Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 38 Review

Episode 38, "Clash in Baschool"

"I'm tired of answering that. What are YOU wearing, sir?"WACKY ANTICS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS!

*****SPOILERS*****

Synopsis: Edward and Alphonse manage to give Kimbley's men the slip to look for May on their own. Eventually finds them herself, excited to see Al. Marcoh and Yoki appear, too, with Yoki recalling Edward's effect on his life. Once in charge of the mining town of Youswell, Edward saw that he was mistreating the citizens and swindled him out of the deed to the mines, which he sold to the people. Yoki was wanted by the military and blames Edward, but the alchemist doesn't care. Kimbley's men, Jelso and Zanpano, find Scar, and transform, revealing themselves to be chimera. Marcoh tells Ed the importance of Scar's safety, as he is the only one who can translate part of his brother's notes. Scar is cornered by the dangerous chimera, but Ed and Al show up and defeat them soundly, intending to get information out of Scar themselves. Miles arrives and tells the Elrics he'll handle the rest. Winry is again face-to-face with the man who killed her parents. Buccaneer and his group return from the tunnel and he reports to Olivier. Officials from Central return demanding to see her. Back in town, there's an explosion and Scar appears to have kidnapped Winry. 

MORE WACKY ANTICS!YOU GONNA GET CHIMERA'D!

Comments:

So we get a bit of action in this episode, the first bit since the battle with Sloth a few episodes ago, and it's pretty awesome. We also get back to the Winry/Scar plot thread, with her again meeting the man who killed her parents, and apparently being taken by him. Olivier makes a short appearance, too, but it looks like she's in a spot of trouble, with Central catching on to her.

First, I'd like to address the comedy segments of the episode. The first comes when Ed and Al are looking for Mei and she finds them, acting lovestruck around Al, and crying when Winry appears. I don't mind Mei as much as the other Xingese characters, but sometimes her personality seems unnecessary and scenes with her can be a little taxing. Here I was amused, but it can just as easily go a different way next time. In other words, she's a character I can take or leave.

The next thing was Yoki telling his story. While they certainly did it in a creative manner, I was hardly amused that it took them this long to get to it. The character first showed up how many episodes ago? They didn't reference at all until now. They might as well have cut Yoki out of the story altogether, and now, of all times, we get the background? Oh, and they were trying to cram in things from the omake, too, like the other Armstrong sisters. I'm surprised we didn't get Roy versus Ed again, or maybe they should have put in a reference to Tales of the Master. We already have a Blind Alchemist OVA, but why not just cram everything else together along with excised material? Hey, maybe Yoki rode on a train where terrorists took over.

No, sorry Bones, it's too fucking late for this. If you had done this several episodes ago, with Yoki telling Mei what occured, I might have said, "All right, at least they addressed before he met the Elrics again." Now? I just don't give a fuck. We're in a storyline here that needs a little more seriousness. Mei was one thing, but to follow it up with Yoki's antics? Too late. Just too late.

I never much cared for all these chimera characters, either, but that's more a problem with the manga. You didn't get scores of chimera characters in the first series. There was Greed's gang, and then Tucker was made into one. Not only is there this pair of chimera guys, but there's another, too, and they all have the same "Can we become human again?/Are we really human?" dillemma Alphonse has been dealing with, except we still have to now deal with them, too. At least we have characters who can actually beat Scar. Then again, Scar was beaten TWICE in this episode, so maybe I have to stop arguing that nobody can beat this guy. I'm just upset it's taken this long.

We'll be revisiting the Winry/Scar story thread more in the next episode, but we got the start of the second showdown here. Scar did kill Winry's parents in this continuity, but frankly if it means drumming out Winry every time Scar shows up in the story, I'd rather him die while he was still a threat. I know, I'm being too negative about this, but really, they couldn't have settled this before? Don't we have enough going on with the story as it is?

The animation in the battles was extremely good at times, but then you got moments where the art was a little weird, mostly after the fights. It's like they spent their budget and time on the action itself. It did look awesome, though.

"I know it's cold, but I swear I can still smell your farts, Buccaneer.""I also captured the panda, but he dropped out of my pocket on the way up!"

Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5


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