July 1st, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 63
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 63 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 63
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Ed beats Father with his bare fist, leaving the homunculus wondering why a mere human alchemist is able to do this. Despite the beating, Father still has enough life to charge at Greed to take his philosopher’s stone. Greed decides to sacrifice himself to save Ling. Ling doesn’t want this since he needs Greed to become Emperor of Xing, but Greed informs him that Lan Fan has a philosopher’s stone. With that, Greed enters Father’s body and turns it into charcoal. Father extracts Greed and kills him after which Ed punches Father in the chest and kills him by releasing all the souls.
Father, now in his original Homunculus form, finds himself before Truth. Homunculus demands to know why he was unable to obtain “god” and is reminded of what Truth is by his own words. Truth scoffs at the notion that Homunculus could obtain perfection by simply extracting the seven deadly sins from his persona. Homunculus pleads that he was obtaining perfection but again, Truth scoffs at this because Homunculus went about it the wrong way and did not believe. As such, Truth opens the Door and Homunculus pleads to not be returned there. His pleas fall on deaf ears.
Al is “dead” and Ed assures Mei she did nothing wrong. Ed ponders what to do when Hohenheim offers what is left of his life in exchange for Al. Ed tearfully and angrily rejects this as he attempts to figure out how to get Ed restored. Because he and Al promised not to use a philosopher stone to get their bodies back, Ed refuses Ling’s offer of said stone. Ed then has an idea and scratches out a human transmutation circle. After activating it, he encounters Truth who wonders what Ed will sacrifice for Al. Ed says he’ll sacrifice his own Door of Truth and thus give up alchemy. Truth questions him on this but Ed is resolute, saying that without his power, he’ll still be human and he’ll have his comrades. This is the correct answer and Truth gives Ed Al’s body and a way out.
Al is returned to life in his real body and he and Ed are taken to the hospital after taking the embryo form of Pride to Bradley’s wife. Alex thanks Hohenheim for the work Ed and Al did and Hohenheim thanks Alex for his kind words. As the radio announces the death of Bradley as well as the arrest of certain military generals, Hohenheim returns to Resembool to say goodbye to Trisha before he too dies. Pinako comes out and finds Hohenheim, seeing that he died with a smile on his face.
Thoughts/Review:
I figured that Greed would have to be taken care of since the story had been about defeating each of the seven sin-named homunculi as well as Father. Having Greed sacrifice himself is the only way that Ling could be saved, though I admit that of all the homunculi resolutions, this one is the 2nd-least satisfying, mainly because pure greed can never have enough and never settle for a lesser place. Yet that’s what Greed did. However, he had to be removed from the table and so I’ll let that pass.
Speaking of homunculi, there’s Pride. I stated that the story seemed very keen on removing all the homunculi from the table, yet Pride is still alive. Granted, he’s only an embryo of sorts at this point, but he’s still a homunculus. He’s not dead but has instead been given to Bradley’s wife, whom I suppose has been told the truth. So now what with him? It seems rather dangerous to leave him alive.
So, Ed sacrifices his ability to perform alchemy in order to restore Al. Considering how powerful Ed was as an alchemist, that did seem a sacrifice large enough to bring back Al in my mind. With the final episode still on the horizon, I wonder what Ed will do now beyond hooking up with Winry.
As to Al, I wonder if he’ll wind up being with Mei Chan (assuming the anime does any “this is what happens in the future” stuff).
Which reminds me, there’s the unresolved plot point with Mei Chan and Ling and what happens with them upon their return to Xing. There’s also the issue of Scar that has to be resolved. I also want to see what happens with Roy, Riza, and Olivier. We’ll see what the final episode covers.
I liked that Hohenheim returned to say a final goodbye to Trisha before dying himself. It was a nice touch, especially after Ed had basically forgiven him.
So, an interesting episode with things rapidly winding down. I’m looking forward to the final episode.
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I’m glad to see them this far along with only one episode left. I was worried they were going to crunch the last chapter of the manga too much, but all of this episode, the next, and part of the last it looks like, were all from the last chapter.
This really is amazing, I never realized how far behind I’d gotten with the anime. I really need to put an emphasis on finishing this anime. Good thing funimation has the entire thing uploaded, and it’s uploaded to their youtube and hulu channels.
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/108/110-111/
Should answer your remaining questions. 🙂
You know when I heard of this anime I was afraid it would be just another Dragon Ball Z Kai or Ultimate Hellsing, with almost to little difference. In fact the first few episodes, like as in the first season before the opening changed had me convinced it was as it was like a “summary” up to that point of the previous anime series (I had heard this was another true to the manga anime) But the way the Bradly vs Greed episode went and from then on has trully been a unique standing on its own series.
I have to applaud them doing this, the plots actually wrap up nicer than the previous anime which had alot of loose threads and motives.
jeff is spoiling don’t read it
the fact that pride was left alive is probably making a nod to the view that Pride is the only Sin that never can go away and that A man’s Pride can never truly be killed
you assessment about them beating and killing the Homunculi is wrong Ed was planing on having Envy spared but he killed himself first if Sloth had just stayed napping or something i bet the good guys would have just left him alone.
Greed was a more of hero then a villain he was helping the good guys he saved Falman from Bradley he beat the central soldiers back and he seemed to be getting along very well with Ling (He lied but he did say he would settle for ruling Xing and if he could have lived i bet he would have settled for that.
“”Having Greed sacrifice himself is the only way that Ling could be saved, though I admit that of all the homunculi resolutions, this one is the 2nd-least satisfying, mainly because pure greed can never have enough and never settle for a lesser place. Yet that’s what Greed did. However, he had to be removed from the table and so I’ll let that pass.””
In the previous episode where everybody is cheering Ed on as he is fighting father. greed admits to ling that what he really wanted all along “was to have friends like this”. By sacrificing himself I believe he is showing that he did care for others and had friends worth giving his life for.
It amazes me how close the anime and manga were in terms of their release dates yet we get the whole last chapter animated properly panel for panel. So the anime staff must have been working CLOSELY with the manga artist to achieve this.
Ooops. Didn’t realize there was one more episode (I’m not following the anime). My apologies.
Greed’s death is the culmination of his character development and makes a lot of sense. His death would be easily to accept but in episode 61, the anime omitted a very key line from the manga.
In episode 61, when Ed was demanding to know why Pride mindlessly obeys Father, in the manga he says something along the lines of “Greed’s the only one of you guys who actually thinks for himself. He’s more of an evolved human than a Homunculus.”
Greed’s death showed that he can overcome his nature despite being designed like that. This is in contrast to the other Homunculi (ESPECIALLY Envy) who could not get past the nature of their sin and died because of it.
As for Ed’s future… well, no more alchemy must suck for him. He’d be right at home with the millions of unemployed Americans now 🙁
@O-chan – Don’t quote me on this, but I seem to remember reading Arakawa gave them a copy of the final chapter before it ever was published, so that’d fit.
Finally getting caught up…
@Gyt — Good to know.
@Derek — Yep. It has been a pretty good series.
@Jeff — I’m holding off until the last episode airs. ^_^
@Rhuen — Well, a proper adaptation based on the manga-ka’s plotted ending is usually better than something some writers try to pound out. I think I remember reading that Arakawa-sensei was surprised at what the anime writers of the original anime came up with in terms of answers and the like.
Either way, this anime makes the original series unwatchable to me. ^_^;
@Fun — he didn’t. ^_^
A man’s Pride can never truly be killed
As I see it, no man’s sins can be removed by his own actions, thus the need for a savior (Christ) in Christianity.
Ed was planing on having Envy spared but he killed himself first if Sloth had just stayed napping or something
I suppose sending Envy off with Mei Chan to Xing is the proof of that, but my point was that the story itself (and ultimately Arakawa-sensei) seemed intent of removing all homunculi from the story.
(Man, I’m not liking the Google errors I’m getting on bigger replies.)
@Sabad — By sacrificing himself I believe he is showing that he did care for others and had friends worth giving his life for.
Yeah, but that just doesn’t fit the description of “greed” IMO.
@O-chan — That’s my understanding. That’s why for the most part, this adaptation is pretty good.
@Jeff — no worries, sir. ^_^
Greed’s death showed that he can overcome his nature despite being designed like that. This is in contrast to the other Homunculi (ESPECIALLY Envy) who could not get past the nature of their sin and died because of it.
Well, that does add a lot to it and explain Greed. Thanks for the info (I do plan on reading the link Jeff gave later).
As for Ed’s future… well, no more alchemy must suck for him. He’d be right at home with the millions of unemployed Americans now 🙁
Heh! Fighting homunculi is easier than taking on the bunch of idiots currently in Washington.
I’d say wanting friends is greedy.
Psych class stuff which I’m surprised I had never forgotten. Humans are by nature social creatures we need and want others around us, and our nature is further appeased by having those around us we can trust and depend on *even hardened criminals make a play at having friends even if they play it off tough. Think viewing a gang like a family*
Thus a personification of Greed its self would want everything a human mind would want, money, power, sex, minions, and yes even friends.
And to be a hero.
Greedy bastard wanting everything.
Pride being alive at the end of the series really highlights a big theme overall: “pride” keeps us going and won’t really go away.
A majority of the characters showed a lot of pride in themselves throughout the series.
I actually wrote about how the series shows that pride can be beneficial for survival. You can read it at: http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/806561122/pridesymbolism-fma
I also have entries on the ending and also on Greed too. Overall, FMA was one of the best series I’ve read in a long while.