Because all the cards he touched so far were light, only Odorippa was stupid heavy is what I'm thinking. If we were in Episode 27 or something and he handled dozens of cards this would be weird, but Odorippa is the - fourth one he ever held? Not unthinkable that Hopper1, SteamLiner and Kamantis are simply lighter.

You will undoubtedly be proven right in the near future though, because this whole "Cards have individual weights"-thing will fly out the window, be forgotten within the first 10 episodes and never mentioned again. Heck, we're lucky if they remember it after this one.

You don't need to wait until episode 3, because they don't even remember it in this very same episode. In other scenes but the first scale scene, the cards behave identically like any ordinary cards. Did the writers properly storyboard-proof their scripts? I don't think so.

That probably is what's going on, they just didn't feel the need to explain it since you can just see it happening.

"The skateboard inside you just wants to have fun!" :lol

I was excited to hear the new insert song by Beverly, since Be The One is my favorite OP. Gotchard's got a great soundtrack so far!

The action continues to be impressive, with how SteamHopper launched Golddash in the air and then jumped to land on it. Houtarou may be dense in academics, but to compensate for that, he is a quick and imaginative thinker to come up with these cool moves, as well as his unconventional solution to the alchemy test.

Alchemy seems to contradict itself. Minato talks about conservation of mass, while Rinne talks about creating something from nothing. But I guess that's intentional to depict alchemy as something difficult to understand, since Houtarou points out that the result is basically magic.

Yep, that's what I think as well. Atropos is Storious, Clotho is Zooous and Lachesis is Legeiel.

Rinne reminds me of Hirose, who also had issues about her father releasing a bunch of monsters from cards. Maybe this is why Rinne feels responsible as an alchemist, she wants to atone for her father's actions. However, Fuga honestly seemed like a pretty good guy, both in Houtarou's interaction and Rinne's flasback. Even though he "betrayed" the Alchemy Academy, I think he probably had a good reason.

Well, if the Ride Chemy Cards are merely containers to compress and convert Chemies in to a usable form, then it makes sense that you could probably put food inside them as well.

Makes me wonder about the biological needs of Chemies, as artificial lifeforms. While they can live for 120 years without visible aging, they still have a basic metabolism that affects their weight depending on their diet, which means poor physical health might kill them. Intriguing.

Yeah, this episode was a much better impression of Rinne. She even smiles at Houtarou's dream to befriend all the Chemies, so looks like she shares some of his idealism and that her coldness from before was a defensive behavior that she drops now that she's had time to know Houtarou a little better. Kind of like an anti-Keiwa. Instead, the real mean archetype seems to be Spanner, who dismisses Houtarou's dream as an "unfunny joke", which I guess makes him an anti-Isamu.

You compare Rinne to the Fangire Hunters, but her use of manholes is like Kitajima Yuko. :lol

I don't think that's what's going on. I've elaborated it on post #10.

I completely agree with the "show, don't tell" approach. The problem is, what they've shown is inconsistent.

Also, there are several unanswered questions:
- If Minato said that what Houtarou did was an incorrect method, then what's the correct method? Rinne said @ 10:27 that alchemists wearing the Ring can change the weight of the cards. But Houtarou didn't have the Ring until @ 21:20. So how was he supposed to change the weight of the cards without a Ring?
- What's the point of changing the weight of the cards in the first place? Does it make them stronger or gain new powers/skills? Does it make them able to evolve? Does it make them able to fuse better with their best match card?

I think perhaps alchemy is a force that causes the universe to collapse on itself or self-destruct, symbolized by the Ouroboros as a snake that eats its own tail. Perhaps the Ouroboros world is a parallel world that is another side of the Earth Prime that can destroy the Earth Prime if they overlap too much. Kinda like a sinister version of Wonder World. That's why the alchemists are tasked with maintaining balance and natural order between the two worlds.

There's an important point I forgot to mention in episode 1's thread. If Fuga and Houtarou were already at Ouroboros @ 12:05, then where did The Sisters come from? Did they come from another another world, or did they simply open a portal from a different place in Ouroboros?

Can't lie, I like Kudoh a little bit more now.

Is it just me or does the academy feel like the HQ of Ryukendo? Maybe it's the lighting.

I agree, it can just seem that Fuga was a good guy, and that it can be a rather irrational hatred to him only because he's not fully lawful (lawful ≠ good). Then again, Saber also happened with how Daichi was like. Kamijo, btw. And... oh, viewing oneself as an extension of their family, feeling burdened by it, and getting the motivation to atone for family's misdeeds beyond their control, a recurring in "battle royale" series before (other than Blade, also Yui regarding Shiro and Neon regarding to Kurama zaibatsu), something that can be seen as unreal and alien. Maybe Rinne's take is a negative one (ironic, writing this after you said "anti-Keiwa"...) to be so obsessed to it to dismiss anything unrelated to it like making friends with others before... despite that it's also important to extend other goodness.

I wonder why you'd not think of Spanner's behavior as just being honest and blunt here, because it can just get interpreted as him being a "tsundere" who wants to give a reality check to Hotaro with a standoffish front or such - as in the world is a cruel and horrible place always, no buts, thus they have to follow suit by having cold-detached traits ("becoming practical and realistic), which often get agreed upon by fandom too (like you on Michinaga but extend that as general consensus). Though lighthearted shows will have anyone on the good side being seen as always pure white, to the antagonist's pure black.... should only giving praises and no criticisms, rejecting ideas/possibility of them being in the wrong.

Given the equipment and materials in the lab, it's likely there are other methods of performing alchemy. Houtarou just didn't think to look around because he's more focused on the Chemies as sentient creatures rather than experiments.

Changing the weight is likely about learning the basics of alchemy. Like how in math you do a bunch of equations and problems that seem pointless by themselves but help you learn the basics that you apply to real world problems

Manhole Alchemist FTW!

Well, Houtarou brings up a good point about whether the Chemies should be kept sealed. If human malice causes them to become Malgams, then that sounds like a human problem, not a Chemy problem. Reminds me of how the HumaGears were treated, which might make Spanner and Isamu similar in their discrimination, albeit with opposite sense of humor. However, Spanner's case makes less sense to me, as Chemies are already recognized as lifeforms, so I'm not sure how he can logically justify believing they're only tools. I think there's a difference between being "practical and realistic" like Michinaga (usually anyway) and just being cynical. Like, we know that Gotchard's power increases with the magic of friendship, so even if Valvarad is a strong brilliant invention of alchemy now, the lack of synchronization with Chemies will likely become a problem in the long term.