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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “The raid on the Devil’s Nest becomes a slaughter, as government troops – led by the Fuhrer President himself, King Bradley – exterminate the half-human forces of the Homunculus Greed. But will Ed and Al survive the battle unchanged? As Greed is sent to meet his maker, foreign travelers arrive in Amestris, having crossed the great desert from the eastern country of Xing. Their names are Mei and Ling, and they’ve come for the Philosopher’s Stone . . . and a secret even the Elric brothers never imagined . . .” Talk about a wieldy cast. No less than fifteen characters take the stage through the four chapters in this volume, switching in as Elric and Alphonse get swapped out. This makes it difficult to track each plotline and individual motivations as each characters’ arc only gets advanced a little: Barry the Chopper gets taken into custody, Mei is introduced and goes to track down Elric, Greed is apprehended by his siblings and given a fitting punishment. There are many bits of development, but also a lot to keep track of. One major revelation pushes events along for the Elric brothers, as Alphonse finally remembers what happened to him when his soul was transplanted in a suit of armor. However, this information continues to be withheld from the readers, with only the implications slowly being examined. As the brothers end one adventure and begin a new one in this same volume, their quest is largely given over to recuperation to prepare for their next big task. With enemies looming in the shadows, the supporting cast of allies liven the mood by playfully antagonizing the brothers. Winry gets heated every time Elric damages his artificial limbs but begrudgingly takes care of them, Garfiel the shop owner freaks the boys out with his excessive femininity, and new character Ling Yao puts the boys through a gauntlet of his own in order to extract info out of them, but ends up befriending them anyway. This volume mostly serves to arrange the many pieces in place for conflict and revelation in upcoming chapters. It doesn’t stand too well on its own, but does the necessary lifting to push the story ahead. Comment on this review of Fullmetal Alchemist v8 on the Manga Life Forums. |
29 September 2009 |
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