Fullmetal Alchemist - Episode 14 Review

Episode 14, "Destruction's Right Hand"

lolwut?"I've had enough with you Mormons!"

*****SPOILERS*****

Synopsis: The Elrics track down Dr. Marcoh, living in a small town as a physician. However, they find they were followed by Brigadier General Basque Gran, who wants to take Marcoh and his research in. Before he can, the mysterious scarred man kills him. He chases and corners Ed, Al, and Marcoh, but they are saved by Alex Louis Armstrong, another State Alchemist. Meanwhile, the military has laid seige to the town of Lior.

"It's an Everlasting Gobstopper!""Sorry, no."

Comments:

Things start to get real serious, real quickly in this episode, which starts out fairly calm when Ed and Al are looking around for Doctor Marcoh, get tailed by two State Alchemists and a serial killer, and have to run for their lives. It's just the beginning of putting the brothers into the wringer when you consider what happens next, but I'll concentrate on this episode.

We find that Marcoh has been using his rudimentary Philosopher's Stone to heal people in a small village out of guilt for taking part in the Ishbal conflict. I was thinking maybe he should use his stone on Ishbalans, but there aren't many of them left, and they probably wouldn't like that if it goes against their religion. The small town he lives in looks pretty basic. I thought the art for it was more beautiful in Brotherhood.

Basque Gran is a real douchebag. Allowing Shou Tucker to do such terrible research and then trying to cover it up, punching Edward in the gut, and now tailing the brothers to Marcoh's place to take both him and the Stone. I guess he's being a good soldier, but he's a total asshole, too, and when Scar kills him, it was hard to find any compassion for him.

Speaking of Scar, wow. He deconstructs a car so that there's nothing at all left of it, even bits of metal? It's like it turned into a puff of vapor. I'm pretty sure that can't happen even in the FMA world. Still, his graphic murder of Gran was one of the first "OH SHI-" moments of the series. I love that when Ed is running from him he's trying to figure out what he's done to make somebody want to kill him.

Alex Louis Armstrong, who appeared in the previous episode, makes his real debut here, coming in not to take in Marcoh, but to help the Elrics. I think his entrance here beats the one he made in the manga during the first fight with Scar. And one of the good things about this character is that his Japanese and English voice are essentially the same voice. Kenji Utsumi and Chris Sabat both do the role justice.

Lust, Gluttony, and Envy are all together for the first time in this episode, and they become the group of homunculi we see the most often for a while. It's probably why you see a lot of merchandise for them, but not for Greed, Sloth, Pride, or Wrath. Actually, you do see some merchandise for Anime1Pride/MangaWrath. I wish there would be some damn Greed merch.

Apparently, the homunculi have finished stirring shit up in Lior, but the military have just started, with General Hakuro cornering Rose and a bunch of chidren. Despite Rose's determination, things are not going to go well for her.

Where was this, exactly?Mr. Clean!

Overall Score:

4.5 out of 5





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