Customer Reviews

Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 12

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At this point the manga has separated itself completely from the storyline of the anime, but it's all for the better. The manga has more story to tell, and the author and illustrators are giving all kinds of mysteries and excitement for the readers. I'm not going to give away the mysteries to anyone who hasn't read the manga, or seen the anime (although, as I said, they have gone in completely different directions); I'll leave that to those who actually want to make the effort to understand the intricacy of this masterpiece of storytelling ... Suffice to say, this isn't just a simple comic, this is a long-lasting, intricate, mysterious series that builds upon what has already been revealed and shows what can happen when men become to greedy for what they cannot have.

The action is brutal, fast-paced and still manages to move the plot along with every page! And in true FMA tradtion, there are some shocking and powerful revelations revealed. Don't sleep on the manga just because you've seen the anime all the way. This is a whole other ball game!

Hiromu Arakawa, Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 12 (ViZ, 2005)

So you know you want to capture a homunculus. How to go about it? Ed, of course, has a hare-brained plan-- since the homunculi are after Scar, and Scar is after the alchemists, Ed draws attention to himself until Scar confronts him, at which point the homunculi will pop up and try to take Scar down, and Lin can capture one of them. It's crazy, of course, as everyone tries to explain to Ed, but, well, it's Ed. This one's setup for the next volume, but it's good setup. *** ½

In the previous volume, Ed came up with a plan to capture a homonculus: he figures the homonculi want to use him for a human sacrifice, so they won't let him die yet. He wants to trick Scar into fighting him so the homonculi will show up to save Ed from Scar. The previous volume left off in the middle of the battle between Ed, Al, Scar, Lin, Lanfan, with Roy Mustang tricking the military into keeping out of the fight. And then King Bradley shows up...

In this volume, they do manage to capture Gluttony, but they can't hold him for long (see next volume). The emotional high point of the book is where Ed has to try to talk Winry into not shooting a man she has every reason to hate. There's also a brief introductory chapter where it looks like Hohenheim is bulletproof.

New truths are learned about the power of the homunculuses, both in strength and in just how far their reach goes. It turns out things are even more sinister than originally thought. And who would have thought that? The power and strength of alchemy as a result also is being re-evaluated. How much is the alchemy and how much is just the people that wield it?

As far as horrendous acts are concerned with the horrible military experiments and the war in Ishbala the humans involved have some tough lessons to learn about changing and enduring, about vengeance and forgiveness. There are flashbacks involving these themes throughout and I appreciated how the art in these frames differed and made it clear that they were flashbacks both with the coloring in the frame and the way the speech bubbles were drawn that made it immediately obvious what was going on.

The kids also are really growing up in this one. They take an active role in trying to find answers to their questions and attempt to solve their own problems. They are determined to try and not get any more people involved for fear of their safety. They also take responsibility for things when they go awry and are determined to work to try and make things right.

first of all FMA is the greatest and secondly this manga just gets you pumped for the next one...well don't they all. lol