Episode 47, "Messenger of Darkness"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Edward, Greed, Darius, and Heinkel arrive in the slum town of Kanama, where they meet up with Hohenheim. That evening, he tells them all his story, which Edward has a hard time dealing with. Edward tells his father his mother's last words, which provokes Hohenheim to cry. Feeling akward, Edward goes to eat, and then creates a new red jacket for himself. Walking towards the woods, Ed, Greed, and the chimeras are approached by Alphonse. However, Ling detects a homunculus, and it becomes clear Pride has posessed Alphonse. In the east, Grumman oversees the search for Bradley's body, but Miles has his suspicions over the lieutenant general's motivations. Pride attacks the group, but Edward uses all the lights in the village, sending the whole lot into darkness. Heinkel finds Pride's container, attacking Selim. Gluttony attacks and Darius tries to take him on, while Greed gives Ling control of his body again due to his ability to detect homunculi. Gluttony gets fed up and transforms into his fake Gate form, but Ranfan arrives, with an automail arm, attacking him.
Comments:
Maybe it's just because I'm watching the show all over again with my mother (you should see what I'm doing with YOUR mother), but I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable watching this show in English. Oh, but don't worry, there's still plenty to criticize about performances, but it doesn't really sting as badly as it did in the first series.
I noticed that John Swasey's Hohenheim is actually getting warmer as it goes along, perhaps to reflect that his character itself is becoming a bit more comfortable around his sons and other people. I really like his interaction with Mignogna's Edward and when he was crying from Trisha's final message to her husband. I could really believe the sadness of the character. The emotional sincerity in this Hohenheim is something you never got from Scott McNeil's performance as the character in the first series.
I was really liking the interaction between Troy Baker's Greed and Todd Haberkorn's Ling. They play well off each other. Brittney Karbowski's Pride was pretty good, too. It's too bad those chimeras still sound almost indistinguishable from each other. Maybe it's the modulation on their voices that make them sound like that. Karbowski's Pride doesn't seem as effected by the modulation, but maybe because it's a different kind of voice.
Overall ENGLISH DUB Score: 4 out of 5