Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 27 Review

Episode 27, "Teacher"

FLAWLESS VICTORY"Checkmate."
 
*****SPOILERS*****

Synopsis: Edward tries to escape from his teacher Izumi, but she subdues him and ties him and Alphonse up to take them to the town of Dublith. On the way there, the brothers remember how they met her as she was passing through Risembool and saved the town from flooding with alchemy. She reluctantly took them on as pupils. After the flashback, Ed, Al, and Winry arrive in Dublith, where Izumi's husband runs a meat shop. After an incident involved a dead cat, Izumi reveals that she knows what happened to the brothers, and after a beating, hugs them.

"Sorry, no autographs.""Whoever keeps putting the toilet paper tab under is in serious trouble."

Comments:

This episode formally introduces one of my favorite characters, Izumi Curtis, the Elric brothers' alchemy teacher. She's a force to be reckoned with, a fierce, determined individual, but she's also very caring. She's a doting wife, but she's also an incredible badass. Characters like this make me smile. And she's portrayed masterfully by both Shoko Tsuda and Christine Auten. We can see why the brothers fear her, but we can also see why they respect her.

It's interesting that in the first series they go through how they first met her by reminding Winry, who forgot about her, of the incident of the flooding in Risembool. This works because we can't really expect Winry to recall Izumi that well, but of course since the brothers trained with her, it's an important event in their life they should remember. In the manga, we get the brothers' full back story around this point, and I like this show giving us a little bit of it at a time. (On the other hand, I prefer the manga showing us basically everything that happened in Ishbal all at once, because it makes for a very powerful volume 15, whereas they split it up too much for my liking in Brotherhood.)

The only problem I have with this episode is some of the time wasting with the cat on the roof. I'm not sure what they could have put there instead, but I'm sure they could have done better than that. Sorry, Chico.

Maybe they could have extended Izumi's beating of the brothers. Nah, it was enough as-is. In fact, I really liked that part. She beats them (not too much, just enough), but then hugs them. She's angry that they disobeyed her and committed a taboo, but she feels bad for them and loves them. Izumi is, in a sense, their second mother.

Winry comforts the little girl by reminding her that she isn't an important character, either. Post-beating huggles.

Overall Score:

3.5 out of 5


 


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