Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 51

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 51
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 51 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 51

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51The sub-homunculi army comes “alive, but soon go after the general who activated them and the scientist with him, killing and eating both of them. Ed and company arrive at the giant doors to get to Father’s lair, only to discover that opening the doors releases a ton of sub-homunculi that they have to fight. In the HQ building, Olivier has a general hostage who defies Olivier and gives orders to his men to seal the HQ building Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51than give into Olivier’s demands to stop fighting the Brigg’s soldiers and Roy’s forces. As a reward, he’s accidentally killed by Sloth, who’d been ordered to kill Olivier.

As Roy’s small band prepares their next move, the injured Heinkel hears the tapping being made by Pride and realizes that Pride is sending a coded message. Kimblee shows up and attacks, critically wounding Heinkel and opening a hole in the mound trap laid by Hohenheim. Al uses alchemy to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51get himself and Heinkel to safety at the cost of his metal feet. Heinkel tries to get Al to abandon him but when Al won’t, he produces the philosopher’s stone that Kimblee lost and asks Al to use it. After convincing Al, who then asks for the strength of the souls in the stone, Al uses the stone to reform his feet and face Pride and Kimblee to their surprise.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51Back in Central, Mei Chan is attacked by sub-homunculi and loses the jar with the small Envy in it. One of the sub-homunculi eats Envy, who then in turn takes over that sub-homunculi’s body and then proceeds to consume ever sub-homunculi, thus returning to his normal giant form before returning to humanoid form.

Meanwhile, Olivier uses Sloth’s wild attacks to take out Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51Central soldiers and uses a grenade to try to fend off Sloth. Sloth gets her trapped behind a pillar and begins to crush her with his hands when Alex arrives and punches Sloth across the room. Olivier briefs Alex on what they are fighting, so Alex asks her to leave this to him since it is something he can handle.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51

Thoughts/Review:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51It is always a bit weird getting used to a new OP/ED theme song after one gets used to, and even enjoys, the previous one. The OP isn’t gripping me, but that doesn’t mean anything. The ED theme doesn’t do much for me either, but that’s OK too.

Another thing about new OP/ED sequences is their spoiler effect. Granted, I’ve spoken of this before, but what did I have Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51verified for me as the episode started? Bradley is indeed alive. OK, I figured this to be the case (and I think a naughty spoiler or two may have posted such in one of the blog comments ^_~ ), but the story hadn’t revealed this at this time. I guess it goes to show that the anime is primarily targeted at readers of the manga since they already know what’s going to happen.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51And now, on with the analysis.

WHOA!!!!!!

How many times have I uttered that word when it comes to Fullmetal Alchemist? Quite a few times as I recall and frankly those “whoa” markers are new high water marks for kicking bottom and taking names. I had an inkling that based on the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51screams last week, these homunculi soldiers wouldn’t be ordinary. To quote myself, “Finally, the homunculi army has awoken to quite creepy and monstrous means. Somehow, I get the feeling that they may not be so easily controlled. In fact, since Father is no doubt behind their creation, they would seemingly destroy everything. We’ll see though.”

Turns out I was completely right on the uncontrollable part. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51What I didn’t expect was for them to basically be a zombie army, sans the rotting flesh, but having a craving for human flesh to feed their hunger. Unlike the main homunculi, these sub-homunculi don’t seem to regenerate when hit but do seem immortal. Thus, we have something more akin to zombies, which imagery is enhanced thanks to the gory, bloody start of the episode. *shudder* I imagine some kids Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51having nightmares about this one for sure. ^_^;

Ed and company basically are in a no win situation, which will be interesting to see how they get out. I had thought that Scar injuring the one sub-homunculus that the others might attack and eat it. That didn’t happen obviously.

Speaking of eating sub-homunculi, there was Envy. I had a Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51chuckle at Mei Chan and Xiao Mei fighting off the sub-homunculi, but it was pretty well telegraphed that she was going to lose the jar and Envy would ultimately escape. Of course, I’ve been waiting for Envy to get free ever since Mei Chan returned to Central. So, Envy saves Mei Chan by consuming the sub-homunculi but leaves her alive. I wonder why.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51Add Kimblee’s other philosopher’s stone to the “I forgot about that” list. Good thing the writers (and ultimately, the original manga-ka) don’t forget. *lol* Its one of those things that clearly are going to be used later when last we saw it after Ed was taken to the hospital, but then forgotten for long enough time that when it does finally show up, it is unexpected but nifty. So, in addition to repairing his own body, did Al heal Heinkel too when he used the stone? I’d guess so but we’ll see. Either way, this twist is unexpected and fun to the predictable Pride escaping the trap scene.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51Finally, Alex kicking Sloth’s butt makes up for the pasting he took at the hands of his sister. Further, this moment is sweetened by the fact that Alex saved Olivier from being killed by Sloth. *lol* Anyway, I’d love to see Alex and Olivier fight side-by-side against Sloth, but even then, it is likely still a losing proposition.

So, chalk another “win” up for this anime series.
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 51

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 51”

  1. the fun fact man says:

    you were almost complety right about the lesser homunculi army but as the scientist said they were not done yet also father did not create them the generals did they were just told how to do it by father

  2. Anonymous says:

    Seems like this the 5th season approximately and it will be all on this one single day. With so much happening everywhere at once, this will definitely be 10+ more episodes. Hell, the manga still hasn’t finished this day yet.

    Also, I’m almost certain now that anime and manga will end about the same time. Very rare for any series, especially one that had no filler.

  3. AstroNerdBoy says:

    @FFM — I figured Father was involved somehow. ^_^

    @Anon — It is rare. I think Toradora had the light novels and anime end at roughly the same time, but that meant that the anime had some cuts which was unfortunate. IF FMA manga/anime end at roughly the same time, I hope the anime writers and manga-ka are working closely together.

  4. Anonymous says:

    The first time I watched the opening it was ok, but after watching it a couple of times I really like it now.

    Al vs Pride/Kimblee in my favorite fight in the manga, I hope the anime team does a good job.

    There’s been a lot of talk about who is stronger alex or olivier?, after this fight I think people will know the answer.

  5. vlyse says:

    BONES probably has already seen the remaining 2-3 chapters of the manga that haven’t come out yet.

    There’s two panels in the latest chapter this month (106) that are very similar to (subtle) shots in the OP/ED, which were created before 106’s release date.

    And the director’s blog talked about a meeting that happened for the script of episode 62, which is expected to cover chapter 107.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Word is that the manga-ka has already finished the series and so the anime-writers have all of it already. I hope that’s true ^^ They’ve already got the script for episode 62 all written (if you read the Japanese directors blog) and with chapter 106 coming out this week it showed some scenes from the OP were in fact from that chapter. So I’m thinking the anime writers and Arakawa-san are very close 😀

  7. O-chan says:

    …and we’re officially at the point where this series overtakes the previous series in terms of episode count and OP/ED. Yeah, I’m pretty convinced that given how things are going in the manga yeah the anime and manga will end at the same time. Geez, this episode alone surpassed the American manga release.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Update about the anime writers having the whole manga: I just noticed in the THIRD OP there’s this scenes that looks EXACTLY like something that happened in the recent chapter 106. So either I’m crazy, as well as all the other people that noticed it, or we have nothing to worry about at all. The great cow is a speed drawer/writer.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Not that it’s surprising. In one of the volumes of the manga Arakawa drew a little comic talking about the making of the first anime. She said she told the animators everything that was going to happen in the series, and whenever they had questions about it she found it easier to sketch out the scenes real quick rather than explain it all.

Leave a Reply to the fun fact man Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Powered by WordPress