Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 04
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 04
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A serial killer is taking out State Alchemists and Lt. Col. Hughes is leading the investigation, which King Bradley has taken a keen interest in. Meanwhile, after the resolution of the incident in Liore, Col. Mustang decides to take Ed and Al to the Sewing-Live Alchemist, Shou Tucker. Tucker specializes in chimer and even got a chimera to speak once two years ago but it only said that it wanted to die and refused to eat or speak again. Tucker lives with his young daughter Nina and a large dog named Alexander. Tucker has an extensive library of books and so Ed and Al get down to reading and even taking time to play with Nina and Alexander over the next few days.

Tucker has an alchemist evaluation coming and since he failed the last one, he’s pretty desperate. When Ed and Al come over again, they find Nina and Alexander missing but Tucker has created a new chimera — a dog-like creature who can speak. When the chimera calls Ed “oniichan,” Ed suddenly realizes the horrible truth — Tucker has transmuted Nina and Alexander into this chimera. Further, Ed realizes that Tucker’s wife, who supposedly left two years earlier, was the original chimera that Tucker made. Ed beats Tucker, who considers himself no different than Al and Ed for what they tried to do. The chimera cries for its father and Ed and Al leave.

The serial killer pays a visit to tucker and kills him in front of Nina-chimera for his crimes. Seeing that there’s no way to return Nina back to normal, the killer ends the chimera’s life as well. Meanwhile, Ed and Al are depressed by what they’ve experienced and are mildly chastised by Col. Mustang, who tells them they are likely to see other such atrocities as they go about their business.

Thoughts/Review:

Don’t you just hate it when you know some cute, sweet, innocent character is going to die? I couldn’t remember much about Shou Tucker when the episode started, but when I saw Nina, I remembered — she would become a chimera. It really is heartbreaking too because while this may be a work of fiction, in reality, there are parents who would sacrifice their children for their own personal gain. Its more heartbreaking when, as in this episode, those children still love their parents deeply despite what horrible crimes, abuse, etc. have been done to them. I’ll never understand this kind of behavior as long as I live.

As to the story itself, I don’t remember Scar killing Shou Tucker in the original anime. In fact, I seem to remember him becoming some sort of strange chimera who showed up later in the series. So his death surprised me. Now that I think of it, I can’t remember what ultimately happened to Nina in the original anime. Did she get killed by Scar? Regardless, after the tragedy of Nina, it does seem a mercy to put the poor thing out of her misery. Man, I’m going to be depressed the rest of the day now.

Now that Scar has entered the picture, I have to say that I was surprised that Bradley became personally involved in the killing of State Alchemist. When the leader of a nation gets involved in a serial killer’s activities, it does suggest major concern on the part of that leader. I know Bradley is different from the first series so I just wonder how Scar works into the grand scheme of things this time. Did Bradley get involved in the first series?

Again, the series is moving forward at a lightning-like pace. The referenced mining incident seems to be something I remember from the first series (or am I just suffering from sleep deprivation ’cause I seem to have forgotten a lot ^_^;;;) as something Ed and Al took care of after Liore but here, it is something they’ve already done. Was this mining story in the manga or no?

I do appreciate all of you FMA fans who’ve read the manga and who remember the first series better than I providing your insights. Please keep them coming. ^_^

Anyway, while a horribly tragic episode, it was still a good one with a lot of table setting for the Scar story. I look forward to the next episode. ^_^