November 6th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 30
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 30 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 30
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Riza is in the shower and thinking about when her father, Berthold Hawkeye (Roy Mustang’s alchemy teacher) had passed away years earlier when Ed shows up for a visit. He returns her weapon to her, which she cleans as he talks about the events with Scar and not being able to kill the murderer of Winry’s parents. Ed gets Riza to talk about the past, specifically the Ishval War, where she was a sniper. After a time, King Bradley ordered the extermination of the Ishval people and the military and State Alchemist were brought in to perform that task.
During the fighting, Roy and Riza are reunited and Roy and Hughes are also reunited. The three discuss the terrible things they are doing and are confronted by Major Zolf J. Kimbley, the Crimson Alchemist. He is polite but questions the trio on their reasons for joining the military since the military’s purpose is to kill the enemies of the state. The slaughter of Ishvalian people continues even after the Ishval religious leader Rog Ro attempted to give his life in exchange for those surviving. King Bradley refuses the offer.
Eventually the war ended and with that, Roy Mustang gets Riza assigned to him as his personal aide. Her assignment is to watch his back, but it also carries the responsibility of killing him should Mustang stray from the path. Riza then tells Ed that the country needs to be restored but to do that, the military leadership will have to be removed as well as the 
puppet legislature. She also reasons that with a new leadership, those responsible for the war crimes in the Ishval War will have to be brought to justice. Ed realizes to his horror that this would mean not only Riza, but Roy as well. In the meantime, Riza tells Ed to carry out his quest to make his and Al’s bodies whole.
Al is leaving Dr. Knox’s place and is thanked by Mei Chan for 
saving her. Hearing that Al is Eric’s brother, she’s initially afraid of what that will mean but hearing Al defend himself, Mei Chan has a new vision of what Al’s restored body will look like and he becomes “Alphonse-sama” to her.
Back underground, Scar gets Dr. Marcoh to talk. Scar learns that Dr. Marcoh participated in the execution of Ishvalians in order to obtain a Philosopher Stone. That stone was taken 
by Major Kimbley, who used it to apparently increase his alchemy power. It was Kimbley who killed Scar’s family.
Sometime later, Envy comes in with food for Dr. Marcoh. Initially, Envy thinks Marcoh’s silence is due to him feeling guilty about his actions during the Ishval War but soon, Envy realizes that Dr. Marcoh isn’t speaking for a reason — the body of Dr. Marcoh is sitting in a pool of blood on the floor with its back to the wall. The body has no head and in blood is written (in English) “Vengeance” over the body.
Thoughts/Review:
Yowza! So, Scar kills Dr. Marcoh and even removes the man’s head. Nasty but understandable considering how the Ishval story is now told.
I’m glad time has been taken to expound upon the Ishval War story. What is both amazing and horrifying to me is how so many of the characters we know and love have so much blood on their hands. Further, they all felt that what they 
were doing was wrong, but at the same time, they followed their orders and slaughtered the Ishval people without mercy. No wonder Armstrong fled back then. I suppose that their actions are what drives Mustang to want to eventually take control of the government and why people like Hughes and Riza supported him from the start. They were all seeking a form of atonement for their actions during the war.
Speaking of the war, I remember Kimbley from the first anime series, but he seems somewhat different here. He seemed classically insane in the first anime series (at least, that’s my memory) whereas here, Kimbley comes across as polite and reasoned but is in reality no less insane. I find this version of Kimbley to be the most frightful.
I noticed at least two alchemist that Scar killed later on during the flashback sequence — Basque Gran and Giolio Comanche.
Riza is a much more interesting character now because of her story but also because she was apparently used in her father’s alchemy experiments. I’m assuming that’s what the tattoo on her back was about. The fact that the giant tattoo was partially destroyed in one area must mean that Berthold Hawkeye got a conscience and decided not to harm his daughter to pursue alchemy. Still, I get sick to my stomach thinking about the abuse Riza’s father stated on his daughter by placing the tattoo there at all (well, to be fair, I’m assuming this is what happened but if I’m wrong, you guys correct me).
I liked how Riza and Roy are shown to have been close from even before they were in the military. I hope that when the series ends, Riza and Roy can find happiness together as a husband and wife.
Speaking of romances, looks like the path has been set for Al and Mei Chan to become a couple once Al gets his body back. Also, Ed is confronted with his feelings for Winry, which I found to be amusing especially when Black Hayate reacted the same way Ed did when Riza mentioned Ed being in love with Winry. *lol*
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About Riza’s back, your interpretation isn’t correct but it should become clear enough from upcoming dialogue so I won’t say what here.
I’m glad you enjoyed this episode. While it didn’t (and can’t possibly) have all the detail and side-points in the manga, the important parts are there without breaking up the the flow (which would be the result of stuffing in every ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT AND INCREDIBLY EMOTIONALLY POIGNANT tidbit some manga readers want animated).
Kimbley is a much more interesting character as well so look forward to more of him.
nice job except for one thing, in this series Kimbley is not the Crimson alchemist, he is called The Red Lotus Alchemist
Despite cutting an entire volume down to one episode, they didn’t do such a horrible job. It wasn’t as good as it could have been, but still not bad. Though I would strongly recommend reading volume 15 at some point, even if you don’t have plans to read any other part of the manga. That collection of chapters is simply amazing.
The scar on Riza’s back should be explained soon… if it’s not, I’m throwing something.
Oh, and there were two things that got changed that kind of bugged me. First of all, Mr. Hawkeye originally dies at his desk. His conversation with Roy is basically the same, but having him die at his desk kind of emphasized how obsessed with his work he was, so that being changed is sort of annoying. Also, when he dies, Roy calls out for help and Riza is shown in the doorway. …Important because that marks the only time Roy actually uses Riza’s first name. And other reasons. Maybe.
The other thing was the way Riza meets up with Roy and Hughes during the war. (spoilers) Instead of her walking up to them, they find her after the ‘hawk’s eye’ kills an Ishvalan that got the jump on them. They really didn’t need to change that.
Still a lot of wonderful scenes that weren’t dealt with, but hopefully they’ll have the opportunity to be in future episodes.
Kimbley has made few apperences in this series so far the bigest one was in episode 1 were he talked with Isaac who offered to release him from prison. Kimbley was put in Prison because of the Stone his supiors gave him the stone because he had the largest kill record in Ishval when the war was almost over the officers asked for the stone back he then killed them and ate the stone this was in the manga but was cut out another scene that was cut out was when armstong put up the wall after it was done he went through the body’s and saw two serviving ishvalins he then opened the wall to let them go as they ran away They were killed by an blast from Kimbley then he said that Armstong could have been exacuted for letting them go so he killed them then reminded him that they were suposed to kill all Ishvalins
An entire volume of manga compressed to a single volume. Wow. I guess I should read that volume.
@anon — FUNimation is using the term “Crimson Alchemist” as Kimbley’s title. Of course, they are also calling him “Solf” not “Zolf.” :-/
As others have stated, your interpretations of Riza’s burned tattoo are wrong. Not sure if the anime will go into more detail, but it was all mentioned in Volume 15 of the manga, which is what this episode is based off of. The tattoo is basically the culmination of Master Hawkeye’s research. It was tattooed onto Riza to make sure it wouldn’t be used by anyone for the wrong reasons; it’s a lot safer than writing it down. Riza basically entrusted it to Mustang after her father died, saying that she trusted Mustang with her back. The tattoo was burned at Riza’s request by Mustang after the Ishbal extermination campaign, as she didn’t want her father’s research to create another weapon to be used like Roy was during the campaign. I hope this isn’t overly spoiling, and it gets covered in the anime sometime in the future.
Another thing that I believe was mentioned by someone else. Riza was supposed to be a damn good sniper that saved Roy and Hughes’ backs when they were attacked by an Ishballan warrior in a supposedly safe area.
Speaking about Hughes, he was actually an infantry commander involved in the massacre, not a desk jockey.
Also, I wish the episode had kept in what I think was the best part of Basque Gran’s appearance in the manga. He basically fragged an incompetent senior officer who was treating his troops like cannon fodder and being an arrogant ass. He also wanted to keep sending troops out when Logh Lowe tried to surrender to Hughes to get an audience with King Bradley.
Regarding Kimbley, his first appearance in this volume of manga involved nuking a bunch of refugees that Armstrong allowed to escape. Armstrong felt guilty about massacring Ishaballan civilians and he opened a wall in the wall he put up using alchemy to let a group of women and children escape, and in the next panel, Kimbley blows them up. Total BSOD for Armstrong after that.
So yeah, you should read the manga volume for this episode. Sure, I might be being a bit nitpicky about this episode, but it was still a very good episode.
The Ishbal flashbacks scattered throughout the series thus far have been bits and pieces (Scar’s in 22 was a significant portion) of that volume. It is likely there will be more in future episodes, so it is a good idea to wait until the series is over before considering the manga to catch up on cut material.
The only thing I can think that was removed was when the Ishvalan religious leader surrendered, it was Hughes’ group along with Gran that found him. When he requested to see Bradley, the group commander went nuts and started ranting like mad about how every Ishvalan had to die. Gran shoots him in the middle of it and the soldiers agreed it was an accident to allow the leader to get through. Not a big scene, but it made Gran a much more likable character, apposed to how he was in the first anime.
Also left out was the rest of Kimbley’s story from Ishval, but it’s highly likely they’re saving it for later.
they cut quite a bit out. I don’t know why they didn’t just make two episodes when there was material, especially as the manga is still running. Whatever. Everyone has already mentioned the important missing material, just Basque Gran doing a HEROIC thing by killing a senior officer.
It is a shame to hear about how much was cut. I know for manga I have read that then is adapted into anime form, I often get frustrated at the cuts or changes made to the original story.
It was a good episode – some changes and some cuts, but overall it was good.
Of course, I’d prefer two episodes, instead of one, but we can’t do anything about it.
Probably, it’d have been better if I didn’t read the manga, so I wouldn’t know about the cuts and I wouldn’t feel bad about it.
Marcoh isn’t dead we’ll be seeing him again but scar will use his arm on him for real later (again he doesn’t die)
Hmmmm…he looks pretty dead to me but I’ll take your word for it. ^_^;
I did read volume 15 and I see that the anime writers have completely changed the presentation since some elements of this chapter had already been seen earlier.
Watching the anime, I had no clue what Hughes’ job was in Ishval but the manga makes it pretty clear.
Also, I liked how the manga showed how Roy brought together his team (at least, in brief).
Yay! You read volume 15. That’s wonderful because that’s my absolute favorite volume and I was really upset with how they did this episode. I’ve been fine with how they’ve rearranged everything else up to now but Ishbal is different…just because I thought it was some of Akawara’s finest work. ^^
Yeah, Volume 15 is great. Besides the Hughes thing, there’s also a lot more with Armstrong, Gran, Hawkeye, Marcoh, Knox, and Kimbley. I take it you now know the whole backstory behind the tattoo on Riza’s back?
Also, this episode took some stuff from the early parts of Volume 16 as well. Not as much, but still quite a bit.
But yeah, Marcoh ain’t dead. He’ll be back.
I do understand the tattoo now (mostly) though the anime better explain it.
Dammit, ku_fei lover, you’re not supposed to spoil it for him…
That’s one of the reasons I like this blog, seeing how one reacts when they watch something and don’t know what’s coming next and you already know.
yes don’t post spoilers its bad for everybody crap now i feel like spoiling
sorry…couldn’t help it