FMA ftw!

Screencaps coming soon.

OP Sequence: 「again」 by YUI
I was kinda caught off guard by the song. I expected a  song more along the lines of Porno Grafitti – Melissa, but then again, I think I’m gonna like this one. It has a catchy feel to it. The animation’s rather interesting. Couple of lip-synced clips too, which was cool. I was not able to pick out any scenes that directly referenced things iconic to either the first anime or the manga.

Summary:

Edward and Alphonse Elric, though meaning to head for the city of Lior, are tasked by Furer Bradley to take out Isaac McDougall, a renegade state alchemist known as the Ice Alchemist. Though they are able to capture him, he escapes shortly after. Later, while meeting with Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye, Maes Hughes makes an entrance, inviting the Elric brothers to spend the night with his family. Meanwhile, McDougall makes an appearance in Central Prison in attempt to ally with Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist. The following day, McDougall makes a reappearance, reaking havoc in Central and attempting to make more trasmutation circles all over the city. McDougall is confronted by Strong Arm Alchemist Alex Armstrong (Say that 10 mines fast, why don’t ya?) and Roy Mustang. The Elric brothers arrive at the scene again for some unfinished business, but are stopped as McDougall activates the transmutation circles. Engulfing Central in walls of ice, McDougall heads for the Command Headquarters; his target – Furer Bradley. A fight ensues on top of his ice walls as the Elric brothers catch up. McDougall soon discoveres the secret behind the Elric brothers: Alphonse lost his entire body and Elric lost his right arm and left leg in an attempt to perform human transmutation. Enraged, the brothers strike McDougall down, but are caught off guard when he freezes his own blood and attacks Ed. Making his way to the Furer, McDougall transmutes more of his blood into a spear, and assaults the Furer, but is easily dispatched by Furer Bradley’s lightning-fast swordsmanship. Armstrong and Mustang’s timely action repairs the damage caused by McDougall. Recovering in the main headquarters, Ed and Al are graced with the precence of Alex Armstrong, who proceeds to take off his shirt and shows off his muscles. In a secluded building, Lust remarks at McDougall’s failure as Gluttony does what he does best – eat.

ED Sequence: 「嘘 」 (Uso) by SID

I like this ED. A LOT. The cartoon caricatures of all the characters are an awesome touch, and I really had a lot of fun watching it.

Thoughts:

Okay, so this is FMA: Brotherhood. First off, I’d like to say I was quite surprised. I was expecting the famous first encounter at Lior. Instead, a completely new State Alchemist was introduced, as well as a very early hint towards the bigger picture that is Amestris. From time to time, curiously, I did catch glimpses of what probably might be Father from the manga. As well,  I really liked that many of the character quirks were shown straight off the bat. That feeling of familiarity was very much welcome as Ed overreacts about his height, Al is mistakenly identified as the Fullmetal Alchemist, Maes Hughes boasts about his family (btw, I almost slammed my head down on my desk because seeing Hughes animated again and knowing his inevitable fate was rather depressing </overreacting>. Thank God I didn’t slam my head, otherwise I would have ruined my new tablet.), and Armstrong is.. well… being himself! Ah yeah, and there was a “Mustang in the rain” joke as well. High-larious.  Oh, and another little tidbit: Furer Bradley referenced his son, so I’m willing to think there will be a lot more manga elements alongside some of the interesting new additions. Stay tuned for next week, as the next episode is a recap of the Elric bros’ past, just like the first anime and the manga. Overall, I think this is a really interesting retelling of the FMA story and I can’t wait to see more.

Oh, ho ho, yes. Ever since they cast Shinichiro Miki as Roy Mustang, I’ve been coming up with enough Lockon Stratos jokes to fill an entire high school physics textbook. Just so you all know what to look forward to! ;D

I love Fullmetal Alchemist.
That’s it for now, I’ve got myself a very busy next few days, so I’ll edit this one with screencaps later on. I’ll probably have a batch of reviews done once more episodes of the Anime I’m blogging are out.

Matta ne!

- Hibiki