Episode 37, " The First Homunculi"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: As attaches for him special cold weather style automail, Edward warns Winry not to trust Kimbley, but she recalls first meeting him when he picked her up and how he had kind words about her parents. Olivier has Buccaneer and other soldiers take the hatch Edward made into the tunnel to find the soldiers that hadn't returned. Olivier tells the others to blame her should Central become suspicious of Raven's disappearance. Roy meets with a flower-selling woman who passes along information from Olivier. Underground in Briggs, Buccaneer's team finds two survivors of the first team that went underground, who fear the living shadow that attacked. The shadow retreats for the time being. In Central, Riza delivers papers to the Fuhrer's residence at night, which are taken by his wife. Selim Bradley appears and Mrs. Bradley tells Riza about him having been adopted from his father's side of the family. Riza walks off stunned, realizing what that must mean, and she's right: Selim appears again, revealing himself to be the shadowy homunculi, Pride, who warns her not to reveal his secret. In Briggs, Kimbley reveals to Edward in private his intention to get Ed to kill enough people there to help complete the nationwide circle, in return for giving Edward a Philosopher's Stone. Edward agrees, but Alphonse realizes he's just going along with him. They tell Winry that she's being used against them. Ed and Al are taken with Kimbley to go hunt down Scar, and Winry decides to join them.
Comments:
Woah, a lot went on, huh?
Well, we get a lot of two things in this episode: Information passing and Winry annoying the hell out of me. Well, okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. I don't really like Winry, but she wasn't that irritating in this episode. I was too busy focusing on other things. I still think spending any amount of time on her is a waste at this point, though. At least she makes herself useful here by upgrading Ed to cold weather use automail.
Kimbley is as wicked as ever, though here his wickedness is more on behalf of others, namely the Fuhrer, and by extension, Father. I think they cut down some of his explanation to Edward as to how he fits in the military by acknowleding to himself that he's a heretic, and thus learning to imitate others when necessary, but we got the jist of it here. He's truly a bad man. Though had they done a better job with the Ishbal flashback, you would have known that Kimbley only looked forward to meeting Winry's parents back then because he was sent to kill them (they being an inconvenience for the military to protect), and he would have seemed that much darker. Still, teasing Ed with the Philosopher's Stone was pretty dirty of him.
Edward has definitely matured over time, though, as he pretends to take on the jobs assigned to him. A little non-verbal cue between brothers reveals that the two are both on the same page, though Alphonse has to explain it to Winry. I didn't actually need to see him do that, though. It would have saved time and given us more subtlety had he not. We can pick up on Winry's knowledge of the plan later with certain gestures. Ah, I guess this is nitpicking a little, but it just seems like sometimes they waste time on verbalizing things. And after they had just done so well not doing that.
The big revelation of the episode was, of course, that Selim Bradley is the shadowy homunculi, Pride. He certainly beats the previous anime's child homunculi, Wrath, who was a bit of a brat, though somewhat sympathetic. Pride is a little prick, and you're sure to see just how. I was less than impressed by how they revealed him, though. The shadowy hand coming from his shadow for the split second when Selim first appeared all but gave it away, and the actual scene he identifies himself to Riza came off as far less stunning than in the manga. But then, I already knew who Pride was from reading the manga. I wonder how those who never read that reacted.
Edward and Alphonse have sure spent a lot of time behind bars lately. They'll have to rename this show Fullmetal Bars. Maybe put some Oz cast in there. Ryan O'Reilly. Simon Adebesi. Vern Shillinger. The dude in the wheelchair who was in The Matrix, too, and on Lost. Tobias Beecher, with automail. Sorry, I just miss that show. Not the buttsex portion, more the creative shanking.
Akira Senju. Akira Senju, Akira Senju, Akira Senju. Please, I'm begging you. Compose some new music. You're definitely talented. However, if I have to hear the same five tracks every episode, my head will explode. Really, are they not paying you enough? Is there even going to be enough music for a second OST?
Well, it was a decent enough episode, but overall, a tad underwhelming, considering how much impact this stuff had in the manga. Even there, the Briggs arc was beginning to wear thin.
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: As attaches for him special cold weather style automail, Edward warns Winry not to trust Kimbley, but she recalls first meeting him when he picked her up and how he had kind words about her parents. Olivier has Buccaneer and other soldiers take the hatch Edward made into the tunnel to find the soldiers that hadn't returned. Olivier tells the others to blame her should Central become suspicious of Raven's disappearance. Roy meets with a flower-selling woman who passes along information from Olivier. Underground in Briggs, Buccaneer's team finds two survivors of the first team that went underground, who fear the living shadow that attacked. The shadow retreats for the time being. In Central, Riza delivers papers to the Fuhrer's residence at night, which are taken by his wife. Selim Bradley appears and Mrs. Bradley tells Riza about him having been adopted from his father's side of the family. Riza walks off stunned, realizing what that must mean, and she's right: Selim appears again, revealing himself to be the shadowy homunculi, Pride, who warns her not to reveal his secret. In Briggs, Kimbley reveals to Edward in private his intention to get Ed to kill enough people there to help complete the nationwide circle, in return for giving Edward a Philosopher's Stone. Edward agrees, but Alphonse realizes he's just going along with him. They tell Winry that she's being used against them. Ed and Al are taken with Kimbley to go hunt down Scar, and Winry decides to join them.
Comments:
Woah, a lot went on, huh?
Well, we get a lot of two things in this episode: Information passing and Winry annoying the hell out of me. Well, okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. I don't really like Winry, but she wasn't that irritating in this episode. I was too busy focusing on other things. I still think spending any amount of time on her is a waste at this point, though. At least she makes herself useful here by upgrading Ed to cold weather use automail.
Kimbley is as wicked as ever, though here his wickedness is more on behalf of others, namely the Fuhrer, and by extension, Father. I think they cut down some of his explanation to Edward as to how he fits in the military by acknowleding to himself that he's a heretic, and thus learning to imitate others when necessary, but we got the jist of it here. He's truly a bad man. Though had they done a better job with the Ishbal flashback, you would have known that Kimbley only looked forward to meeting Winry's parents back then because he was sent to kill them (they being an inconvenience for the military to protect), and he would have seemed that much darker. Still, teasing Ed with the Philosopher's Stone was pretty dirty of him.
Edward has definitely matured over time, though, as he pretends to take on the jobs assigned to him. A little non-verbal cue between brothers reveals that the two are both on the same page, though Alphonse has to explain it to Winry. I didn't actually need to see him do that, though. It would have saved time and given us more subtlety had he not. We can pick up on Winry's knowledge of the plan later with certain gestures. Ah, I guess this is nitpicking a little, but it just seems like sometimes they waste time on verbalizing things. And after they had just done so well not doing that.
The big revelation of the episode was, of course, that Selim Bradley is the shadowy homunculi, Pride. He certainly beats the previous anime's child homunculi, Wrath, who was a bit of a brat, though somewhat sympathetic. Pride is a little prick, and you're sure to see just how. I was less than impressed by how they revealed him, though. The shadowy hand coming from his shadow for the split second when Selim first appeared all but gave it away, and the actual scene he identifies himself to Riza came off as far less stunning than in the manga. But then, I already knew who Pride was from reading the manga. I wonder how those who never read that reacted.
Edward and Alphonse have sure spent a lot of time behind bars lately. They'll have to rename this show Fullmetal Bars. Maybe put some Oz cast in there. Ryan O'Reilly. Simon Adebesi. Vern Shillinger. The dude in the wheelchair who was in The Matrix, too, and on Lost. Tobias Beecher, with automail. Sorry, I just miss that show. Not the buttsex portion, more the creative shanking.
Akira Senju. Akira Senju, Akira Senju, Akira Senju. Please, I'm begging you. Compose some new music. You're definitely talented. However, if I have to hear the same five tracks every episode, my head will explode. Really, are they not paying you enough? Is there even going to be enough music for a second OST?
Well, it was a decent enough episode, but overall, a tad underwhelming, considering how much impact this stuff had in the manga. Even there, the Briggs arc was beginning to wear thin.
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
