Anime FMA: Brotherhood Episode 14

[Shinmaru]

OK, now that [b]Brotherhood[/b] is firmly into manga-only territory now, rather than retreading ground covered by the first series, I think starting threads each week is more than appropriate now.

(By the way, I am one of the, probably, two people watching this series right now who has not read the manga. I mean, like, a single page of it. So, if you throw out manga spoilers, please, PLEASE mark them. There will be hell to pay if I happen upon a future plot twist in here.)

Anyway, ****ing awesome episode this week -- the fight between [spoiler]King Bradley/Wrath[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Greed[/spoiler] is spectacular. [spoiler]King Bradley calming walking up to Greed, whipping out his swords and then owning the bejeezus out of Greed is just ... damn. There have been flashes of his power since the beginning, but this is the first real look at Bradley's strength, and that probably is not even breaking a sweat for him. I enjoyed Greed, so I am sad to see him go (especially this means no more Yuichi Nakamura on [b]FMA[/b], outside of in flashbacks), but ****, if he is going to get his *** kicked, it might as well be kicked in glorious style.[/spoiler]

And the big reveal ... um, damn. [spoiler]Bradley is an obviously shady figure, and the fact that he is teaming with the Homunculi is no big shock. But the fact that [i]he[/i] is a Homunculus? Ridiculously awesome.[/spoiler] [b]FMA[/b] seems to hit me with a ****ton of twists that I should really see coming but never do because I don't take that extra step of thought needed to really nail it. Oh well.

Also, [spoiler]Father[/spoiler] at the end ... [spoiler]facially, he reminds me of Hohenheim, which would be, er, insane, to say the least. Crazy bastard going around creating Homunculi and fathering children and then sacrificing them. Good show, old chap! But even if that is the case, I assume there is something else to it that will make my head explode, so I am looking forward to that![/spoiler]

Really sad moment at the end when Ed is all, "Yeah, [spoiler]Hughes[/spoiler] told us about all that ****" and Armstrong is like, "... ah, ****, this is awkward." It is going to be pretty heartbreaking when Ed and Al finally get [i]that[/i] bit of news.

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]The fight scenes were spectacular. Ed's always got that small kick of scientist logic to balance out his stereotypical hotheaded shounen hero side and remind me why I love him so much when compared to, say, Goku or Naruto. This episode is probably one of the best examples of that in the series, and it's nice to be reminded of how great Arakawa is at tweaking the typical just enough to make it awesome. Added to that you get this episode and Armstrong's manly fisticuffs, which will always be cool, and [spoiler]Bradley going medieval on Greed's *** so hard a jousting lance pops out his mouth.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The chimera deaths always kind of confused me. You only get to know these people for about two episodes and they don't get much development at all, but dammit if it isn't the saddest thing seeing them all get sliced into jerky. Especially Martel. Ick.[/spoiler]

Also, lolcensorship. [spoiler]That chunk of rock they chained Greed to was cross-shaped in the manga. They edited it for the North American manga release, and apparently they did here, too. Not such a big deal, but I find it kind of funny seeing as how the scene immediately prior shows Dorochet getting sliced clean in two.[/spoiler]

Next week is when the Xing characters arrive. This is gonna be great.[/FONT]

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT="Comic Sans MS"][spoiler]The chimera deaths always kind of confused me. You only get to know these people for about two episodes and they don't get much development at all, but dammit if it isn't the saddest thing seeing them all get sliced into jerky. Especially Martel. Ick.[/spoiler][/FONT][/QUOTE]

I agree, actually. At first I was confused as to why [spoiler]Al took it so hard (aside from not wanting someone to die on his watch), but somehow, on further reflection, they just don't come across as particularly evil people. Maybe it's because Greed was using them so thoroughly and they still sacrifice themselves for him. You kind of feel sorry for them, haha.[/spoiler]