Episode 32, " The Führer President's Son"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Edward and Alphonse continue looking for Mei and Xaio Mei, but have no luck. Kimbley tracks the movements of Scar and Marcoh, going to the West HQ to investigate. Grumman, in drag, arrives in Central and talks to Mustang at Hughes' grave. He reveals that he was approached once by General Raven about an "immortal army", but dismissed it and was transferred. The brothers go to the library to research Xingese alchemy. Edward is told by Major Armstrong that Mei was seen headed North, and gives him a letter of introduction to go to the Briggs base, where Major General Armstrong is stationed. Alphonse is approached by Selim Bradley, who is excited to meet the brothers. After a misunderstanding, Ed and Al end up talking to Mrs. Bradley at the presidential house, where King Bradley himself arrives for a short time. After their discussion, Ed and Al hurry off to go north.
Comments:
It's funny how Bones thought cramming all of volume 15 (or at least, what they could) into a single episode, but a few pages of volume 16 get an entire episode. What exactly was the reasoning behind this?
Now, I don't mind a little creative filler to pad the series, if it's unique, makes us think more on the characters and plot, and/or provides some extra insight. Hell, even if it's just entertaining as hell, it's okay. This was especially fine in the original series, because it was intended to be different from the manga in the first place. Here, I'm a bit less forgiving.
Kimbley is smoothly wicked in the manga, rather than the more direct maniac that he is in the first series, and it's good to see him in a stage of normalcy now and then, to prove this. The scenes with him tracking Scar accomplish this well, but they're really pretty unecessary. In the manga, there's a short scene with him waiting impatiently in the North HQ, and that's it. While it's sort of interesting to see how he arrived at the conclusion of where Scar was heading, it seemed like time that could have been better spent.
Another thing that bothers me are the scenes in which Scar escapes from Amestrian soldiers. Really, all this does is serve to make the military look like a bunch of under-trained imbeciles. Not only does he repeatedly escape situations where he should have been captured or killed, but he does so with great ease. None of the soldiers think of shooting to immobilize him, they just stand there while he does his thing with his arm, stupidly. This filler is a total waste of time, for one, and it makes the military look incredibly stupid.
As for the real meat of the episode, we get an interesting scene with Roy Mustang and Lt. Colonel Grumman (who, by the way, is Riza Hawkeye's maternal grandfather). Grumman, an eccentric, has come to town dressed as a woman for cover. It comes off being pretty humorous, especially when he gets worked up by what Roy is telling him. Though, not to spoil things too much, he doesn't end up playing that active a role, he does play a part in Roy's plans later on. I seem to remember that, somehow, in the first series he ended up being in charge of the military and transferring control to a civillian government. They never got into it, though, because it was sort of in the epilogue of the series. Here he'll be a bit more active than that.
Ah, the Briggs arc. The Briggs arc is approaching. How I enjoy it. Well, at least for a while, then it goes on for a bit longer that I would have liked. However, it looks like they'll continue to stretch out volume 16, because Ed and Al might not arrive at the base until the end of the next episode. I wonder what the hell Bones thinks they're doing.
Also, what was with the episode title? This episode wasn't the least bit about Selim. Just because he was in it, doesn't mean he deserves to be in the title.
Overall Score: 3 out of 5 (I think I'm being kind.)
