I've got to say I really enjoyed this episode. I loved Ed's first meeting with Lust and Envy, and the music during that scene was just fantastic, it really added to the effect of when the brothers were being killed, despite them just being pieces of armour, I was feeling quite shocked and almost sad, they put well into my mind that these were human beings, just as much Ed believes that. I find myself looking forward to each episode more and more, loved it!

heh, yeah, I think the blur effect on this one was a brilliant idea. Heck, isn't that how things always go even when you camera-shoot something in live? Things get too close, they get blurred. I also don't see what was the reason that made this part 'bad'.

And the shaking, too. I mean, everyone has their opinions, but it just saddens me how some people get so overly pessimistic and find faults in every episode, no matter how well they were done. D: Personally, I can't imagine how this episode could be done any better. Animation-wise. It was brilliant.

Hmm, I was okay with the animation this ep, but I can also see how someone could prefer the version from the previous anime. I just rewatched it last week and was most struck by the difference in the perceived "weight" of the characters. In the first anime, I recall one shot in particular, one of Ed's backflips, in which you could practically feel the muscles in his arm contract as he struggles to flip his weight over. I used to be a gymnast myself and can especially empathize with that! XD I just mean to say, that slight delay before he actually manages to flip over felt very real to me.

Alternatively, in this new anime, I did kind of think a few of the flips were just a little too fast/effortless. A motion blur is fine when you're close to the camera, but some which were farther off seemed like blurs as well. There's a fine line between quick and unrealistic. But then, hey, it's animation, you're only as realistic as you want to be! Also, I've gotten the impression that Ed is smaller, lighter and more "fragile"/childlike thus far than he was in the first anime anyway, so maybe this different style of combat is also more suiting to the new overall style.

<Program Note>

Reminder to anyone who would like to go into extended discussions on animation & art style of this series, or series 1 vs series 2 discussion, beyond the content of this episode: (just in case ^^)

We also have
* Series-2 Art Style discussion thread, and
* Series 1 vs Series 2 thread.

~ Now, please carry on with the current discussion!! ~

this ep was so EPIC with all the fights and all. man so can't wait on till i can see the next ep of fma. EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On my first watch I really didn't like this episode very much at all. But I watched it again and the second time it was quite good. The slicer fight was nice and intense, and the episode hardcore religiously followed the manga. I can't wait for the future manga action! Next two eps should be awesome

Well I decided to give the episode a second chance, I thought the art was well done. I still think the building blowing up looked kind of screwy, but it was not that bad. The fight scenes looked awesome too.

Saw this episode earlier today and here's a few thoughts:

- Thought the fight scenes were well-done (very fluid and actually edited quite nicely)

- Great interaction with Roy & Maes (both conversations) as it was a nice break from the more serious nature of the episode

- Envy's still quite a dork, but 'he' was always a character that I always 'loved to hate'

- Nice to see Kimbley again, especially when he hints at his knowledge of the true nature of Lab 5.

LOLZ! Yeah that made me laugh Poor Ed

This episode was amazing! (I watched it the other day, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it.) The animation in this was so well done, the art wasn't lazy at all. In fact it was rather lovely and Ed (at times) was rather sexy. ;D And yay Barry! I'm very impressed with the fight scene, the dialogue, the voice acting, everything! This episode was definitely the best one yet and I'm VERY excited to see the new one this Sunday! EdxWin ftw!! Ahem...sorry. Anyway, yes. Very good episode. Really have no complaints, except for Al panting at the end of this one. xD Unless of course it could've been overwhelming emotion or a typical human soul reaction to something so powerful spoken and possibly believed.

The eighth episode for me was mostly the best of all 8 episodes I watched pertaining to the art. But as usual, during the episodes so far, there is always
something about the art that ticks me off. At least now, they managed to fix Ed's expressions quite nicely. But still, the background isn't working for me. It was like it was made in 30 seconds. Couldn't they put in more precise details?

And then the fight scenes. The fight between them was better in the first anime. In Brotherhood, the fight scene seemed shorter and lacking in audience impact. Sure, there was audience impact, though not the gravity I was hoping for. And yeah, it could've been better if they showed Barry actually cutting the soldiers' head in half compared to just throwing his weapon. I liked the coloring of the blood though. As well as how they directed Barry's story. Now, inside of the laboratory, there was just a little too much light. It was so bright. They could've dimmed it more so as to make the viewers thoroughly follow and feel the fight scenes. And I don't know whether or not it was because of Ed's height deficiency, but his movements weren't fluid. As No. 48 said, "Like a monkey." Haha! But seriously, they could've lengthened the fight scene. (I'm comparing the art and directing to other animes since I want FMA to be the best... or even just one of it, and not just by the plot but on the overall.)

The part where Ed turned into his chibi form was funny for me. It was during the part where he was asking if there was a third brother. Haha! I liked the motion and art they gave Ed in there. And all in all, Ed's character was drawn better here. THANK HEAVENS! Truth be told, I couldn't take his facial expressions during the seventh episode. Episode eight was really a break through for the FMA Brotherhood artists. Though I wish them better for the following episodes.

Sorry if I ranted mostly about the art. Sure, it's nice that they made them all look younger; slimmer; etc. but the detail and the expressions (mostly on the main characters) really destroyed the first few episodes for me.

One of the best episodes, maybe the best one! The story went nicely and without stumbling. I ADORED Barry the Chopper and his cute fairy tale of an executed murderer, thanks for sticking to manga! Envy here was amazing and lovable and freakishly maniac at the same time, his VA did an excelent job, even I wouldn't recognize wheter it's a boy's or a girl's voice.
Anyway... this one was a good one and please stay this way, animators and the like! *Looking forward to see Winry and her fine wrench work*

The background does seem a little bland, but it's not like there was anything extremely significant around the lab besides the transmutation circle on the ground. (Plus I think Bones is rushing through these beginning episodes...hopefully they'll start putting more effort into details later on...)

About Barry killing the soldier, I'm glad they still showed it but the way they did it made it slightly "censored" and not as "bad" as it was in the manga. Makes me wonder how much stuff they're planning on censoring...

And the length of the fight wasn't supposed to be that long anyway. I think in the manga it didn't last that many pages. And then there's the rushing factor again. They got through a lot of important events and information in this episode, so they traded out action scenes for dialogue I guess.

I'm really looking forward to the next episode, even though it's a pretty sad one (poor Al). But the next one is gonna be even sadder.

Yeah, I think so too since mostly the first few episodes were already shown as it was in the first anime. So I'm really looking forward to the following episodes where the plot entirely changes from the first anime. Maybe then the art will be better.



Haha! Censoring! Of course, that notion never really came into mind. But seriously, it would've given more impact on Barry's color, actually chopping it up, I mean. But yeah, sure I'll take it.

And about the next episode, I'm really looking forward to it as well.

Whew, finally got a chance to watch this episode. Overall, easily one of the best so far.

- This may seem like a minor point, but I'm always a stickler for the storytelling/directing and transitions, and I think they got this down perfectly, unlike in some previous episodes. I was surprised by how fluid everything was, but when I went back to read the original manga, I realized that the flow of the scenes was taken pretty much verbatim from the manga. I never realized how cinematic the presentation of those chapters was, it's definitely a testament to Arakawa's storytelling skills. The new transition from Roy and Hughes to Maria and Denny was pretty hilarious as well ^^

- Oh, Barry! <3 <3 <3 yesss

- There were so many manga panels I saw animated, but I especially loved Barry's story. The cartoonish animation was fantastic.

- Fight scenes looked pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but still very fluid and exciting to watch.

- The brief interlude with Roy and Hughes was a great choice to add into this episode instead of where it originally was a little later in the story, as next episode would've been too "crowded" otherwise. There are some episodes where I just want to applaud the directing, and this is one of them.

Wowza. 0.0 I JUST now watched the episode. I was in Disney World with my family all week, so I couldn't get an opportunity to slip away and watch it. XD

I can't really say anything that everyone else hasn't.... *looks through previous comments* Let's see.... wonderful animation.... great music... timing.... voice acting..... yup! Everything seemed to have been covered, so let's see what's in store for future episodes by my guestimations!

- Winry again, as seen in the previews. I'm not totally sure, but they may do a little more EdxWin stuffage in this episode, since (based on the last series) it seems they like to do that. (Not that I take issue with that.)
- I predict excellent voice acting in the next episode. Lots of screaming, muttering angstfully, crying, gentle encouragement, and nervousness coming up, so the voice acting must have really been hammered through.
- The Maria Ross slapping scene may be done differently, because that was something done in the last series.
- The reminiscing scene has got to be done because of, uh.... stuff. You know.
- (I'm not pushing the no-spoiler limits here am I? I'm trying really hard. T_T)

Well, you have to take in to account, as well, that this is airing at %;30 PM in Japan - and even with Japan's higher tolerance of violence in front of the kiddies, they're probably not going to show the poor Extra Guard's head being graphically sliced in two as it was in the manga.

It could have been worse - could you imagine FMA if they censored all the blood?

( And besides, I feel that the shot of Barry holding the bloody cleaver was awesome and more than made up for a lack of head-chopping, but that's just me. )

I liked this episode a lot. Great animation, great music, great VAing. No weird interruptions in the story or any off-key pacing, like in episode 7.

A few things that ran through my head while rewatching ep 20 of the old anime though, was:

- While not being as fluent and realistically paced as in Brotherhood, as well as being way more (stereo?)typically "anime-styled", the fight sequence between Ed and 48 was actually more enjoyable in the old anime. There it's longer, more dramatic and really builds up the tension for you; it feels more dangerous and threatening, and you can feel that Ed is only able stand up by sheer willpower at the end of the fight.

- Something that was better in this round of Ed vs Slicer the Homicide was the way they showed Ed remembering Scar's destruction-only technique. It was handled more cinematic and just looke more awesome.

- The traps in FMA1 were a funny addition from Bones. Of course I can't complain at the material not being present in Bro-hood, since it's not in the manga, but Ed's weird laugh when he was hanging on the edge of that spike-filled pit was just hilarious XD
Wouldn't mind having them keeping that, but, hey, at least we still got the vent joke

Someone also said that the backgrounds and environments weren't as detailed this time around. Well, maybe not inside of Lab 5, but comparing the backgrounds outside where Al is having his punch-out with Barry, they are way better looking and more detailed in Broherhood than in FMA1.

And when talking about Barry, am I the only one who didn't find his little.. err.. story.. cute and adorable? Despite it's chibi style it was kind of creepy. Not that this is a bad thing, I just didn't find it warm and fuzzy in any way. Though when revealing himself as the "infamous serial-killer, Barry za Choppa!!" and then the steaks started flying, that cracked me up a bit x)

Please add FMA:B English dubbed episode 8 (on CN on Adult Swim) talk-back/discussions here.

Yay Barry!!

and LOLOLOLOL. Typo/fail on funimations part.
When Hughes is on the phone and it switches to Mustang, subtitles pop up and say "East city--"
Well for a brief second, it is in Japanese. I lawled. I even paused it (I have Dish) and kept it there and grabbed my brother. It's pretty funny. I'll try and take a crap cellphone picture and put it up.

Other than that. Solid episode was solid.
I'll discuss the dubs in the appropriate thread.

Failure on Adult Swim/Funimation's part when they didn't show the after-credits sequence between Mustang and Hughes.

Other than that, fine episode.

I totally forgot about that part.

It's actually Adult Swims fault.
They probably thought it wasn't important.

I read on the Adult Swim board for this show that the English dub of this episode was leaked online a day early, and it included the after-credits scene. I guess that's more evidence that Funimation only shortens the credits and removes the commercial bumpers, then Adult Swim goes in and quickly fiddles with the ending to make it fit the allotted time better.

It was leaked and we didn't know?
I'm surprised no one got on here and posted a link to the video.

Yeah, that surprised me too. Supposedly it was accessed by typing in the right URL at video.adultswim.com, but I couldn't figure out where it was.

I prefered the first anime epi to be honest. It was more carried out and in-depth, but eh, what can you do.

Envy stabbing 48's seal was disturbing though, as if he took pleasure in killing him.

Stream comparison time!

The big "POP!" representing Ed's arm breaking was translated. I don't think they could have gotten away with leaving it out, since it takes up the whole screen.


But the caption for the Eastern Command Center establishing shot was edited sloppily. I'm sure many noticed that for a split second you can see the caption in Japanese, and then it suddenly disappears, the picture gets a bit brighter, and "East City/Eastern Command Center" fades in, like so:




I wonder how many also noticed the credits made a goof in the Japanese Cast, labeling Number 66 as a third Number 48.


Speaking of Number 66, there's a discrepancy in this episode's preview for the next one, in the part where Alphonse remembers Barry's accusations.

Originally there was an ominous dark background in the mirror from the start, but in the actual scene in episode 9, it starts out as a normal reflection of the hallway Al's standing it, which changes to the dark background once he has the vision of #66.

The adultswim.com stream already has the correction from episode 9 in episode 8's preview, naturally.

And, wow, I only noticed this when flipping back and forth between these screenshots: They also changed the number of vents on the grill thing under Al's chin from five to four. Now I might gain a compulsion to check the entire series again to see if that number's consistent everywhere else...