Well, I genuinely did not expect there to be that much more to cute lil’ Selim, nor for the last sin to be revealed like. They’ve all been hiding in plain sight, haven’t they? I figured the shadow waves with the teeth and the eyes were going to be some manifestation of Gluttony’s gut, but I was just a bit off, wasn’t I? It is pretty amusing to have such a sinister reveal behind him followed by that cute SNL-style photoshoot bumper of him with the gravelly voiced announcer “FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST.”
Kimblee actually is quite the gentlemen villain, playing with Winry’s trust like that. The team's very clever about the little touches like his Sunday suit and his dandy scarf, and the way he casually sips coffee in the cold. You'd never guess there was a wolf lurking under that sheep skin. At the same time, Winry’s just “entrapped” him the same way that Bradley’s entrapped Ed in this war of manners, hasn't she?
It’s been a while since that first episode with the false prophet, but what does a philosopher’s stone do if it doesn’t turn you into a homunculus? Does it just amplify your alchemy? Kimblee has to eat the thing. And if his real mission is, indeed, to find May, then that furthers my thinking that the homunculi use alkahestry as one of their secrets.
To use an metaphor appropriate to automail maintenance, they’re ratcheting up the romance between Ed and Winr, aren’t they? Things are going to be even more complicated now that she’s tagging along, intentionally putting herself in danger. I’ll give this show credit for making her willful and proactive enough to not be a damsel in distress, but still not excessively dangerous as to make everybody on this show an asskicker.
Watch this episode, “The First Homunculis,” below and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here . Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
