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 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episodes 37 and 38

Winry destroys the show's credibility at will and does it once more in this pair of unworthy, farcical episodes.  Kimblee lost his credibility as a legitimate villian while being used as a tool for a botched, ineffective, and unconvincing idiot savant moment for Winry.  A completely moronic ditz who has no clue what the word hostage means outwitting anyone is a sign of things going down.  Of course, Winry's stupidity trickles over when most of the scenes are mistreated under the category of "dumb blond" comedic fodder.  I also have no idea who directed the animation for episode 38 since it resembles the inconsistency Rurouni Kenshin had with it's characters in particular.

It is a shame that the one or two twists can't overcome the sheer amount of stupidity since they are not particularly great themselves.  Selim's gimmick as the omnipotent devil disguised as a child has been done countless times to death.  Not to mention, this underwhelms an interesting aspect of Wrath's character and falls into the atypical deception seen in shonen fare.  While it is nice to reference Yoki's part from the original, it is rather out of place at this point.

[Shadowmage]

38

May the befriending process begin. 

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episode 39

The new OP and ED were familiar in sound like any other anime theme and were not as good as previous songs for the anime.  That is to be expected nowadays with a series this long to regress on quality.

If there was ever a good time for manga material to be edited and corrected on the fly, this episode proved it.  It is a complete contradiction for an incapable moron like Winry to concoct a plan to use herself as a hostage when she couldn't even grasp what the word meant in the first place.  Not that she would have a clue of what such a situation would look like either.  It is not hard to have someone like Miles present the idea since no one would be out of character and the credibility is intact as well.

The exchange between Miles/Scar was handled better then in most cases of shonen fare and a mediocre or worse series like Naruto could learn how to use some restraint on debating morality without instantly delving into extremities.  Too bad that this could not make up for the episode's mediocrity.

If nothing else, the ending of the episode was a breath of fresh air with the foreshadowing presented with the "Father" gathering his pawns into place.

Episode 40
There should be more well composed, serious, informative episodes like this.  It is a shame that BONES cannot execute this well as often as they really ought to.  A brooding, reserved atmosphere that created enough tension when necessary is what made the episode actually good.  Not to mention, this could have replaced the recap episode from way back.  Interestingly enough, the interaction between the very first homunculus and Hohenheim seemed to resemble something from Bonen no Xam'd.  At the very least, it made slightly more sense in this case and did not require Toru Furuya (aka Amuro Ray) reprising a previous role.

Funny enough, an addition of Toru Furuya would have made the complete casting of Kidou Senshi Gundam 00 complete in that sense.  Although, it certainly would be nice if more of the cast could at least be like the very first homunculus as it actually made it's time worthwhile in the very few scenes featuring it.

There seems to be some hope that there can be a gem like this within a sea of mediocrity since the Briggs arc has been horribly underwhelming thus far.  Not to mention that it is remarkable how an episode like this is given the proper treatment while an entire arc involving a military fortress is not.

[Shadowmage]

Funny enough, an addition of Toru Furuya would have made the complete casting of Kidou Senshi Gundam 00 complete in that sense.  Although, it certainly would be nice if more of the cast could at least be like the very first homunculus as it actually made it's time worthwhile in the very few scenes featuring it.

Actually, Ribbons was voiced by Toru Furuya (ANN) which made the finale between 0 Gundam and 00 such a fan pleaser. 

Episode 40
Probably the first genuinely good episodes of the series.  It seems that the director is finally getting a grasp on how to build up drama, but then again, Hoenheim's background story is one of the stronger points of the manga so that probably helped.  I hope he can create the same sense of atmosphere and immersion for future episodes since the plot is only a few arcs away from going nuclear.

[Flash Sword Irene]

Actually, I was referring to the fact that a majority of the cast if not the whole cast of Gundam 00 is in this anime.  So, I was actually saying that Toru Furuya appearing in this anime would have made the whole casting of that group complete.  But, I probably didn't word that well enough.

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episode 41

After an actual episode worth watching, it is disappointing to see things back on track in normal fashion.  Despite the usual being slightly toned down for a BONES effort, the episode was still rough in execution.  Especially due to the fact that the over the top approach pretty much gave a forced feeling and the plotting was rather silly.  Not that the same philosphical/moral drivel seen in almost every Shonen style series helped since the principles were previously established ad nauseum.  Then again, there needs to be a series that kicks those notions to the curb and suggest the complete opposite while actually sticking to it's guns.

Not seeing problematic characters such as Winry certainly made a huge difference since last episode was smooth sailing.  The way Edward tried to get up after being impaled was heavy handed and underwhelming since the scene could have worked better even without dialogue.  While establishing romantic material and the close link between characters was never this series' strong point, it is as weak and underwhelming as Winter Sonata's attempts at subtlety with it's thick melodrama. 

Last episode was certainly missed and it will be for as long as the series retains it's normal way of doing things. The packaging for this episode certainly did not cut it by comparison.

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episode 42

Outside of the inappropriately taut and silly beginning, the episode was fine since that is how things usually turn out when Von Hohenheim is involved for a good amount of time.  At least some restraint was shown when Von Hohenheim was on the ground begging for food since that was a complete disaster waiting to happen.  That is an actual impressive feat for a show that has not shied away from ruining itself and running episodes to the ground, even with actual important plot points about.  Although, continuing the slew of idiot savant monents by using coincidental accidents is certainly not welcome.  If the mangaka does not understand that the little girl who is as stupid as Winry has no form of believability in moments of intelligence, it is the job of those in the production of this anime to correct that mistake.

Then again, this might be as close to episode 40 as it gets without idealistic garbage about war ruins the rest of the arc.  Considering how a majority of the cast of Gundam 00 is onboard, the seiyuu would be in their element for doing a bad job of portraying such things.  If nothing else, at least Kimblee's seiyuu is casted as an actual villian instead of a clueless pretty boy protagonist that happened to have a Gundam and one of the worst romances in recent years.

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episode 43

I really wish BONES would learn how to transition between scenes seemlessly since they completely dropped the ball.  The comedic scenes were excruciatingly awful and destroyed the previously established mood and flow.  Envy's possession of Yoki and the Armstrong siblings' quibbling are god awful followups to their respective preceedings.  A shame when the focus of some nice bits like Hawkeye's mini conversation with the Fuhrer is shifted to such unnecessary mistakes.  It is things like this that can make the manga that is supposedly revered as a god completely impervious to criticism a questionable product at times.

If there is one worthwhile joke actually worth telling it would be the little girl being killed by Envy in a bloody mess during her journey with no chance of her reappearing again.  That is some good humor right there.  Marcoh's technique to destroy the Philospher's Stone or even just to decompose it enough was something that would be appropriate for a technique/jutsu/attack explanation.  Instead, that time was spent on how to ruin the transition of the episode.

One saving grace is the fact that this arc looks like it might be over since it was mediocrity that was pretty painful.  If there was a clinic on how to mess up an arc mostly involving a military base, this was it.

[Shadowmage]

Episode 44

Greed vs. Anger next episode.  Brace for epic. 

As for the episode itself, Ling's exchange with Greed was far more impacting in the manga, but I felt a tinge of excitement from the exchange.  The scene were Ed first appears on screen all smug and confrontational also was better in the manga since it was months since we had last seen Ed (instead of 2 weeks).

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episode 44

It is garbage like fanservice that makes a series like this garner less respect while making episodes like this turn out erratic as a result.  BONES really needs to refer to episode 40 and relearn the formula to success from that.  (Hint: It does not include unnecessary and dismal mistakes like fanservice, horribly misplaced comedy, or cars that look like an abomination from a random video game).  If nothing else, some decently built tension and resulting brutality in the end was somewhat worthwhile in itself.  Even if it was only to tell us that the next episode is a huge brawl.  At least the animation quality looks good for what it is worth in the preview.

[Shadowmage]

Episode 45

Epic fight scene was epic.  This show has done many, many things wrong, but I must tip my hat to what they've done with Greed and Wraith.  I also LOLed at the Armstrong family succession scene.  Then, we arrived at that Chinese girl... and her completely irrational decision.  Oh well, I'll happily take two out of three.

The rest of the episode set up the grand finale.  It's not high drama, but I enjoyed it.

[Flash Sword Irene]

Episode 45

This episode was completely overshadowed by the fact that Kidou Senshi Gundam Unicorn (the prettiest looking Universal Century-based anime) is out.  FMA's version of Casshern vs Dio from two years ago from a great show called Casshern: SINS should have been a tad longer.  Not to mention, seeing some of the little things like the dish breaking in that one camera angle was actually quite nice.  I did not really care for the mop up effort in gathering everything together for the next episode since the mess won't clean itself up so quickly anyway.

It also seems that Olivier has studied under the school of Rurouni Kenshin's Saito Hajime since she is ripping off the originally left-handed Gatotsu.  I guess we have to wait and see if she has mastered Gatotsu Zero-Shiki since the opportunity to shed some light into her battle skills was merely teased for a terrible family succession sequence.  Then again, the Wolf of Briggs will bring down her justice of Aku Soku Zan in an awesome way on someone other then her moronic brother in the future since that fight should be excellent.

[AC]

Whew, finally caught up to episode 45. Better late than never in getting on the Brotherhood bandwagon...

The Greed-Wraith fight was awesome, but honestly I think their fight between the first Greed and Wraith in episode 14 was just as wonderful. I can't really tell which is better, you know what's [strike]even[/strike] should have been better? The Armstrong bout. Man, I was so pissed that something epic is not shown in full view. Alex's muscles could never match against Olivier's balls-shrinking persona, anyway.

I hate the Chinese girl, ever since she first appeared. Doesn't add anything to the show.

[Buttercup]

I hate the Chinese girl, ever since she first appeared. Doesn't add anything to the show.

I wish she had more of a role in the show -___-' I really like Mei but she's kind of pointless and very easily manipulated.  Envy's SO cute though =3

[Flash Sword Irene]

I hate the Chinese girl, ever since she first appeared. Doesn't add anything to the show.

I wish she had more of a role in the show -___-' I really like Mei but she's kind of pointless and very easily manipulated.  Envy's SO cute though =3

Women and their (irrational) penchant for all things they deem cute and cuddly.  =P

Episode 46

Another atypical mop up episode that has to have some fireworks before things finally swing into motion.  Then again they just had to make a good chunk of the episode meaningless by forcing unnecessary screen time for Winry as a terrible way to open the episode.  Not only were the stagnant jokes not humorous in any sense of the word, BONES seems clueless to the fact that anything involving such a worthlessly tawdry character always goes awry.  Even the uplifting pep talk can not be done right and the fact that Edward was trying to be a little realistic is even more of a messy fit.  Edward and blonde ditzy moron never had much chemistry going to pull that off in the first place either.

If nothing else, at least the cilffhanger looks like it might transition into something decent.  I guess the countdown until Gatotsu Zero-Shiki continues.