April 17th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 02
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 02
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 02
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
As Al and Ed head to the city of Lior (Liore in FUNimation’s subtitles) to investigate a priest who can perform miracles (hoping he may have the Philosopher’s Stone), Ed thinks back several years when he and Al were small children learning alchemy. Their mother encouraged them as they studied their missing father’s books but illness soon took her life. In the years that followed, Ed and Al learned alchemy with one goal in mind — bringing their mother back to life by performing the forbidden human transmutation.
After gathering all the ingredients that make up the human body and some of their blood for the soul, Al and Ed perform the alchemy but it goes wrong and Al is consumed. Ed finds himself at a giant door which opens and he’s pulled inside to be shown the truth. The price for this his his left leg. Returning to the real world, the bloody Ed gives up his right arm in order to attach Al’s soul to a suit of armor.
Back in the present, Roy has returned to the Eastern Front and takes the report on Isaac from Hughes. He thinks back to his meeting with Al and Ed shortly after their failed transmutation when he and Riza were looking for a talented young alchemist they’d heard about. Despite the misgivings of Al and Ed’s friend Winry and her grandmother, the dejected Ed eventually decides to take Roy’s offer to become a State Alchemist.
Sometime later when Ed takes the test, King Bradley is also there to observe. Everyone is impressed that Ed can perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. When Ed creates a spear and attacks the Führer, he stops short and suggests that maybe the king should be better protected. Bradley is amused by Ed’s bravado and after he leaves, Ed’s spear tip falls off, the shaft having been cut by the Führer’s sword and Ed wasn’t even aware. However, Ed passed the test and became a State Alchemist, King Bradley giving him the name Fullmetal Alchemist.
Thoughts/Review:
Things moved through at a pretty rapid pace this episode. I want to say that the original anime took its time telling Ed and Al’s back story. I believe it was spread out over a few episodes and then Ed’s journey to becoming a State Alchemist took a few more episodes. I don’t know how much detail the manga has about this, but I would love to hear from those who’ve read the manga — are all those details from the first anime in the manga or was that basically a lot of good filler?
Regardless, I’m pretty sure I don’t remember King Bradley being at Ed’s test because I want to say that Ed took it with a bunch of others. Making the test more of an individual thing with lots of judges worked (even if quick) and I laughed at Bradley schooling Ed with the sword when Ed was trying to show off. I don’t remember Bradley being shown to be such a gifted swordsman and the first two episodes of the reboot have really highlighted that skill. Impressive! Most 
impressive. ^_^
While I can’t remember what Winry’s voice sounded like, somehow I knew her voice was different from the moment she spoke. It won’t be hard to get used to her new seiyuu but it is funny how something simple like a voice does so much for a character.
With the next episode going to be Ed and Al investigating Lior, Rose is back. I’ll be interested to see how the story of her and the priest vary from the original anime.
So far so good on this reboot. I’m liking it a lot even though I know the basic story. Here’s looking forward to the next episode. ^_^
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Alright: the manga moves just as fast. Most of these events are pretty much sped through to get to the main plotline (which the first anime never touches). While even I think this was done a bit quickly, the animators assume you’ve seen the first anime. So don’t expect too much emotion about Ed’s mom, Nina, and some for Hughes’ you-know-what. Reason is that these aren’t SUPER important scenes (the last one is and it IS fleshed out to a point, but not too much).
In short, it IS following the manga. No real problems I can see yet, other than a slight lack of emotion (but that’s because the first anime was all about emotion. Not even the manga makes these events that emotional, just storyline components).
Good to know. Thanks, mastermack0! ^_^
Also these events are told in the sixth volume of the manga, when Ed and Al are telling their teacher about human transmutation at their home.
Some thoughts about the new anime:
I liked the old anime more. There, the story was developing much more gradually and at a slower pace, while here you’re thrown right into the action from the start and for a newbie it’ll be a nightmare to understand what was going on in the first episode. Too many characters and mentions of events that would follow or have already happen.
Also in the old anime there were some episodes and events that weren’t shown in the manga at all and were great. I also prefer the story in the old anime than that of the manga, but this might change (I’m reading it now and I just finished the 6th volume).
The old anime was good when I watched it, but it was a bit too graphic and disturbing at times and just got too depressing towards the latter half. And the ending sucked.
After reading the manga, I have to say I like the manga much more since it’s a lot more balanced in terms of seriousness and lightheartedness and its not as graphic.
The first anime and manga start off quite similarly, but they diverge into two totally different paths from around the Greed Arc. And a lot of the stuff in the first half of the first anime(i.e. before Greed) is filler, from there it’s anime only material. Not to mention the manga has a few ‘new’ characters that I can’t help but love/like.
Yeah, some stuff about Ed’s journey to become a State Alchemist was a filler. Or you can say that the exam period only exits in the first anime.
The whole episode 4 was a filler. Other events like train hijacking, the mine, Nina were based on the manga but the timeframe was arranged and shipped to the past. With additional materials here and there, like Ed meeting Huge on a train, Lyra, or an encounter with Human!Barry. They also gave some character’s storyline to another character at some point.
For me the huge different between the first anime and the manga is how the narrative goes. The first anime choose to focus on the Elric’s journey. They’re the main protagonists, therefor many events occurre around them. While in the manga the story goes beyond that, so we have more narrators beside Ed and Al to tell us a more complex storyline.
*Transfer this post to the third episode when you’re done writing about it.*
I just watched the new episode of Fullmetal Alchemist and it’s very close to the manga. But I still prefer the old anime (the story was much better told than in the manga or at least until they diverge – then making any comparison between the stories is just a waste of time). Of course, there are some minor differences, but they’re not so important.
*SPOILER! for the next episode*
The next episode will be about Thucker and his daughter Nina. Apparently they’ll skip some chapters of the manga or they’ll just appear later.
*END of the SPOILER*
And some bonus off-topic:
1) For the fans of Tenchi Muyo (who speak Japanese) – you can fin the first episode of the Isekai no Seikisi Monogatari in YouTube.com – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg2w87f-mRg
There is Japanese audio only and NO subtitles on any language. Well, you can still watch it if you don’t know Japanese, but the chances that you’d understand something are very low. I hope someone will translate it soon!
2) For the fans of Tenchi Muyo (who may not speak Japanese) – you can find the first volume of the manga “The All New Tenchi Muyo” in http://forum.nihonomaru.com/manga-list/102462-all-new-tenchi-muyo-book-1-alien-nation.html
For guys like, it’s golden mine since in my country it’s next to impossible to find ANY manga, including well known like Death Note, Full Metal Panic, Naruto, etc. And if you find any, usually it costs a fortune.
P.S. I want the OST of this series. It’s so great! Please, tell me if you find it anywhere in the Internet.
evgenidb said…Will do…well, as best as I can. ^_^;
Also, thanks for the TM and ISM stuff. I’m WAY behind of everything anime and manga-wise because I generally only get a couple of days to write ahead for the blog these days. Some days I’m just too busy to do more than try to see what comments have come through (and thanks to all the staff for helping there). I still haven’t watched the first episode of ISM yet. ^_^;;;