Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 11
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 11
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ed, Al, and Winry stop at Rush Valley where Winry finds herself in heaven because of all the automail on display. Ed’s own automail arm gets noticed and during the chaos around him, his State Alchemist pocket watch is stolen. Ed quickly convinces some of the locals to give him a lead — a girl named Paninya likely took the watch and she lives outside of town with an automail mechanic. Ed, Al, and Winry take off and eventually in the distance, they spot Paninya.

Using alchemy, Ed is in pursuit, but Paninya proves pretty crafty. Ed herds Paninya to Al’s location where Al creates a birdcage to catch Paninya. Paninya uses a blade on her one automail leg to escape and a 1.5-inch carbine in her other leg to escape. However, Winry is there to catch Paninya, however she’s doing it less for Ed and Al’s sake and more for the fact that she loves Paninya’s automail.

Coming with Paninya to the home she resides in, they are met by a husband (Ridel) and his pregnant wife (Satera). An older man, Dominic, is the automail technician and he examines Ed’s automail arm. After pointing out some flaws (such as weight) of the automail, Winry realizes she could learn a lot from him and asks to be his apprentice. Dominic refuses as he doesn’t take apprentices. Meanwhile, Ed and Al marvel and the miracle of life when they touch the pregnant woman’s belly.

Winry and Paninya talk with Paninya telling how a train accident when she was small left her without her legs or parents. The orphan child was later taken from the streets by Dominic, who then gave her the automail legs and has provided her with the upgrades she now has. Winry strongly insists that if Paninya wants to pay Dominic back for his kindness, Paninya has to stop pickpocketing folks. Paninya agrees and gives Ed’s pocket watch to Winry. Seeing it is sealed shut, Winry pries opens up the casing to see what Ed is hiding. She sees scratched in English, “Don’t forget 3 Oct 11,” inside the lid of the watch. Shamed, Winry hands the watch back to Paninya to give to Ed.

Ed bursts in with news — Satera is in labor. Dominic races off through the rain storm to fetch a doctor while Winry uses the knowledge she gleamed from reading books to help deliver Satera’s baby. With the help of Paninya and Ridel, Winry delivers the child. Ed and Al get a look as Ridel gives the infant a bath. Ed is very excited by this but Winry is exhausted and needs help out of the room to a chair. She confesses to Ed that she’s seen inside the pocket watch. It is something Ed has not even shown Al and is an ever present reminder to Ed to not forget his mistake.

After their talk, Winry is resolved to apprentice under Dominic, who has returned with a doctor. Dominic still refuses to train Winry. After some prompting by Ed, Dominic does refer her to another mechanic in the valley. Further, to answer Winry’s question on whether she can come by to watch him work, Dominic states he doesn’t mind if she comes by to see his granddaughter.

The following day, Ed and Al barely make it to the last train out of town for three days. As the train leaves, Ed tells Winry to make him a better automail arm (and leg?) when they next meet.

Thoughts/Review:

Let me start by saying that I didn’t remember this story from the first anime at all. That means one of two things — it was in the first series and my memory problems are getting worse or it wasn’t there. I believe I recall folks remarking in the comments for my last review that there were no new characters in episode 11. So that would mean that Paninya, Ridel, Dominic, and the rest were in the previous series and I’ve plain forgotten. ^_^;

I did remember what was in the watch however but I don’t remember exactly when that information was revealed in the first anime.

Still, there’s nothing like a comedy episode after the heaviness of episode 10, eh? I can’t say that I was laughing out loud or anything, but I did smile and chuckle several times at all the antics. We saw the stereotypical woman in labor scene with the standard trimmings that come with that kind of comedy piece. Also the pursuit of Paninya was pretty much by the books, only with alchemy added this time. Despite being a classic joke sequence, I still enjoyed it and all the other comedy moments throughout this episode.

I did notice the wanted posters on the wall in the one scene. I recognized Scar but the other two didn’t ring a bell with me off the top of my head. More faulty memory on my part? *lol*

So, Winry is left behind to obtain new skills in automail, which I’m guessing will come into play down the road. Next up — Al and Ed’s sensei and not as long a wait for that review. ^_^;