Episode 20

Aired 20060714. Soul of the Guardian. Same as original title. Here's the episode guide and detailed recap at TV.com. Oh... hold on, no recap again!? Sigh...

The anime vs manga difference continues. And as the episodes advance, the gap only gets bigger...

Al has been the smarter and more mature one. It's not convincing at all that he gets so easily shaken by Barry's fake soul talk.




Ed is way too naive to consider #48 human, even to the extend of cheesiness. If it's a different anime, I would have laughed at it. But this one, it's actually (and refreshingly) believable. And it adds to both brothers' character.


The first 2 minutes before the opening sequence are reused footage from last time!!! Slackers!!!

Oh! Another set of brothers! (1) the Elrics (2) the Tringhams (3) Scar (4) the slicer!

Huh? 48's back has the Torumekia royal emblem? (From Nausicaa.)






So... the iron in the blood bonds the soul to the armour? Hmm... then perhaps Ed's theory of his mind got mixed up with Al's is wrong. It's the iron in Ed's blood that's keeping them linked. But again, the anime and the manga are completely different animals...

First big (maybe "huge" is a better description) mistake is when Al takes off his head in front of Barry the Chopper. Barry's monologue on "how one should react when seeing such terrible things" goes overtime and completely erases his startled reaction to Al. It's supposed to be a very funny shot! They totally ruined it!!! Grrrr...

FMA tradition. No sugar coating the violent shots. This is very refreshing that Ed is the one who gets beaten up, instead of the bad guys. Ouch... Gets quite bloody...

Well... I don't know how to judge this one. They follow the original of using "older brother" and "younger brother". But in real life English-speaking countries, siblings call each other by name! Arakawa probably never prepared any names for the slicer brothers, but in Japan, the younger one being a lower rank, never address the elder one (the superior) by name. So... even though they follow the original, this scene sounds awkward beyond comfort.

Is it to in crease suspense or something? After Al remembers Ed telling him that there's something he's too afraid to ask, which might mean Al's soul is fabricated, the shot on Ed makes him look really evil. (Compare to the one above.)

Hey! This is the first time the complete ending sequence is shown! But... time added to this means time taken off the main content. Slackers!!!

Japanese sites spying time: (^_^)
The review of episode 20 at Yoo's blog Fuuyuu.
The review of episode 20 (page 1 & page 2) by Saori Amano at Egaoni Aetara.