Fullmetal Alchemist manga, volume 2 (spoilers for manga & anime)

[kate_nepveu]

After a booklog entry, some spoiler notes on volume 2 of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, and on the differences between the manga and the anime. Spoilers for volume 2 of the manga and—oh, episodes 8, 14-16, 18, and 20 of the anime. Do not spoil me for subsequent manga or anime episodes or I will glare very fiercely in your general direction.

• Lust says that Ed is their human sacrifice, which I thought at first meant they needed a sacrifice, singular, unlike Marcoh's theory in the anime, but later she says that Marcoh will be another, so now I'm not sure how many they need.
• Lust taught Marcoh how to make Stones.
• When Marcoh stabs Lust, she doesn't say that she's already been killed once, but that "You made me die once." Which makes me flash to nine lives of cats.
• Mustang, Armstrong, and ponytail guy were recruited for war, and weren't already state alchemists; which makes it harder for me to understand why Mustang stayed. Like I said, anime!Mustang—far more interesting.
• No Barry the Chopper (will he still re-appear?), no Brigadier General Gran, and Ishbal gets two pages in flashback (also, just accidentally running across Marcoh is lame).
• The lack of the Other Brothers Elric is also interesting; I wouldn't have put those episodes down as filler, as Majhal and Psiren were.

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Now that you've read this, you'll understand why I completely misinterpreted that Mustang-Ed moment in ep. 16--things play out somewhat differently here. I knew the switch back and forth between anime and manga was confusing me at the time, but I still didn't realize how very much the manga affected my viewing of those episodes of the anime until I commented on your post.

[kate_nepveu]

Ah-ha. Yes, it was so *unlike* anime!Mustang to just _tell_ them what happened that I really noticed it, as well as the short shrift Ishbal/Ishval was given, but I hadn't quite made that connection to your reaction to episode 16. Yes, I can definitely see it now, and it's all the more reason to fend off Chad buying me more volumes for now.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I do really like the manga (I've read what's available in scanlation, and the next chapter needs to come out now), but I am glad that I went ahead and watched the rest of the anime before going back to the manga this month.

[angelhedgie.livejournal.com]

Well, there's an upcoming novel that covers the brothers Tringham, so you may want to keep your eyes open for it.

[kate_nepveu]

I've heard that it's out already and that it's actually where the anime got the story from--I may flip through it in the store.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

There's some extra/omake stuff in the back of the novel that is used for episode 37 of the anime. Wait until you've seen episode 37 before reading the novel.

[kate_nepveu]

Well, the prose gave me hives, so I probably won't read it anyway. But thanks for the warning. =>