Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist

鋼の錬金術師
2003 -2004 Bones MBS 51 episodes Completed
Action Adventure Drama
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Details & Synopsis
The year is 1910, approximately. The country is Amestris, approximately. Two boys in a rural town teach themselves alchemy from their absent father's books and decide to do the one thing every alchemical text agrees cannot be done, human transmutation, the resurrection of the dead. Their mother. They are children. They do not survive the attempt intact.
Edward Elric loses his right arm and left leg. Alphonse Elric loses everything, his entire body, seized by the Gate, leaving behind only a soul that Ed binds to a suit of armour in the seconds before he loses consciousness. The exchange is the series' foundation and its recurring nightmare: the law of equivalent exchange, the principle that underpins all alchemy, applied to the thing it was never meant to touch. They paid. They did not get what they paid for.
Produced by Bones and directed by Seiji Mizushima, Fullmetal Alchemist aired on MBS from 2003 to 2004. Fifty-one episodes. It began adapting Hiromu Arakawa's manga faithfully and then, as the weekly production overtook the still-running manga, gradually moved into an original storyline. What followed is one of the most remarkable pivots in anime history: the production team, with Arakawa's blessing and a handful of her discarded plot threads, invented their own story. Their own villain. Their own ending.
The ending they arrived at is darker than Brotherhood's. More ambiguous. More interested in the cost of the boys' choices than in the resolution of the world's politics. Dante. The Gate. What is on the other side of it. A finale that refuses the comfort of restoration and insists that some debts cannot be paid back, they can only be carried forward.
Brotherhood is the manga. Faithful, complete, structurally confident, the story Arakawa intended. This is something else. A parallel history. A what-if that the people who made it took entirely seriously. Both versions are essential. They are not the same show wearing the same premise. They are two writers asking the same question and arriving at different answers about what human beings owe each other and what alchemy, the science of transformation, of making one thing into another, actually costs when the thing being transformed is a person.
Watch both. Then argue about which one broke you worse.
Alt Title 鋼の錬金術師
Studio Bones
Network MBS
Aired 2003 - 2004
Episodes 51
Genre Action, Adventure, Drama
Status Completed
Search Go to ep Filters
Arc List (8)
State Alchemist Arc (8) The Elrics' Journey (8) Laboratory 5 Arc (9) Rush Valley Arc (1) Teacher Arc (3) Greed Arc (5) The Lior Rebellion Arc (8) Final Arc (9)
State Alchemist Arc 8 eps 7 canon 1 good filler 📷 8
001 To Challenge the Sun Aired Oct 4, 2003 canon 📷 80 ►
Edward and Alphonse Elric arrive in Lior after hearing that Father Cornello can perform miracles that seem to ignore the laws of alchemy. They suspect he has the Philosopher's Stone they need to restore their bodies, but Rose refuses to believe the priest who promises to bring her dead lover back could be lying. When Cornello realizes the brothers know too much, he sends chimeras after them and learns exactly why Edward is called the Fullmetal Alchemist.
Lore · 2 Liore Teaches Ed That a Fake Miracle Can Still Control Real People
+1
Cornello Shows Why a Fake Stone Is Still Dangerous The Philosopher's Stone
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002 Body of the Sanctioned Aired Oct 11, 2003 canon 📷 121 ►
Cornello turns the people of Lior against the Elrics and steals Ed's State Alchemist watch, convinced it is the secret behind his circle-free alchemy. Ed and Al expose Cornello's plan by broadcasting his confession across the city, then defeat him only to discover that his Philosopher's Stone is a fake that shatters under the strain. After the brothers leave Rose to decide what comes next for herself, Lust and Gluttony kill Cornello and Envy takes his place.
Lore · 2 Liore Teaches Ed That a Fake Miracle Can Still Control Real People
+1
Cornello Shows Why a Fake Stone Is Still Dangerous The Philosopher's Stone
View all 121 screencaps from this episode →
003 Mother Aired Oct 18, 2003 canon 📷 104 ►
The story returns to Resembool, where Edward and Alphonse grow up learning alchemy and trying to impress their mother, Trisha, after Hohenheim leaves the family. When Trisha dies, the brothers become obsessed with bringing her back and perform the forbidden human transmutation, costing Al his entire body and Ed his left leg before Ed sacrifices his right arm to bind Al's soul to armor. Mustang later finds them, Ed chooses the State Alchemist path as a way to search for their bodies, and the brothers burn their home before leaving Resembool.
View all 104 screencaps from this episode →
004 A Forger's Love Aired Oct 25, 2003 good-filler 📷 106 ►
On the way to Central, Ed and Al visit Majhal, an alchemist once connected to Hohenheim who has spent years trying to recreate his lost lover Karin. A string of disappearances leads the brothers to discover that Majhal has been binding the souls of kidnapped village girls to mannequins made in Karin's image. The real Karin is still alive, but Majhal refuses to accept the elderly woman in front of him and dies during his final attack on Ed.
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005 The Man with the Mechanical Arm Aired Nov 1, 2003 canon 📷 104 ►
Ed and Al board a train bound for Central only to have it hijacked by Bald and his men, who take General Hakuro and his family hostage. The brothers fight back with help from Maes Hughes and keep the passengers alive until the military can retake the train. Bald escapes at the station, but Mustang stops him with Flame Alchemy and reveals that Hakuro's gratitude has opened the door for Ed to take the State Alchemist examination.
Lore The State Exam Gives Ed the Key and the Leash
View all 104 screencaps from this episode →
006 The Alchemy Exam Aired Nov 8, 2003 canon 📷 152 ►
Ed and Al stay with Shou Tucker while preparing for the State Alchemist examination, quickly becoming attached to Tucker's daughter Nina and her dog Alexander. During their time there, Ed realizes that he can transmute without drawing a circle, while Al is forced to withdraw from the exam because exposing his empty armor body would raise too many questions. Ed passes the written, interview, and practical portions after using alchemy to save the other candidates from disaster.
Lore The State Exam Gives Ed the Key and the Leash
View all 152 screencaps from this episode →
007 Night of the Chimera's Cry Aired Nov 15, 2003 canon 📷 145 ►
Now a State Alchemist, Ed grows suspicious of Shou Tucker's famous talking chimera and begins looking into what happened to Tucker's wife. He and Al discover the truth too late: Tucker used his wife for his first experiment and has now fused Nina and Alexander into a second speaking chimera so he can keep his certification. Ed nearly beats Tucker to death, but the greater horror comes afterward when Scar finds the Nina-Alexander chimera and kills her as an act of mercy.
Lore Nina Turns "Forbidden Research" Into a Person
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008 The Philosopher's Stone Aired Nov 22, 2003 canon 📷 145 ►
Still reeling from Nina's death, Ed considers abandoning the military until Al finds a reference to the Philosopher's Stone among Tucker's research. Winry arrives in Central and is kidnapped by Barry the Chopper, drawing Ed into a fight where losing his automail arm leaves him frighteningly close to killing Barry out of desperation. Al stops him, and after Ed finally breaks down over everything they have been through, the brothers commit themselves to searching for the Philosopher's Stone.
View all 145 screencaps from this episode →
The Elrics' Journey 8 eps 4 canon 4 good filler 📷 8
009 Be Thou for the People Aired Nov 29, 2003 canon 📷 145 ►
Ed is sent to inspect the coal town of Youswell, where Lieutenant Yoki has been squeezing the miners with taxes and military authority. Yoki tries to buy Ed's cooperation, but Ed turns the bribe into a trap by briefly transmuting coal into gold, purchasing the mine, and then returning the bars to stone. He sells the mine back to the townspeople for next to nothing and defeats Yoki's alchemist Lyra when she tries to stop him.
View all 145 screencaps from this episode →
010 The Phantom Thief Aired Dec 6, 2003 good-filler 📷 144 ►
Ed and Al stop in the sinking water city of Aquroya and become tangled in the police hunt for Psiren, an alchemist thief who is also the nurse caring for Ed during a stomach illness. Psiren repeatedly claims her robberies are meant to save threatened local institutions, only for each excuse to fall apart once Ed catches up with her. Al is more sympathetic after seeing how much attention her crimes bring to the dying city, and even after Ed finally catches her, Psiren manages to escape police custody again.
View all 144 screencaps from this episode →
011 The Other Brothers Elric: Part 1 Aired Dec 13, 2003 good-filler 📷 165 ►
Ed and Al arrive in Xenotime looking for rumors of a Philosopher's Stone and discover that two brothers are already using the Elric name while researching one for the wealthy Mugear. The impostors are Russell and Fletcher Tringham, sons of an alchemist whose work involved the toxic substance known as Red Water. Al gets through to Fletcher, but Russell refuses to abandon their father's research, and the confrontation ends with Fletcher taking a blast of toxic red water meant for Ed.
View all 165 screencaps from this episode →
012 The Other Brothers Elric: Part 2 Aired Dec 20, 2003 good-filler 📷 215 ►
Russell and Fletcher are imprisoned after refusing to continue Mugear's research, while Ed and Al learn that their father Nash abandoned the project when he saw Red Water poisoning Xenotime. The brothers also hear of a travelling doctor named Marcoh who once healed a child with a mysterious red stone. Ed frees the Tringhams and defeats Mugear, and when a mine collapse releases Red Water into the town, Fletcher uses the surrounding trees to absorb the poison before the Elrics leave for East City.
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013 Fullmetal vs. Flame Aired Dec 27, 2003 good-filler 📷 214 ►
Back in East City, Ed reports on the Philosopher's Stone investigation and learns that the travelling doctor connected to Xenotime was Tim Marcoh, now considered a military deserter. When Ed is called for his annual State Alchemist assessment, he turns it into a public duel with Mustang and makes information on Marcoh the prize. Mustang wins the upper hand but ends the match and gives Ed the lead anyway, while Hughes reveals that a mysterious killer named Scar is targeting State Alchemists.
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014 Destruction's Right Hand Aired Jan 10, 2004 canon 📷 154 ►
Ed and Al track down Tim Marcoh and finally get a lead on the Philosopher's Stone, only for Basque Grand to arrive with soldiers and seize Marcoh's research. Scar appears almost immediately, kills Grand, and turns his attention toward Marcoh as the Elrics try to get the doctor away. The chase ends underground, where Alex Louis Armstrong arrives in time to stand between Scar and the brothers.
Lore · 5 Scar Makes the State Alchemist Title Mean Something Else
+4
Marcoh's Research Connects the Stone to Ishbal The Philosopher's Stone State Alchemists Become Human Weapons Ishbal & the Military Scar Stops at Deconstruction Because Destruction Is the Point Ishbal & the Military Edward & Alphonse vs. Scar Combat Ledger
View all 154 screencaps from this episode →
015 The Ishbal Massacre Aired Jan 17, 2004 canon 📷 150 ►
Armstrong identifies Scar as an Ishbalan, and Marcoh finally tells Ed and Al what happened during the war: State Alchemists were used as weapons, Marcoh's research was turned against civilians, and Mustang was ordered to kill doctors who were treating both sides. Those doctors were Winry's parents. Scar catches the brothers again, destroys Ed's automail arm and badly damages Al's armor, but Marcoh's red stone reacts violently with Scar's tattooed arm and gives the military enough time to drive him off.
Lore · 3 Scar Makes the State Alchemist Title Mean Something Else
+2
Marcoh's Research Connects the Stone to Ishbal The Philosopher's Stone State Alchemists Become Human Weapons Ishbal & the Military
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016 That Which Is Lost Aired Jan 24, 2004 canon 📷 142 ►
Armstrong escorts the damaged Elrics toward Resembool while Lust corners Marcoh and forces him to reveal where his Philosopher's Stone research is hidden. At a remote station, Al is accidentally unloaded from the train, sending Ed and Armstrong back to find him. Ed then has his automail leg stolen by a young girl whose grandfather refuses automail because he wants to keep the wound he received in Ishbal, while Al gets dragged into a boy's attempt to prove himself before the brothers finally reunite and race back to the train.
Lore · 2 Scar Makes the State Alchemist Title Mean Something Else
+1
State Alchemists Become Human Weapons Ishbal & the Military
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Laboratory 5 Arc 9 eps 9 canon 📷 9
017 House of the Waiting Family Aired Jan 31, 2004 canon 📷 144 ►
Ed, Al, and Armstrong finally reach Resembool, where Winry and Pinako begin rebuilding Ed's shattered automail. With nowhere to run off to, the brothers revisit their mother's grave and the ruins of the home they burned, while Al quietly worries that some of his childhood memories are fading. Once Ed's new arm and leg are finished, he repairs Al's damaged armor and the brothers head back to Central to find Marcoh's notes.
View all 144 screencaps from this episode →
018 Marcoh's Notes Aired Feb 7, 2004 canon 📷 143 ►
Lust and Scar clash inside the First Branch Library, and the fight leaves the building in flames before Ed and Al can reach Marcoh's research. Their new escorts, Maria Ross and Denny Brosh, help them track down Sheska, a former librarian with an absurd photographic memory who reconstructs Marcoh's notes from memory. After days of decoding what looks like a cookbook, the brothers finally uncover the hidden truth: creating a Philosopher's Stone requires human lives.
Lore · 2 Marcoh's Research Connects the Stone to Ishbal
+1
A Philosopher's Stone Needs More Than Good Alchemy Laboratory 5
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019 The Truth Behind Truths Aired Feb 14, 2004 canon 📷 144 ►
Ed and Al are horrified enough by Marcoh's discovery to consider abandoning the Philosopher's Stone entirely, but Ross convinces them not to stop before learning the whole truth. A hidden clue points them toward the abandoned Fifth Laboratory beside a prison, exactly where human test subjects would have been easy to obtain. Ignoring orders to stay put, the brothers sneak out at night, separate at the laboratory, and come face-to-face with armored guards Number 48 and Number 66.
Lore · 5 The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It.
+4
Laboratory 5 Shows the Recipe at Human Scale The Philosopher's Stone A Philosopher's Stone Needs More Than Good Alchemy Laboratory 5 The Slicer Brothers: Two Souls, One Suit of Armor Laboratory 5 Edward vs. the Slicer Brothers Combat Ledger
View all 144 screencaps from this episode →
020 Soul of the Guardian Aired Feb 21, 2004 canon 📷 143 ►
Ed discovers that Number 48 is actually two serial-killer brothers whose souls were bound to a single suit of armor, while Al realizes his own opponent is Barry the Chopper. Ed defeats the Slicer brothers using the same destruction principle he saw Scar use, but refuses to kill them because their existence reminds him too much of Al. Outside, Barry attacks Al's deepest insecurity by suggesting that his memories, personality, and even his entire existence may have been fabricated by Edward.
Lore · 5 Alphonse Starts Doubting Whether His Own Childhood Happened
+4
The Slicer Brothers: Two Souls, One Suit of Armor Laboratory 5 Barry the Chopper: The Worst Person to Ask Al Whether His Memories Are Real Laboratory 5 Edward vs. the Slicer Brothers Combat Ledger Alphonse vs. Barry the Chopper Combat Ledger
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021 The Red Glow Aired Feb 28, 2004 canon 📷 143 ►
Scar arrives in time to help Al against Barry, whose explosives tear open parts of Laboratory 5 and release several prisoners, including Greed. The surviving Slicer brother guides Ed deeper inside, where Shou Tucker is revealed to be alive as a chimera and shows him the laboratory's Philosopher's Stone apparatus. Al and Scar are intercepted by Lust and Gluttony, while Ed realizes that the military has put him in exactly the position he feared: close enough to create the Stone himself.
Lore · 8 The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It.
+7
Laboratory 5 Shows the Recipe at Human Scale The Philosopher's Stone Barry the Chopper: The Worst Person to Ask Al Whether His Memories Are Real Laboratory 5 The Prisoners Are Alive When Edward Is Asked to Use Them Laboratory 5 The Homunculi Need an Alchemist to Do What They Cannot Laboratory 5 Greed Is Literally Imprisoned Beneath the System Laboratory 5 Shou Tucker: The Experiment Did Not End With Nina Laboratory 5 Alphonse vs. Barry the Chopper Combat Ledger
View all 143 screencaps from this episode →
022 Created Human Aired Mar 6, 2004 canon 📷 183 ►
Hughes organizes a military rescue operation while Envy, disguised as Basque Grand, gathers prisoners as raw material for the Philosopher's Stone. Lust takes Al hostage and forces Ed to choose between completing the transmutation circle or watching his brother's blood seal be destroyed. Ed cannot bring himself to sacrifice the prisoners, and exposure to the incomplete red stone triggers a violent reaction in his body that wrecks the laboratory just as the military breaks in.
Lore · 5 The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It.
+4
Laboratory 5 Shows the Recipe at Human Scale The Philosopher's Stone The Prisoners Are Alive When Edward Is Asked to Use Them Laboratory 5 The Homunculi Need an Alchemist to Do What They Cannot Laboratory 5 Hughes Starts Following the Shape Around the Secret Laboratory 5
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023 Heart of Steel Aired Mar 13, 2004 canon 📷 184 ►
Ed recovers from Laboratory 5 under Maria Ross's furious supervision while Winry comes to Central to repair his automail again. Al, meanwhile, cannot stop thinking about Barry's claim that his memories might be artificial and grows more distant every time Ed avoids explaining the secret he has been afraid to tell him. The tension finally breaks when Al directly asks whether Edward created his memories and only made him believe he was ever a real person.
View all 184 screencaps from this episode →
024 Bonding Memories Aired Mar 20, 2004 canon 📷 182 ►
Al runs away after Ed fails to answer him and ends up among Ishbalan refugees, where he encounters Scar again. Mercenaries disguised as military soldiers attack the refugees with Barry the Chopper among them, pulling Ed and Al back into the same fight. After the brothers reunite, Ed finally tells Al what he was afraid to say, and the two reaffirm that their shared memories and bond are real; elsewhere, Bradley's secretary kills the mercenary leader and reveals that she is a homunculus.
Lore · 2 Alphonse Starts Doubting Whether His Own Childhood Happened
+1
Hughes Starts Following the Shape Around the Secret Laboratory 5
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025 Words of Farewell Aired Mar 27, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Ed and Al decide to follow Scar's trail south for more information about the Philosopher's Stone, with Winry joining them because Rush Valley lies along the route. Back in Central, Hughes connects Laboratory 5 to Ishbal and realizes Juliet Douglas sits at the center of something much larger inside the military. Lust attacks him before he can report what he found, and Envy finishes the job by taking Gracia's form; Hughes is buried as a brigadier general while Mustang is left to understand that his closest friend died uncovering the conspiracy.
Lore Hughes Starts Following the Shape Around the Secret
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Rush Valley Arc 1 eps 1 canon 📷 1
026 Her Reason Aired Apr 3, 2004 canon 📷 165 ►
Ed, Al, and Winry reach Rush Valley, where Paninya steals Ed's State Alchemist watch and turns recovering it into a chase through the automail capital. Winry learns that Paninya's prosthetic limbs were built by the automail engineer Dominic after a train accident and pushes her to stop living as a pickpocket. Back in Central, Mustang investigates Hughes' murder and realizes from Armstrong's guarded answers that someone high inside the military may be involved.
View all 165 screencaps from this episode →
Teacher Arc 3 eps 3 canon 📷 3
027 Teacher Aired Apr 10, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Izumi Curtis finally catches up with Ed and Al and immediately drags her terrified former students back to Dublith. On the way, the brothers remember meeting her in Resembool, where her alchemy saved the town from a flood and convinced them to beg for training. Once they are alone, Izumi realizes from Ed's circle-free transmutation and the brothers' bodies that they attempted human transmutation, forcing the secret they have avoided telling their teacher into the open.
View all 164 screencaps from this episode →
028 One is All, All is One Aired Apr 17, 2004 canon 📷 154 ►
Izumi sends Ed and Al back to Yock Island, the same place where she stranded them for a month before accepting them as students. The episode revisits their brutal childhood survival test, including the masked man who repeatedly attacks them while they struggle for food and shelter. By learning that every life is part of one larger cycle, the brothers finally understand Izumi's lesson: one is all, and all is one.
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029 The Untainted Child Aired Apr 24, 2004 canon 📷 161 ►
Ed and Al discover a strange boy living on Yock Island who can perform alchemy without a circle and even transmute his own body. When Ed sees the scars on the boy's right arm and left leg, he realizes the limbs are the same ones Ed lost during the failed transmutation of Trisha. Izumi tries to protect the confused child, while Ed becomes convinced they are dealing with a homunculus connected directly to the Gate.
Lore · 2 Wrath Makes Izumi's Loss Walk Into the Room
+1
Wrath: Izumi's Child Carrying Edward's Limbs Homunculi - 2003
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Greed Arc 5 eps 5 canon 📷 5
030 Assault on South Headquarters Aired May 1, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
The military captures the mysterious boy and imprisons him at South Headquarters after deciding he may be a homunculus. Izumi storms the base to get him back, but she is only one of several groups converging on the child, including Bido, Kimblee, the Elrics, and the homunculi. Elsewhere, Yoki spots Scar among Ishbalan refugees and runs to the military hoping the information will restore his old position.
Lore · 2 Greed Proves the Homunculi Are Not One Loyal Machine
+1
Greed: Freedom Before Humanity Homunculi - 2003
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031 Sin Aired May 8, 2004 canon 📷 165 ►
The fight over the imprisoned boy erupts inside South Headquarters as Envy, disguised as Bradley, reaches him before Izumi can get him away. After consuming pieces of the red stone, the boy remembers being created by Izumi's failed attempt to revive her stillborn child and being cast into the Gate, where he later took Ed's missing arm and leg. He takes the name Wrath, while Greed's group and the other homunculi circle around him for their own reasons.
Lore · 2 Wrath Makes Izumi's Loss Walk Into the Room
+1
Wrath: Izumi's Child Carrying Edward's Limbs Homunculi - 2003
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032 Dante of the Deep Forest Aired May 15, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Wrath attacks Ed and Al because he wants the rest of Edward's body, but Izumi interrupts the fight and still cannot stop seeing the homunculus as the child she tried to bring back. After Wrath escapes, Izumi sends the brothers to meet her own teacher, Dante, hoping the old alchemist can make them reconsider their faith in equivalent exchange. At Dante's secluded house they find Lyra working as her apprentice, only for Greed and his chimera followers to arrive and drag the Elrics into another fight.
Lore · 3 Wrath Makes Izumi's Loss Walk Into the Room
+2
Greed Proves the Homunculi Are Not One Loyal Machine Story & Arc Guide Wrath: Izumi's Child Carrying Edward's Limbs Homunculi - 2003
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033 Al, Captured Aired May 29, 2004 canon 📷 163 ►
Greed's chimera followers overwhelm Al by using his hollow armor against him and carry him to the Devil's Nest. Greed explains that what he really wants from Al is the secret of binding a soul to an inanimate body, hoping it can lead him to true immortality. Izumi and Ed track the hideout down and attack, but Greed's Ultimate Shield stops them until the military raids the Nest and Kimblee betrays Greed's group during the escape.
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034 Theory of Avarice Aired Jun 5, 2004 canon 📷 162 ►
Archer orders the military to wipe out Greed's followers, while Lust and Gluttony kill Dolcetto and Loa as they protect Greed, Al, and Marta. Greed leaves Al behind and returns to Dante's house, where Lyra strips away the red stones sustaining him before Ed arrives and mistakes the weakened homunculus for Dante's killer. Ed discovers that Greed's Ultimate Shield is carbon he can transmute, fatally wounds him, and learns with Greed's final breath that homunculi can be weakened by the remains of the humans they were created to replace.
Lore · 4 Greed Proves the Homunculi Are Not One Loyal Machine
+3
The Remains of the Intended Human Are Their Weakness Homunculi - 2003 Greed: Freedom Before Humanity Homunculi - 2003 Edward vs. Greed Combat Ledger
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The Lior Rebellion Arc 8 eps 6 canon 1 mixed 1 good filler 📷 8
035 Reunion of the Fallen Aired Jun 12, 2004 canon 📷 162 ►
Lust encounters Lujon, a doctor-alchemist she once manipulated into using a false Philosopher's Stone to cure a deadly plague. While Ed, Al, and Winry travel south and meet Lujon's fiancée Lydia, Lust remembers how Lujon's feelings for her awakened fragments of the woman she was created from. When the plague returns, Lujon chooses Lust over Lydia again, and Lust kills him before the Elrics can reach the village; Lydia dies beside him soon afterward.
Lore Lust: The Human She Cannot Quite Stop Remembering
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036 The Sinner Within Aired Jun 19, 2004 canon 📷 162 ►
Ed, Al, and Winry find Ishbalan refugees being transported south by the military and help Rick, Leo, and their elder escape so they can learn more about Scar and Ishbalan alchemy. At the ruins of the old refugee settlement, the elder explains that Scar's tattooed arm is part of a Grand Arcanum meant to create a Philosopher's Stone from human lives. Winry also learns the truth she has been dreading: Roy Mustang was the State Alchemist ordered to kill her parents during the Ishbal war.
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037 The Flame Alchemist, The Bachelor Lieutenant & The Mystery of Warehouse 13 Aired Jun 26, 2004 good-filler 📷 163 ►
Mustang's unit gets a rare comedy break while Havoc's romantic problems become everybody else's problem and Armstrong tries setting him up with his sister. Mustang is also investigated by his own subordinates, who are far more interested in his dating habits than any real misconduct. The episode ends with the unit investigating the supposedly haunted Warehouse 13, only to discover that the mystery is much less supernatural than advertised.
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038 With the River's Flow Aired Jul 3, 2004 mixed 📷 162 ►
After wrecking their stolen tractor, Ed and Al split up over what they should do next, and Al unexpectedly runs into Marta, the last surviving member of Greed's group. In Central, Winry and Sheska begin investigating Hughes' murder on their own and uncover the same contradiction that caught his attention: the woman serving as Führer Bradley's secretary cannot really be Juliet Douglas. Their spying leads them dangerously close to Envy and the conspiracy inside Central.
View all 162 screencaps from this episode →
039 Secret of Ishbal Aired Jul 10, 2004 canon 📷 160 ►
Mustang's unit is sent toward Lior with Archer and the reinstated Kimblee, while Ed, Al, and Marta reach the ruins of Ishbal and are intercepted by Havoc and Breda. Mustang shows Ed an aerial view of Lior and reveals that Scar has carved a massive Grand Arcanum transmutation circle around the city. Ed volunteers to enter Lior undercover and investigate Scar's plan, but Archer forces him to leave Al behind as insurance against desertion.
Lore · 3 Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient
+2
Liore Is Engineered Toward Another Mass Death The Philosopher's Stone The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military
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040 The Scar Aired Jul 17, 2004 canon 📷 165 ►
Inside Lior, Ed reunites with Rosé, now revered as the Holy Mother, and confronts Scar about the enormous transmutation circle surrounding the city. Scar finally tells Ed the full story of his brother: the woman he loved became Lust after a failed human transmutation, and the Philosopher's Stone research eventually cost Scar his arm and left him carrying his brother's work. At the military camp, Marta discovers that Bradley is the homunculus Pride and hides inside Al, but Bradley finds her and kills her with his sword.
Lore · 5 Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient
+4
Lust: The Human She Cannot Quite Stop Remembering Homunculi - 2003 Pride: The Führer Is the Homunculus Inside the State Homunculi - 2003 Liore Is Engineered Toward Another Mass Death The Philosopher's Stone The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military
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041 Holy Mother Aired Jul 24, 2004 canon 📷 165 ►
Scar has the people of Lior lure the military into the city without attacking them while he prepares to use the invading soldiers as the sacrifice for his Philosopher's Stone. Kimblee ignores that plan and attacks civilians with chimeras, forcing Scar to begin evacuating the city while Ed warns Mustang to keep the army outside. Wrath and Sloth confront Ed and Rosé, while Scar battles Kimblee and Al intervenes just before Kimblee begins transmuting Al's armor into an explosive.
Lore · 3 Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient
+2
Liore Is Engineered Toward Another Mass Death The Philosopher's Stone The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military
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042 His Name is Unknown Aired Jul 31, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Kimblee's transmutation spreads through Al's armor, leaving Scar as the only person capable of stopping him from exploding. Scar kills Kimblee, sacrifices his remaining arm, and transfers the incomplete Philosopher's Stone into Al, transforming Al himself into the completed Stone. When Archer sends the military into Lior anyway, Scar activates the Grand Arcanum with his own life and the soldiers caught inside it, leaving Ed to find Al alive and Lust warning the brothers that the military will now hunt them.
Lore · 7 Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient
+6
Alphonse Becomes the Philosopher's Stone Story & Arc Guide Liore Is Engineered Toward Another Mass Death The Philosopher's Stone The Completed Stone Is Alphonse The Philosopher's Stone The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military Scar Reverses the Victims Without Rejecting the Equation Ishbal & the Military Scar vs. Kimblee Combat Ledger
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Final Arc 9 eps 9 canon 📷 9
043 The Stray Dog Aired Aug 7, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Bradley blames the destruction of Lior on the Elrics and declares Edward and Alphonse fugitives, forcing them to race back toward Resembool with Mustang's unit in pursuit. When Mustang finally corners them, he admits that he is angry because they ran instead of trusting him and tells Ed the truth he has avoided for years: he was the State Alchemist ordered to kill Winry's parents in Ishbal. The brothers reach Resembool to find another shock waiting for them when Pinako introduces the strange man staying at the Rockbell house as their father, Hohenheim of Light.
View all 164 screencaps from this episode →
044 Hohenheim of Light Aired Aug 14, 2004 canon 📷 165 ►
Hohenheim's return divides the brothers immediately: Al wants answers from the father he barely remembers, while Ed can barely stand to be in the same room with him. Ed and Al also learn that Hughes was murdered, giving the conspiracy they have been chasing a much more personal cost. When Hohenheim hears Dante's name and realizes who is moving behind the homunculi, he leaves Resembool to confront the woman he knew centuries ago.
Lore · 2 Dante Turns the Philosopher's Stone Into a Cycle
+1
Immortality Does Not Stop Decay. It Moves It. The Philosopher's Stone
View all 165 screencaps from this episode →
045 A Rotted Heart Aired Aug 21, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Hohenheim confronts Dante, now living inside Lyra's body, and their shared history finally explains how both of them survived for centuries by transferring their souls into new bodies with the Philosopher's Stone. Hohenheim reveals that every transfer damages the soul and causes the new body to rot faster, while Dante admits that she has spent generations manipulating alchemists into creating Stones so she can keep escaping death. Dante uses the Gate against Hohenheim and sends him to the other side, while Al secretly contacts Tucker in hopes of learning how to control the Philosopher's Stone inside him.
Lore · 2 Dante Turns the Philosopher's Stone Into a Cycle
+1
Immortality Does Not Stop Decay. It Moves It. The Philosopher's Stone
View all 164 screencaps from this episode →
046 Human Transmutation Aired Aug 28, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Al meets Tucker and agrees to let him study the Philosopher's Stone in exchange for help understanding how to use it, only for Tucker to immediately turn that opportunity toward resurrecting Nina. Ed and Izumi investigate Dante's old home and uncover evidence that Hohenheim and Dante knew each other hundreds of years ago. Lust offers to help Ed stop the other homunculi if he will use the Stone to make her human, while Al discovers too late that Tucker intends to use both him and the Stone in another human transmutation.
Lore · 5 Dante Turns the Philosopher's Stone Into a Cycle
+4
Sloth Forces Ed to Destroy the Shape of His Mother Story & Arc Guide Sloth: Trisha's Face Is the Prison Homunculi - 2003 Lust Breaking Away Is More Dangerous Than Greed Running Away Homunculi - 2003 Edward vs. Sloth Combat Ledger
View all 164 screencaps from this episode →
047 Sealing the Homunculus Aired Sep 4, 2004 canon 📷 164 ►
Ed reaches Tucker's factory and finds Al caught between Tucker's obsession, Sloth's claim to be their mother, and Wrath's desperate attachment to her. Using the remains of Trisha's failed transmutation, Ed weakens Sloth and tries to seal her while Lust turns against the other homunculi and fights beside him. Wrath traps Lust inside a sealing array and kills her, leaving Ed and Al to face Sloth themselves as she uses her liquid body to merge with Al's armor.
Lore · 4 Sloth Forces Ed to Destroy the Shape of His Mother
+3
Sloth: Trisha's Face Is the Prison Homunculi - 2003 Lust Breaking Away Is More Dangerous Than Greed Running Away Homunculi - 2003 Edward vs. Sloth Combat Ledger
View all 164 screencaps from this episode →
048 Goodbye Aired Sep 11, 2004 canon 📷 183 ►
Ed and Al separate Sloth from Al's armor, and Ed changes the composition of her liquid body until she evaporates, finally destroying the homunculus created from their attempt to revive Trisha. Envy arrives disguised as Winry and kidnaps Al before Ed can stop him, while Izumi intervenes when Wrath attacks in grief over Sloth. Elsewhere Armstrong openly aligns himself with Mustang against Bradley, Archer returns as a weaponized cyborg, and Ed shares one final conversation with Mustang before they split up to face their separate enemies.
View all 183 screencaps from this episode →
049 The Other Side of the Gate Aired Sep 18, 2004 canon 📷 224 ►
Envy delivers Al to Dante beneath Central while Ed follows a clue from Nash Tringham's journal into the buried city where an earlier Philosopher's Stone was created from human lives. Ed exposes Lyra as Dante and learns that she intends to use the Stone inside Al to transfer her soul into Rose's body. Their argument over equivalent exchange ends when Dante uses Rose's baby to open the Gate and sends Ed through it, where he awakens in another version of himself in wartime London and comes face-to-face with Hohenheim.
Lore The Gate Breaks Edward's Last Simple Version of Equivalent Exchange
View all 224 screencaps from this episode →
050 Death Aired Sep 25, 2004 canon 📷 222 ►
Hohenheim explains that the world beyond the Gate developed science instead of alchemy and that deaths in this world provide the energy used by alchemists in Amestris. Ed finds his way back through the Gate while Mustang infiltrates Bradley's home to avenge Hughes and Dante strips Gluttony of his mind so he will consume the Philosopher's Stone inside Al. Ed confronts Envy, who reveals his original form as the son Hohenheim and Dante once tried to resurrect, and Ed's hesitation gives Envy the opening to drive a blade through his heart.
Lore · 6 Debut: Roy Mustang vs. Pride
+5
The Gate Breaks Edward's Last Simple Version of Equivalent Exchange Story & Arc Guide Envy: Dante's Oldest Grudge Against Hohenheim Homunculi - 2003 Pride: The Führer Is the Homunculus Inside the State Homunculi - 2003 Al Uses the Stone to Restore Edward The Philosopher's Stone Edward vs. Envy Combat Ledger
View all 222 screencaps from this episode →
051 Laws and Promises Aired Oct 2, 2004 canon 📷 223 ►
With Edward dead, Al uses the Philosopher's Stone inside his armor to perform human transmutation and sacrifices himself to restore his brother to life. Mustang destroys Pride after Selim accidentally brings him the remains of the human Bradley was created from, while Envy passes through the Gate after learning Hohenheim is still alive on the other side. Ed refuses to accept Al's sacrifice and transmutes himself to bring his brother back, restoring Al to his ten-year-old body without the memories of their journey while Ed is stranded in 1921 Munich; in separate worlds, both brothers begin searching for a way to reunite.
Lore · 2 The Gate Breaks Edward's Last Simple Version of Equivalent Exchange
+1
Edward Gives Himself Up to Restore Alphonse The Philosopher's Stone
View all 223 screencaps from this episode →
ⓘ Legend
canon Episode adapts events from the source manga.
mixed Adapts source material but adds anime-original scenes.
good-filler Anime-original episode generally well-received by fans.
filler Anime-original episode not based on the source manga.
📷 Number of user-uploaded screencaps available for this episode.
EE

Edward Elric

Protagonist

State Alchemist at twelve years old. Youngest ever certified. Lost his right arm and left leg performing human transmutation to resurrect his mother and paid his brother's entire body as the toll when the Gate took Al instead. Automail prosthetics, a scarlet coat, and a chip on his shoulder the size of Central Command. The 2003 version of Edward is angrier and more uncertain than most protagonists get to be. He is chasing the Philosopher's Stone to restore Al and the further he gets the less sure he is that the path leads anywhere clean. Do not call him short.
+41 LORE
Edward & Alphonse vs. Scar Combat Ledger Edward vs. the Slicer Brothers Combat Ledger Edward vs. Greed Combat Ledger Edward vs. Sloth Combat Ledger Edward vs. Envy Combat Ledger Edward Cannot Treat the State as a Neutral Tool Anymore Ishbal & the Military The Prisoners Are Alive When Edward Is Asked to Use Them Laboratory 5 Edward Elric State Alchemist System Liore Teaches Ed That a Fake Miracle Can Still Control Real People Story & Arc Guide The State Exam Gives Ed the Key and the Leash Story & Arc Guide The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It. Story & Arc Guide The Gate Breaks Edward's Last Simple Version of Equivalent Exchange Story & Arc Guide Cornello Shows Why a Fake Stone Is Still Dangerous The Philosopher's Stone Laboratory 5 Shows the Recipe at Human Scale The Philosopher's Stone Edward Gives Himself Up to Restore Alphonse The Philosopher's Stone Wrath (2003) 2003 Exclusive Vault Sloth (2003) 2003 Exclusive Vault Sloth: Trisha's Face Is the Prison Homunculi - 2003 Wrath: Izumi's Child Carrying Edward's Limbs Homunculi - 2003 Envy: Dante's Oldest Grudge Against Hohenheim Homunculi - 2003 State Alchemists Become Human Weapons Ishbal & the Military Dr. Marcoh: The Researcher Who Learned What His Work Was For Ishbal & the Military The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military A Philosopher's Stone Needs More Than Good Alchemy Laboratory 5 The Slicer Brothers: Two Souls, One Suit of Armor Laboratory 5 The Homunculi Need an Alchemist to Do What They Cannot Laboratory 5 Shou Tucker: The Experiment Did Not End With Nina Laboratory 5 Written Examination State Alchemist System Interview State Alchemist System Practical Examination State Alchemist System Do Not Attempt Human Transmutation State Alchemist System Nina Turns "Forbidden Research" Into a Person Story & Arc Guide Scar Makes the State Alchemist Title Mean Something Else Story & Arc Guide Alphonse Starts Doubting Whether His Own Childhood Happened Story & Arc Guide Wrath Makes Izumi's Loss Walk Into the Room Story & Arc Guide Greed Proves the Homunculi Are Not One Loyal Machine Story & Arc Guide Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient Story & Arc Guide Dante Turns the Philosopher's Stone Into a Cycle Story & Arc Guide Sloth Forces Ed to Destroy the Shape of His Mother Story & Arc Guide Marcoh's Research Connects the Stone to Ishbal The Philosopher's Stone Al Uses the Stone to Restore Edward The Philosopher's Stone
AE

Alphonse Elric

Protagonist

His entire body was the toll. Ed bound his soul to a suit of armor at the last possible second before the Gate took him completely. Seven feet of medieval plate steel with no heartbeat, no sense of touch, no taste, no smell. Gentle past all reasonable explanation given what he has been through. The 2003 anime adds a particular cruelty unique to this version: the question of whether Al's memories of his childhood are real, or whether they were implanted by Ed to give the soul in the armor something to hold onto. Whether the person inside the armor has always been there. The show does not answer this quickly.
+27 LORE
Alphonse vs. Barry the Chopper Combat Ledger Alphonse Starts Doubting Whether His Own Childhood Happened Story & Arc Guide Alphonse Becomes the Philosopher's Stone Story & Arc Guide The Completed Stone Is Alphonse The Philosopher's Stone Al Uses the Stone to Restore Edward The Philosopher's Stone Sloth (2003) 2003 Exclusive Vault Edward & Alphonse vs. Scar Combat Ledger Edward vs. the Slicer Brothers Combat Ledger Edward vs. Sloth Combat Ledger Sloth: Trisha's Face Is the Prison Homunculi - 2003 The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military Scar Reverses the Victims Without Rejecting the Equation Ishbal & the Military A Philosopher's Stone Needs More Than Good Alchemy Laboratory 5 The Slicer Brothers: Two Souls, One Suit of Armor Laboratory 5 Barry the Chopper: The Worst Person to Ask Al Whether His Memories Are Real Laboratory 5 Written Examination State Alchemist System Interview State Alchemist System Do Not Attempt Human Transmutation State Alchemist System Liore Teaches Ed That a Fake Miracle Can Still Control Real People Story & Arc Guide Nina Turns "Forbidden Research" Into a Person Story & Arc Guide The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It. Story & Arc Guide Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient Story & Arc Guide Sloth Forces Ed to Destroy the Shape of His Mother Story & Arc Guide The Gate Breaks Edward's Last Simple Version of Equivalent Exchange Story & Arc Guide Cornello Shows Why a Fake Stone Is Still Dangerous The Philosopher's Stone Laboratory 5 Shows the Recipe at Human Scale The Philosopher's Stone Edward Gives Himself Up to Restore Alphonse The Philosopher's Stone
RM

Roy Mustang

Supporting

The Flame Alchemist. Colonel. His gloves create a spark through friction and the arrays on them do the rest. Useless in the rain, which the show remembers at the worst possible moments. Ishvalan war veteran who burned people alive on orders and has been climbing toward the Fuhrer's office ever since on the theory that getting there is the only way to make it mean something. Uses the Elrics as pieces in that climb. Genuinely cares about them. Both things are completely true and the show never lets either one cancel the other out.
+9 LORE
Roy Mustang vs. Pride Combat Ledger Mustang: Staying Inside the Machine on Purpose Ishbal & the Military Roy Mustang State Alchemist System State Alchemists Become Human Weapons Ishbal & the Military Zolf Kimblee: The State Alchemist Who Does Not Need an Excuse Ishbal & the Military Interview State Alchemist System The State Exam Gives Ed the Key and the Leash Story & Arc Guide Scar Makes the State Alchemist Title Mean Something Else Story & Arc Guide Marcoh's Research Connects the Stone to Ishbal The Philosopher's Stone
WR

Winry Rockbell

Supporting

Automail mechanic from Resembool. Built Edward's prosthetic arm and leg and maintains them every time he comes back from wherever the military sent him having broken something. Her parents were doctors who treated both sides during the Ishvalan war. In the 2003 version that fact has a specific and painful shape that the show eventually forces into the open. Winry is the emotional fixed point the brothers keep measuring their distance from. The further they get the more that distance costs.
RH

Riza Hawkeye

Supporting

Mustang's lieutenant and the most reliable person in his orbit by a significant margin. Sharpshooter. Her father Berthold Hawkeye originated flame alchemy and in the 2003 version encoded everything he knew in tattoos across Riza's back before he died, passing the knowledge to Mustang through her. She follows Mustang because she believes in what he is trying to become. She is also the person in the best position to stop him if he becomes something else. The show understands that these two facts are connected.
MH

Maes Hughes

SPOILER!

Supporting

Lieutenant Colonel, Investigation. Will show you a photograph of his daughter Elicia whether you asked or not. One of the warmest presences in a show that is frequently brutal, a genuine friend to Mustang that predates everything else, and the kind of character a series builds carefully so that what it does with him lands with full weight. His arc in the 2003 version hits the same as the manga and Brotherhood because the material is that strong. Do not get too comfortable.
LORE
IC

Izumi Curtis

Mentor

The brothers' alchemy teacher. Took them on, threw them onto an island alone for a month with nothing as a training exercise, and hit Ed hard enough to send him through a wall the first time he got smart with her. Also a failed human transmutation. She tried to bring back her stillborn child and lost organs at the Gate that have been slowly killing her ever since. The best alchemist the show introduces who refuses to be a State Alchemist on principle. She thinks the military is rotten. She is not wrong.
+3 LORE
Wrath Makes Izumi's Loss Walk Into the Room Story & Arc Guide Wrath (2003) 2003 Exclusive Vault Wrath: Izumi's Child Carrying Edward's Limbs Homunculi - 2003
SC

Scar

Antagonist

Ishvalan survivor. His people were exterminated by State Alchemists on government orders and he walked out of the massacre with his brother's research tattooed onto his right arm, arrays that deconstruct anything he touches. He hunts State Alchemists. Has specific and complicated feelings about the Elrics specifically. The 2003 version handles his arc with more ambiguity than most revenge narratives allow themselves, refusing to settle him into a clean category of hero or villain. He does not fit and the show does not try to make him fit.
+14 LORE
Scar vs. Kimblee Combat Ledger State Alchemists Become Human Weapons Ishbal & the Military Scar Stops at Deconstruction Because Destruction Is the Point Ishbal & the Military The Military Marches Toward a Massacre Somebody Else Has Already Prepared Ishbal & the Military Scar Reverses the Victims Without Rejecting the Equation Ishbal & the Military Scar Makes the State Alchemist Title Mean Something Else Story & Arc Guide Scar Decides the Military Can Become the Ingredient Story & Arc Guide Liore Is Engineered Toward Another Mass Death The Philosopher's Stone Edward & Alphonse vs. Scar Combat Ledger Lust: The Human She Cannot Quite Stop Remembering Homunculi - 2003 Zolf Kimblee: The State Alchemist Who Does Not Need an Excuse Ishbal & the Military Scar's Brother: The Researcher Behind the Arm Ishbal & the Military Alphonse Becomes the Philosopher's Stone Story & Arc Guide The Completed Stone Is Alphonse The Philosopher's Stone
VH

Van Hohenheim

SPOILER!

Supporting

The brothers' father. Left Resembool when Edward and Alphonse were small and did not come back. Turns up in photographs that should not exist given when they were taken. In the 2003 version Hohenheim's nature and history are entirely original to this anime, distinct from the manga and Brotherhood, and central to how the second half of the story works. What he is, what he did, and what he owes are questions the show answers slowly and on its own terms. He is not what he appears to be. Neither is his absence.
+4 LORE
Edward vs. Envy Combat Ledger Envy: Dante's Oldest Grudge Against Hohenheim Homunculi - 2003 Dante Turns the Philosopher's Stone Into a Cycle Story & Arc Guide Immortality Does Not Stop Decay. It Moves It. The Philosopher's Stone
ST

Shou Tucker

Supporting

The Sewing-Life Alchemist. Certified his State Alchemist license by creating a chimera capable of human speech. Generous to the Elrics during their time in East City, a seemingly kind and harried single father. His daughter Nina adores him. The show introduces Tucker carefully and spends real time making you comfortable with him. It knows exactly what it is doing. Episode thirteen is one of the most devastating hours in the series and Tucker is the reason. Not a minor character. The show does not allow him to be a minor character.
+4 LORE
Shou Tucker: The Experiment Did Not End With Nina Laboratory 5 Shou Tucker State Alchemist System Nina Turns "Forbidden Research" Into a Person Story & Arc Guide Shou Tucker's Fate Anime vs Manga (2003)
LU

Lust

SPOILER!

Antagonist

The homunculus who operates as the public face of the group. Poised, precise, her Ultimate Shield ability extends her fingers into hardened lances capable of cutting through almost anything. The 2003 version of Lust is unique in the franchise for how much interiority the show gives her. She questions her own existence with a genuine philosophical weight, wondering what a homunculus actually is and whether the person she was made from had anything to do with who she became. The most human of the homunculi. The show uses that against you.
+8 LORE
Lujon & Fossil Ware Disease 2003 Exclusive Vault Lust: The Human She Cannot Quite Stop Remembering Homunculi - 2003 Lust Breaking Away Is More Dangerous Than Greed Running Away Homunculi - 2003 The Homunculi Need an Alchemist to Do What They Cannot Laboratory 5 What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Liore Teaches Ed That a Fake Miracle Can Still Control Real People Story & Arc Guide The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It. Story & Arc Guide Cornello Shows Why a Fake Stone Is Still Dangerous The Philosopher's Stone
EN

Envy

SPOILER!

Antagonist

Shape-shifter. Can assume the appearance of any person with precision that makes him the homunculi's most useful infiltration asset and cruelest psychological weapon. Sadistic, theatrical, genuinely enjoys causing pain in a way the other homunculi treat as a job. The 2003 version of Envy has a backstory and a specific relationship to Hohenheim that is entirely original to this anime and reframes everything about him once it lands. The name is not an accident. The hatred underneath it is older than almost anything else in the story.
+5 LORE
Envy: Dante's Oldest Grudge Against Hohenheim Homunculi - 2003 What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Edward vs. Envy Combat Ledger The Homunculi Need an Alchemist to Do What They Cannot Laboratory 5 The Stone Is Not Hidden Treasure. Somebody Has to Make It. Story & Arc Guide
GL

Gluttony

Antagonist

Eats everything. People, objects, the ground he is standing on. Childlike in affect, simple in motivation, and built like a weapon anyway. Gluttony operates as Lust's shadow for most of the series, attached to her with a devotion that is one of the stranger and more affecting relationships the show produces. He is not complicated. The show does not try to make him complicated. What he is, is enough.
+3 LORE
What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Liore Teaches Ed That a Fake Miracle Can Still Control Real People Story & Arc Guide Cornello Shows Why a Fake Stone Is Still Dangerous The Philosopher's Stone
GR

Greed

Antagonist

The rogue homunculus. Broke away from the others and set up his own operation in the underground of Dublith, running a gang of chimera outcasts called the Devil's Nest. Ultimate Shield hardens his skin into a carbon surface that stops almost anything. Wants everything: money, women, power, immortality, freedom. The most upfront about what he is and what he wants, which makes him the easiest of the homunculi to read and paradoxically one of the more interesting ones to watch. His arc in the 2003 version is short and deliberately so.
+6 LORE
The Remains of the Intended Human Are Their Weakness Homunculi - 2003 Greed: Freedom Before Humanity Homunculi - 2003 Greed Is Literally Imprisoned Beneath the System Laboratory 5 Greed Proves the Homunculi Are Not One Loyal Machine Story & Arc Guide What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Edward vs. Greed Combat Ledger
WR

Wrath

SPOILER!

Antagonist

The youngest. A child, visibly and in behavior, volatile and desperate in the way children are when they have been given no stability. Wrath is unique among the homunculi in this version for reasons the show earns the right to explain on its own schedule. What he is and where he came from is one of the 2003 anime's most original and painful creations, tied directly to Izumi Curtis in a way that recontextualizes her arc entirely. The fury in the name is real and it is not simple.
+4 LORE
Wrath: Izumi's Child Carrying Edward's Limbs Homunculi - 2003 What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Wrath (2003) 2003 Exclusive Vault Wrath Makes Izumi's Loss Walk Into the Room Story & Arc Guide
SL

Sloth

SPOILER!

Antagonist

Appears as a high-ranking military official. Composed, efficient, dangerous. Everything about Sloth in the 2003 version is specific to this anime and none of it is in the manga or Brotherhood. Her true nature is the single most deliberately cruel thing the show does to Edward, a reveal engineered to hit as hard as possible at the exact moment the series chooses to deploy it. The name is a misdirect. What she represents to the Elric brothers is something much harder to look at than laziness.
+5 LORE
Sloth: Trisha's Face Is the Prison Homunculi - 2003 Sloth Forces Ed to Destroy the Shape of His Mother Story & Arc Guide What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Sloth (2003) 2003 Exclusive Vault Edward vs. Sloth Combat Ledger
KB

King Bradley

SPOILER!

Antagonist

Fuhrer of Amestris. Commander in Chief. Decorated veteran, decisive leader, a man who projects absolute authority so naturally that the camera believes him even when the audience starts not to. In the 2003 version Bradley is Pride, not Wrath, and the distinction matters because Pride is the sin about believing yourself above everything else. He runs the state. He believes in what the state is doing. Both of those things are true at the same time and the show does not flinch from what that means.
+3 LORE
Pride: The Führer Is the Homunculus Inside the State Homunculi - 2003 What a Homunculus Is in 2003 2003 Alchemy Mechanics Roy Mustang vs. Pride Combat Ledger
DA

Dante

SPOILER!

Antagonist

Exists only in the 2003 anime. Not in the manga. Not in Brotherhood. Entirely original to this version and the reason the second half of the series goes where it goes. An ancient alchemist who has extended her life across centuries by transmuting her soul into successive host bodies, each one discarded when it decays. Connected to Hohenheim in ways the show reveals across the back half of the series. The true architect of everything the homunculi have been doing and the answer to the question the series spends 40 episodes building toward. The 2003 anime lives or dies on whether you accept her as a final villain. It earns it.
+6 LORE
Red Stones Keep the Homunculi Functioning Homunculi - 2003 Becoming Human Is the Perfect Promise Because Nobody Can Verify It Homunculi - 2003 Dante Turns the Philosopher's Stone Into a Cycle Story & Arc Guide Immortality Does Not Stop Decay. It Moves It. The Philosopher's Stone The Homunculi Are Promised Humanity So They Will Help Build the Next Stone The Philosopher's Stone Lust Breaking Away Is More Dangerous Than Greed Running Away Homunculi - 2003
ZK

Zolf Kimblee

Antagonist

The Crimson Alchemist. Arrays tattooed on both palms that cause targeted explosions. Ishvalan war veteran who did not merely follow orders. He enjoyed it. Imprisoned afterward, which the military treats as a temporary inconvenience when they need him operational again. Cold, articulate, genuinely dangerous in the specific way that people without functional limits are dangerous. His role in the 2003 version's second half involves Scar in ways that pay off the Ishvalan thread with real weight. One of the series' best arguments that the State Alchemist system was rotten at the core.
+2 LORE
Zolf Kimblee: The State Alchemist Who Does Not Need an Excuse Ishbal & the Military Scar vs. Kimblee Combat Ledger
← All lore

Rules of Alchemy

The First Law

Equivalent Exchange

The rule Edward believes can explain the world
Edward and Alphonse begin the series with a simple formulation: to obtain something, something of equal value must be given.

That principle is useful for understanding ordinary transmutation, but the 2003 anime gradually turns it into a philosophical problem rather than a perfect accounting equation. Human lives, grief, war and the Philosopher's Stone all expose how difficult "equal value" becomes once the thing being exchanged is not a pile of matter.
Why it matters
Equivalent Exchange begins as Ed's certainty. By the end of the series, whether the world actually guarantees fairness in return for effort has become one of the show's central questions.

You Need the Right Material

Alchemy reshapes what is present; it does not grant arbitrary wishes
Ordinary alchemy works on existing material. An alchemist needs enough understanding of the substance being changed to break it down and reconstruct it into a viable new form.

That is why transmutation is powerful without being unrestricted magic. A clever alchemist can use the environment brilliantly, but cannot simply demand any object from nothing.

Rebound

When the attempted exchange goes catastrophically wrong
Alchemy can fail violently when the attempted transmutation exceeds what the alchemist can properly control or supply. Human transmutation is the series' most important example: the brothers do not receive their mother back, and the failed exchange takes their bodies instead.
How you can tell
A rebound is not just an attack misfiring. It is the transmutation itself collapsing back onto the person attempting it, often with consequences far beyond the intended result.

Failed Human Transmutation Creates Something New

SPOILER! 2003 continuity · the origin of several Homunculi
In the 2003 anime, a failed attempt to recreate a dead person can leave behind a malformed body connected to that attempted resurrection. With Red Stone material and outside intervention, that being can become a Homunculus.

This is the continuity-specific rule behind Sloth, Wrath and Lust's histories.
Why it matters
Human transmutation does not merely punish the alchemist and end. The mistake can keep living long enough to confront the person who made it.

The Three Universal Steps

1. Comprehension

Understand what you are working with
Before an alchemist can change matter deliberately, they need to understand the material and the result they are trying to produce.

The anime does not require viewers to treat every transmutation as a literal chemistry calculation. The useful rule is simpler: knowledge sets the boundary of what an alchemist can intentionally reshape.

2. Deconstruction

Break the existing structure down
The transmutation circle channels the process that breaks an existing material out of its current form. Different alchemists specialize in very different ways of exploiting this step.

Scar is the clearest reminder that stopping here can itself become a weapon: his right arm destroys by performing deconstruction without completing the reconstruction that would normally follow.

3. Reconstruction

Build the material into a new form
The final step reorganizes the broken-down material into the intended result. This is the part that makes ordinary alchemy look miraculous: walls become weapons, stone becomes shelter and damaged structures can be reshaped in seconds.
The Breakdown
Comprehension, deconstruction and reconstruction are best understood as the show's working model for transmutation, not as permission to invent precise real-world molecular mechanics the anime never actually specifies.

Absolute Taboos & Truth

Human Transmutation

SPOILER! The taboo that opens the Gate
Edward, Alphonse and Izumi all learn the same lesson through different losses: attempting to restore a dead human does not return that person.

Instead, the transmutation opens the Gate and demands a toll. Edward loses his leg, Al loses his body, and Izumi loses internal organs after attempting to bring back her child.
Why it matters
The taboo is not merely "dangerous alchemy." In 2003 it also creates consequences that later become characters, enemies and unresolved grief.

Circle-Less Transmutation

SPOILER! The Gate leaves knowledge behind
Edward and Izumi can perform alchemy without drawing an external transmutation circle after surviving an encounter with the Gate. By bringing their hands together, they complete the circuit themselves.

This ability is not a free gift. It is knowledge acquired through the same event that mutilated them.
Why it matters
The series makes one of Ed's most impressive abilities inseparable from his worst mistake. Every effortless clap carries the history of the price that taught him how.

Catalysts & Energy Sources

Red Stones and Philosopher's Stone Power

SPOILER! The apparent shortcut is somebody else's cost
Red Stones and the completed Philosopher's Stone let alchemists perform transmutations that appear to ignore ordinary limits. That does not mean Equivalent Exchange simply stops existing.

The 2003 anime's crucial reveal is that the extraordinary energy comes from human lives and souls. The cost has not vanished; it has been displaced onto people the user may never have had to see.
Why it matters
The Stone horrifies Ed because it offers exactly what he wants while destroying the moral logic he used to justify wanting it.
Fullmetal Alchemist - 1 topics, 8 posts
Welcome to the FMA Board: 2003 vs Brotherhood, Manga, and Everything In Between
by Sarutobi · May 9, 2026
7 replies
Equivalent exchange. Fullmetal Alchemist & Brotherhood Talk goes here. All Topics →
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