Episode 4

Hey! It's Pazzu form Laputa! (Nooooo she's Clause.)

Hmm... still can't get used to the voices.

This episode is not in the manga. The theme is kind of cliche even to the point of educational, but cleverly done so it's got good suspense and no stickiness. Karin is introduced as a "suspicious person" to let you quickly connect her to the incidence, but ends up totally not what you expect. And that, is a well written script.

Favorite shot: when Ed and Al went hunting for the ghost, Al's body language was so cute! I remember reading from somewhere that, in the beginning, the TV anime staff planned to give Al a man's deep voice. But afterall he's only 10 (when he lost his body). Some tests later, they chose a kid's voice. I'm so glad they did because the impact of a young kid's voice on a huge suit of armor was the main thing that caught my attention back then.

Oh, and Ed is always so cute when he reacts to comments about his height too.

OK, complains. Lots! The biggest one is when Majhal said he failed in human transmutation. But wait a minute! Why didn't he loose any part of his body? After checking the fan sub, he was actually too scared to try human transmutation. What a huge translation mistake!

Lust made an appearance right after the Karin doll was set on fire. But the timing was confusing. When I first watched this show, I mistook her as Karin. Doesn't look like she's connected to Majhal either, because if she was, wouldn't they at least say hi to each other when they meet? (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) So, Lust's appearance is totally unnecessary.

Sigh... they made Ed into a jerk. Near the end, he noticed Al was feeling down. Originally he said "Al?" in a concerned manner. But the dub turn into "Nice to see you back to your old depressed self again" in a sarcastic voice. This kind of character-lost happens too much. As if Ed faces life with nothing but sarcasm. The quality of the voice says "me me me, look at me the voice actor!" The original voice carries the background of the character. A traumatised boy who's constantly reminded of his sins by his missing arm and leg (and an armor brother), who carries a disproportionally heavy burden, yet faces his future with positive attitude and determination. You can really feel the strength of the character from the original voice.

The viewer discretion warning is 10.5 seconds. There're 4 of them in total which add up to 42 seconds. And that's about the same amount cut from the end credit. So... YTV did it for the warning messages. Sigh... I guess that can't be helped. But still, why does everything have to be so excessively politically correct? Do we need such warnings because our capacity is so much smaller as a society? I don't think they have such warnings in Japan.