Fullmetal Alchemist (2006)

[鋼の錬金術師]

Volume 14

Author/Artist: Hiromu Arakawa
Publisher: Gangan Comics

Synopsis:
Free of Gluttony, Ed is reunited with Al before the father of the homunculi.

Story/Characters:
"Father" hasn't had much screentime until now, so it's really interesting seeing him take a more active role in the story. It's interesting that he doesn't just look like Hohenheim, but he also has some elements of Hohenheim's personality, though the more personable absentminded side is rather minimal. As with last time, I'm going to have to spoil something fairly big because I can't talk about nearly half of what happens this volume otherwise. As you saw in the previous volume, Ling has been deemed expendable by the enemy, but "Father" sees some potential in him and offers him the chance to be the new Greed. And Ling goes for it. He sees it as making a deal with the homunculus, so there's an interesting internal dynamic going on there. As you can imagine, Ed doesn't take it well. That leads us to a little chat with King Bradley where he lays out how things are going to work from now on. It's a bit of a Sword of Damocles situation, which adds a layer of menace from here on out. We follow it with a convalescing Mei and Ranfan clashing at Dr. Knox's. It shows us a bit about the situation in Xin and we get some of Dr. Knox's backstory too, which segues into Scar coming across Dr. Marcoh. As you can imagine, with their histories, it's a big deal and will set the stage for future developments.

Art:
We get some high-octane alchemy battles and the interior battle of wills between Ling and Greed is rather impactful.

Other:
The single panel comic and "Corral Diary" return after being absent last time. We get two 4-koma and a short bonus chapter from when Ed and Al were kids. Hohenheim surprisingly acts like a good dad.

Conclusion:
We've got some big things going down this volume, which works as both rewarding payoff to what we've been building up to and promising setup to where the story's going to go from here. It's good stuff and well worth a read.

Rating:
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