Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 09
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 09
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

In the hospital, Ed gets chastised by Lt. Ross and Sgt. Brosh for going off on his own in the Lab 5 incident. After squaring things with them, Ed makes a dreaded call to Winry about his busted arm. She’s afraid that he’s discovered the missing screw and he’s afraid that she’ll go off on him for messing up her automail. Ed is a bit surprised when she doesn’t go off on him but when he reveals he was in a fight, she does go off. However, she agrees to come to Central City to make repairs.

She’s met at the train station by Major Armstrong where she learns that Ed is in the hospital. She’s now concerned that her forgetting to put in a screw caused him to be there but she soon realizes that Ed doesn’t even know about the missing screw and so feels better about the whole thing. After finishing the repairs on the spot, Lt. Col. Hughes pops in for a visit and upon learning Winry needs a place to say, has her stay at his house, where it is conveniently Elicia’s 3rd birthday party. Winry and Elicia hit it off and during the evening, Winry and Hughes talk about Ed and Al and Ed’s concern for Al’s apparent depression.

The next day, Winry returns to the hospital to visit Ed and Al only to find them in an argument as Al has let Barry the Chopper’s words get to him abut being fake. Al thinks that Ed is afraid to tell him this and so Ed leaves. Winry goes off on Al, pointing out that Ed wouldn’t go through all this trouble for a fake brother. Further, she informs Al that what Ed was afraid to ask Al was whether Al hated him for losing his body. After whacking Al’s armor a few times, Al goes to find Ed. The two make up by having a fight practice where Ed wins for the first time. They then vow to get stronger and to get their bodies back to normal.

Scar dreams of being in Ishval and encountering a State Alchemist when he wakes up in a slum of East City, tended to by an elderly Ishval man and a boy from Ishval, all part of a refugee settlement after the war. Scar remembers his fight with Lust and Gluttony and his two rescuers recount how they found him half-dead in the sewers.

Thoughts/Review:

First, its CAMEO TIME!

Thanks to everyone who alerted me in advance that this would be coming. ^_^ As tired as I was when I watched the episode, I’m sure I would have missed it.

While this episode had Al working through his feelings, it also had a fair amount of humor. The whole milk scene ended up basically being a commercial that I’m sure the Dairy folks would get behind financially. Plus, there’s the slapstick of Lt. Ross and Sgt. Brosh beating on Ed as well as the slapstick (in the middle of a serious moment) where Winry wails on Al. Of course, no Fullmetal Alchemist humor would be complete without Major Armstrong losing his shirt and flexing now would it? ^_^

I think we are still moving pretty face-paced because I want to say that the first anime series had Al gloomy longer over Barry the Choppers words BUT I could be mistaken there. Still, I’m glad that bit of angst on the part of Al is over and we can move along.

One thing I learned from this episode that I wasn’t aware of was that Ed being a State Alchemist is the equivalent of him being a Major in the military. That’s another of those elements that I’m not sure if it came up or not in the first series. I do know that Ed had authority as a State Alchemist to obtain funds, go where ever he wanted, and to even use military resources. Knowing that he’s like a Major gives more clarity to the whole structure of how he fits in. It also explained why Lt. Ross and Sgt. Brosh were so polite to him and why they were afraid after Ross slapped Ed a few times. *lol*

So a nice fun episode that also manages to resolve Al’s angst and push Scar’s story forward a bit.