Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 13

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 13
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 13
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 13

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13Izumi kicks both Ed and Al out of the house and they are escorted to the train station by Sig. Sig invites them to stay at their house next time they are in town which surprises Ed and Al. Sig chastises them because they haven’t realized that Izumi no longer sees them as students but as equals. Ed remembers why they came to Dublith at all, so he and Al race back to Sig and Izumi’s home to beg Izumi for knowledge on how to restore their bodies. She refuses but they are instant.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13 Since Ed and Izumi remember seeing “that” (the door) and paid a price with their bodies, it is likely that Al saw even more of this “truth” since he had to give up his entire body. Al is willing to do what it takes, so Izumi says she’ll consult some friends on restoring Al’s lost memories.

At the Eastern Division HQ, Colonel Mustang has a going away game of chess with his commanding general. After Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13winning the game, which the general calls a present, Mustang makes one last request. As a result, Mustang’s staff (Secretary Cain Fury, Warrant Officer Vato Falman; Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda, Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc; First Lieutenant Riza Hawkey) are also transferred to Central with him. Jean doesn’t want to transfer since he’s just found a girlfriend, but Mustang doesn’t care — they are coming no matter what.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13In the slums of Central City, Scar is visited by an Ishval religious leader. He knows that Scar is killing State Alchemist for revenge and advises against this since revenge begets revenge. Their conversation is interrupted when a couple of large thugs arrive at the tent Scar is living in. They promise to split the reward with a third person named Yoki, who is no where to be found. He’s hiding nearby and the Ishval people are not happy with him since they had taken him in. When the thugs try to take him, he removes one thug’s arm and kills the second. Yoki vows to follow Scar in exchange for his life. Scar leaves the camp and Yoki follows.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13Back in Dublith, Al is sent an invitation about his secret to come to a place called Devil’s Nest. One guy named Dorochet tells Al he should come with them but Al decides to punch him instead. Three others with Dorochet attack and the girl, Martel, enters Al’s armored body after the helmet is knocked off, thereby allowing Al to be captured. She remains in his body as Greed arrives.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13Returning Al’s helmet, Greed reveals that his four companions are chimera — Dorochet has been combined with a dog, Roa with a bull, Bido with a lizard and the lone female Martel with a snake. Greed reveals that he is a homunculus and shows his Ouroboros tattoo. Al doesn’t want to believe this since he recalled what happened with Nina and homunculus are not supposed to exist. So Greed has his head knocked off to prove he is a homunculus.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13Greed wants the secret of how Al’s soul was affixed to a suit of armor and in exchange he offers to teach Al about how to create a homunculus. Al reveals that he doesn’t know how his soul was affixed, so Greed has Bido get Ed. Ed comes with a defeated Bido and Al lets Ed know that Greed is a homunculus. Ed goes off on the offer of exchange of information and ends up in a battle with Greed. Since Greed is able to regenerate his damage, Ed is at a disadvantage. To further show Ed the futility of his ways, Greed covers his entire body in metal.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13Ed takes a beating but when Greed grabs him and brings him close, Ed transmutes some of Greed’s armor. Thus Ed is able to get in attacks and reasons that Greed can’t regenerate and fix his armored form at the same time. Meanwhile, Sig and Izumi discover Ed and Al are missing. Receiving a tip, Izumi storms to the Devil’s Nest, where she’s heard the secret to defeating Greed. Greed isn’t interesting in fighting a woman, but Izumi transmutes his facial armor and then causes Greed damage. When Greed asks who she is, she angrily announces that she’s a passing housewife.

Thoughts/Review:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13It is starting to look like the story of Yoki’s initial encounter with Ed and Al may never get told, at least not as an episode. I say this because while he’d been name-dropped before and a wanted poster of him has been seen, we’ve not seen anything about him until this episode when he shows up in the refugee camp and we are shown that he wants revenge on Ed and Al but we don’t know why. I say “we” but those who saw the first anime or read the manga do know why and I’m guessing the anime production team are counting on that to proceed. I could be wrong though.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13I gather that this episode encompassed about a volume’s worth of manga material. That is a shame if true because so much will have been cut to compress things down so much. Generally speaking, 2-3 chapters of manga comprise an anime episode. Depending on the number of chapters per volume, generally 2-4 episodes are created from a manga volume. We’ll see how this plays out.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13The introduction of Greed and his gang is something I remembered very well from the first anime. I had forgotten little details like the fact that Greed could become like Colossus from X-Men — he can transform his body (or at least his skin) into metal. I don’t remember how they get through this, but likely I’ll remember when I watch the next episode.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13When I saw Ed’s partially-broken automail arm, I had a thought that I’ve never had before — why does Ed need Winry to repair his automail? Shouldn’t Ed be able to repair it perfectly? After all, he can transmute his arm into a blade and then back into an arm, so when his arm gets broken, why can’t he just instantly repair it? Is this explained anywhere?

Come to think of it, why not transmute pieces of Greed away as Scar did to his attackers?

I’m interested in learning from you guys any parts from the manga that were excluded from this episode. Until then, I look forward to watching the next episode.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 13

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6 Responses to “Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 13”

  1. verilix says:

    I love FMA. I can’t wait till Brotherhood comes out in English Dub!

    Animepalm – hundreds of Anime English Dubbed

  2. mastermack0 says:

    Okay let’s see:
    This is probably going to be the first episode in which the first anime and second anime diverge. Greed’s story ends radically different in this version so this will playout differently (snake chick’s story is different too). Why doesn’t Ed trasmute his arm back? I have no idea. Most likely because he needs to understand how it works before being able to fix it (step one of alchemy). And for why he can’t go all Scar like: you would need full understanding of the body I guess but I think he can do it if he tried (real reason is probably that he doesn’t WANT to, not that he can’t. He doesn’t want to seriously hurt or kill anyone). Also, he’s an alchemist and has the honor of such: he has to put things back together so he can’t just stop at step 2. Thus, he just recreated Greed’s skin back to human-normality

  3. Anonymous says:

    As for why he doesn’t transmute his arm, I think mastermack0 has it right (although I don’t have any evidence like manga pages). So far the things I remember him transmuting are usually simple things like clocks in episode one of the original series. One problem with fixing the clock was he needed to have all the pieces of the broken clock to work with as materials. It could be that when he creates something like a cannon he can do it more easily than fixing something because he just pulls in whatever happens to be in the environment to use as materials. Obviously automail and other complicated pieces of machinery would have more pieces, more varieties of materials and more specialized materials that may not be readily available to be gathered from the environment.

    As for your second question, I think Al could do it but his teacher’s philosophy that he now follows closely (after trying human alchemy) is to be a part of nature and fit in with nature and the balance. Thus, scars powers would be like the antithesis of that. Then again, if I was in a life or death fight I would say, screw ethics, take THIS.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Well, it looks like this won’t get a fully-faithful adaption, either. The Greed-arc was cut to 2 episodes, probably for time, and left out a lot.

    First is that Ed already knew Bradley and Armstrong were in the South, as he had headed to South Headquarters for his assessment (at the same time Al was captured) which Bradley passed though without even looking at it. Second is the scenes between Al telling Greed he doesn’t remember how he got the body and Ed’s arrival were cut out. Originally, Greed and his men misunderstood Al and thought Ed was dead, so they resorted to other methods, such as hypnotism, to get that memory. Fourth, Izumi arrived before Ed (who attacks Al for being kidnapped), then leaves when Al pleads for her to let them take the deal. She tells Ed about it and tells him where to go. And, fifth, the “friendship born from muscles” between Armstrong and Sig (because shirt-ripping makes everything better).

    I am annoyed Mason was cut from the island memory (when he dressed as a masked man and attacked them occasionally), but at least he got a brief cameo this episode, giving Izumi the Devil’s Nest card. The 1st anime told the island story true to the manga.

    I did like the change of Al’s decision to “beat you guys up” (a true Crowning Moment of Awesome), whereas the manga had him act like he would fight, then ran past them, only to be caught and have Martel enter him.

    Lastly, ep.15 is the definitive split. Lin, May, and the others are scene in the preview, plus
    Barry will make his return.

  5. evgenidb says:

    Also, in the manga was a chase in ruins (or abandoned parts of the town, or whatever it was…). It was there where Al was captured by Greed’s men.

    Also, I watched the 14th episode. At least there wasn’t so much skipping (or at least I don’t remember any). So, it was a good episode.

  6. evgenidb says:

    Also, don’t forget to look at: http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2009/06/fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-12.html

    The last few posts are all about 13th episode, not about 12th (couldn’t help it – sometimes I hate to wait! ^_^). So check it out.

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