Fullmetal Alchemist episode 2.
Honestly, I think this backstory is kind of wasted by just dumping it all in the second episode. There's a lot of ominous foreshadowing and hyping about it in the first, and showing it all straight away after just pisses most of its dramatic effect down the drain. We've known the characters and world for so little time that it's a bit hard to get emotionally invested, even though the episode deals with incredibly heavy subject matter. If this episode was like episode 9 or 10, or sprinkled in piecemeal throughout episodes, I think it would have been a lot better. It doesn't help either that we're still doing character introductions. It also feels rushed, with vital information being revealed or borderline handwaved with just a few sentences: the Elric brothers just happen to be brilliantly precocious prodigies because... they just are. Their mom just passes away in a few sentences. Ed's introduction to the military is just "whatever". These are all concepts which could almost have been episodes all by themselves. And let's not even get into the psychology of it all: being orphaned, having your only sibling irreversibly changed, getting mind-raped by an eldritch horror, being recruited essentially as a child soldier etc.
It's really feeling like this series is biting off way more than its age rating and writing style can handle. These concepts, themes and ideas call for a grimdark, hard R for adults. But seeing how little I remember of it I'm withholding overall judgment for now. I do wonder though, would the show be more effective if you skipped this episode altogether? Because it's not really saying anything that we don't get reminded of later and there's to my memory no unique plot information in it. Maybe having to parse the backstory together yourself might make it more effective.
Honestly, I think this backstory is kind of wasted by just dumping it all in the second episode. There's a lot of ominous foreshadowing and hyping about it in the first, and showing it all straight away after just pisses most of its dramatic effect down the drain. We've known the characters and world for so little time that it's a bit hard to get emotionally invested, even though the episode deals with incredibly heavy subject matter. If this episode was like episode 9 or 10, or sprinkled in piecemeal throughout episodes, I think it would have been a lot better. It doesn't help either that we're still doing character introductions. It also feels rushed, with vital information being revealed or borderline handwaved with just a few sentences: the Elric brothers just happen to be brilliantly precocious prodigies because... they just are. Their mom just passes away in a few sentences. Ed's introduction to the military is just "whatever". These are all concepts which could almost have been episodes all by themselves. And let's not even get into the psychology of it all: being orphaned, having your only sibling irreversibly changed, getting mind-raped by an eldritch horror, being recruited essentially as a child soldier etc.
It's really feeling like this series is biting off way more than its age rating and writing style can handle. These concepts, themes and ideas call for a grimdark, hard R for adults. But seeing how little I remember of it I'm withholding overall judgment for now. I do wonder though, would the show be more effective if you skipped this episode altogether? Because it's not really saying anything that we don't get reminded of later and there's to my memory no unique plot information in it. Maybe having to parse the backstory together yourself might make it more effective.
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