Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood 13

Al is kidnapped by Greed and his chimeras, prompting Ed to come to his brother's rescue.

I didn't know Medusa lived in a butcher shop.

Summary:
Inside the Curtises' home, Izumi states that she's proud that Ed and Al were able to see the Gate of Truth and come back alive, but because of this mistake Ed and Al are no longer her students. The dejected brothers go to the train station while accompanied by Sig. Sig tells the brothers to visit every so often, but Ed and Al thinks Izumi doesn't want to see them anymore. Sig calls the brothers idiots and state that even though they are no longer Izumi's students doesn't mean they can't interact with Izumi as peers. Realizing their mistake, Ed and Al immediately run back to the butcher shop to ask Izumi about how to get their bodies back to normal. Izumi notes that since Al lost all of his body he should have seen more from the Gate, so for now they will work on getting Al to regain his memories. Unbeknownst to the Elrics and Izumi, the gecko chimera Bido is watching them from outside.

Time for an Extreme Makeover, Instant Edition.

Hasta la vista, baby.

At Eastern HQ, after winning a chess match against General Gruman, Mustang informs his five most trusted subordinates (Riza Hawkeye, Jean Havoc, Vato Falman, Heymans Breda,and Kain Fuery) that they will be transferring with him to Central. In the East City slums, the recovering Scar is visited by his old master. Scar's master tells Scar that killing State Alchemists is not the right way, but before Scar can answer, two bounty hunters walk into the tent looking for Scar. The bounty hunters were directed to the tent by Yoki, who had ended up in the Ishvalan refugee camp after being humiliated by the Elrics. The bounty hunters try to grab Scar, but Scar destroy the arm of one of the bounty hunters and kills the other. Scar then tells his master that there's no turning back for him and leaves. Realizing that he can't stay at the camp anymore, Yoki decides to scram and follow Scar instead.

It's not fair for Al to be picking on someone so much smaller.

Dolcetto: You got it wrong! I pee with my right leg up, not left (as in the picture).

Back at Dublith, Al is sweeping in front of butcher shop when Bido throws him a note. Al follows the directions on the note and arrives at the Devil's Nest where he is welcomed by the chimeras Dolcetto, Roa, and Martel as well as Bido. The chimeras wants to know Al's secret about how his soul is attached to the armor, but Al decides to play tough to get and starts beating up Dolcetto. In the ensuing fight, Martel manages to enter Al's body and slow Al down with her flexible limbs, allowing Roa to restrain Al. Al (with Martel still inside) is tied up and brought to the Devil's Nest Bar where he is questioned by Greed, a homunculus who serves as the leader of the chimeras. Al is shocked that homunculi and complete chimeras exist, but Greed states that the chimeras were developed by the military and also puts on a demonstration of his regenerative abilities. Greed states that he wants everything including eternal life, and he thinks Al's body is the answer. Al states that he doesn't remember how his soul became attached to the armor and he didn't perform the feat himself, so Greed states that he'll just have to ask the person who performed the feat.

Greed to Ed: Bravo. If I were your drama teacher, I'd give you an "A" for effort.

Not far away, Ed is walking around looking for Al when he is approached by Bido. Shortly after, Ed arrives at the Devil's Nest after beating Bido up. After seeing Greed's Ouroboros mark, Ed tells Greed to asks the other homunculi since they appeared in the 5th Laboratory which was stationed by soul-attached armors, but Greed states that he can't go ask the other homunculi. Greed then offers to reveal the process of making a homunculi in exchange for Ed's knowledge of attaching souls to inanimate objects, but Ed is in no mood to talk and declares he is going to kick Greed's ass. Greed tells the chimeras to take Al away while he fights Ed. Ed is able to make Greed bleed at first, but Greed reveals his true form where his entire body is covered by ultra-hard carbon.

Back in front of the butcher shop, Izumi and Sig wonder where Ed and Al had wandered off to, and Mason informs the couple that someone spotted Ed heading for the Devil's Nest.

Let's play "Toss the Shrimp".

A regular kungfu master, this one.

Back at the bar, Ed has taken a bad beating from Greed, but eventually Ed figures out Greed's armor and is able to transmute the carbon and then deal damage to Greed. However, Ed's is still in a bad situation as he is injured and losing blood, but suddenly Izumi blows open the door and tosses the unconscious crocodile chimera into Ed as punishment for wandering off. Izumi moves in to confront Greed, but Greed states that he has no interest fighting a woman. Izumi, however, doesn't care about Greed's personal philosophies and kicks the homunculus into the wall after transmuting the carbon on his face.

I wonder why Izumi elected to wear a skirt if she knew she was going to be beating someone up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was a nice, action-packed episode. Even though the story is what drives the show, the action is gives the show that extra entertainment value. Not only did we get to see some good fights and the debut of Greed's gang, we also touched upon Mustang, Scar, and Yoki as well. Funny enough, all of the people on this wanted poster appeared in this episode. The introduction of Yoki might be confusing for some since Brotherhood decided to skip the mining town adventure where Yoki originally made his debut. Yoki will play a bigger role in this rendition of FMA, but he is still one of the third-string supporting characters, so all anyone has to remember for now is that Yoki as the corrupt lieutenant who lost his post because of the Elrics.

Compared to the manga, the episode cut out a fair bit of material just like last week's show, but it didn't feel as compressed as the previous episode probably because my memory of this part of the story is a bit foggy. The comedy and the action was blended together very well unlike some of the other episodes. The appearance of Greed and his gang of chimeras certainly helped to make this episode better mostly because the group as a whole has a humorous side. It's funny how Dolcetto keeps being beaten up, and Greed's dry reaction to Ed blowing up was well chosen.

The main fight between Ed and Greed was of course well animated, and more importantly the fight showed that while homunculi may have some awesome powers, they are far from invincible. I guess this applies especially to Greed, who doesn't have any more tricks once you solve his carbon shield. His fighting skills aren't that great and his attack power is pretty low. Other than transmuting the carbon armor away, there is another simpler but perhaps more difficult way to beat Greed as we will probably in the next episode.

Watching this episode was a good refresher for me since I already forgotten the details of what happened during this arc. I find it curious that Greed would want a body like Al's in the first place. Sure compared to Greed's current body, Al's has the advantage of feeling no pain and fatigue, but Al's body has a centralized weak spot, can't regenerate, and takes away a lot of pleasures in life (food and women being good examples). I'm not sure if it's worth the trade-offs especially for someone like Greed, who explicitly stated that he wants women. The other interesting part was Greed's offer of telling Ed how to make a homunculus. Since Ed rejected the offer, I don't think anything will come out of it, and I'm not even sure if it's possible for anyone other than a certain someone to make homunculi.

The next episode will be important since it will be where the story completely diverges from that of the old anime. We'll have the Elrics, Greed, Izumi, the chimeras, Alex Armstrong, and some surprise characters mucking around underground. Looks like someone will be showing off their sword skills hehe.