Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

 When the heat's really on, you just run away like a sissy.

Well, that’s a hell of an unusual cliffhanger - - our heroes have been eaten by this fat guy! How can we make him throw up and free them all? Be sure to tune in next episode to find out!

Once again, I can only use the “DUCK TALES by way of FAUST” comparison to properly describe the tone and presentation of this show. Have any of you lunatics seen BLADE II? Remember the Reapers? They were hideous mutant vampires who, instead of having cute little fangs, had nasty saw-tooth mouths that parted, vertically, from their bottom lip to top of their collar bone. Gluttony's transformation reminds me a lot of them except, rather than being a hideous monstrosity, he’s actually… kind of cute. Like I could easily picture somebody hanging a little toy of him on her key chain (which is really the ultimate litmus when it comes to anime, isn’t it?)

We’re at the experiential “sweet spot” for serialized shows, right now, as I’m looking at this less in technical terms and more like I’m actually tagging along with alchemical kids. So the fight with the Sins - - with the running away and the wall-erecting and the smashing through that wall - - felt like it was actually happening. Although, to put the literature hat back on, Gluttony shook his hysterical rage off awfully fast didn’t he? Was it just because Mustang high-tailed it out of there? Was it just because of Envy's say-so? Or could the kids have just talked him out of his evil all along? 

It’s almost like those old gags in LOONY TOONS where you’d have Bugs and Elmer Fudd arguing about something - - let’s say it was about who should go into a bear trap.

“You want to go in that bear trap!”

“I don’t!”

“You do!”

“I don’t!”

And back and forth, until finally, Bugs would say, “You don’t!” Elmer would say, “I do!” and he’d just jump into the bear trap, tricked on his own volition, and get his bones crushed in the twisted metal. And then, he'd just shake it off, like a Homunculi with 20 hearts of health.   

Oh, and to be a little serious, Mustang’s in some serious trouble at the office….!

Watch this episode, “Inside the Belly,” below, make your own decisions, and then read my comments on the previous episode here.       

Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of    HYBRID BASTARDS!  &   UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon   here   &  here .

" You mean Daffy Duck, not Elmer Fudd. "

" At first, I was like "What? WHAT? What." But then, you made sense.    

       Get ready for more of that 'It's happening right now' feeling as you go, especially in the 4th and 5th season. You're rapidly approaching the end of the second season, and the next two episodes really set the tone for the series from now on.   

" Gluttony is pretty childlike.  Short attention span, etc.  If Mustang is gone, he's gone.  His siblings really need to order him around.  And he actually does seem sorry about what he did, but only because he knows he betrayed the order to not harm the Elrics, even if it was all an accident.          

 Also this really should have been Envy's second beatdown, but the one he received from Lan Fan around the time of the manga's equivalent of episodes 17-19 was not put in the anime.   Which is a shame because watching Envy get his ass handed to him is so satisfying. "

" @Tom_Pinchuk: Season 2 ends on episode 26 I think. I'm calling it a new season whenever they change the OP themes and ED's.  Also, Envy's a dude. And when Roy gets his hands on him, hoooo boy, is vengeance served. "