Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 46
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 46 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 46

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Moving forward to spring and near the Promised Day, Winry returns to Resembool with Al, Major Miles, and other soldiers from Briggs. Upon arriving home, she heads to her bedroom to change and upon starting to remove her shirt, she sees Ed there, eating a sandwich. Her scream brings up her two soldier escorts but also gets Darius, and Heinkel to respond. Soon things are sorted out and she throws them out of her room before having a brief talk with Ed about seeing Al, something he can’t do since he’s wanted.

Pinako then arrives, welcoming Winry home and over dinner, tells her to give Ed’s automail a look over. Ed wants Winry to leave town and go to another country which angers her. They get into an argument and Ed eventually leaves. Ed meets Greed on the stairs, who finds their argument amusing since there are elements of greed in them. Ed leaves with Greed, Darius, and Heinkel that night, making a promise with Winry that once this Promised Day stuff is over, he’ll return but he expects some apple pie. Winry agrees.

In Lior, Scar and Marcoh reunite with Yoki, Jerso, and Zampano. They head out and encounter a group of Ishval refugees. Elsewhere, Miles leads soldiers from Briggs to a joint military exercise in the east, headed up by General Grumman. However, King Bradley is in the observation tower, meaning that whatever plot Grumman and Miles have cooked up has to wait. Meanwhile, Al is captured by Pride and Gluttony while in Central, Roy pays Olivier a visit with a message hidden in some flowers, telling her that Selim is a homunculus.

Back at the training exercises, Miles learns of Al’s disappearance as General Hakuro reports to King Bradley that Grumman is a traitor. Bradley is aware that Grumman’s may launch a coup d’état using his Eastern Army but he is surprised to learn that this joint exercise is merely bait to get Bradley out of Central as a large group of Ishvalan people infiltrate the city for terrorist activities. In the confusion while Bradley is gone, Mustang plans to take over.

Leaving matters with his other generals, Bradley returns to central, but his train is stopped on a bridge and his car disconnected before the bridge is blown. News reaches the generals in the East and at Central where panic sets in. Riza gets Fuery and Breda as Mustang’s plan is about to go down. At HQ, General Armstrong sees an opportunity to take control of the situation when Father walks in with Sloth to take control to the relief of the other generals.

Thoughts/Review:

I didn’t expect a leap forward in time here and I don’t know if the manga skipped anything. I suppose not because now that I think about it, someone may have mentioned that there would be a skip in time. Not sure though.

Regardless, pieces are now in place. Interesting that Bradley fell for Grumman’s scheme just so they could assassinate Bradley by taking out his train. Surely, they have to know he’s a homunculus and as such, I can’t see that Bradley is dead yet. As long as he has a philosopher’s stone, he should be fine. I also note that since no one has gotten to the site to investigate and the bombers didn’t stick around, that’s a sure tale sign that Bradley is alive. I could be wrong though since Father did show up at the end.

Things had been staged initially so that Colonel Mustang would lead an uprising to stop the homunculi plan. After all, General Grumman came in to support Roy, not take over so although Roy hadn’t reached the General ranks yet, he still had support of some above him. Then General Armstrong was introduced and it has been difficult over time to see how Olivier would concede anything to Roy. After all, she’s as tough as nails and does have her own ambitions. That said, I have the feeling that her conversation with Roy was a way of saying she’d support his actions without saying it. If so, all Roy has to do is live up to his promise, otherwise Olivier takes over. *lol*

Speaking of Olivier, I so loved this pan shot, I had to make it into a collage image. ^_^

Al’s capture by Pride and Gluttony was unexpected. However, since he couldn’t fight due to his condition, it is not surprising that they’d get him. Now, there’s Ed, Hohenheim, and Izumi. We still don’t have a fifth person for Father’s plan, do we?

Finally, there’s Ed an Winry’s reunion. The one thing that struck me (in addition to some underboob fanservice for Winry, ’cause we can’t have enough of that) is that both Winry and Ed were made to appear a bit older. This really came through as they argued and it made them seem like a young married couple who love and care deeply about each other but have gotten passed the honeymoon phase of the marriage. I’m guessing the imagery was done on purpose, assuming I didn’t just imagine it.

So, things are about to explode all over. Can’t wait to see what happens next.