Episode 10

Aired 20060505.

The Phantom Thief. Original title Thief Psiren.
Ah, this time the English title wins.

Hmm... somehow, Ed eats a lot in this episode.

1. This connects to the end of episode 2. (Yup, episode 3 to 9 are all "in the past".)
2. Ed is on his way to see Mustang and must report the Lior incident.
3. His reluctance makes him take a side trip at Aquroya (a tourist spot) before East City.

1. A phantom alchemist thief Psiren is on the loose and wanted by the police.
2. As an alchemist, Ed gets wrongfully arrested as a suspect of Psiren's accomplice but ends up helping the police on this case.
3. The brothers meet Clara, a beautiful and kind nurse, who turns out to be Psiren.
4. Her spectator-spot style of stealing brings people back to the sinking and dying city.
5. With Ed's help, Psiren is captured, but at the end, she escapes again.
6. She tips Ed off about rumours of the Philosopher's Stone researches in a city called Xenotime.

So... this episode is about "bending the rules" and "there are times that one must act evil". No... actually, it's about not looking at things in pure black and white. The overall tempo is really fast, but has an awesome beat to it.

Poking time.

• Oh~ I wish I could stop poking at Al, but his acting is simply horrible! The card game with Ed, and finding out Ed's been cheating, all sounded like it was his first time reading the script. Not a single drop of emotion. None at all. Sigh...
• Ed's lines are slightly off right before his cheating gets busted. Al: "it's like we're playing hooky, don't you think?" Ed: "stop being so...!" But it should be... Al: "it feels like we're cheating and skipping school." Ed: "who are you calling a cheater?" The difference being, Ed over-reacts to the word "cheating", so he busted himself. The English dub makes it look like he got busted accidentally. But the language is more correct in English...
• The next one that stands out is when Clara feeds the old lady. Al says he can't stop thinking about Clara but it's supposed to be "stare", not "think". Oh well, Iguess that isn't a big deal.
• When Ed touches Psiren's boob, that's when he finds out Psiren is a woman. He says "you're a woman?!" instead of "I didn't mean that!" This, is a big difference. Intentional vs. unintentional. However... it's only weird that no one ever notice she's a woman?
• Oh! Ed says "... a 7-foot suit of armour". So Al is 7 feet tall? No... wait! Ed never say that in the original version! He just says "where has Al gone". (And I think Al is taller than 7 feet.)
• When Clara is the school teacher, the last thing she says to Ed is "as I tell my children, the best answer's we find our own", which, is the opposite of the original "you're a grown-up, right? Think with your own head." One sees Ed as a child, the other sees him as an adult. How can the translation be this far off???

That's it. I didn't keep up with the English-Japanese differences after that. But I'm sure there are still plenty. Story wise...

• The nameless detective is a parody of Lupin the III! But what's with the katsudon? Is it an inside joke or a Japanese custom???
• Ed is afraid of injections? But he's able to bare the pain from his automail???
• When Al transmutes the cut-up apple, the peel isn't there, but the resulting apple is whole!
• Was the studio trying to save money by hiding the characters' mouth when they talk?
• When Psiren gets caged, can't she cut the bars herself? She has that sword made of cards, doesn't she? She shouldn't need Ed's help at all!
• How come Ed always ends up one-on-one with Psiren? No one else chases after her???
• What's with the gondolas? Seems like they are totally for visual purpose and have no story value. Or is it more difficult to anime a battle on solid ground so they did it on water? Again, the adult-child translation miss shows up. Sigh...
• The police must be pretty stupid not to find out Clara = Psiren.

Let's see...

Al is so cute when Ed gets arrested!







Ed's faces.








Oh! CG particles plus cross dissolve on the flower.

What? Water arm? This is Psiren, not Sloth! (Sorry, no picture.)



The shadow on Clara's face is really well animated.


The background of this pan up shot of Ed is done with multi-plain effect and progressively blurred!

Japanese sites spying time: (^_^)
The review of episode 10 at Yoo's blog Fuuyuu.
The review of episode 10 (page 1 & page 2) by Saori Amano at Egaoni Aetara. (Haha! I agree on the injection and apple peel! And... oops!! I didn't catch this one! She's right on Ed's automail! He is left-handed and shouldn't feel anything from his right hand!)