Fullmetal Alchemist (a.k.a. Full Metal Alchemist; Japanese lit: Alchemist of Steel, abbreviation: FMA) is an epic anime and manga which is the favorite anime of Beast Boy Cahill. The manga was written by Hiromu Arakawa.
Basic Summary[]
Fullmetal Alchemist focuses around two teenage brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who made the mistake of attempting Human Transmutation, a forbidden alchemy technique, to bring their dead mother back to life. They failed miserably and as a punishment, both lost parts of their body after going through something called Truth (a.k.a. The Portal of Truth), an alternate dimension where they saw all the facts in the universe (but later forgot most of them). While Edward, the older brother, only lost an arm and a leg (which were both later replaced by automail limbs), Alphonse lost his whole body and his soul was only saved in the nick of time when his brother bonded it to a large suit of armor. (Please see below paragraph for details.) Their main objective from that day on is to find the Philosopher's Stone, which amplifies alchemy to enormous extents and will let them get their full bodies back. In this search, they become State Alchemists, an elite group of soldiers in the military (who also act as the police in this anime) with great skill in alchemy. They do so because of the privelleges that State Alchemists have that could help them on their search, such as access to books about alchemy restricted to the general public. Along the way, they face many obstacles and eventually meet a great enemy which they must fight to overcome - the homunculi. These are humanoid creatures but very different from humans. They cannot perform alchemy but they have extremely powerful powers which more than compensates for this. They are cruel and look down on humans. They are are mainly 7 of them and they are all named after the Seven Deadly Sins - Lust, Greed, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath and Pride. Most of the time, their personalities fit their names.
There are some differences in the storylines of the manga and the two versions of the anime, especially between the two anime. A couple of examples are who all the homunculi are and who their master is. For example, the details of what happened with Ed and Al in the Human Transmutation incident: In the first anime, Edward only lost a leg in the Portal of Truth but lost his arm by using it as equivalent exchange to bond Al's soul to the suit of armor, in Brotherhood, he lost his arm and his leg in the Portal of Truth and bonded Al's soul to the armor by simply drawing the seal for it on the armor, a blood seal, with his own blood (as obviously, he was severely bleeding after having lost an arm and a leg).
Characters[]
Primary characters[]
Edward Elric (the Fullmetal Alchemist)
Edward Elric
Alphonse Elric
Alphonse Elric attached to the suit of armor
Winry Rockbell
Roy Mustang (the Flame Alchemist)
Secondary characters[]
Trisha Elric
Alex L. Armstrong (the Strongarm Alchemist)
Riza Hawkeye
Van Hohenheim
Van Hohenheim
Scar (antagonist)
Maes Hughes
Ling Yao
Izumi Curtis
Izumi Curtis
May Chang (and Shao May)
Olivier M. Armstrong
Gree-Ling
Tim Marcoh
Tertiary characters[]
Sig Curtis
Pinako (Granny)
Barry the Chopper (originally antagonist, later supporting)
Lan Fan
Fu
Jean Havoc
Maria Ross
Denny Brosh
Yoki (originally antagonist, later supporting)
Rose
Shou Tucker (antagonist)
Sheska
Frank Archer
Heymans Breda
Vato Falman
Kain Fuery
Isaac McDougal (formerly The Freezing Alchemist)
Russel and Fletcher Tringham
Baske Grand (The Iron Blood Alchemist)
Primary antagonists (SPOILER ALERT!)[]
Father (manga and Brotherhood)
Lust, one of the homunculi
Dante (1st anime)
Lust
Envy
Envy, another homunculus
Gluttony
(1st) Greed
Wrath/Pride/Führer King Bradley (Pride in 1st anime, Wrath in manga and Brotherhood)
Wrath (1st anime)
Sloth (1st anime)
Sloth (manga/Brotherhood)
Pride (Selim Bradley)
Solf J. Kimblee (formerly The Crimson Alchemist/Red Lotus Alchemist)