6.22: The Masked Man



A kindred spirit! The whole island sequence I love.

6.23: Knocking on Heaven's Door



Teacher is a badass!

And then the backstory just took a turn for the really bizarre... The worldbuilding in this series is top notch and has just the right amount of strange to really intrigue me.

6.24: Fullmetal Alchemist

So that's how he got his name.



Interesting way to join the military.

6.25: Master and Apprentice



Oh the art style sometimes. And the weirdness of the backstory. So ( )

A calm episode . The story of what happened was a comfortable read , no emotional turmoil felt as such. I like the focus on Al; usually the side kicks are ignored. The arc of Colonel Marshall was a bit boring , though I understand it was to build stuffs up. The happiest moment was the entry of the next sin. I think it is Avarice. ( )

The second half of the Elric Brothers origin story concludes as we get to see all the scenes previously hinted at or only partially revealed. Now maybe we can get an explanation for the cabal of villains who've been popping up? ( )

This is a really good volume because it goes into the history of Ed and Al, the Elric brothers. We learn about the trials they endured in order for Ed to become a state alchemists. We also saw what happened when they both decided to disregard the primary law of alchemy: Do NOT create a human. I liked knowing how Ed got the name Fullmetal Alchemist as well.

I've grown attached to this series because of its fun characters and story. I don't p[ay much attention to the characters when they noisily bash each other. That's for the readers who are teen boys and like all of that "action". As for me, I want to see how the characters develop as the story plays out.

I like how some of the mean and angry characters are portrayed artistically. There seem to be many ways of drawing this--including square or downturned mouths, bent down eyebrows, bared or jagged teeth, and/or flushed face.

I also find it amusing how many different sound effects there are in one volume of manga. I would love to hear how those sound effects sound in real life. They are are not simply "crash" and "bang".

Another thing I find curious is that the alchemy symbol is the six-sided star in a circle. For me, that six-sided star looks like the Jewish "Star of David". I didn't pay much attention to that until this volume included a significant symbol containing many Hebrew words (translated into English). I'm not sure what thet symbol was supposed to represent exactly, but I wonder what it meant and how it worked its way into this volume. I'll ask my older son!

Since this series has turned out to be such fun, I'll be moving ahead to volume 7 and hope to finish the entire series of volumes that have already been translated into English. ( )

The more this series goes on the more complex it gets, in a very good way. Volume 6 continues the flashback from volume 5 covering the history of the boys and how they learned alchemy. The training was almost unbelievable to read about. I could not understand why some of the unspeakable and terrifying things even happened to them in the first place. This was true in the anime as well. But it really sets the tone for just how brutal and dark the rest of the series gets as things progress. They need to be toughened up in their training for what comes after and I understand that more now. But, the first time I read it? I could barely stomach it.

The rest of the volume doesn’t lighten up much either as you see the rest of what you caught a glimpse of in the very first frame of the very first volume (finally!) and get a lot of questions answered. But not all, of course. I really enjoyed having all the blanks filled in concerning the history of the brothers and how they got to where they are. I also enjoyed having some more of the tenets of alchemy spelled out for us and more of a foundation set up so that we can better understand the limitations, and what happens when an alchemist tries to play god (an ongoing theme). After all the humble pie from volume 5, volume 6 goes straight for your gut. Those poor, poor boys. ( )