficult for everyone else to see as well.

Greed explains that knows Pride’s ‘shell’ is nearby as the Homunculus cannot survive on its own without some sort of body to contain it. He sends Heinkel after Selim and the Chimera gets in a few good swipes while Darius and Ed attempt to get away. They do not get very far, however, only to be attacked by none other than Gluttony who does not need anything more than his sense of smell to track down their targets. In an attempt to fight the Homunculus, Darius goes for a swift punch and mistakenly hits Ed on accident. Ling convinces Greed to take over for the moment as he is able to use his senses in able to fight the homunculus, but this merely angers Gluttony. Fortunately, before Greed’s fake gate can open and swallow them yet again, a mysterious figure emerges from the woods, rendering Gluttony immobile for the time being. Ling recognizes who it is without a doubt – Lan Fan has returned and with a new bladed automail in place of her arm.

No doubt a very exciting episode! Not only is the story progressing nicely, but from the scene in the East where General Grumman and his team as they search for Bradley and poor Al’s body having been taken over by pride, we get quite a bit of suspense. It is a relief to know that the Homunculus cannot take the lives of Ed or Al, but they will do just about anything – and I mean anything – in order to get the boys to comply. We will see this in the next few episodes. Plus, it was nice to finally see Lan Fan return and to have more Ling now that Greed is allowing him to come into the picture more often.

It sure is going to be one hell of a ride!

Opinions (A+):

Wow… just… WOW!!! I was expecting something that changed the face of the current status-quo of the show, but what I got was even more shocking than I expected. So it seems Mikado had more of a role in the story and its odd happenings than I expected. The cliffhanger raised quite a few questions, and its still going with the developments we made last episode. (more…)

Opinions (A+):

What an amazing episode, hands down. I was not expecting the plot threads and the characters to converge into a major plot issue so early on. So much stuff happened in this one episode, it still has me a bit dizzy. I’m also pumped up for the next episode, which is going to have some really integral plot stuff addressed. (more…)

Opening Statement:

Well, so far for this series we have had a little plot, character development, the obligatory pool/bath house episode, more character development and now we are on the eighth episode. (more…)

Firstly, before I get into anything, I would like to address an important issue. As many of you may already know, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile which generated a  tsunami across the Pacific Ocean. Japan was affected by this, as made apparent by the images above. There is an icon of the country outlining the effected areas which flashes non-stop through the episode. However, the Eclipse sub team has announced that they will be releasing a version 2.0 when they are able to get their hands on a clean raw.

That being said, let us jump into the episode summary. Now in Resembool, Miles has managed to bring Winry safely home where she discovers the house to be empty. As she makes her way into her room, she is about to remove her top when she notices a presence – Ed – whom she shrieks at causing everyone to rush upstairs. The boys, except Ed, are booted out and Winry has a talk with our previously missing protagonist who has no reunited with the rest of the cast. She tells Ed that Al has gone to the train station and that they crossed paths with Hoenheim in Lior. Now that he is in the know, Ed asks Winry to leave with Pinako and head for safety. Winry does not take well to this and clocks him on the head with a wrench. She tells him she will not run away and that she should have no reason to if Ed intends to protect the country and beat the bad guys. (more…)

Opinions (B):

A bit of a weak episode compared to the rest. The entire episode is spent showing Celty and her conflicts with her head and being human. We learn where her head is too, and the answer was pretty obvious from the get go. The big reveal, was thus, not much of a big reveal XD (more…)

And so the fated day is almost upon us. Well, for us, the audience, but our beloved characters must wait until springtime. Episode 45 begins with a rousing sparring match between Greed and Wrath – quite epic, if I must say. The previous installment left off with Greed discovering his previous memories had not been erased, and so he comes to Wrath for answers, barging in on a quiet evening at home. When he nearly loses his head, Greed decides to retreat before he can be defeated a second time; thus, bringing the episode to the Armstrong family household. (more…)

Episode 44 begins in Lior, picking up where last week’s meeting between Hoenheim and Al left off. Hoenheim is quick to run off, avoiding speaking to his son for the first time in ages, but Al is even quicker to chase after him. He offers his help, feeling partly responsible for the mess that Lior is in as a result of their confrontation with Cornello. Meanwhile, for all of you who think Winry is a hot piece of…well, you catch my drift, there is a scene with a bit of fan service where she’s taking herself a nice hot bath as she speaks to Rose about her relationship with Edward. We pick up again with Hoenheim and Al. The two have been discussing information about what information he has gathered over the course of his journey, and Hoenheim challenges his son’s trust with an all too possible implication: What if he was on the enemy’s side? (more…)

Opinions (B+):

Well that was a bit disappointing in the sense that we rarely got to learn anything more about Izaya and his motivation for whatever is going on. The episode itself was pretty much centered around Shizou and why he is the way he is. The story was pretty entertaining, and it establishes that Izaya, Shinra, Selty and Shizou know each other. All of them except Celty/Selty pretty much went to the same high school. (more…)