:-) I didn't really have subtitlephobia :) I used to watch old German movies and Kung Fu movies in subtitles all the time. But I've been so busy lately and when I watch on the computer it ties up my computer, so I've been putting it off.
Yeah, I'm definitely picking up the honorifics from SP--actually that's the main thing I'm picking up, vocabulary-wise. I'm also finding the cadence easier to follow in this than in other animes I've watched, for some reason. I don't understand the words but at least I can hear the "breaks" between syllables/words better, which helps. Once I get that down I figure it'll be easier to tell root words from prefixes/suffixes.
I'm halfway through Episode 6 now. The part in 5 where Pacifica almost died and asked her brother to hold her hand was really touching. I paused at the part in 6 where she's offering the minstrel her arm for her brother and sister's life. . .
BTW I don't know if you saw it, but I had a manga question I posted while you were out I was hoping you could help me with (for something I'm laying out to draw). I was asking if manga typically uses a 1-panel layout on the first page (like US comics) or a multi-panel layout. Also do you know how many pages a typical manga is and is it broken up into "issues" like a US series is?
Tell you what - a lot of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga is available online. If you want to see what a typical manga looks like, go here and start reading! Just remember that it's read right to left. Of course if you have dialup this could be a little slow, but you should get an idea, anyway.