Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 49

Detaining Pride in Kanama, the rebellion head starts for the Promised Day

Hello all! I bring back the 10 episode recap with the epi 49 review. Just a note, I stopped myself in making A LOT of gifs because this series deserves it and there are too many funny and action packed moments. However, as I’m doing 10 epi recaps, I have to put up breaks somewhere for sure. I forgot to mention in the last post that I loved first OP song for FMA: Brotherhood by YUI, “Again”:

Now, without any further ado, let’s start from where we left last week:

Episode 11 – is still on the recap mode, the stuff you already know if you have seen the first adaptation. Ed, Al and Winry visit Rush Valley, where Winry completely loses it over automails:

Ed’s State Alchemist watch is stolen by Paninya, which leads them to Dominic who makes exemplary automails. Everyone helps out in delivering the baby of his son, after which Ed and Winry have a heart to heart about the date (3.Oct.11) carved on his watch—Remember the day.

Winry decides to stay in Rush Valley to become a better automail mechanic for Ed. (Note Quick show: Wanted posters of Scar, Greed and Yoki in the train station.)

Episode 12 – Ed and Al visit their sensei, Izumi Curtis in Dublith to get clues about getting their bodies back. I love Ed getting beat up by Izumi!  :laugh2

We see some glimpses of his father and mother (Kiddie Ed and Al are so kawaaiii~). :aww:

Ed blames Hohenheim for his mother’s death. They revisit their memories of training with Izumi. All is one and one is all. Ed realizes that their sensei must have done human transmutation as well because she doesn’t need to draw a transmutation circle whenever she uses alchemy. Izumi also figures out what they have done. She tells them about the truth of trying to save her baby. They share their worst pain with each other, making their bond even stronger.

Episode 13 – Izumi expels Ed and Al as her students because they have done taboo. But Ed and Al stay to find more clues of finding the truth. Ed and Izumi help Al remember the truth that he must have seen when they opened the gate.

We see Mustang being transferred to Central with his five loyal subordinates: Fuery, Falman, Breda, Havoc and Hawkeye. Scar has recuperated back to health in the Ishvalan slums, where Yoki squeals him out (with the fast paced recap, his story of miner town was left behind, check out FMA epi 9 for more). Al is kidnapped by Greed’s gang of chimeras for finding the truth behind affixing soul.

Ed comes to rescue and notices the Ouroboros tattoo and connects the dots with two homunculus he saw in the fifth lab. He spars with Greed to get info on them, noticing his Ultimate Shield. However, fighting Greed takes a toll on him and Izumi interferes as a passing housewife. (I love it when she says it with all her spunk! )

Episode 14 – Mustang arrives in central amidst a lot of gossip about his promotion. He goes to visit King Bradley when he finds out that he’s actually gone to South for some inspection (to Dublith with Armstrong). Chimeras are running away when Bradley faces Greed. He kills all the Chimeras, while kidnapping Greed revealing his true identity of Wrath. Before going, he also kills Martel who is hiding in Alphonse’s armour that unblocks his forgotten memories of the gate.

Bradley pokes about Al and Ed about any allegiance with Greed, which Ed refuses. He also finds out about their true condition due to human transmutation. He visits Izumi and offers State Alchemist title, which she politely declines. Ed and Al talk about the military involvement with homunculi, getting fishy by the minute. Bradley brings Greed to Father and his rest of siblings; when he refuses to join them he is melted alive on a lava tank. His philosopher stone melts away and Father consumes it back to himself. We also see a bit of Selim Bradley all going wide eyes over his father. (Oh! How he changes later! :shock )

Episode 15 – Finally! The epi which leaves behind all the recapping from the previous adaptation. This is where all the fun begins with many new characters added and a new OP and ED to boot. I love this ED 2, “Let it all out” by Miku Fukuhara:

Scar is once again killing state alchemists (silver alchemist this time). He returns to his hideout to find a Xingese girl Mei Chan with a chibi panda Xiomei. She used Alkahestry (Rentanjutsu) to heal Scar’s wound. She also recognizes the tattoos on his hand as a mixture of alkahestry and alchemy. Yoki tells him that they crossed the great desert to enter Amestris to research the Philosopher’s stone. For some reason, Mei has an ideal image of Ed as a handsome prince (fufufuu~ she’s going to be sooo disappointed! :lol:).

She tags along with them to Central. Barry the chopper meets up with Hawkeye and goes all mushy over her. Mustang and Falman interrogate him about the fifth lab. Ed and Al return to Rush Valley to get his automail repaired from Winry. There they find Lin Yao (Al picked him as a stray :pfft ) Lin is voiced by Mamoru Miyano so lurve him! He’s one hungry Xingese, who comes from a far distance (crossing the desert, also researching Xerxes). He seeks the Philosopher’s stone for eternal youth and sends his bodyguards Ran Fan and Fu after Ed and Al. However, they overpower them and are left to pay the price. :XD:

Lin’s a royalty… A Prince?! (:pfft with Ed and Al)

Episode 16 – Ed, Al and Winry decide to visit Hughes in Central. Lin and his two bodyguards tag along; he has a bad feeling about the city and gets arrested for being an illegal immigrant.

Barry the chopper is kept hidden with Falman; Havoc brings orders from Mustang to keep him safe while he brags about finding a new girlfriend. Ed and Al report to Central after splitting up with Winry, who goes to visit Gracia and Elicia. Mustang is researching about Hughes death in archives with the help of Sheska. Envy disguised as Focker gets to know his intentions. Mustang and Armstrong have a quick chat in the bathroom about not telling the Elric brothers about Hughes’s death, because he came close to finding the truth about philosopher’s stone (they are made from live human souls). Even Mustang doesn’t tell them about it but Maria Ross lets it slip without knowing.

Edward flips and runs to meet Gracia and tell her the truth that they were responsible for his death. Gracia tells them to plough on in their struggle of finding the truth about Philosopher stone because this way her husband’s death would not be meaningless but an example. The trio goes back to hotel completely desolate and wretched. Lust and Envy scheme to keep Mustang in leash by giving him a bait to chew on. After all, he’s an important sacrifice. Maria Ross is arrested as a suspect of murdering Hughes. The girlfriend Havoc was so going crazy over is none other than Lust. :sigh

Episode 17 – Maria Ross is accused of assassinating Hughes even when she keeps on refusing the fabricated evidence. Armstrong meets up with Brosh, who shares his suspicion about Maria being made a scapegoat. Ed, Al and Winry have a discussion about what to do now. Barry the Chopper leaves the safe house after reading in newspaper about Maria being convicted. Ed and Al do the same. Barry launches in a single-man attack on the jail too free Maria and on the way frees Lin too.

Military announces shoot-on-sight orders for her. On the way they meet up with Al and Ed. Barry distracts them and tells Maria to run along. Maria then comes face to face with Mustang who supposedly burns her to crisp. Mustang tells them to stop asking questions and just obey! That is the way of being a soldier. Ed and Al can’t believe what just happened, while Armstrong apologizes to them for not telling about Hughes. Liza takes vacations while Mustang flirts with an Elizabeth on phone. Armstrong escorts a very confused Ed, telling him he needs immediate maintenance of his automail in Resembool—all done by the order of that man (Mustang).

Episode 18 – Ed arrives in Resembool with Armstrong and groups with Breda. They all go to the Xerxes ruins, where they meet Maria Ross, pretty much alive. Armstrong goes into fits seeing her:

Mustang simply faked her death for saving her. This was all made possible with the alliance of Barry, Lin and Mustang. Ed also swaps stories with Fu-jisan about the origin of Alchemy and Alkahestry—both seem to have identical stories about the Philosopher of East and West. It seems Xerxes was the nation that was destroyed in one night and rumored to have known how to make the Philosopher’s stone. Maria leaves for Xing, while Ed encounters a group of Ishvalans who were living in the ruins. From them he finds out that Scar killed Winry’s parents. They apologize and show their gratitude of saving many ishvalan lives.

In Central the human Barry comes to find the armoured Barry in the safe house. Havoc, Falman and Barry counter him, while the Hawk’s eye watches and protects. However, Liza is attacked by Gluttony on the tower.

Episode 19 – Listening to repeated shoots on phhone, Mustang rushes to her rescue. I loved the way she scolds him later for coming (LOL! Mustang sweating his brow is too funny to pass up!)

Al joins the team and they go after the human Barry—on the way Al explains about homunculi and their nature—who ends up in Lab 3. When Mustang and Havoc enter the Lab, they come face to face with Lust. Havoc finally realizes that she’s a homunculus while Mustang rages because he knows she had something to do with Hughes’s death. Havoc and Mustang burn the whole room where Lust was, but still she rises quickly regenerating and deathly pierces Havoc and Mustang, leaving them for dead. She goes to where Liza and Al are. She instantly kills Barry piercing his armour and goads Liza for a suicide attempt to kill her.

Alphonse comes in the middle and tells Liza to run away but she insists while crying to leave her be. When it all seems lost, we hear Mustang’s voice, who saves the day. (Kakkoi!!!)

Mustang burns Lust to cinders quite satisfactorily and collapses. His only concern is the safety of his subordinates. Bradley witnesses all and walks off.

I love the way this series goes, serious moments mixed with funny ones:

Tadaima! Bakka, Okawari! Hahaaa. It broke off!!!

Episode 20 – When Ed comes back to Resembool from Xerxes, he sees Hohenheim visiting his mother’s grave. Hohenheim asks about the failed human transmutation and why he burned his house down? Was it because he couldn’t care to see it after what happened? Ed stalks off after calling him, “Horrible old man!” Hohenheims exclaims, he’s exactly like me when I was that age.

Ed overhears Pinako and Hohenheim talking about what exactly Ed and Al transmuted, putting a seed of doubt in his heart. Before going the next morning, Hohenheim warns Pinako to leave this country because something terrible was going to happen. Ed, accompanied by Pinako goes back to their house to dig the grave where failed transmutation corpse was buried. He wretches but finishes the digging and finds to his relief the hair colour is different from his mother’s. He also calls Izumi to tell her that is she really sure what she transmuted was really her child? Before his way back to Central, Pinako gives him his mother’s last message for Hohenheim.

In Central Al explains his body to Lin, who exclaims, this is the ideal body. However, Al clarifies that it is like a ticking bomb, 10 months or years, any day this body can malfunction and cease to work. Winry becomes overwhelmed with emotions. It seems, she cries for the both of Al and Ed rather they for themselves. Ed is aghast when he returns to Central but fixes Al’s armour. Before telling his theory about Al’s body existing in the void of truth, he asks Winry why she rejected Al for marriage when they were kids? It’s because of height! She replies. (Note this down, my readers, I’ve an interesting theory to share on this soon! Teehee!)

Ed and Al conclude that no soul was affixed to whatever they transmuted thus they did not kill anyone in the process. Izumi confirms the same, which means that something dead can’t be brought back but it’s different for something living thus Ed is sure he can bring back Al’s body. All of them relieve in the fact that they didn’t kill their loved ones a second time. It’s as if they got saved from all those years of guilt. Ed and Al together affirm their resolve to return Al’s original body. Winry notices for the first time, how wide Ed’s shoulder has gotten. (insert a small shipper squee here~)

>> Proceed to the Episode 49 Review >>