FMA dub episode 50

[timepiececlock]

Episode 50 discussion, page 10: the exact page on the AS boards where people blow their tops. Aahhh, I remember that viewing experience. There was screaming and freaking out galore.

Fantastic performance with the dub, just like the last few episodes. My only sadness is that Ed's line "Don't fuck with me!" was changed to something a little more tv-safe. Will it be on the DVD, one hopes?

To my great pleasure, they didn't cut out either of the two really bloody scenes in this episode, the one with Wrath and the one at the end. I'd been wondering how they were going to handle it considering you simply CAN'T edit those scenes out and expect the episode's events to make sense, and AS had edited things weaker than that before. I guess by the time they got this far they just threw their hands in the air and said "Aw, screw it! This show's too gorey to fix. We'll just have to play it as is."

Ooh, and a very amusing/traumatic link: Click here only if you've seen episode 50 and need to scream. This is the spoiler of all spoilers. Well, the second-best spoiler of all spoilers cause nothing tops alternate universe zepplins.

EDIT: This is either the best or worst FMA shirt I've ever seen.


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geglash: Okay, okay, here's my theory: Ed isn't dead. Can't possibly be. No way in hell. The show will think up some slippery sh*t to get him out of it................

........and everyone will live happily ever after (except f*cking Envy, he'll drown in a pool of lava) and eat lollipops and snuggle puppies and la la la la la.....*curls into fetal position*.............la la la la la la la la la la la.........
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"pool of lava" is so nicely original and graphic.


WARNING! Spoilers for episode 51/finale in the comments below!

Comments

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I can't even remember what happened in episode 50. Was that when he transmuted himself, to put Al back in his own body?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

That's 2/3 into episode 51, the finale. Episode 50 opens with Ed just landing in London. He talks to Hohenheim until a zepplin crashes on him (just found out-- aparently the Londoners really did bring down a zepplin on that historical date) and his Alter!Ed body dies. He comes back through the gate, tussles with Envy, and the episode ends with his GIGANTIC GOREY CHEST WOUND. And there was screaming because, DUDE, Ed was supposed to be the safe one. There was a movie poster, dammit.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah! I remember that now.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

There's an interesting debate on the AS boards right now about who gets the Deadbeat Dad award for this year's anime: Hohenheim or Gendo (Evangelion). Tough call.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Having not seen more than five episodes of Eva, I cannot weigh in with an informed opinion.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

It's been too many years since I watched it. I remember thinking he was a waste of human spit, though. Hohenheim at least gives the impression of loving his children (I'm still not sure he loved them as much as he SAYS he does), whereas Gendo pretty much saw his son Shinji as the broken, spasming body of a fly on the winshield of destiny or something.

Random observation: Eva had the worst ending in the history of anime.

[ciardhapagan.livejournal.com]

Yep, and the multiple movie/OVA rewrites just make it even worse. I think it's rather pathetic that Anno keeps doing it over and over and it just get more poorly written each time.

Contrast that to Takeuchi (Sailor Moon, manga was okay, anime she had no say in, reworked it gradually through the various musical incarnations, and then did have partial creative control on the live action and really put a great retelling. She had years to refine the characters and give them more depth (and darker sides- on the heroes sides, or more sympathic sides- on the villians.) Best live action team show I've ever seen! Don't want to spoil it too much, I highly recommend it! While the anime only got a marginly positive review for me and that was because of Haruka and Michiru in "seasons" 3 and 5. The live action doesn't even get to the "outers" but I love how Makoto (Jupiter) has grown characterwise. She's almost Buffy-like at times. Makoto was my favorite of the inners from the manga and anime and I absolutely loved her character in the live action. People who only saw the anime (where Takeuchi, rather unusually, complained at how little like her characters, especially the inners, were to how they were in the manga. The live action builds from the manga personalities but goes a lot deeper. There's definitely an influence of Buddhism in the live action version, where it was subtle in the manga, absent in the anime.)

[buttercup0222.livejournal.com]

I am not looking at the comments. I am not, damnit.

All I keep saying to myself is: There's a movie; Ed is in it. There's a movie; Ed is in it. THERE'S A MOVIE; ED IS IN IT.

*calms self*

I actually had dreams about this last night. And so now, despite my steadfast resolve to see the series through watching dub only, I am now d/ling the episode 51 sub, followed directly by the movie. Because I just cannot take it. If I'm going to be fucking traumatized, let's get it over with in one weekend.

*is also afraid for Mustang and Hawkeye and a million other characters*

[buttercup0222.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just watched 51.

I cried.

Then I yelled at the computer.

Then I cried again.

God, I love this show.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

You're so lucky. We had to survive SEVEN DAYS after that shot of Ed's pupil expanding in death.

And then MONTHS for the movie!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Glad you didn't spoil yourself with the comments! Yay!


All I keep saying to myself is: There's a movie; Ed is in it.

I know. When it originally aired all we knew about the movie was a single promo picture of Ed in older clothes and with a pony tail. No other characters, no context, NOTHING. Just a single character image.

We thought, so naively, "Okay, well, characters are dropping like flies, but at least Ed is safe. SOMEONE is going to survive the night!"

And then... ED DIES! And we're all taken aback, screaming "NO! ED WAS SAFE! THERE WAS A MOVIE PICTURE! ED WAS SAFE!"

Mucho trauma abounds.

And so now, despite my steadfast resolve to see the series through watching dub only, I am now d/ling the episode 51 sub, followed directly by the movie.

Aah. Well, I'd say you should've watched everything from episode 43 onward in subs, so at least you'd be used to the voices. Paku Romi, who did Ed's Japanese voice, BREAKS MY HEART.

And then there's Hawkeye screaming. Followed directly by the MOST EVIL SCENE CUT-AWAY OF ALL TELEVISION SCENE CUT-AWAYS.

I cried.
Then I yelled at the computer.
Then I cried again.
God, I love this show.

YES. I'm getting a kind of vicarious thrill out of watching you guys experience this for the first time. Now you understand why fansub watchers everywhere "have a collective orgasm" (as someone on my flist called it) at the mere mention of FMA. BECAUSE IT IS SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME. IT'S AWESOMENESS IS TOO AWESOME FOR YOUR HEART TO TAKE.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

YES. I'm getting a kind of vicarious thrill out of watching you guys experience this for the first time. Now you understand why fansub watchers everywhere "have a collective orgasm" (as someone on my flist called it) at the mere mention of FMA. BECAUSE IT IS SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME. IT'S AWESOMENESS IS TOO AWESOME FOR YOUR HEART TO TAKE.

Don't mean to jump into this, but I know of one dub watcher who didn't react this way to Episode 50 and she feels the show spiraled into utter confusion and unbelievability after it.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Exception that proves the rule!


((I can come up with these all day. :wink: You'll just have to endure my fangirling because trust me the end, if it is in sight, is like 5 years in the distance.))

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't trying to rain on your fangirling. It was just weird jumping onto my Friends List today and seeing a post about Episode 50 that wasn't glowing. I haven't seen the end of the show since it initially aired. Or maybe a week after it did, because I watched most of the show within the span of three days between 50 and 51, so for me, it's a bunch of, "What did happen during that episode?". :)

You'll just have to endure my fangirling because trust me the end, if it is in sight, is like 5 years in the distance.

Only if you can endure my fangirling over the manga. Cuz at the rate that's going, it's gonna fuckin' KILL ME! lol.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I intend to read the manga some day, if only because it's gotten more and more glowing reviews the further along it goes. It used to be that people who watched the anime first thought it was better than the manga, and vice versa. But it seems at some point the manga gets so good that even those who loved the anime first come to love the manga equally (or in your case more, as I've heard you say/type before).

Or maybe a week after it did, because I watched most of the show within the span of three days between 50 and 51, so for me, it's a bunch of, "What did happen during that episode?".

You know, it's so interesting to me sometimes how much that can make the difference in how/why you love a series. I watched 1-15 at a convention marathon, then watched 16-25 in a few days, then took a month off to recover and let octopedingenue catch up, then watched 25-43 in a rush of head-splodey-ness. After that it was watching them one week at a time for the last 8 episodes. Consequently I blurred a lot of my memory of stuff in the 30s, but have very clear memory of stuff from 41-onward. Rewatching in dub has actually been the first time rewatching for some of these episodes, and I'm remembering a lot I'd forgotten.

It was just weird jumping onto my Friends List today and seeing a post about Episode 50 that wasn't glowing.

After the end I read a lot of fan reviews, and some of them made the complaint of "too confusing" or "muddled", and a few people outright hated it, but that reaction was so different from mine I was almost puzzled by it. Yeah, the last few episodes were dense and fast, but I felt like I understood 90% of it as it happened, and 95% of it on second viewing. What was "muddled" to someone was "intense and complex" to me, I suppose. ::shrug:: I've long ago given up trying to break down those arguments; for me the last two episodes were pretty close to perfect for what I wanted and what I needed from this show.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I can't even pinpoint where the manga grabbed me the way it has. It might've been when I did the entire readthrough a few months ago, because as much as the first few volumes felt similar to the anime, it wasn't. What struck me at the very beginning was characterization. In several not so minor ways, Ed and Al are different characters than they are in the anime, and I never picked up on that until I started from Volume 1, Page 1. All I know is that I live for this point of the month, when the raw for the newest chapter is released. The last four months have been driving me insane, I wish it wasn't a once a month thing because I'm dyin' to know what Arakawa's planning!

Rewatching in dub has actually been the first time rewatching for some of these episodes, and I'm remembering a lot I'd forgotten.

If I didn't dislike what I've heard of the dub voices, I might've rewatched it on AS. I've watched, um, three and a half eps of the dub and .... yeah. I saw the episode where they met Dante (back in the mining town), one with Greed (when he and Ed got into a knockdown dragout), parts of some episode with Izumi and a portion of another.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I liked the dub so-so for the first half of the series, really liked it for the last 20 episodes, and have absolutely loved it for the last four episodes. By now all of the main actors are well-entrenched in their characters, and it shows in the quality. Plus it feels like the writers went over the scripts with the finest comb they would get their hands on, so the scripts have gotten consistantly better over time. Still, there were a lot of things I liked about the dub early on, and the number of thigns I disliked was comparatively small, when looking at other series.

What's interesting about the script though is that some conversations are actually funnier in the dub (episode 15, 37 [believe it or not!]), whereas other times the Japanese is a lot funnier (Ed impersonating Roy in episode 13, Barry the Chopper in episode 21)

I ended up liking the side character's voices more than the main character. Al I loved and Roy I loved, but I had to get used to Hughes, and both Riza and Greed have been alright though not initially what I expected. Dante's voice is evil but forgettable. The only dub VAs I loved from the outset were Scar, Lust, Tucker, and Izumi. The others I took varying degrees to acclimate myself too, but those four felt perfect right from the start.

Ed has taken the longest for me to like, and actually I only really appreciated him in the last few episodes. His actor does excellent in Ed's London confrontation with Hohenheim; English Ed has always been better angry than soft-spoken or normal-voiced. He almost always sounded too old for a 15-16 year old boy. I think it actually helps dub-wise that Ed seems older in the second season-- his wardrobe changes and the animation design of his face changes slightly, so he looks very different in episode 48 than he did in episode 14. In conjunction with his character development that forces him to grow up, his a-little-too-old voice works better in the latter episodes.

He can't scream though. Which is this weird thing I *loathe* about dubs. Why won't the dubbing studios let male actors scream in a dub? In the Japanese there's an ear-splitting shriek of total agony; in the dub there's this groaning shout of unhappiness/pain. They'll let them shout, but not scream. I've seen this in so many series and it bugs the crap out of me.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I've told you this more than once, but I've only come across one dub I thought surpassed the Japanese - Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Too bad the show wasn't exactly my thing, I could've watched that in dub as happily as Japanese.

I can't get far into a dub, unfortunately. People think I don't try to give them a chance but they just kill me sometimes. I have to confess that the worst dub I've ever heard was Hellsing's. I know the characters are actually SUPPOSED to be English - well in the case of Walter, Seras and Integral - but hearing them with these cheesy accents was painful. What made Witch Hunter Robin's horrible was that you knew it was supposed to take place in Japan, the characters were Japanese, but here they are speaking in these overacted English voices. And they did overact in the WHR dub. Badly.

While the dubs I watched back in the 80s are worse than those I've seen today, they're what turned me off of anime for so many years. Whenever I hear them, I can't help but cringe 99% of the time. I always feel like I'm an elitist when I say that, too.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

By the way, how does it feel to know your show lies to you? You can't trust canon because CANON LIES.

Tucker isn't really dead. Juliet Douglas didn't start the Ishbalan war. The Philosopher's Stone isn't a rock, it's carried inside a person. Dante isn't really dead. Equivalent exchange is a lie!

[buttercup0222.livejournal.com]

I will never believe in anything ever again!!

I'm actually feeling a bit sad now that it's over. It's left me feeling somewhat moody, which is a sign that something has really affected me on an emotional level, which is an odd thing to say for a tv show, but it was so damn good, and funny, and intellectual, and heartbreaking.

I've also watched the movie. I have to say - I was a bit disappointed with it. Not very good plot development, IMHO, and the motives for some character actions just didn't ring true for me. I'll make a more detailed LJ post later this week once I've had a chance to collect my thoughts and watch it again. I did watch it extremely late last night, so I might've not been in the best state of mind.

btw, you mentioned (I *think* it was you) a Riza/Roy fic called Games without Frontiers (?). I tried looking on ff.net and mediaminer and came up empty. Did I get the title wrong, or is it someplace else?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

It's on LJ, posted at royai. I think it might have finished now, but if you post there and ask for a link, people will give it to you.

The movie was a mixed bag for me too. I loved almost everything about it as far as the European characters went (Ed included), and felt it was stretched too thin for the Amestris characters. Roy especially left me with a bit "Que?" over my head (see this discussion), but my extreme love for the way Ed and Alphonse were handled sort of counteracts any disatisfaction there. And the final scene was my Favoritest Thing Ever: Ed and Al driving off into the sunsetmorning with the Ishbalansgypsies. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect last scene for those two.

You probably did yourself a disservice by watching it so closely after the anime, to be honest. It'll be hard to separate the movie from the tv series.

[buttercup0222.livejournal.com]

You probably did yourself a disservice by watching it so closely after the anime, to be honest. It'll be hard to separate the movie from the tv series.

I'm not sure I would say that. After all, it is supposed to be part of the same storyline. My problem is that I can't seem to associate the movie with the series very much at all. I wasn't awed, brainfucked, or moved in the same way the series did me. Part of it is because there's only so much you're able to do in an hour and 45 minutes. The rest...I just don't know.

And again, there's the sleepyness :)

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

My problem is that I can't seem to associate the movie with the series very much at all.

That's ultimately what I mean, in a way. For me, the FMA movie sub came out nearly a year after the series ended. I'd sat on that ending of Ed and Al reaching toward the sky for a year. For me, the series was finished. It was done. The movie, which we didn't even know would take place after the series (could have been mid-series like Cowboy Bebop), was something that would be cool, but was not (for me) necessary to fullfilling the destiny of the characters. I already had the resolution I wanted, and could happily imagine that yeah, Ed and Al would find each other some day. I didn't need to know exactly how, because I trusted that it was inevitable.

When the movie came out, it was a new and separate creature for me. Yeah, I had spent a year building up expectations, but I also had all those months to distance myself from the end of the series. The movie looked different and felt different (it wasn't really brain-breaking in plot, that's true, but FMA's brain-breakyness relied on its episodic format, which the movie didn't have time to build up again), even though many parts of it felt essentially familiar. Still, most of the movie takes place in Germany, and I gave up trying to think of the Alter!characters as the originals within the first few minutes of the film. They're not the same people (except possibly Gracia), and we can't look at them the same.

...ack! must go. I have more to add later.

continued

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

For me the characters of the movie, particularly Edward and Alphonse were what the movie was about, more than resolution of the alchemy/gate stuff. The movie spent a lot of attention on Edward's mindset and the Ed/Al relationship, and I was very pleased with what they did there. They didn't put enough focus on the other characters and certain plot points were weaker than what we saw in the series, but overall I was satisfied plot-wise, and character-wise I was thrilled, because so much attention was given to Ed and Al. Again, the stuff with Roy and his group was the weakest part, but I sort of resolved to ignore it, because mentally editing it into post-series canon is kind of weird and difficult.

Anyway, what I mean is, I didn't expect the movie to be episode 52. A lot of people expect that, but I never liked that analogy. If they'd wanted it to be episode 52, they'd have made a 52nd episode. The movie and the series ARE different, and I look at them differently.

[flutingfrenzy.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHA THE YTMND! Sabre Dance makes everything like fifty times funnier. And, I mean, Ed dying is pretty damn funny. In retrospect. Ahem.

Re: the shirt, I vote BEST. Except for the picture quality.

Man, I loved that episode. I can not wait for next week.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

In retrospect. Ahem.

An important distinction. Yeah, it's funny NOW. Back then it was like a gigantic wound in OUR chests too.

If I loved this show just a little less, I'd seriously walk around with that T-Shirt just to spoil people.

The dub has been so strong in the last 10-15 episodes, and especially in the last three. I'm so very pleased with it, and really looking forward to next week.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Sabre Dance makes everything like fifty times funnier.

It's the perfect music choice.

Who composed that, anyway?

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

*laughs insanely* Dammit, wish I didn't work last night. Wish I coulda watched everyone blow their shit. Ah, dubbies. At least you guys can go surf and find out what happens. *waves cane at them* We oldtimers were stuck with just a single movie image and NOTHING ELSE for a whole gorram week. See how explodey your brain gets THEN!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

*waves cane at them* We oldtimers were stuck with just a single movie image and NOTHING ELSE for a whole gorram week. See how explodey your brain gets THEN!

I know! They don't know how good they have it! When you're waiting on fansubs there ARE NO SPOILERS. Spoilers are NOT AN OPTION. You're forced to watch with baited breath and your stomach in your throat and as a result when the BODIES HIT THE FUCKING FLOOR you get Maximum Viewing Angst.