Reviews

Yay sad traumatic backstory! No but really, I knew the Civil War was bad, but I didn't realize it would've been this bad. Honestly, the death of people and dreams was really bad. For some reason I thought that Kimblee guy was the host of Envy for some reason, even though I already knew Envy was born like way before. Also poor Scar. I mean he's still a serial killer maniac but he's a serial killer maniac with a sad backstory. I'm really interested in learning how exactly the alchemy in Armetris differs from the alchemy in Xing? I have a feeling it has a lot to do with Father and the homunculus.

Content Warnings

princessrobotiv's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

So...many....war crimes

The long-anticipated flashback to the Ishbalan Civil War certainly didn't flinch away from representing the main cast of characters as the perpetrators of genocide. It's a bold choice, and one that can easily backfire on a creator without enough skill to represent that magnitude of conflict.

But Arakawa is capable as both a writer and illustrator. While I wish some motivations were clearer (I didn't fully understand what made Riza give Roy her father's secrets, or why she was compelled to join the military), the volume did a great job at explaining why many of the main characters were primed to turn against the government and Bradley in particular.

I'm excited to see the parallels between Scar and his brother and the Elric brothers continue; no doubt they will eventually come to a head. The revelation that Scar's brother literally gave an arm for him to live was probably the most striking part of the volume.