FMA: Brotherhood – 51 & 52

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 51 & 52

The New OP Rain by SID is filled with a lot of emotions of longing and nostalgia:

It all starts with where we left off last time. The Army of Immortals rise up and bite down and kill the hands that gave them birth. They are simply mindless zombies who are persistent enough to not die. Ed and team try to open the door at the undergrounds of Lab 3, only to be swarmed by the immortal army. After fighting them for a bit, Ed recognizes them as dolls infused with human souls (souls residing in Philosopher’s stones), similar to what Envy’s real form possesses – many helpless souls trapped in a body they are not used to. He also closes the exit door to keep them from causing more damage.

Chimeras, Scar and Ed are ready for battle! ROAR!

Olivier uses the thin-moustache-guy to demand retreat of the central army against Mustang and Briggs’ soldiers. Before providing any leverage though, he’s turned into a blood-mush by Sloth.

So, yeah, Sloth reminds me of Kenpachi (At least, he’s not a lazy bum), teeth match too; no wonder, Seiyuu is the same.

The faceoff between Olivier and Sloth is quite unexpected, because even after being quite heavy Sloth gets to Olivier trapping behind a column. However, that’s a cue for Alex Armstrong to butt in and show his spectacular pecs. Yeah, Mindukse, Sloth.

While eavesdropping to get the update, team Mustang overhears the cry of central soldiers: Bear with a Mohawk! That’s right, Buccaneer is ready to swing! XD

The worst thing that could’ve happened in this situation is the revival of Envy, which was made possible by the insurgence of immortal zombies that chased after Mei Chan. He fuses with all the available zombies prowling about.

Arrigato ne~ Ah , so EVIL! I still like him though!

Heinkel comes to see how Al is doing trapped inside the dome with Pride, to his shock though finds out that Pride was sending distress message with morse code. Kimblee comes to the rescue blowing an entry out, injuring Heinkel in the process. Pride thanks Kimblee and prepares to capture Al.

However, Al is too resilient for his own good and slinks off under the mask of smoke, cutting off his armour legs. Seeing the efforts done by Al to save Heinkel, even without his legs, he gives him the Philosopher’s stone that he pocketed after Kimblee left Ed and them for dead in the North Coal mines. He did it giving respect to the resolve of the brothers who swore not to let anyone else die in the journey towards their goal. Heinkel persuades him that due to their philosophy of never to use human lives for themselves thus not using Philosopher’s Stone to revive themselves; however, the equation changes when it should be used to protect other people’s lives.

The episode ends with a hopeful “Ray of Light” by Shoko Nakagawa:

Al finally uses the Philosopher’s stone to fight Pride and Kimblee. In a few flashes and quick moves, he’s able to trap Pride in a small dome yet again. Kimblee is quite surprised at Al that why he did not run away with the stone and revive his and Ed’s body with it. Al simply entails that it was not possible for them because they needed to save the lives of others as well, who are doomed if what homunculi plan turned true. There’s always the possibility of getting their bodies back and saving the people of Amestris. Kimblee laughs at their noble yet naïve idea and uses his own Philosopher’s stone to fight Al.

He frees Pride yet again and together they take him on once again. As soon as Pride captures Al, he finds to his chagrin that he doesn’t possess the stone. Under the cloud of smoke, Marcoh has healed Heinkel’s injuries, who in turn latches his fangs on Kimblee.

Before Pride could cause any real damage to Heinkel or Marcoh, Yoki comes to save the day (HAAH!!! This was one of the biggest surprises, Yoki the cry baby doing something good selflessly). Marcoh, Heinkel and Al are driven away by Yoki in the runaway car.

You did good, Yoki! Hai Hai, we saw it! XD

Kimblee who lays dying, throat completely gouged, is consumed quite delicately by Pride. After what you did, dude, I seriously don’t feel sorry for you, Kimblee. Sayonara~

Olivier and Alex Armstrong team up to take down Sloth. However, Sloth has yet another ace up his sleeve. He’s called the Lazy Sloth yet he’s the fastest of all homunculi – yeah, definitely ironic. Due to his bulk, he still can’t control the exact direction he moves. Both of them have a difficult time fighting him, causing many dislocated joints and broken bones. Before they finish him off, a group of immortal army prances in to cause more trouble. The army soldiers aiming at the brother sister duo hesitate, fueled by Olivier’s challenge of thinking for themselves rather than mindlessly following orders.

Team Mustang infiltrate by changing the appearance of their ice-cream truck to meat. Mustang and Hawkeye split up with the rest entering the underground and finally showing up in the end to save Ed and company from the mindless yet undying hoard of immortal zombies.

Always the dramatic entrant, Mustang, to add a helping hand!

Conclusion:

Phew! That was a looooong recap and review! Readers must be noticing some down time at our site, due to which our posts are getting delayed but the admins are looking into it so no worries, we’ll be back in gear soon enough.

I like both the new OP & EDs, this might be the last as it has been announced that FMA: Brotherhood would be ending with 63 episodes. So, 11 more to go. There’s still a lot of time for us to enjoy this epic Anime!