May 6th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 05
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 05
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 05
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
In Liore, Father Cornello urges the people to rise up and take arms. When some people question the priest’s authenticity, they are attacked and riots break out in the city. “Father Cornello” leaves and joins Lust and Gluttony, who comment on how their plans are proceeding despite the interference from the Fullmetal Alchemist. “Father Cornello” reports that Tucker is dead. Lust shrugs this off as small fry but she does seem troubled by the news of Tucker’s killer. At Lust’s request, “Father Cornello” turns into Envy but this transformation is seen by one of Father Cornello’s aides. Gluttony kills and eats the man.
In East City, Ed wakes from a nightmare about his mother and Nina. Ed and Al go to see Col. Mustang about Tucker and Nina, only to learn from Riza that both are dead and she won’t let them come to the crime scene. Over at Tucker’s home, Mustang learns from Hughes and Major Armstrong about the Ishbalan they’ve named Scar, who’s been killing State Alchemist. Hughes wants Mustang to stay low along with Armstrong as they are the two State Alchemist in the city. Roy remembers that Ed is also in the city and he, Hughes, Riza, Armstrong, and a group of soldiers take off.
Meanwhile, Ed and Al ponder things in the rain when they are approached by Scar. He attacks them and when they try to counterattack, Al’s armored body is partially disintegrated. The fact that the armor is empty surprises Scar. Upon learning that Ed is using his automail arm as a means of forming a transmutation circle, Scar destroys the arm, leaving Ed defenseless. Al wants Ed to run away but Ed is ready to die if it means saving Al’s life, which Scar promises to do. Before Scar can kill Ed, Col. Mustang fires a gun into the air. Realizing that this is the Flame Alchemist Mustang, Scar is happy to be able to make another kill.
The rain prevents Roy from using his ability, so Riza fires both weapons at Scar to keep him from killing Roy. Major Armstrong enters the fray, which surprises Scar as does the man’s fighting ability. With the odds growing against him with soldiers on the scene, Scar uses alchemy to make his escape into the sewers. Ed goes to see how Al is doing and takes a beating for attempting to sacrifice his life. Al wants Ed to live and get to where he can give Al back a real body and save people like Nina. At HQ, Mustang briefs everyone on the Ishbal rebellion and how State Alchemist were brought in to quell the fighting. After the briefing, Al and Ed make plans to get their bodies repaired by returning home t0 their mechanic.
Thoughts/Review:
I liked the story flow from the previous episode. It made total sense to me to have Ed and Al pondering things, learn of Tucker’s death, ponder more, and then get attacked by Scar, who’d killed Tucker, Nina, and others. So this episode makes a nice transition into getting Ed and Al involved in the Scar story. However, with them returning home next episode, I guess they won’t be involved too much in the immediate future. ^_^;;;
Assuming this episode is following the manga in story as well as style, I believe I have a glimpse of the mixture of comedy into dark or even horrific events. Despite being gross, there is a dark humor aspect to Gluttony consuming the follower of Cornello who saw Envy transform. There is the comedy moment of Col. Mustang trying to act like a macho tough guy, only to have his flame alchemy ability snuffed by the rain and have to be essentially saved by Riza. Of course, there was Hughes hiding from the fight and the unexpected beating Al gives Ed over risking his life which were also funny moments. So while this anime is certainly dark, bloody, and violent at times, the humor aspects keep it from going over the edge.
It was interesting that in the map, the Japanese spelled Ishbal as “Ishval.” I’m not sure if that’s just one of those accidents whereby the Japanese misspell something or if “Ishval” is supposed to be an official spelling. I’ve long seen the name of the place spelled as “Ishbal” so that’s what I’ll stick with for now.
Since I’ve seen the core elements, it is impossible for me to speculate on things because I already know basically where the train is going. That’s one bad thing 
about blogging a series where you already know the story to some degree. ^_^;;; However, I will say that I can’t remember what Tucker did for the homunculi in the original anime, if anything so I don’t know why his death would even be of note to them.
Still, I look forward to seeing Scar’s story progress and am curious to know how similar it will be to the original series. I also enjoy hearing from all of you who have better memories of the original anime and who’ve read the manga. ^_^
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Japanese doesn’t have any v in its alphabet, so all V sounds are pronounced as b. Like Vegeta in Dragonball was Begeta is the Japanese version. So they could have intended to call it Ishval, but it would always sould like Ishbal in the manga and Anime. So people translating and Subing FMA may have written is as Ishbal, when in fact the Japanese intended for it to be Ishval.
FMA is famous for combining humor and dark moments but the ones shown in this episode were also done in the first anime so its not new (But the first anime stopped introducing humor so it became DARK DARK DARK). Scar’s introduction is far more interesting in this series.
As for Tucker, those who die remain dead and so he shall .
If I remember right all maps have Ishval as Ishval. My specialty being the manga, I always use Ishval.
The map does have one spelling mistake though, in the manga Liore is always spelled as Reole. This mistake is pretty inexcusable when you can clearly see the spelling in Volume 17.
One thing I am suprised you didn’t pick up on is a change from the first series. In the picture of the Ishvalans all of them have white hair. This is due to the fact that in the manga nearly all Ishvalans have white hair.
@Mastermack — glad to know the smegger will stay dead. ^_^;;;
@Charred Knight — I have a terrible time remembering things with this series since (1) I saw it once and (2) I saw it ages ago. ^_^; But I always appreciate those who remind me of different things. ^_^
Still a few episodes before the differences between first series and manga begin to really show.
And like you said they integrated the humour and dark bits quite well. The first series become too dark when it diverged from the manga. It’s a good thing that the manga maintains the balance throughout. Pretty sure Brotherhood will too.
Ishval is the official spelling, I believe. Though, sometimes I’ve seen it as Ishvarl. Never Ishbal (except for the anime’s dub.)