Thanks Chiwasaki for the info!
Picture not relayed to the subject. (^_^;)
Usually my mom gets the TV after dinner, but tonight I got the rare chance to watch it. Just channel-surfing for anything good on this new year's eve, and stumbled across FMA on the YTV east listing on the 8 pm block. As usual, it just said FMA and I thought it was the regular series. But Death Note was shown instead! On closer look, Death Note started at 8:15. This shifted block could only mean one thing. It had to be the movie! And sure enough, YTV west had FMA listed between 9 pm and 11:15 pm, 3 hours after the east.
... and I didn't know it. (T_T) Got home late. By the time I sat down and turn the TV on, nothing good was on the listing. It was around 8:03. Didn't feel like watching, but I was just curious which episode Eureka Seven was at. So, YTV East it was.
If the movie ends at 8, the start time should be around 6 or 6:30. As expected, YTV West started another Shamballa at 9, which lasted until 11. With the 15 minutes over time, that's a total of 135 minutes. According to the Japanese Wikipedia, the movie is 105 minutes. This means, a warping 30 minutes of commercials!!! Yikes!!!
Gotta do the Oct 3rd thingy for today. I'm sure other people have done it before, but since I haven't actually seen any, I'm doing one here.
Aired 20060929. Assault on South Headquarters. Same as original title. Here's the episode guide at TV.com. The detailed recap is pending. Yup, recap is rare.
It's moving away from the manga starting with the introduction of the mysterious boy (Wrath), and the story starts to develop holes. Lots of holes! Ed won't be stopped so easily by the lizard man in the middle of chasing Wrath, will he? That scene is inserted just to introduce the lizard man and link to Greed's side. And then the time lost is compounded by Archer and Armstrong. Ed would have lost Wrath after the chat. How can he find him afterwards? And on the roof? What a plot device! Grrr...
Archer is also not surprised by Al's empty armour, which doesn't make sense. He shouldn't be able to find out the whereabouts of Ed from Winry, because she shouldn't know where Wrath runs off to! If Wrath can give Ed such a hard time, he should be able to easily fight off, or escape from the army too, shouldn't he? Doesn't make sense either. Wouldn't Kimbly get hurt too when he explodes the wall at point blank? The Fuhrer magically appears in the East HQ? The refugees at the landfill are so organized that they have community meals?
At this point, Kimbly only makes things confusing. He looks nothing like when he was in prison. I also had trouble relating Greed to lab 5. New characters are introduced too rapidly. Plus their names aren't mentioned often enough. Their scenes are short. Their impressions don't stick. It's hard for the viewers to follow.
What Armstrong said was awesome. Sometimes it's better not to know the truth. Ouch... so heavy. Too heavy. This gives an anchor point to pull the show back onto the realistic side.
However, it breaks down again when Izumi trashes the East HQ. Making the building grow tumours is the fastest way to show the degree of the battle, but also the cheapest and cheesiest way. (I hate it...)
The music in the battle scene is very effective, though. It's a complicated scene that gives a 3-level parallel effect. The visual is real time on Izumi fighting her way to Wrath, while the dialogue is Shig talking to Winry off screen, telling her about Izumi's sorrow past. Yup... too many things are happening at the same time.
Aired 20060922. The Untainted Child. Same as original title. Here's the episode guide and detailed recap at TV.com.... Oh, no recap as usual...
Why doesn't Al ask about the gate when Ed and Izumi talk about it? Isn't he at least curious? This doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense that Izumi isn't more aware of her state of health. She shouldn't be so stupid to
Is this... Archer's first appearance? Probably not. I think he was in a scene with the Fuhrer before, but I can't remember. Oh! Greed's lizard man makes his entrance too! But... to be honest, it was very confusing for me the first time, and I just skipped those parts. I wasn't following the story as closly as I should.
Lastly, I'd like to borrow from Fuuyuu. His favorite of this episode is Warth's lunch scene. I'm impressed at his observations! No repeating drawings. Usually, eating is depicted with repeated action. The movement of the hand putting the food into the mouth, and the chewing. This saves the number of drawings and cells. But none of Wrath's movement is repeated. This shows really well how hungry he is. And this sequence isn't cheap!
Aired 20060915. All is One, One is All. Same as original title. Here's the episode guide and detailed recap at TV.com.... Aaargh! No recap again!
The second game comes with a free DVD that contains this and the next episode, which they claim are the first and second episodes of the third season (which is wrong!) It's a very good deal, but it's also a cunning trick to get people hooked. Then you end up buying the whole set of DVDs anyway.
Sorry, I though I've gotten used to it, but Vic's kid voice is killing me!! He cannot, and should not play kid characters. Period.
Sigh... anyway, the kid version of the brothers are somehow a lot cuter than in episode 3. And some shots follow the manga faithfully. Some even exceeding the manga.
There's one translation mistake. Ed isn't afraid that Al gets lost, but separated. The dub make Ed sound like he's trying to save face, while the sub is more like he's scared.
And then near the end, it feels wrong when Ed says "we're still alive". The translation is correct, but comparing to the sub, this strangely feels like Ed is bragging about how he got away with it and he feels invincible. Not sure what went wrong there... Hmm...
So Wrath makes his first appearance. Hey... wait a minute. He transmutes clothes? Isn't he supposed to only fuse with objects (or people)? Oops, spoiler. But I think most people have already watched it by now. Oh well.
Aired 20060908. Teacher. Same as original title. Here's the episode guide and detailed recap at TV.com.... ah no recap again. (I'm sooo getting used to it. Sigh...)
Overall, the biggest translation mistake, is for all the kids to call Izumi "teacher". She's NOT a teacher by profession. She runs a meat shop and she doesn't teach. Ed and Al are only exceptions. Moreover, it feels really strange and wrong in English. "Master" might work better than "teacher".
And... the scene where the brothers beg Izumi to take them as apprentices doesn't work in English. Ed calls her "old lady", which sounds too strange. She isn't old at all! But I can't think of any other way out either. This is a tough one. "Auntie"... maybe? This is another culture crash. It totally destroyed the original humour.
I was having a discussion with my Japanese blog friend about voice actor. Yes, I agree both the Japanese and American Eds are pushing their voices. But a forced lower female voice has thickness. A forced higher male voice sounds like a monkey! So the female voiced Ed has depth and seriousness. The male voiced Ed just sounds like a jerk.
So, lots and lots to poke at, but my energy hasn't return yet, so I'll make it short. They try to inject plenty of gag. If you don't think twice, it kind of works. But... but... the brothers are 14 and 15. What's with the box of toys and comic books? And... hold on! What's on the note to Mustang? Here it is, typo and all. The first part looks fine, but the rest... I wonder if they just randomly pick stuff out of a magazine or something. But... isn't Ed a State Alchemist? Isn't he rich? Why does he even need to do this???INVOICE
Dear Colonel Roy Mustang
Please have the HQ pay all the bills for my hospitalization, medication, food, etc. This section, by featureing a number of objects of special from the contemporary collections of the the Science Mseum, shows how broad and multi faceted a contribution modern Britain is making to science and technology, and also sheds light on the Science Museum's policy.
Thanks
Edward Elric
Rush Valley. Winry's hyper squealing scream is super annoying. The arm wrestling guys WEREN'T cheating with alchemy in the manga. Ed, however, cheated. He won alright, but as a result, all the technicians wanted to see his automail so he was stripped down to his underpants. "Equivalent exchange", right? Haha! Everything has a price!
Oops... this is straying away from the dub. OK, the worst moment this time, is Winry and Ed near the end, where Winry begs Ed to return home. It's supposed to show Winry's special feelings towards Ed. The dub turn it into all about automail and fails to show the deeper level. Some people might not be convinced. But the preview of this episode at the end of the last one, was mainly showing Winry, with Ed's monologue saying "I never imagine anyone would think of me this way" or something like that...
So... the spot light is on Hughes. This is where he dies, and is treated as an important episode by the staff. It's very well done. Very touching. Especially the last scene of Ed eating apple pie with a smiley face.
And, this episode goes overtime. The end credit is shown during Hughes' funeral and the train scene. (But... sorry, I slack off on writing this right away and forgot whether the YTV version actually added the ending song back.)
Oh, yet another set of brothers. It's pretty obvious for comparison with the Elrics. Ed hardly shows up in this episode. Al is... yeah, he's there, but the story is focused on Rick and Leo.
One question. Was Rick and Leo's home bombed? It looks like their mom went into the room, and then it exploded. The timing is like, she set off a self-destruction or something. And then, if the house exploded, how did the kids survive?
Where's the transmutation circle for the cage indoors? Oh well I guess they were forcing the tempo with this scene when drawing the storyboard.
The English dub's got more cheese. (But sorry I don't have the energy to do a detailed line-to-line comparison.)
How come there are only this few Ishbalans left? (7 only?!?!) Wouldn't you expect more?
Yes, the anime did an excellent job on building up the crack between the brothers, but I'm still unconvinced about Al being so lost. That's out of his character. On the other hand, the manga handles the same scene with much more integrity. It is Ed who walks away, not Al, and he does it calmly, showing authority as the elder brother. That's such the opposite of the anime version, with him trying to jump off the roof chasing after Al.
Winry also plays a more important role in the manga, acting as a cushion between the brothers instead of just standing there stunted. Some people think Winry shouldn't be the one who tells Al how Ed feels. Ed should do it himself. Well... guys in real life like to act tough and won't easily speak their emotions. So, I favour the manga version on this incident.
Hughes hides things about the brothers from Mustang because he didn't want to trouble him. Haha... but when I first watched the series, I got things completely wrong. Right from episode 1 when Mustang shows up in the rain, isn't that the classic way villains are introduced? Ed, as the hero of the story, also says he can't trust Mustang. Not to mention the tension between those two. All that make me think he's evil until episode 40-something. As to Hughes here, his close-up shot after the pajama Fuhrer makes him look suspicious. But that's actually to show him having doubts about the Fuhrer. So... is it just me failing to read into the characters' relationship? Or is this show made for manga fans? (I only read the manga after finishing the anime, unsatisfied with the anime ending.)
So Lust wants to become a human... (Ah, Pinocchio?) Everyone has a reason for what they do. There's no pure evil. That's what makes this series so good.
Back to this episode. Poor Ed gets so beaten up both mentally and physically. Shock #1, finding out his hope (the Philosopher's Stone) is actually made with human lives. #2, the army is behind all that. #3, he's a dog of that army himself. #4 what he thinks is his own will is actually set up by the homunculii. (To the viewer, #5 the return of Tucker. #6 the homunculi want to become human.)
Without his right arm, and Al taken as hostage, Ed is forced deeper and deeper into a corner where there's no escape. The true nature of a person often shows in such extreme conditions. Will Ed take the lives of the prisoners? Usually this would be a cliff-hanger which the show would drag for as long as possible. Oh I really hate this kind of dragging. But this director didn't drag! Not a single bit! Ed only hesitated for a moment and made his decision. The timing is just right. This clean, swift tempo is super refreshing. At least among all the anime I've ever seen.
MC
