Fullmetal Alchemist (TV series)

Lore & Background

The series follows brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who search for the Philosopher's Stone to regain their bodies lost in a failed attempt to resurrect their mother. During production, author Hiromu Arakawa requested a screenwriter-led original ending different from the still-publishing manga, leading to an entirely original story direction after the first dozen episodes. The main antagonist is Dante, a former lover of the brothers' father Hohenheim, who uses homunculi to manipulate alchemists into creating a Philosopher's Stone for her.

Reader's Guide

The 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime is significant for being the first animated adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's manga, establishing the franchise's global popularity. Its decision to diverge from the manga into an original story, approved by Arakawa, created a distinct narrative that concluded with the sequel film Conqueror of Shamballa. The series was originally licensed in North America by Funimation and broadcast on Adult Swim from 2004 to 2006. Its legacy includes a later reboot, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which aired from 2009 to 2010. The 2003 series remains notable for its unique plot developments, including the fate of the Elric brothers and the involvement of the Thule Society in the film sequel.

Did You Know?

• The anime's music was recorded at Mosfilm by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.
• The insert song 'Brothers' was sung in Russian and became widely popular.
• Arakawa helped the anime staff with consultation fo

The Divergent Narrative

The 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime stands apart from its manga source in a way that few adaptations manage. Arakawa herself requested that the Bones production team craft an entirely original conclusion, since the manga was still actively being serialized and she wanted to avoid repeating the same ending across both media. This decision sent the series down a radically different path beginning around the first dozen episodes. The first half of the anime adapts roughly the first six manga volumes, but the second half recontextualizes material from volumes seven and eight. The central antagonist becomes Dante, a centuries-old woman who was once Hohenheim's lover and who achieved immortality by transferring her soul between bodies. Rather than creating the Philosopher's Stone herself, she manipulates homunculi to drive desperate alchemists—including the Elric brothers—into making one for her. This reimagining of the villains' origins was something Arakawa later said she found genuinely surprising and enjoyable to watch.

Production & Creative Partnership

The production of the 2003 series was spearheaded by Bones after staffers, including character designer Yoshiyuki Itō, championed the project to president Masahiko Minami. The studio secured a deal with Arakawa and publisher Square Enix, then assembled a creative team led by director Seiji Mizushima and screenwriter Shō Aikawa, with Michiru Ōshima composing the score. Arakawa's role was unusual: she attended development meetings and consulted on character details and the broader story architecture, helping the team fill narrative gaps for their original ending, yet she did not write any of the television scripts herself. She explicitly wanted to continue developing her manga characters at her own pace. The collaboration had a tangible cost—her involvement in anime meetings left her with little time to illustrate manga cover art. Despite this partial involvement, she was directly engaged on a storywise level, and she later expressed amazement at how differently the homunculi had been reimagined compared to her own work.

The Shamballa Conclusion

Rather than ending with a final episode, the 2003 anime's narrative extends into the theatrical film Conqueror of Shamballa, released in Japanese theaters in July 2005. In the series finale, Edward is killed by Envy but revived by Alphonse using the Philosopher's Stone, at the cost of Alphonse disappearing. Edward then finds himself in Munich, while Alphonse recovers his original body. Determined to reunite with his brother, Edward becomes involved in rocketry research, hoping to use that technology to cross back to his home world. The film picks up this thread: Edward's presence attracts the attention of the Thule Society, a German organization that believes his world is the mythical Shamballa and seeks to exploit it for new weapons during World War II. Dietlinde Eckhart, a member of the Society, enters the other world and attempts to destroy Amestris. The Elric brothers defeat her, and in the film's closing, they choose to remain in Germany rather than return home.

Broadcast, Licensing & the Brotherhood Reboot

The 51-episode series premiered on MBS, TBS, and Animax in Japan on October 4, 2003, and ran until October 2, 2004, drawing a 6.8 percent viewership rating. In North America, Funimation licensed the English dub, which debuted on Adult Swim on November 6, 2004, and continued through March 2006. Canada's YTV picked it up in March 2006, while the UK saw it on Rapture TV and AnimeCentral, and Animax Asia carried it across the Philippines, India, and South Asia. Japanese DVD releases spanned thirteen volumes from late 2003 to early 2005, and Bones later compiled a comprehensive DVD box archives in January 2009 bundling all episodes, the film, soundtracks, and guidebooks. Funimation's license expired in July 2016, passing rights to Aniplex of America. The series' most significant legacy, however, is the 2009 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood reboot, which aired on the same Japanese networks from April 2009 to July 2010 and followed the manga much more closely.