Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 55

Tension mounts as Father and Bradley attack out of the blue.

We start off with the usual banter between Ed and Mustang. Mustang accuses him of getting them lost while Ed screams that it was all his fault because he distracted him. Ed pokes him that if it hadn’t been for him and Scar, Mustang would have gone over the edge. To which he simply replies that it was not him but Hawkeye who stopped him. Between the banter, Liza sincerely thanks Scar for helping in stopping the rampage that could have been the end of Mustang.

The Central Command of HQ has been taken over by Brigg’s Platoon along with Buccaneer and Izumi. They broadcast the same news over the army channel that they have General Clemin and his underlings as hostages. They are not to harm the Briggs soldiers and Mustang team.

Olivier hearing this talks to Buccaneer on the phone and informs him about the immortal army who are not to escape in the city; thus, ordered him to close all four gates of Central and to eradicate all inside. He’s more than ready to obey.

Sloth is still at large along with the many homunculi zombies who have no end and keep arriving all over the Central building. Sloth after regenerating starts with super-speed attacks again. The men who are fighting alongside Alex and Olivier try to contain him but to no avail. They tell Alex to leave but he yells back with a big NO. He would not run away from the battlefield like in Ishbal, he would stand ground and fight till the end.

The scuffle with Sloth seems to have no end when Izumi arrives quite grandly—from inside a giant fist, ferrying-off many dead homunculi zombies. Reminds me, she’s Ed and Al’s sensei after all as their favorite transmutation is a fist as well. Alex finds a strong nakama in Sig along with whom he takes care of Sloth for good. He goes down without much dialogue except for the typical mindukse…

It was fun watching the two burly men bond only with the display of pecs and muscles. Cracked me up!

Olivier thanks Izumi for her help and together with Alex take a sigh of relief but are quickly back on their feet. Izumi introduces herself as a simple housewife and sensei of the Elric brothers. Olivier recognizes her instantly as Izumi Curtis. She in turn, tells them to take time in recovering but Alex tells Izumi that when kids are fighting out there, adults can’t just hang around. Olivier announces: “They would inherit the world but right now we are in charge.” Izumi agrees to help out till she can. She’s not really sure how things would be able to fight as she’s one of the sacrifices.

Underground Hohenheim faces off with Father. He jokes that he sure has mellowed out, while he used to be so fun and full of life before. He has rid of himself from Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth, Wrath, Pride and Greed, without which no one can be human. Father doesn’t leave even one stone unturned in capturing him. Hohenheim asks if he didn’t want to be human, why then he had all his homunculi close and told them to call him father. From inside the flask, he always mocked the household but in reality he was the one who wanted a family of his own.

After some more scuffle and announcement of his wish to become a perfect being, Father melts into earth and attacks Hohenheim from behind (always a sign of coward). He tries to absorb his Philosopher’s stone, only to retract quickly not understanding why his hand throbbed. Hohenheim challenges him that someone who threw away all emotions would not be able to beat humans so easily.

Al is shown briefly with Marcoh, Heinkel and Yoki. Buccaneer is helping eradicate the swarm of immortal army from Central HQ.

Who knew Buccaneer could blush? He did, after saving some damsels in distress

Izumi and Sig fight on, while Olivier and Alex happen upon Fuhrer’s room, which is littered with the dead bodies of army unit that was lured by trying to takeover previously, only to be killed ruthlessly by the immortal army. Olivier doesn’t want even one piece of the chair and walks off to the entrance to underground with Alex.

On the other hand Buccaneer’s team has captured and closed all the gates, securing 90% of the Central HQ. Falman secretly thinks that Mustang was late to enjoy the glory. After securing the area, everyone yells with glee that they have finally won. However, the resounding applause and merrymaking is very short-lived as they hear Bradley’s voice on the main communication channel announcing his arrival.

He’s personally come to take back the charge of his country and put down the coup in progress. All free troops to assist him, while he charges the front gate.

In the next episode, expect full blown fight between Greed/Bradley and Hohenheim/Father.

Conclusion: This was a good ‘responsible’ episode after all that heat of vengeance by Mustang. Not that I’m of the opinion that Envy didn’t deserve to die. Suicide was just an easy way out for him. Anyway, the adults got most of the screen time, wiping the ground with the immortal army. However, all the hope and glee of capturing the fort was short-lived with the arrival of Bradley, which I had been expecting for some time.

Don’t know what took Greed so long in getting to Central from Kanama. Seeing Greed/Lin, maybe Ran Fan would show up too. The Elric brothers might not appear till the Promised day. But, I’m definitely anxious to know the ace in Hohenheim’s sleeve.

9 more episodes to go and counting!

About Kyokai

The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & #[email protected].