Mustang: I'm doing fine. I'm working on becoming the first blind man to win Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Summary:
At a hospital room, Mustang works with his subordinates to build up his knowledge of Ishval so he can help revive the region later. Mustang is visited by Dr. Knox, who has brought Dr. Marcoh over to heal Mustang's eyes. Marcoh will give his Philosopher's Stone to Mustang if Mustang promises to make Ishval a better place, and Mustang agrees to the deal. However, Mustang wants to heal Havoc's spine first and orders his subordinate to come to Central.
At the Armstrong mansion, Scar wakes up under the watch of Olivier and Miles. Olivier explains that she kept Scar alive because she wanted his alchemy, but now Miles wants to take Scar to Ishval to help revive the region and its inhabitants and Scar gladly agrees to help.
Come on, don't cry. I promise to buy all the candies you want.
Back at Resembool, Ed and Al are on the way back to the Rockbell house. While walking on the path, Ed and Al begin talking about May and Ling. After the battle, Ling approached May to state that he will be the next emperor, but Ling promises that he will protect the other houses, and the three Xingese visitors depart for their homeland with the bottle of Philosopher's Stone in tow. Back to the present, Ed and Al finally arrive in front of the Rockbell house and are greeted enthusiastically by Winry and Den.
Because those two came home so late, Winry has changed her welcome from an apple pie to a double flying clothesline.
Of course we are coming with you Al! Can't miss the chance to pick up some cute Xingese chicks.
Two years after the big battle, Ed and Al decide to it's time to leave Resembool. At Central, Fuhrer Grumman visits Mrs. Bradley for tea, and the toddler Selim is playing nearby. Grumman is still a bit weary of Selim and wonder if human and homunculus can truly coexist. Meanwhile, Al visits Gracia and Elicia in Central and tells them about he and Ed's plans to learn more about alchemy. Afterwards, Al meets up with Zampano and Jerso and the three of them decide to head to Xing to learn more about Xingese alchemy. With Al himself heading east and Ed heading west, Al hopes that the two of them can learn enough to help those suffering because alchemy. In the meantime, Winry is seeing Ed off at another train station. After awkwardly confessing to each other, Ed tells Winry that he'll overturn the law of equivalent exchange and boards his train.
What? Just a hug? Where is the kiss!?
The ED sequence features various new photos posted at the Rockbell House and uses the second OP song.
One happy family.
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This episode is pretty much what I expected. Compared to the manga, Bones didn't really add any new elements to the epilogue; they just shuffled and lengthened some of the scenes, and actually it didn't turn out too badly. I liked what Bones did with the scene with Ed, Al and Winry when the brothers returned. The choice of music and the slow pan through the photo board were very nice. The scene between Xingese characters where Ling teased May and made her cry was cute. Another cute scene was the last scene between Ed and Winry, and the animate version gives a better sense of how much difficulty Ed had confessing to Winry. The photo slide show during the ED was fun too, although I liked the manga version of Mustang better. The sleeked back hair looks better. Mustang looks a bit weird with the mustache. Overall this was a decent epilogue episode and it closes the story on a good note.
At 64 episodes, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the longest anime series I've covered on this blog. The series is also one of the biggest sources of traffic for this blog for the past year, especially when I make the posts early. It was an outstanding series with a great story, likable characters, and excellent production quality. Sure, the first fifteen or so episode were not that exciting since they were covered in the old series, but FMA:B has been pretty good after that. I also liked the fact that there was a happy and non-ambiguous ending this time. My final thoughts on the story are written in my post for the last chapter of the manga. I could copy and paste them here, but that would be kind of dumb. Instead, I will focus on comparing FMA:B with the first FMA anime. Here are my thoughts on the topic:
- Brotherhood had the grander story. The old anime's villain Dante was focused just on extending her life, but Father wanted to become God. The manga/Brotherhood had a story that encompassed the whole country of Amestris and even forces from outside the country. The new version is closer to the shounen action-adventure formula than the old anime. The old anime was more focused on the relationships between the characters, especially given that the homunculi are based on the dead loved ones of other characters. I actually thought the old anime did a pretty good job with its story (not counting the sequel movie), but I think FMA:B is a little better overall.
- On the other hand, I definitely liked the action of FMA:B more than the old anime. Bones did a great job with the battles and many of them were intricately choreographed. There were also more moments of triumph in Brotherhood. Moments like Mustang defeating Lust, Lan Fan's return by cutting down Gluttony... moments that make you think "Damn, this show is good". I just don't remember those kinds of moments in the old anime, but it's been a while since I've watched it.
- Character-wise, it's hard to say that FMA:B had the better or worse cast than the old anime. I thought the homunculi received better characterizations in the old anime. Sure, Wrath in Brotherhood was undeniably bad-ass, Pride was creepy, and Greed had an extended role, but I really like the back stories of Envy, Lust, Wrath, and Sloth in the old anime. The old anime made the homunculi seem more human and easier to sympathize with. However, the combination of Hohenheim and Father was better than Hohenheim and Dante in the old anime. I liked the fact that Hohenheim had a much larger and important role in Brotherhood. The old anime slowly wrote Hohenheim out of the story.
That all I have to say about FMA:B. It's been a show that I looked forward to for the past year or so, and I'm both happy and sad to see it end. The ED mentioned that a new FMA movie is in production, although it's probably a compilation movie. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a sequel though. I also wonder if they'll make another OVA for the next DVD release.
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