Fullmetal Alchemist - Episode 12 Review

Episode 12, "The Other Elric Brothers (Part 2)"

Damn tree huggers!Ed and Al pose for an album cover.

*****SPOILERS*****

Synopsis: Mugear, who oversees the fake Elric brothers' work, reveals that he knows their identities and plans to force them to finish making a Philosopher's Stone in an unethical practice. Edward and Alphonse pretend to want to work for him, but release the Tringhams. They all confront Mugear who uses the lesser stones to attack them. Mugear ends up dying in a cave in where the red water is kept and the Tringhams help stop the flood of the water. Ed and Al continue on their way.

"Oh hey, tits... I mean, Lust!":3

Comments:

Continuing where the previous episode left off, it seems Mugear already knew who the fake Elrics were and plans to make Philosopher Stones by having pregnant women drink the red water and have it accumulate and harden in the womb. Jeez. That's fucking dark, man. But wait, what is the red water itself made of, if it makes Philosopher's Stones? We never see how the red water itself is made. It's just sort of... there.

One of my favorite parts of this episode is Edward pretending to work for Mugear and insisting on killing the Tringham bothers himself. You can tell he's really having fun pretending to be bloodthirsty, probably because he's already pretty annoyed at the fake brothers, but he is a cheeky kid as it is. My favorite bit is this face he makes when he's convinced Mugear that he's ruthless, like he's the cat that swallowed the canary. (Look at the fourth screencap for this review and you'll see it... one of my favorite Ed faces.)

The lesser Philosopher Stones are like the one Cornello had in Lior, but seem even rougher than that, as it takes a lot of them to doing the sorts of things Cornello was doing. I suspect because the Stone Cornello was given was probably a more developed stone. But with all that red water, couldn't they take all of it and make a really big stone at once? They don't really get into how to make the red water into the stones. Other than that really disturbing way.

Another part I like in this episode is Ed and the Tringham brothers teaming up to stop the red water from flooding the town by creating a barrier and having the trees absorb the water. It's one of my favorite scenes in the first series, actually.

This excellent two-parter puts the show back on the track to the main plot, and the next episode is the beginning of a new arc, even if most of it is derived from comedic omake material.

Suddenly, GUNS!TREE HUGGING HIPPIE!

Overall Score:

4 out of 5



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