I missed last week's episode, which I believe was the Ishval flashback. That's ok; I didn't really like the way they handled it in Brotherhood compared to the manga. They condensed something that took up entire volume of the manga into one episode. As a result, they cut out a lot of stuff out of the flashback, including minor but integral character bits. Some of it was moved around to other episodes, but a lot of it was lost completely. We don't really get any idea of what kind of person Basque Gran was in Brotherhood, but the character from the manga is extremely different than the one that appeared in the first FMA series. He had a really cool scene in the manga, during the Ishval flashback, that gave him some good characterization, but it got cut from Brotherhood. Some of Kimbley's characterization got cut too, as well as some scenes for Mustang, Hawkeye, Hughes, and others.

Speaking of Kimbley, this week's episode sees his proper entry into the story. Kimbley is a character that I don't feel either anime adaption quite got right. In the first series it was understandable, because at the time that came out Kimbley hadn't really been properly introduced yet. By the time Brotherhood came out, the character had been pretty well established, though, and they still didn't quite capture the essence of the character. In the manga, he's composed and well-spoken, even charming, hiding his true nature behind a gentlemanly demeanor. But in both anime adaptions, he's more of a straight-up madman killer. A little bit of his manga characterization comes through in Brotherhood, but not enough for my tastes.

There is something in this episode that confuses me. It's implied that Kimbley knows who the homonculi are and that they're responsible for Ishval, and that he's met them before. When did he find this out? Did they come to him at some point when he was in prison and tell him? Only the highest members of the military know about Father and the homonculi, and I don't think that includes the State Alchemists, or else Mustang and Armstrong would have known about all that, too.

Last Edited By: greybob 02/06/11 11:19 PM. Edited 1 times.