Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 44

The end of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood's previous episode brought us a surprise meeting between Alphonse and his father in the town of Lior - A meeting which makes for a rather awkward reunion initially, as you might imagine.

However, once those initial stumbling moments are over, the irrepressible bond between father and son soon rears its head, as Al gets to work helping out rebuild Lior just as his father has been doing; an activity which soon stops when it becomes clear that Al and his father have a lot of information that they need to share regarding what is going on in the country at present.


For Hoenheim in particular, this means sitting down and regaling one of his sons with the long story of his life which we were party to four episodes back, tale of immortality and Philosopher's Stones and all. It's a story which Al accepts surprisingly willingly, as thoughts soon return to how to stop the current plot being built towards right under their feet.

Of course, ideally Hoenheim wanted to spill out his life story to both of his sons, and his enquiry as to Edward's whereabouts finally gives us an excuse to catch up with his current situation, where we see him on the run from the military flanked by the chimera who saved his life while he tries to figure out exactly how to go about rejoining his brother despite having no idea as to where he could be.

As if that wasn't enough to be getting on with, the new-look Greed's violent reunion with old friend Bido takes a turn for the worse, with Greed left torn between his remaining memories and his current self to such an extent that he's left vulnerable to... well, who knows what? Whatever is happening within his mind, it looks set to make for a rip-roaring next episode.

Speaking of rip-roaring, there was certainly plenty to enjoy within this instalment of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood once again. Al's meeting with his father was played out excellently - A wonderful juxtaposition of the human nature of such a relationship (especially such a dysfunctional one) against the business of "saving the world". On a more visceral level, Ed's re-emergence was fantastically portrayed in terms of action, car chase and all, while Greed's inner turmoil was brilliantly depicted to make for an intriguing cliff-hanger if ever we saw one. As per usual for this show, this was anime par excellence.

And finally, because I know some people will be unhappy if I don't include this screenshot in some shape or form...