Brotherhood just keeps outdoing itself. This final arc is full of awesome moments one after the other, and they're definitely making the most of it. And the best part is that every character gets to shine.
The first that comes to mind is definitely Alphonse. The major smackdown he layed on Pride and Kimblee in the first few minutes of the episode was absolutely epic and the animation was fittingly very high quality, the kind of which I hope to see in next week's episode as well. And it wasn't just in terms of action that Al got to show off his awesomeness. I'd always loved his "Why can't I save both us
and the world?" speech in the manga, and Rie Kugimiya's great performance only made it better.
And of course, Kimblee's reply was also very awesome and typical of him. It's a shame that he was taken out by a relatively minor character though, but it didn't piss me off as much as when I read it in the manga. Pride eating him was also pretty well done with a very fitting creepy BGM. Speaking of Pride, even after it looked like the good guys got the best of him there, they're actually just playing into his hand and heading towards the exact place he wants them to be. "Brave humans sure are easy to trick", haha. Still, props to Yoki. Even a loser can have a crowning moment of awesome!
Next, the Armstrong siblings vs Sloth, another great fight. And one which should show all those who thought Olivier was stronger than Alex because of their comic relief fight a few episodes back. Who saved whose ass there? Yep, good ol' manly Alex. Though of course, Olivier still got to be her usual awesome self, with her lecture to the indecisive soldiers at the end. "Think for yourself" indeed.
And man, though I do think Rain is too mellow an OP for FMA, hearing it alongside Romi Paku's hot-blooded screams while Ed and the rest beat the crap out of those zombies sure was cool.
So yeah, all in all, amazing episode. Nearly perfect. My only complaint would be that for some reason they left out this great panel from the manga:
But oh well.
As for the preview, it was pretty good at hinting on the awesomeness that is about to unfold without actually spoiling anything. But I couldn't help but notice and shake my head at Envy's transformation in it, which was clearly reused animation from his fight with Marcoh in episode 43. Getting lazy there, Bones?