Fullmetal Alchemist 18

I love this series, and it strikes me every time I read a volume just how well the characters have been developed through the course of the series and just how far-reaching the plot has been all this time… but I can’t help but think it’s been dragging a bit lately.

On one hand, I like that the entire country has been enclosed in a gigantic transmutation circle, because there are so many horrible implications, and so many different ways to interfere and stop it.  On the other hand, I feel like the whole Eastern Alchemy angle was tacked on.  It was clear that the problem that Ed and Al would have with the philosopher’s stone was plotted out from the beginning (since the homunculi would always have been powered by them, so they would need to be something really horrible hewn from the bones of the stillborn or whatever), but for as long as the characters that practice Eastern Alchemy have been involved with the plot… nothing really significant has happened, and they haven’t really had a direct impact on the plot in any way, aside from the fact that one of the characters was… appropriated by Father some time ago.

The only solid tie it seems to have with the plot currently is in Scar and his brother’s past, and perhaps that gigantic rune that Ed and Al found early on (I don’t remember that part too well), but again… I feel like there are lots of other things that can take the place of Eastern Alchemy, and it just doesn’t fit in with the series nearly as well as absolutely every other element.  And at this point, nothing has happened concerning it, yet a lot of time is spent each volume discussing the possibilities of what it could mean for the characters.  It just feels like really weird filler.

It is supposed to be the ultimate solution for Ed and Al, but… other things, like maybe something Father possesses or could do for them, might work just as well as Alchemy, and would tie more directly in with the main plot of the country going to war.

Anyway.  In this volume?  Ed and Al spend time dancing delicately around Kimblee, trying not to let him in on what’s going on at Briggs while doing as he says since he seems to have drug Winry in as a hostage.  I’ve been griping, so you might guess that part of the mission involves fetching the little girl and talking a lot about how Eastern Alchemy would be so much better than the philosopher’s stone, and a few other little things about Eastern Alchemy… probably not as much was discussed as I make it sound, but an awful lot of time has been wasted on it over the past several volumes.  It had better pay off big.

Al always makes me cry inside.  I do wish his situation was exploited a little more frequently, because, really… he’s the only one that can go out into a blizzard because he can’t feel or get tired ever. That’s the most heartbreaking thing he could have said.  Al’s soul is tired, guys.  I want him to get better soon.

Also, as much as I complained about Eastern Alchemy, you wouldn’t guess that this business with King Bradley and the government has been escalating at an insanely slow rate for several volumes now.  I believe the balance is about to be tipped.  Or at least I hope so.  Getting two volumes a year that feel like mostly exposition is difficult when I like a series this much, especially when it has so much to offer.