Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Lore & Background

The series follows brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who attempt to resurrect their deceased mother through alchemy, a forbidden human transmutation. The failed experiment costs Edward his left leg and Alphonse his entire body; Edward sacrifices his right arm to bind Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor. After receiving automail prosthetics, Edward becomes a State Alchemist—dubbed the Fullmetal Alchemist—and the brothers seek the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies. Their quest reveals a government conspiracy involving homunculi, alchemists from Xing, a scarred Ishvalan killer, and their father Hohenheim's past.

Reader's Guide

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is significant for its faithful adaptation of the complete manga, incorporating characters and plot details absent from the 2003 series due to unpublished material or creative changes. Produced by Bones with direction by Yasuhiro Irie, the series aired 64 episodes from 2009 to 2010. Its English dub premiered on Adult Swim in 2010 and later streamed on platforms like Crunchyroll and Netflix. The series received near-universal acclaim, with praise for its action sequences and moral messaging, and is considered one of the greatest anime of all time. Its legacy includes multiple soundtrack releases and a compilation album, and it remains a benchmark for anime adaptations.

Did You Know?

• Production for Brotherhood began in 2008.
• The series was originally licensed in North America by Funimation, then transferred to Aniplex of America in March 2016.
• Voice actresses Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya reprised their roles as Edward and Alphonse Elric from the 2003 series.
• The first 14 episodes use opening theme 'Again' by Yui and ending theme 'Uso' by Sid.

The Boldness of an Original Ending

The 2003 anime's most defining creative decision was Arakawa's deliberate choice to let Bones craft a conclusion untethered from her manga. She explicitly asked the studio for a screenwriter-led ending that would diverge from the story still unfolding in print, reasoning that repeating the same finale across both media would be redundant and that she needed the freedom to develop her characters at her own pace in the manga. That said, independence did not mean abandonment. Arakawa attended production meetings, consulted on character details, and helped the writing team fill narrative gaps so the original arc would feel coherent. She did not, however, write the television screenplay herself. When the finished ending finally aired, she was struck by how radically the homunculi had been reimagined compared to her own designs and expressed genuine enjoyment of the staff's speculative theories about the villains' origins. The involvement also carried a personal cost: her attention was pulled away from manga cover art, leaving her with barely enough time to complete those illustrations.

Plot: A War of Stones and Sacrifice

The series tracks Edward and Alphonse Elric as they hunt for the Philosopher's Stone to restore the bodies they lost when a forbidden transmutation attempt to resurrect their mother went catastrophically wrong. The first half of the show adapts the manga's first six volumes, while the second half pulls in material from volumes seven and eight but recontextualizes it significantly. The central antagonist is Dante, a former lover of the brothers' father Hohenheim and a mentor figure to their teacher. Centuries earlier, the two perfected Stone creation and achieved a form of immortality by migrating their souls between bodies. Hohenheim, crushed by the guilt of the lives sacrificed, walked away. Dante, unwilling to risk crafting a new Stone herself, instead manipulates homunculi to push desperate alchemists—including the Elrics—into making one for her. The climax arrives when Scar, at the cost of his own life and 7,000 soldiers, forges the Stone and fuses it into Alphonse's metal shell. Alphonse then uses it to resurrect Edward, vanishing in the process. Edward wakes in Munich, turns to rocketry research to find a way home, and his search draws the attention of the Thule Society and Dietlinde Eckhart in the 2005 film Conqueror of Shamballa, where the brothers ultimately defeat her and choose to remain in Germany.

Production: Bones Builds a World

The project originated when Bones staffers, including character designer Yoshiyuki Itō, flagged the manga to studio president Masahiko Minami, who decided to move forward. The studio then negotiated a production deal with Arakawa and publisher Square Enix. Seiji Mizushima helmed the direction, Shō Aikawa handled the screenplay, and Michiru Ōshima composed the score. The series was co-produced by Bones, Mainichi Broadcasting System, and Aniplex, and it ran fifty-one episodes on MBS, TBS, and Animax from October 4, 2003, to October 2, 2004, drawing a 6.8 percent viewership rating. Arakawa sat in on development meetings to advise the team on the world's rules and characters but did not write for the show. In Japan, Aniplex issued the series across thirteen DVD volumes between December 2003 and January 2005. In January 2009, Bones packaged everything—episodes, the film, CD soundtracks, and guidebooks—into a single 'DVD box archives' collection.

Broadcast, Licensing & the Road to Brotherhood

The English-dubbed track was produced by Funimation and debuted on Adult Swim in the United States on November 6, 2004, continuing through March 2006. Canada's YTV picked up the series in March 2006, while British viewers could watch it on Rapture TV and AnimeCentral. Animax Asia carried the broadcast across the Philippines, India, and South Asia. Funimation also issued the series on DVD in North America. In July 2016, Funimation's license lapsed and the rights passed to Aniplex of America. The 2003 series' most enduring legacy is its role as the creative springboard for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the 2009 reboot that aired on the same original Japanese networks from April 2009 to July 2010. By daring to break from the source material after roughly the first dozen episodes and wrapping up its story in a theatrical film, the 2003 anime set a bold precedent that Brotherhood would later walk back in favor of a more faithful adaptation of Arakawa's manga.

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