May 21st, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 57
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 57 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 57
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
With Bradley at the gate, Olivier and Izumi get information from the captured general about the plans to sacrifice the world for a rebirth within the select few. Olivier and Izumi give a choice to the Central soldiers with them and they choose to reject the military plan. Olivier checks in with her people and learns that things aren’t going well. She orders them to retreat if necessary and abandon her. Izumi suggests that their entire group head down to the basement and escape via a tunnel Izumi will construct. With that, the group, including the Central soldiers, head down a long flight of stairs.
On the roof, Fu and Greed battle Bradley to a stalemate while the Briggs troops keep the Central troops from advancing to the roof. Bradley pins down Greed and soon beats Fu. Before Bradley can make the kill, Ling takes control of his body and rescues the badly injured Fu. Bradley scoffs at this second time that Ling has saved someone from death at Bradley’s hands. Fu, seeing he is mortally wounded, knocks Ling down and attempts a suicide run on Bradley with a belt full of home made grenades, fuses lit. Bradley simply slices off the fuses while belly-
slicing Fu. As Fu falls, Bradley’s view is obstructed, allowing the wounded Buccaneer to stab Bradley through Fu’s body. They fall to the ground as Greed-Ling presses the attack on Bradley, striking a blow.
As Al’s company make their way to the HQ building, Scar, Ed, Roy, and Riza find the gold-toothed doctor who made Bradley, who summons the unused Wrath candidates to attack them. The doctor draws his alchemy circle and 
calls back five of the candidates to form the sacrifices needed for activation. The doctor asks Ed to think of how many government-owned alchemy research facilities there are. Ed remembers there are five and realizes this is for a large transmutation circle in the city. Now activated, the “truth” hands grab Ed, Al, and Izumi where they are deconstructed.
Thoughts/Review:
Where to begin?
Greed-Ling and Fu vs. Wrath-King Bradley made for a good fight. Bradley’s strategy to simply remove Greed-Ling from the fight to deal with Fu on a solo basis makes a lot of sense. Obviously, going one on one with either Greed-Ling or Fu is easily handleable by Bradley. Two on one might be something Bradley could handle with his eye, but there’s no reason to not make the odds even more in his favor. Thus, he takes down Fu and even eliminates Fu’s suicide belt, leaving only Greed-Ling to deal with.
Buccaneer’s use of Fu’s body as a shield to not only hide his approach but to stab Bradley through Fu’s body was completely unexpected. Heck, it is almost unbelievable but I’ll let that aspect slide since both Fu and Buccaneer appear to be dead. The resulting wound to Bradley didn’t regenerate like all of the other homunculi, but instead, Bradley is bleeding. That’s something new, but considering that Bradley is getting older and a big deal was made of that early on, I’m guessing that this has something to do with it. So, if Bradley cannot 
regenerate, then his life is at stake here. With his life at stake, it makes his fight with Greed-Ling much more interesting, especially since Greed-Ling scored a hit.
I rather enjoyed the conversation between Izumi and Olivier as they walked down the stairs. I can see these two being close friends once everything is resolved, assuming they survive. I’m guessing they will, but I’m not really sure that this is a given, which is a plus for the anime.
This leads me to the next item — the “grab” of Izumi, Ed, and Al. Because Ed and Al are the leads for this anime, it seems unlikely that they are dead. Further, we’ve seen them deconstructed before (at least, that is my recollection, but admittedly, working long hours in this economy leaves me pretty weary and thus I may not be thinking clearly) and so they may have been taken to the Door. Hohenheim was deconstructed as well. So, I’m 
guessing that the Door is what Father wants opened which is why his sacrifices are those who’ve opened that door. But what does he want from inside that door if that’s the case?
Still, five is the magic number and there are only four people who’ve been to the Door — Izumi, Ed, Al, and of course Hohenheim. Father-Homunculus has been there too but he’s not going to sacrifice himself, so that leaves a fifth person. No one else has opened the door unless there’s a retcon coming. There are three other people with alchemy skills 
that I’m aware of and two of them actually practice alkahestry — Scar and Mei Chan. That leaves only Roy Mustang and he hasn’t been shown to have performed human transformation alchemy. So either he has and we’ve not been told (retcon) or he’s about to, in which case Riza is a dead woman walking. This has been something that’s been in the back of my mind since episode 52 when she and Roy showed up alone to help Ed and company.
With as good as things have been, it still is a shame that BONES decided to rush things so badly early on. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. ^_^
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Have fun. This is where everything really started picking up speed in the manga.
I think Wrath has never been able to regenerate – unlike the regular homunculi, he’s aged as well. So technically he’s closest of all homunculi to a human, in that he can be dealt lethal blows as well. He’s managed to dodge them all so far because he’s got an all-seeing eye.
Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything with the 5th sacrifice, and there won’t be a retcon or sudden revelation. Its actually a problem that has been impeding their plans, but they have several ideas in place. You’ll see.
The reason Homunculi can regenerate is because they soak the damage by using up the souls in their Philosopher’s Stone. When King Bradley was injected with his Philosopher’s Stone, he resisted the process to the point there was only one soul left. Therefore, he cannot regenerate like the other Homunculi.
And Astro, you’re forgetting some of the other Alchemist.
For instance, Armstrong. He’s very strong Alchemist. After all, the Alchemy was part of his family probably for generations and they perfected it.
Or Dr. Marco. He specializes in Alchemy closely related to humans and healing. If you’ve forgotten, he was taken hostage by the homunculi earlier in the series and they made pretty much everything to ensure his long life. And he knew about the philosopher’s stone, maybe even for the Gate (although I seriously doubt the latter).
Also, there is that Alchemist from the OVA. Don’t you think it’s too fishy that they’ve shown us OVAs which are connected to the past of the main story and not just plain fun side story that basically have nothing to do with the story? Also, if you think about it, the first OVA – “The Blind Alchemist” – is the most out of place of the three and practically have nearly nil connection to the main story.
Also making Roy the fifth sacrifice is too obvious and this series are often anything but obvious.
So, consider these Alchemists as well? 😉 ^-^ I wonder who will be your second guess? I’m soooo eager to read your thoughts.
things just got bad for Bradley
he only has a single soul in his stone that’s why he can’t regenerate
and Greed should have a much better chance he had the advantage at the beginning of their fight when Bradley had his eyepatch now he out right gorged his super eye out
Watching this ep, I was struck by the thought that “ANB called that one” when Buccaneer made the comment about Bradley not being able to dodge an attack he couldn’t see coming. Like you said, it’s not particularly believable the way it was done (as opposed to the soldiers opening fire from multiple directions), but the well-played drama of the moment kinda excused this.
One thing that confuses me: If Bradley is suffering the effects of age, why is Selim not in far worse shape?
I was completely not expecting to see the 3 sacrifices taken, instead believed this to be almost entirely Bradley fighting. In the manga, this happened after the fight and, though I know they redid timings for this day, seemed weird in small ways. And the earthquake through Central from the ‘taking’ was more pronounced.
Now, due to proving I was right in an argument, I saw the titles of future episodes up to 60. Seems, compared to the brisk pace of before, it will slow slightly compared to manga’s speed and that half of 59 and I’d say a chunk of 60 is Ch104 in the manga. Those who have read it know what I am talking about. And, considering the spread of episode to manga divisions, seems chapters will be more blurred and not end in the same spots as often as they had been.
I long for the next episode, we are so close now…
@Kaei & Vlyse — Which explains the need for the eye.
@evgenidb — I had forgotten that Dr. Marcoh is an alchemist. ^_^;
As to the OVA’s, my understanding is they are based on one-off manga stories (omake) published in various places. So I thought the manga-ka was simply writing some extra stories that don’t play into the main story (where their inclusion would hurt story flow), but ones the manga-ka wanted to tell just the same.
That said, the blind alchemist did perform human transmutation and technically should be the fifth sacrifice but for whatever reason, Father must not know about him. Plus, he’s not in Central City (or not that we’ve seen) so that’s why I tend to discount him. Father is going after known quantities.
BTW, sorry to everyone for not responding earlier. Too much going on. ^_^;
Maybe the “blind alchemist” died since the time when he met Ed and Al? –meh, just trying to make a plausible reason for the exclusion, because by rights he should be the 5th…
And arimareiji; why should Selim be worse shape then Bradley? Bradley is the -only- homonculous that ages. And the only one that can’t regenerate. You didn’t see Greed looking like an old man, and the ‘Greed’ that first turned up in Dublith was over 200 by his own admission
~Shade