Forum - View topicFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV) (w/ index).
|
Goto page Previous Next |
| Author | Message | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
kpk
 Posts: 484 |
|
|||||||
|
A very good episode
 ...finally 
although... and as expected, not as good as the similar one (or two, to be exact) from the previous series, and also a little too force with the attempt to make the viewers attached emotionally to Nina. but still, a very good episode. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
wedgeofpie
 Posts: 20 |
|
|||||||
|
Yeah, this episode never had a chance of matching ep 7 from the previous series, but you can't deny the upturn in quality. Finally they managaed to tell a decent story in the space of 22 minutes and yes this is due to the fact that they followed the manga chapter almost exactly. Scars intro here seemed a bit pointless as his sudden appearance in the manga is so much cooler, but at least there was no nonsense like, I don't know, Shou Tucker turning in to the Hulk...Anyway, here's hoping they can keep this up for the rest of the series.
Also, while I still prefer that moment in the original series there was something aboutspoiler[ Ed's look of joy that made the whole thing so much more terrible and really sold his moment of recognition when he realised the truth about Nina.] Alexander is officially the best dog ever. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||||||
|
Yup.
  Surpassed expectations. Did NOT surpass the first anime which left me without sleep for a few hours and still stands as one of the most truly horrifying things I have ever watched, but yeah, that's hard to beat, anyway. Obviously that wasn't going to happen.
My only complaints were taking it "too far" in its shonen-y approach. Okay, those pages in the manga kind of worked for the manga. Kind of. We don't need to see them again. Too much super-deformity, and this has been a continual problem. And, as with the manga and most shonen hyper-exploitation, Tucker practically came on and announced "Hi, I'm extremely shady. And you are?" I know they're just trying to be faithful to the source material. It was glaringly obvious from the start in the manga that Tucker was a disturbed, creepy individual. I think most people who watched this episode for the first time "figured it all out" before Ed does, the complete opposite of the first anime where Ed has his eureka moment long before most of the audience. But I will eternally prefer the other approach where it all comes as a complete shock and our opinion of Tucker, who is portrayed as a kind, decent man with maybe a few closet skeletons and not a creepazoid right away, does a HUGE 180 from "poor hermit, I hope he passes" to spoiler["oh god no, what a MONSTER!"] That being said, I did figure it out the first time before it was revealed, but not until very late. It was still more shocking. One of the main differences BESIDES all the obvious "I'm up to no good" dialogue was the way they used Tucker's glasses. In the first anime we got to see a lot of Tucker's eyes, but his glasses occasionally obscured them when Tucker was hiding something, often switching back and forth in how they would hide his gaze within the same scene. This time around, they followed the manga's technique and had his eyes hidden 90% of the time, making him just look very alien and creepy. (Of course, in the manga and this 2nd anime, Tucker is a throwaway one-dimensional character. The 1st anime just made him more layered and realistic because they were going to use him a lot more.) I finally got to see spoiler[Scar blow Tucker's head off, though.] I am finally content on that insta-satisfaction front. They should have made it more spoiler[graphic and in slo-mo, though!] 
Still, I couldn't sit still during that scene the second time around either. I was squirming and swiveling in my rolly chair. No matter how it's done, better or worse, that scene is still always excruciating. The best thing this episode did was give Nina and Alexander good face time before, something I thought would be most difficult hurdle. (Did the dog seem "fluffier" to anyone this time around? Like a big bear...) Good episode. I have higher hopes for this anime now.
By the way, on the animation front, we get to see a more exaggerated version of the problem I mentioned in the basement scene with Rose. See how shading makes a difference? Remember the lamp in the 1st anime's basement, and how they used the orange to contrast the chimera's silhouette with Ed's, or give us a half-headshot of Tucker so that when he looks up...uuuugh! Same thing with Ed later in shifting his expression so he looks more demonized when he gets angrier. The lighting in the revelation scene this time is boring by comparison. The open doorway that lets white light into the dark grey room gives us something, but not much. Their best "trick" was using Tucker's broken glasses as a picture-in-picture splitscreen for Ed and Tucker's verbal war, and that's not terribly unique or exciting, is it? I mean, it still works, it's still scary, but the creators did not use lighting and shading to its full potential like in the 1st anime or EVEN the manga which had some great, if not far less subtle, contrasts in the inking, making this scene the least effective out of three iterations...the fact that it still works really well means that Arakawa is a twisted genius for ever having come up with something that wickedly shocking. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
kpk
Posts: 484 |
|
|||||||
Ohhhh, you know what you just did, don't you? now when someone want to praise an episode of the new series when everyone else have a complain about it he will say "but at least he didn't turn out to be the Hulk" or something like that 
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||||||
Yeah, the Hulk. That would be stupid. That, or making Tucker into a teletubby from HELL, yeah, sure glad they didn't do that... Wait... -.-' |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
kpk
Posts: 484 |
|
|||||||
I actually liked that part
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||||||
Oh, it was really ingenious, and it served the plot and his character well, as well as Ed's, weirdly enough. But I just wanted him to die SOOOO bad, not caring how or if it fit the story, and I never really got that...cause, you know, the writers cared about all that development crap more. 
spoiler[Now I have that. Two versions, one's more "distinguished," I guess, and one gives me my happy, gory ending.] |
||||||||
|
||||||||
MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
|
|||||||
Uh. Oops. 
CHRIS PATTON, OF COURSE! SEE, EVEN ED WANTS YOU TO GO BACK AND REWATCH THE SCENES IN THE ORIGINAL ANIME WITH GREED IN IT. FEAR THE PATTON. *facepalm* I really need to proof read my posts... |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Blueshift
Posts: 11 |
|
|||||||
|
which fan sub is best for fma2..? Or is this as taboo as human transmutation?
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||||||
Best? The official Funimation translation, of course. Beyond that, I tend to watch anything with passable grammar and a font that doesn't blow chunks. But yes, that is taboo. The info I gave you will cost one testicle and your pinky toe. (Unless you're female, then you get off easy. )
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
MorwenLaicoriel
Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
|
|||||||
|
Yeah, I've been pretty pleased with Funimation's subs, so I'd just go with that. They come out fairly quickly, I think I maybe noticed one error in them, tops (and I can't even remember what it was, some minor typo), the font is nice and clear, and you don't get random translator notes like "I bestow upon you the name of Hagane*.
*Note: Hagane means Fullmetal." |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Blueshift
Posts: 11 |
|
|||||||
|
Ah ok, i will look for the funimation release then ty:)
Ep 4 was the best yet! and watching them spoiler[play in the front yard with Nina, made me think to myself "ohhh nooo", I started to get sad just from that lol] It would be a little interesting to see instead of filler, which we are sooo used to, them actually doing the opposite of filler. It seems like after mentioning "yoki" from the coal mine, they wont be doing that episode,and If that turns out to be the case, will they be skipping spoiler[the attack on the train], among others? If they are cutting (not sure if there is a coined phrase for the opposite of filler)parts of the storyline, i wnder if that will change when they get to the "new stuff" After all, the Manga is very far ahead of this anime, I dont think they would ever need to use filler. >"knocks on wood" |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Fawfulhasfury
 Posts: 46 Location: USA |
|
|||||||
|
I'll post some initial thoughts on this episode, and try to catch up with the discussion that way.
They seem to love throwing in directing elements they haven't used in any other episode, and then only using them once. The split screen came and gone, and now we've had the only instance of a narrated flashback so far in this series. And seeing as I watched Episode three three times I found the flashback about as interesting as standing in an elevator. But like an elevator, at least the music was good. But thank goodness, my expectations were met, and I'll say what I've thought from the beginning, this series is finally starting to show it's potential. I think this episode may be a step in the right direction for the series to find it's feet. The shadow as Basque Gran walks along Central immediately catches my eye, as it's beautifully animated. Detail is a wonderful thing. The hypnotic trance I was in due to the beautiful animation was then broken by spoiler[the appearance of Scar, and the ensuing battle, which proves just how good the director is at handling action]. We get spoiler[Yoki on a rap sheet that is only looking to get longer] which either means no Youswell or Youswell in episode 6. One thing I'm noticing a lack of that's bothering me somewhat is Hughes lack of swooning over his daughter. He's only done it in one episode by now. That just feels strange. Out of all the humor elements they don't keep much of, they throw out Hughes' swooning? REALLY? I love that spoiler[ throughout the episode Scar is given plenty of introduction, and he's spoken about enough to set him up properly.] The director is finally learning how to do some darn fine pacing. Cheers. And then there's the Nina/Alexander storyline. I'll say something which will get me run over hot coals, I never liked this story in the first anime. I applauded it for being "controversial" and for having a great plot twist but otherwise I preferred the Barry the Chopper episode as pulling off the creepy factor in a more interesting way. But this episode made me like it a bit more. I'm absolutely certain that the direction is throwing out the feeling of sadness in favor of the creepiness factor, and it's apparent, and it may throw some viewers looking for an experience similar to anime #1. As far as the Nina/Alexander storyline, it was done well for this series, because this is the best episode in this series so far. I like this ending more than the previous one. It's sad too. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
|||||||
|
Having just watched the latest episode, I'm pretty stunned by the experience. Not only does it seem like a pretty dead-on adaptation of chapter 5 of the manga, but it's so eleborately beautiful in execution, it really has me wondering whether I prefer the version in the first series or in this one.
As far as when I was reading the manga, I felt like the Tucker incident was just one of many little "stops" on the road of the story, and while it did have an impact, the portion of the story itself had little room to breathe on its own before it was done and over with. Here, however, they detail everything so brilliantly, and add little bits here and there that establish some of the material that comes after this, that it's obviously an improvement over what the manga had to offer here. It was certainly the best episode of this series thus far. If they can keep up this sort of quality, animation, direction, music, and otherwise, then I think I'll be adding this to my list of favorites at some time in the future. My one gripe is with the manga's (and therefore this show's) dealing with spoiler[Shou Tucker's fate. I felt that, after what he did, death is too good for him. This is why I was so satisfied with the first series' treatment, with him becoming a pathetic chimera who ends up endlessly failing to grasp at the life he once had and treating a lifeless doll as if it were really Nina ("That is the shape of his sin," Edward later says in the first series, and that really got to me). While it was somewhat theraputic to see justice metted out by Scar, it wasn't the karmic fate he deserved. ] Still, while I wasn't nearly as shocked and saddened by this as the first time around, I'll give it the benefit of a doubt that it was merely because I knew it was coming. Even so, it was still pretty powerful. (It's so funny to see Basque in the episode this occurs, since he was in the episode when this happened in the first series, but in a different capacity!) |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
|
|||||||
|
The anime gave spoiler[Basque] a more fitting death than the manga when it was just mentioned in an omake.. something like spoiler[Scar sneaked up on him and killed him] lol :( Good to see he wasn't an asshole like the first anime version of him.
Also I feel that Nina seeing spoiler[Tucker die in front of her and than her crying added a heap of emotional impact to this.] Same with how Ed found out what had happened, it was just a carcrash you knew was coming. Next episode is going to animate two chapters... but since they were action heavy that should be no problem. Hopefully Bones show their stuff and make those "First season had better animation" comments even more laughable than they already are.
The first anime screwed up keeping Tucker alive instead of someone else.... that Tucker sub plot was stupid.. it would be like this version keeping Hulk Cornelo alive lol.... |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group