Japanese FMA 04 Title: "Transmutation of Love"
American FMA 04 Title: "A Forger's Love"
Japanese Airdate: October 25, 2003
American Airdate: November 28, 2004
Important Characters: Majhal, Karin, Clause
Important Locations: Unnamed village
Synopsis: On their way to Central City, Ed and Al hear of a man named Majhal living nearby - an alchemist who not only knew their father, but wrote to him about creating human life.
Ed wants to learn from him, but Majhal has other problems: Rumors of a young woman ghost wandering the outskirts of his town, taking the souls of young girls.
Thoughts
This episode just goes to show that obsession can blind a person and that Alchemy can be dangerous when mixed with an obsessive love.
Fortunately, the dub didn't really change much compared to the previous episode. Not cuts or censors, either. Only problems I had with the dub of this episode
were that Ed and Al's voice acting in this episode were totally off and there were just about a ton of name mispronounciations.
Change of Dialogue
As Ed and Al are noticing the village is getting ready for a ceremony, fireworks go off and litteraly scare the boys half to death. First off, the dub didn't
give the boys a scared tone of voices. They just seemed jumpy. Next, Ed was supposed to question what in the world fireworks were when the kids
asked them what they were doing near an area filled with them. Instead, Ed seemed to have a full knowledge of what they were and sounded more annoyed than creeped out.
Next one was pretty odd. One of the kids questions if Al was a futuristic robot. First off, I believe the concept of robots sprung up around 1960. This is the 1910s.
The idea of robots had not come to mind. Next, Al is clearly a suit of armor. You'd think the kid would know that in a time where there are plenty of wars and fights going on.
Mispronounciation
Through out the whole episode Karin's name is mispronounced. Karin is supposed to be pronounce as Kah-rin, not Kuh-rin. Really can't see how they got those messed up. At least Majhal's and Clause's names are pronounced correctly.
Change of Dialogue
Why oh why do they keep changing Ed's short insults? Clause was originally taunting Ed by calling him short repreatedly until Ed crossed the line and said "If you're really a girl, then you should dress like one!" Ed was even arguing with her before that he'd get taller soon. Clause also originally called Al an "Armor Otaku" rather than a trash can.
Side Note
Not only were Ed and Al's voice actors bad at getting the right sounds to come out for each time the brothers stumbled around, but Karin's scream after Majhal's death seemed..abit weak, in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong, Majhal and Karin had great voices. But Karin's scream didn't seem too filled with emotion. Didn't sound too convincing considering the man she loved was obsessed with what she once was, denied that she was truly the one he loved and died right before her.
What was with Ed calling Clause a "newspaper boy" anyways? Last I recall, he just said that she dressed like a boy in the Japanese version. I do have a positive note about Clause, though. They got the right
idea by having her sound like a girl but having a boyish attitude and tone in her voice like the Japanese version did.
Final Thoughts
The episode wasn't too bad, but it definately had some faults to it. Although the list of changes isn't as bad as the third episode, so that's good.
Previous Episode | Next Episode | Main