Marcoh's Notes is the 18th episode of the Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 anime series.
Synopsis
Back in Central City, the Elrics scour the library for Dr. Marcoh's records—until the building burns to the ground. With the doctor's secrets smoldering beneath rubble, Ed must think outside the box.
Full Synopsis
On the night before the Elric brothers and Major Armstrong return to Central City from Resembool, Lust is searching the National Central Library for Dr. Marcoh's research notes. Watching in secret, Scar notices her resemblance to his brother's fiancée just as Lust notices him with Gluttony moving in behind Scar. She flagrantly comments that, she can't have the Ishbalan interfere with Edward as she needs him to get closer to the Philosopher's Stone, making the man realize she is using the boy. Lust signals Gluttony to attack, forcing Scar to fight him off with his destructive alchemy.
The next day, the Elrics and Armstrong leave the train station, greeted by Armstrong's subordinates 2nd Lt. Maria Ross and Sergeant Denny Brosh to relieve Armstrong of his duty to protect the Elrics while he reports to Central Command, though Ross and Brosh mistake Alphonse as the Fullmetal Alchemist. Despite not wanting the bodyguards, Ed learns that it is due to Scar being back in Central again. Just as the Elrics leave, Ross mentions the information to Armstrong that the Elrics quickly find out that the library has been burnt down.
At Central Command, Lt. Colonel Hughes converses with Colonel Mustang over the phone. Despite still bragging about his daughter Elicia, Hughes heads back into serious mode when he confirms to Mustang that Scar was involved with the library's destruction due to eyewitnesses and his blood-stained clothes found right by the river, but suspects there were other people involved due to the evidence pointing to signs of a struggle. Hughes also mentions that with Basque Grand dead, Mustang has a good chance of being transferred back to Central Command, warning him of dealing with potential enemies as well as gathering as many supporters as he can.
Meanwhile, the Elrics, Ross and Brosh head to another library. Ed discovers a few books survived the fire with nothing that can help him, and the head librarian can't find anything by Dr. Marcoh in their records. When the head librarian mentions that she and the worker with her were the only ones on staff at the National Central Library, Ed recalls that another girl worked there when he visited three years ago. Recognizing this person as Sheska, the head librarian states that she was fired not too long ago and was a bookworm.
Arriving at Sheska's house, the group finds a mountain load of books and Sheska buried underneath them, forcing the four of them to dig her out. Sheska is able to confirm Marcoh's material was in the library, but with it destroyed, Ed is back to square one and tries to rebuild the entire library and books from alchemy, only for a windstorm to ruin the plan, scattering the ruined book pages. Sheska reveals she can reproduce the material thanks to her photographic memory, taking three days to reproduce Marcoh's large research material. Ed leaves Ross and Brosh to pay off Sheska while he returns to Central Library to look over the material.
Despite it looking like a cookbook, Ed believes it to be encoded to avoid for the material to fall in the wrong hands. Spending a large amount of time working on the decoding, the Elrics are visited by Hughes, who informs them about the security measures on dealing with Scar. Hughes adds on that the difficulties he is having due to numerous court files stored at the National Central Library destroyed. Ed recommends Sheska to him to reproduce the files and she agrees with this due to Al's encouragement. Hughes leaves, promising additional security the following day. Once outside, Hughes addresses Ross's periodic concerns, stating their job is to watch over the Elrics as they uncover something only they can do.
While in a coma, Scar recalls his encounter with Lust and Gluttony. He failed to destroy Gluttony with his destructive alchemy. Suffering a chest injury, Scar blew off Gluttony's hand to break free and dodged Lust's attack. Identifying the mysterious duo as homunculi, Scar watched as the candles dropped by Lust start a fire and he used his alchemy in a large attack to escape. Scar fully wakes up in an Ishvalan refugee camp and greeted by a boy named Rick, who recognizes him as an Ishvalan. Rick takes Scar to his grandfather, who recognizes him from the wanted posters, but points out they would never sell out a fellow Ishvalan. The old man reveals there are other refugee camps scattered throughout the land. Back at the location of the Elrics, as the days go by, waiting for Ed to finish his research, Ross overhears Ed as he finished the research and horrifically discovered the truth about the Philosopher's Store requiring the sacrifice of live human beings for it to be made. Back at the Ishvalan refugee camp, Scar is ready to leave the camp since he felt no reason to stay for betraying the way of God. Rick admires Scar's tattoo. Scar stretches his tatooed arm to the sky and says he got it from his brother as a gift.
Episode Notes
- This episode is adapted from content in Chapter 10: The Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 11: The Two Guardians and Chapter 16: Separate Paths.
- Instead of Lust being solely responsible for the National Central Library's destruction, Lust and Gluttony's battle with Scar in the library was meant to replace their first encounter with him in the sewers of East City that occurred in the manga and 2009 anime, with only the basic plot and Scar's bloody jacket being found by the military to remain unchanged in this version.
- The mention of Mustang being transferred back to Central and Scar's recovery in the Ishvalan refugee camp took place after the Laboratory 5 arc in the original manga storyline.
- The English version has the male First Branch employee named Gerald, but he is unnamed in the original Japanese.
See also
| Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 Anime episodes | |
|---|---|
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | |