Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood - 2

Summary:
Ed and Al are on a train to Lior to see a man who can make miracles. They think it is probably slight of hand, but they check it out anyways in case it might be the philosopher stone. We flash back to Ed and Al's childhood where they begin to learn alchemy using their father's old books. However their mom soon suddenly dies from disease. The boys continue to practice alchemy under the tutelage of their teacher (later will be identified as Isumi) and slowly start their research into human alchemy.

One night they determine they know enough and attempt the forbidden alchemy. However soon afterwards things begin to go wrong. the alchemy circle grabs Ed's legs and suck Al into it. Left behind is a hideous creature who soon dies. It in inside this circle that Ed meets a creature and a door who call themselves god. The door opens and Ed is flung in. He begins to acquire all the knowledge in the universe, so much it nearly kills him. However when he approaches the area that would allow him human alchemy, he is pulled back out. The creature tells him that all that knowledge was enough for the trade, the trade of his leg. He returns to the real world and finds Al missing. Knowing he was taken he tries to attach Al's soul to a suit of armor. He losses his arm in the process.

The next day Roy Mustang and Hawkeye arrive in search of a powerful alchemist said to be in the area. However they only find the bloody remains of the fail alchemy. He goes to Winry's house where Ed and Al are healing and confronts them. He later offers Ed the chance to become a state alchemist. Doing so would mean that Ed would be a dog of the military, but it would open the immense possibility of research that could lead them to the philosopher stone, and the restoration of their bodies. Ed decides to take the offer and heads off to the state alchemist exam. While preparing, with a new arm and leg from Winry, he trains with Al and shows off his ability to use alchemy without a circle. Al, even though he also went through the gate, cannot. when he gets to the exam, he he attempts to show off by transmuting a spear with out a circle, and then attacking the fuhrer. However the fuhrer was able to slice Ed's weapon without anyone even noticing. regardless he passes and is granted the title of FullMetal Alchemist.

Reaction:

First of all, i'll take this opportunity to talk about the OP and ED. I have to say i don't particularly love the OP. It just sounds really rough for some reason and her voice seems to stammer. The overall beat/tune is pretty good though. The ED though is quite enjoyable and i love it. The animation at the end is also quite entertaining and even has a few laughs (Armstrong lol).

Onto the Episode...
Well, Not to bad. Obviously they went back on track and followed the storyline of Ed getting his arm and the failed transmutation of their mother, but it feels way too rushed. If their was one thing the first season did dead on, was hit the emotional note of how painful and just how hard Ed works to be where he is. Nothing about Ed's amazing studying ability was mentioned here and he seems to be driven by pure rage and pride more than determination. It's also sad to see Al's voice explaining equivalent exchange replaced by the narrator. Al really gave the saying a whole depth of meaning about how nothing is truly equal and someone always ends up paying more in the world which is lost when the narrator says it. I guess they want to try and make this closer to the original, yet different from the first season so that it wont be boring. Problem is the beginning of the first was close to the original. And i read somewhere the manga always tried to cut the intense emotion with jokes to lighten the manga anyways so its not too bad. Overall i don't think I'll be pretty impressed with this until they reach where the first season deviated. We'll have to see how they handle Lior because i felt the first season did a very good job. One of the scenes from the first season they can't do well now is the speech Ed makes to Rose about how a human is nothing more than a list of ingredients. (I thought that was a powerful statement about how his view of the world has changed to one of chemical parts. It was one of my favorite scenes.)

(I will be calling the source "manga" from now on and the first season "original" because I'm starting to get confused.)
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Full Metal Alchemist and Hayate no Gotoku

I havent forgotten them. exams are just slowing me down. expect them within a day.

Edit 1: I will have FMA up in a few hours. (aka tomorrow morning) Hayate will probably take another day. Read more!

K-On - 2

All hail the rock god Mio!

Moe... Overload... ahh

What are tenticles doing in this show?

Hunt for a guitar!

Recap:
The episode starts up with a reintroduction of the other members of band. We also get to see a lot of moe embarrassed. However they realized that Yui still doesn't have a guitar so they haven't been practicing. Mio tells Yui that the cheapest guitars are 50,000 yen with the expensives one go over 100,000. Yui desperately tries to find the money going as far as to borrow 50,000 yen in advance allowance from her parents. The spend the next day around the mall. However when they get to the music shop Yui sets her eyes on a really nice guitar for 250,000 yen. They decide to all get part time jobs to get time money. They eventually find a job as traffic counters which works for Mio because she is shy. Over the next two days they make 16,000 each. Yui however doesn't feel right about taking their money and decides to buy a guitar she can afford. However when they get back the the store the next day she is once again distracted by the guitar. Mugi decides to try and haggle and gets the guitar down to 50,000 dollars, however that is mostly due to the fact her dad owns the place. Yui eventually starts to practice and the band is offically on its way.

Reaction:

Many more shy and moe moments from Mio. If wiki is correct than she turn out to be the lead singer so we'll see how she gets around her shyness. There's never enough Mio! We need more cool Mio now. It looks like a 13 ep series, so we'll see how much they can get through in that time, or if they will even have more than one concert. The next ep looks like its about exams (ughh i completely understand) so we'll have to wait for more music.
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Quick spring blog update

So this is how the spring blogging is looking so far.

SeedFreedom: (everything might be late due to exams)
Hayate no gotoku (May be up to a week late but i will try my best to get it out as soon as possible)
FMA (Riven and myself will be spitting the series in half. doing every other episode)
K-ON (i will be doing a max of three shows. This is the third in the line. If something great comes along i will drop this.)


Riven: (This is not finalized so maybe she can clear this section up.)
FMA (Half series with me)
Eye Shield 21 (maybe)
Katekyo Hitman Reborn (If she has the time)
- She is also dropping D-gray man Read more!

K-ON AKA the MOE-ist thing to ever hit this side of the earth

All hail Mio!

Recap: Yui is a new high school girl, in what appears to be an all girls school. She has no idea which club she wants to join, because she has never joined a club in her life. Meanwhile an energetic Ritsu is trying to join the "K-ON" or light music club. She drags her friend, Mio, with her to join, who actually wanted to join the literary club. They find that all the previous club members have all graduated and if they want to keep the club, they need to find four members or it gets closed. (Clannad anyone?) Ritsu waits in the club room for people to come and join. When a lost Tsumugi walks in looking for the choir club, she also gets roped in to joining the club. They go out for fast food (which Tsumugi seems to have never had) and discuss how to save their club. They decide to make posters and place them everywhere. The end of the month approaches and they are in danger of losing the club they never had. A hopeless Yui seems one of their posters and thinks that "light" means easy and decides to join. After finding out from her friend that "light" is a genre, she goes to tell them she can't join. She is scared of their reaction and after seeing the enthusiasm (mostly from Ritsu) she doesn't want to tell them off. She eventually does get it out and they desperately try to keep her in the room with tea, cookies, and a performance. Mio on bass, Ritsu is on the drums, and Tsumugi on the keyboard. After watching the performance she decides she wants to stay even though she doesn't know how to play. She asks if she can join as manager, but the others tell her that this is not like a sport team and they don't need a manager. They tell her they will teach her to play guitar. Yui's moment of happiness is short lived when she finds out she will have to buy a guitar and that it wont be cheap.

Reaction:
OMG MOE!!!! Yui, Ritsu, and Tsumugi are all very cute, however MIO IS MOEEEEEE. She is just soo cute and her singing in the ED is just amazing. This is one of the only shows i want to stay and watch the ED of. Onto the actual episode, the story isn't too new and innovative and kinda average, but its interesting and... hell the moe factor can make up for any plot errors. Nice cast of characters and i hope to be following this series all season.
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Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood Episode 01

YA-HA! I got here first! I'll get the recap up sometime but for now I'll just do my reactions! I'm also going to start Eyeshield 21 and forget D. Grey-Man. I don't think with all that is happening I'll be able to do that one since I mainly read not watch.


Reactions:

YA-HA! It was excellent! I was kind of amazed to hear Again by YUI as the opening. I never thought that they would use her for Full Metal, but it really does work. I like the upbeat nature to the song. I'm also really glad to hear another song by SID. The ending is "Uso" or "Lie", and although it seems to have a more laid back tone, the song fits well with where the anime is so far. I must say that it was good to hear Lockon again and that it seems like all the characters still hold thier old funny/annoying/awsome personalities. I noticed that Roy Mustang was a little bit more energetic this time around but I like that new addition. Hughes and Armstrong stayed the same, Armstrong with the hilarious tendancy to rip off his shirt at a moment's notice and Hughes annoying tendancy to show the picture of his wife and daughter to EVERYONE! Anyways it started off great with the Elric brothers already searching for the stone and as usual a bunch of people calling Ed short. As usual he totally flips, even at Hughes' daughter. I have high hopes for this anime and I hope it is as amazing as the last one! Read more!

Hayate no Gotoku s2 - 1

Its finally time. First i want to say i love this series and will definitely be covering every episode. I want to mention CrunchyRoll will be broadcasting every episode for free on their website legally. Now, i am all for supporting free legal anime over subs, but i cant wait the week for it to be free and i wont (and can't) paying for a membership so unless all the subs are a week slow i will be covering the subs instead. Luckily they offered the first episode for free so i'm a little ahead this week. Now onto the actual episode.

EDIT: It looks like the fansub i was hoping would pick up this series is now dropping it for Crunchyroll. Luckily i still have a few other sources (mostly crunchyroll rips anyways) but there is no way i am waiting a week if i don't need to. However if my sources do get cut, i will be a week late on these.

EDIT 2: I found at least one sub group who picked it up so unless they drop it i have my source.

Recap:
The episode starts with Nagi trying to duck out of doing a school running event. Marina convinces her to go and Hayate oversees her training. When she gives up pathetically easily Klaus insults Hayate's abilities. When she goes to defend him, she accidentally makes a bet that if she looses Hayate will be fired. He continues to train her but she is very worried. Meanwhile Hayate goes to find which even Hina is not in so they have a better chance of winning. Unfortunately she is going to be in all of them, but tells him to enter the grand marathon. At the actual race, they dont fair very well and Hayate ends up carrying her most of the time, avoiding all the other butler-master pairs we met last season. The last to stand in their way is Hina. She questions weather Nagi is actually learning anything by having Hayate do all the work for her. Realizing she is right, Hayate tells her to go ahead while he stalls her. He is successful due to her fear of heights. Just as she is about to win, Yukiji steals the win to use the prize money for alcohol.

Reaction:
Well, not one of their better eps, but not bad. As prominent as Hina is shown in the OP and ED, i can't help but feel that Hayate and Hina aren't as close as they were in the first season. I mean the only contact they had was when Hayate was being a ass to her on the bridge. Much different from the Hayate that promised to save her if she called. Regardless i expect MOAR HINA and MOAR HINA X HAYATE than in the first season so all is good.

Cultural references:
- Tuxedo Mask (with the throwing roses)
I will constantly be looking for more, so if you notice any i miss please leave a comment.
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