Follow TV Tropes

Following

Anime / Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/v1_7.png

"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth."
Alphonse Elric, from the first Opening Narration

This page deals with the 2003 series that diverged from the manga early on. For Hiromu Arakawa's original manga and its direct anime adaptation (titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood), please see Manga.Fullmetal Alchemist.

Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric live in a world where alchemy is possible, though governed by the law of Equivalent Exchange ("to obtain, something of equal value must be lost"). As young boys, the Elrics — who showed promise in alchemy at an early age — lost their mother; in their grief, they attempted to bring her back to life via the forbidden practice of human transmutation. Ed and Al paid a steep price for their hubris: the former lost an arm and a leg (which were replaced with mechanical limbs), while the latter became a soul attached to an empty suit of armor.

The Elrics' quest to return their bodies to normal leads to the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone, an artifact believed to allow alchemists to perform any form of alchemy (including human transmutation) without the necessary Equivalent Exchange. In order to make real progress in their search, Ed becomes a State Alchemist, working for the government to help solve their problems while he and Al research the Stone's existence. During their adventures, Ed and Al discover startling truths about their world, alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone, their own family, and the forces working to manipulate the Elrics' search and lead them towards the Stone for a much more sinister purpose than what the brothers have in mind.

This show Overtook the Manga about halfway through its run, but rather than running numerous filler episodes to make up for it, the anime's writers consulted with Hiromu Arakawa to craft a wholly different ending to the story. The approach makes this show a Pragmatic Adaptation, but one made with approval from (and the encouragement of) the original mangaka. A theatrical filmFullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa — resolved a number of plot threads left hanging after this show's conclusion.

A Recap page can be found HERE.


Fullmetal Alchemist contains examples of the following tropes:

    open/close all folders 

    A - E 
  • Abandoned War Child: Rosé Thomas is gang-raped by soldiers attacking her village, leaving her with massive PTSD and a Child by Rape. She's shown to be recovering by the final episode.
  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality: In Real Life, Fritz Lang looked nothing like King Bradley and is almost 30 years younger at the time, but it hardly takes away from the story.
  • Achilles' Heel:
    • Alphonse has his blood seal which bind his soul to his armour. He is especially vulnerable to water as it will wipe it away. When he becomes a living Philosopher's Stone he loses this weakness but gains a new one in that using the stone drains his life force - which happens even when Al does regular alchemy.
    • The homunculi can only be defeated by the remains of the person they were created to replace. Wrath is an exception because he was created with the aforementioned remains.
  • Adaptation Distillation: In the manga, Lust burns down Central Library (offscreen) to prevent the Elric Brothers from finding Dr. Marcoh's notes on the Philosopher's Stone. Soon after, she and Gluttony attack Scar in the sewers of East City, resulting in him destroying the sewers to escape. The anime combines these into a single event: Scar and the Homunculi are both at the library searching for information and in the resulting battle, the building catches fire and burns down.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, all Ishvalans have naturally white hair. Here, they're mostly black-haired and Scar is a unique case, his hair having turned white from stress during the Ishvalan War.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • While the first half of the series follows the broad narrative of the first six manga volumes, including some moments shot for panel, it's much more slowly paced. This means that stories from these chapters are explored in much greater depth and often have original scenes and character moments; of particular note are the Lior arc, Ed's State Alchemist entrance exam, Nina's story, the Elrics' journey back to Risembool with Armstrong, the Lab 5 arc, and Al's doubts about his origins after his fight with Barry the Chopper. Justified, since the series had only scarce source material during its production and was trying to use the published volumes for all they were worth. The writers also cleverly used these differences to plant the seeds of plot points, character arcs, and themes that would come into play for the original storyline of the anime's second half.
    • Compared to her relatively early death and lack of relevance in the manga aside from maiming Havoc and Roy, Lust is given an Adaptational Backstory Change, Adaptational Personality Change, and a surprisingly expanded role, eventually dealing with internal conflict about her prior villanous actions, and occasionally discussing or figuring out her changing personal philosophy with Ed, Sloth, Envy, Scar and original characters.
    • Episode 13, "Fullmetal vs. Flame", combines two side stories (Ed vs. Roy and Fury finding a home for Hayate), a 4-koma ("TINY MINISKIRTS!!!"), and Ed's search for information regarding Dr. Marcoh.
    • Hughes appears a bit earlier and is more prominent than in the manga, having a parental role towards the Elric brothers. His death scene also ended up far longer and more dramatic.
  • Adaptational Achilles Heel: In this series, the homunculi are weakened by body parts belonging to the deceased person they were created to resemble. This wasn't the case in the source material because the homunculi have a completely different origin.
  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
    • Both Ed and Mustang have a lot more mental baggage in this continuity than the manga/Brotherhood. In the back half of the story, Ed becomes increasingly weighed down by the consequences of the choices he's made in the first half, particularly involving the fallout of his actions in Lior, and Roy is a lot more burdened by what he did during the war with Ishval. In the immediate aftermath he nearly killed himself, and at present day he's implied to be an alcoholic to cope and occasionally suffers from PTSD episodes.
    • What happens to Nina hits Ed and Al even harder than in the manga/Brotherhood for a couple of different reasons. (1.) they spent several months with the Tucker family instead of just a few days (2.) they're only 12 and 11 when it happens instead of 15 and 14. (3.) Instead of being told about her death afterwards, they run straight into the alley where Nina was killed, a few moments too late to save her, and come face to face with her remains. At that point, Ed breaks down sobbing and tries to transmute Nina back to life.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Quite a few of the male characters, namely Edward, Mustang, Envy, and Scar are all hit with this, given younger, less-masculine, faces.
  • Adaptational Backstory Change:
    • It's a relatively minor change, however in the manga Winry's parents died after Trisha died. In the 2003 anime they died before. This little change causes a big difference in the relationship between the Elric brothers and Winry.
    • Roy killed Winry's parents under government order, instead of a vengeful Scar. This is a major change in Roy's background and causes him a lot of pain. It also affects his relationship with Winry compared to the manga.
    • The Homunculi have a completely different origin. In the manga/Brotherhood, they were all created by the Big Bad from the aspects of his personality they're named for. In the 03 anime, they are created whenever someone attempts human transmutation. They initially start as horrifying living messes of flesh and bone, but upon being fed red stones, they regain their human form. And because of this, many of them are related to other members of the cast. Namely, Lust was Scar's sister-in-law, Wrath was Izumi's son, and Sloth was Ed and Al's mother. And Envy is Ed and Al’s half-brother
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • In this version of the story Selim Bradley is just an innocent kid. In the manga and in Brotherhood, he is the homunculus Pride, and he plays the role of The Dragon for the Big Bad.
    • Lust is also much more sympathetic than her manga/Brotherhood counterpart and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Adaptational Name Change: In the English dub, Ishval is spelled and pronounced Ishbal.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Shou Tucker. Okay, he's still a horrible person, but unlike the manga, he actually shows signs of remorse for what he did to Nina.
  • Adaptational Romance Downgrade:
  • Adaptational Skill: Envy is portrayed as being highly intelligent with good leadership and tactical skills, being The Dragon to Dante. In the manga, for strategy they employ little more than guilt-tripping and have barely any ability to lead.
  • Adaptational Slimness:
    • Edward Elric in the manga and Brotherhood is fairly muscular and hits a large growth spurt near the end. Here, he has a decently muscular but slim build and he doesn't grow nearly as much as he does in manga canon (he's dwarfed by both Noah and Winry in The Movie), making him look more like a Bishōnen than his manga counterpart as a result.
    • Scar is given a younger and more Bishōnen redesign compared to his more muscular manga version.
  • Adaptational Sympathy: Shou Tucker still fuses his dog and daughter together into an abomination that needs to be put out of their misery, but he's Spared by the Adaptation and gets a sort of redemption arc where he loses his mind trying to bring his daughter back to life.
  • Adaptational Superpower Change:
    • Runs into this largely thanks to being made while the manga still had a ways to go. Aside from the characters that were effectively original, King Bradley (called Pride, instead of Wrath) can regenerate like the other homunculi, unlike his manga counterpart.
    • Alchemy itself is now powered by the souls of the dead in our world.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Basque Grande. Though, it's kind of justified since he's a Posthumous Character in the manga.
    • Scar to an extent. While in the manga, he eventually becomes an Anti-Hero, in this version, he never really shakes his Anti-Villain status. His last act is to complete a transmutation circle that causes the deaths of thousands of soldiers to create a Philosopher's Stone.
    • Hohenheim gets hit by this as well, since his nature as a Body Snatcher means he's responsible for the 'deaths' of every person whose body he's inhabited on top of the people killed to make the Philosopher's Stone he uses to perform the transfer.
    • Fuhrer Bradley, who is now Pride in this version, lacks the Noble Demon traits that his manga counterpart had and is noticeably more arrogant, sadistic, and cruel, with his last action before a fiery death by Mustang, is to strangle and straight up kill his kid, while ranting about how humans are foolish.
  • Adapted Out: Due to this anime overtaking the manga, characters introduced past the manga's Volume 7 don't appear; notable absences include Ling Yao, May Chang, Olivier Armstrong, Father, and the manga versions of Sloth and Pride. In turn, Canon Foreigners were created as the plot went in a different direction.
  • Adventure Towns: The Elrics visit some in the early episodes.
  • Aerith and Bob: One of these names does not sound very European: Edward, Alphonse, Roy, Izumi. Can you spot it?
  • Aesop Amnesia:
    • Played for Laughs. In the episode "Truth Behind Truths," Edward gets many reminders that being small isn't so bad. At one point he even beats himself up for saying it. Yet when it seems he's finally absorbed the lesson, only a couple of scenes later his height is commented upon and he goes ballistic as usual.
    • A very tragic example in episode 8. Even after all the trouble that the Elrics suffered after the failed transmutation of their mother, Ed still tries to transmute Nina's remains back to life. Mustang gives him a stern redressing for this.
    Roy Mustang: "You can't keep trying to bring every living thing that dies on you back to life, Edward. It's not possible and it's not healthy."
  • All Deaths Final: Alchemy cannot revive the dead. Those who try to do so end up making homunculi — and end up losing at least part of their body as Equivalent Exchange.
  • All-Loving Hero: Both of the Elrics (despite Ed's typical demeanor) are definitely this. Especially evident in episodes where the brothers visit Adventure Towns to find leads on the Philosopher's Stone; they go there looking for a lead, but the minute something bad happens to someone, they drop everything and rush to help that person for no other reason than the fact that it's the right thing to do.
  • Alternate Continuity: To the manga.
  • Alternate History:
    • The world of Amestris is one for our world. The exact diverging point is unknown, but it was apparently caused by humanity choosing to focus on the development of alchemy instead of natural sciences like our world. Christianity also used to exist in the alchemic world but faded when the practice of alchemy grew, and Hohenheim & Dante began their relationship during the Black Plague. This is a major change from the manga/Brotherhood, which took place in a Constructed World where the parallels of Amestris to 20th century Europe were just that, parallels.
    • The ending of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa suggests that this might end up being the case in "our" world too due to Ed and Al's involvement.
  • Anachronic Order: Episodes 1-2 take place after Episodes 3-9, with the latter serving as an extended flashback sequence detailing how the Elrics lost their bodies, how Ed became the Fullmetal Alchemist, and how the brothers first met supporting characters like Mustang and Hughes.
  • Anachronism Stew:
    • A fleet of giant rocket-powered transport planes... In the Weimar Republic? Stupid Jetpack Hitler!
    • Also appearing in the series at various points (presumably as Easter Eggs): a string of modern real-world flags, not at all early-20th-century-looking comic books, and Snyder's pretzels. Rather, those are probably meant to show that time doesn't flow linearly in the Gate. Both Ed and Hohenheim see the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima before they happen, after all.
  • Animated Actors: The Chibi Party OVA, a gag animation released after the end of the series where all the characters are revealed to be actors following a script. They certainly have complaints.
  • Animated Armor: Al, of course. And Barry the Chopper, as well as several others in Lab 5 such as The Slicer Brothers.
  • Animation Bump: The series as a whole is animated quite well, but the larger action scenes and key dramatic moments such as the failed transmutation, the death of Hughes and the discovery of Shou Tucker's chimera and the subsequent confrontation definitely get a boost.
  • Anti-Villain: While many of the villains receive a lot of humanization, Scar ends up so sympathetic that he nearly qualifies as an Anti-Hero toward the end. Lust also becomes more sympathetic toward the end. On the other end of the spectrum, Kimblee and Barry the Chopper are far more unambiguously villainous in this version than they are in the manga/Brotherhood.
  • Anyone Can Die: Hughes, Nina, Alexander, Scar, and Ed.
  • Arch-Enemy: Envy to Ed, Pride to Roy, Kimblee to Scar.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Barry to Al. "How do you know your memories are real?"
  • Art Evolution: The tone darkened over time, and quality of the animation increases. Ed ages considerably over the show, as does Winry.
  • Artificial Human: The homunculi in this anime are people who've died brought back wrong, courtesy of alchemy.
  • Artificial Limbs:
    • Ed of course being the main example, but many people show up who have them.
    • Minor villain Bald has an automail arm as well.
    • Like in the manga, most people in Rush Valley have at least one. A notable example is Paninya, who had both legs as automail in the manga, and gets those plus an arm in this version.
  • Artistic License – Geography: The ending of the anime indicates that Amestris is an Alternate History version of Europe. However, the geography of the country, with a large, Sahara-like desert on its eastern frontier, doesn't match that of Europe, despite being implied to have diverged from our world's history.
  • Ascended Extra: Rose, General Hakuro, Basque Grand, Shou Tucker, Lust, Sheska, Marta, and Rick are all given larger roles in comparison to the manga. Lust in particular is given substantially greater Character Development in this version.
  • The Atoner:
    • Roy feels an extreme level of guilt for his actions in Ishval.
    • Scar over time.
    • Hohenheim regrets his body-jumping.
    • Marcoh also has some guilt over his past actions.
  • Audience Participation Failure: In Fullmetal vs Flame, when Hughes announces Mustang and Ed before their duel, both the alchemists get booed, with the crowd saying Mustang just wants a promotion and calling Ed short.
  • Ax-Crazy: Barry the Chopper. Envy gets like this whenever he loses restraint. Then, of course, there's Solf J. Kimblee.
  • Badass Boast: Scar, who has in just about every appearance just far completely destroyed every single State Alchemist he's run into, is stopped from taking out the Elric brothers by the timely intervention of yet another State Alchemist... Major Alex Louis Armstrong:
    Alex Armstrong: Don't pray just yet, you're facing the technique that's been passed down the Armstrong line for generations, that's hardly a blessing!
  • Badass Bookworm:
    • Every single alchemist. The two main requirements for performing alchemy are knowledge of what we know as chemistry and being in good shape. Shou Tucker and Izumi are the exceptions. Tucker turns up with his torso practically bent backwards on the back of a bear that walks on two legs. Izumi, Incurable Cough of Death aside, can beat Al in a straight fight without alchemy or half of her internal organs, but isn't much of a bookworm.
    • Sheska eventually reveals herself to be this.
  • Bad Guy Bar: The Devils' Nest, where Greed and his chimera gang take refuge, and nearly kill Ed, Al and Izumi in.
  • Bad Samaritan: Homunculi sent into the world to trick unsuspecting alchemists into thinking they're helping, and then tricking them into making Philosopher Stones for them.
  • Bait-and-Switch Credits: Of all the battle scenes depicted in the third and fourth opening and fourth ending sequences, hardly any occur between the characters or in the locations shown. Most egregious is the third opening, which shows Ed and Al fighting against dragon-like snakes in a swamp, when nothing even remotely close exists in the setting. The fourth opening and ending also keep depicting Lust as an enemy even though she already pulled her Heel–Face Turn by now.
  • The Baroness:
    • Dante in the series, Eckhart in The Movie.
    • Lust as well. Even Sloth can come off as this at times.
  • Become a Real Boy: The homunculi, in some way, wished they were similar to humans. Lust, in particular, has a fixation on this when her past is revealed. Many of Sloth's actions also revolve around asserting herself as a different person from her "original version," Trisha.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Edward and Winry can certainly give off this vibe. Given how important they clearly are to each other its either a case of this or Like Brother and Sister.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Don't EVER call Ed short. Or imply it. It hurts his feelings, pisses him off, and may end with you being hospitalized and humiliated. And then you'll be ashamed for being beaten by a shrimp.
    • Don't ever insult Winry's skills as an automail mechanic. (Or break it. She'll throw a wrench at your head.)
    • Don't get in the way of Envy killing Hohenheim or make fun of him for it. Just mentioning Hohenheim in front of him will piss him off.
    • If you're a State Alchemist, do not get in Scar's way. This changes after his Character Development, but he will make an exception for Kimblee.
  • Beta Test Baddie: The majority of the homunculi in this anime struggle with having to confront the person they "were" before, particularly Lust, Sloth, Wrath, and in a way, Envy.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • Alluded to when Al tells Ed that he'd want bloody revenge should Ed ever be murdered.
    • Tucker, Bradley and Dante, who initially seem like kind and understanding authority figures, turn out to be something much worse.
  • Bicep-Polishing Gesture: Armstrong, constantly.
  • Big Bad: At the very end, the majority of all machinations are revealed to be spun by Dante, an old lady. Or so we're lead to believe, at first.
  • Big Brother Instinct: This anime could be called Big Brother Instinct: The Show—Ed goes through hell and high water (pretty literally) to try to get Al's body back, Scar eventually more-or-less adopts two Ishbalan boys as younger brothers while haunted by his own brother's choice, the Tringhams are brothers with very similar dynamics to Ed and Al, and even Winry muses on her frustrations of not being able to reach Ed and Al the way she wants as a sister. Then there are the aversions, like Envy.
  • Big Brother Worship: Al towards Ed.
  • Big Eater: Ed, but Gluttony embodies the trope quite literally.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Alexander is huge and loves playing with Nina, Ed, and Al.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: Al loses his body when he and Ed botch an attempt to revive their mother, creating a villainous duplicate and the new Sloth instead, Ed hates his father, Dante is technically the Elrics' Wicked Stepmother, another homunculus is one of her former lovers, and two other homunculi are Ed and Al's half brother and Izumi's son.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Armstrong and his entire family.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: General Halcrow. In his first appearance, he seems like a decent enough guy, at least a family man who loves his wife and kids. But when he is put in charge of putting down Cornello's cult in Leore, he quickly shows his cruelty in deliberately leaving Rose to be raped by soldiers. He later attempts to seize power when Bradley is indisposed. He also has a grudge against the Elric brothers because he feels they used him to become state alchemists (which is technically true. Roy put them on the same train as him knowing that terrorists would probably take it over, and having the Elrics save the day would be useful leverage to convince Halcrow to ignore the fact that they are too young to join by normal standards.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • In the end, Dante is defeated and Amestris is free from her manipulation of the government through King Bradley, but Ed is stuck in the world on the other side of the Gate apart from Al, and Al has lost the memory of his travels with Ed. Hawkeye and Mustang survive and have each other, but Mustang's dream of taking over from Bradley and righting the wrongs of his regime are crushed.
    • Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa sweetens some of this, while adding a Bittersweet Ending of its own: Al regains his memories and the brothers are reunited, but choose to strand themselves on Earth to ensure the Gate is sealed forever, and Winry gets left behind again.
  • Body Horror:
    • Human transmutation takes a part of the alchemist's body; it's how Ed lost his arm and leg.
    • The fate of Tucker, turned into a chimera with his human face oriented upside down.
    • Wrath and his self-transmuting.
    • Dante and Hohenheim's body surfing; over-using it causes their current hosts to start rotting. The more often they change bodies, the more quickly they rot.
  • Body Surf: Dante and Hohenheim are revealed to have done this multiple times, with Dante being implied to have changed bodies a few more times than him.
  • Book Ends:
    • The "Humankind cannot gain" speech is narrated by Al throughout the series to reflect what has been learned over the course of the story.
    • Conqueror of Shamballa, after a Batman Cold Open, we're shown a scene of Edward in our world, hitchhiking on a cart full of familiar characters. The film ends the same way, though with Alphonse and Noah joining Ed.
    • The Starter Villain, Cornelo, boldly declares that he is "the closest thing to God." In the second-to-last episode, Bradley responds to Mustang's statement that God doesn't exist by claiming that devils do exist, and they're those who oppose him, effectively placing himself as God.
  • Brains and Brawn: Ed and Al, respectively. It's a Downplayed Trope in that while he isn't as smart as his brother, Al is a Genius Bruiser.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: "WHO DID YOU CALL A SUPER MINI SHRIMP YOU'D NEED A MICROSCOPE TO SEE!?"
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the start of one episode, Roy calls Hughes to complain he hasn't appeared on screen for a few episodes as the camera pulls out to show all of his subordinates staring at the camera.
  • Breaking Speech: Dante deconstructs Ed's belief in Equivalent Exchange by showing him the many ways it doesn't work in real life.
  • Break the Cutie: Rose, Edward, Alphonse, and Wrath.
  • Breather Episode:
    • The "Flame Alchemist" Lower-Deck Episode, featuring the zany hijinks of Mustang and his crew (and no Ed or Al), came right as the series was doubling down on the darkness, but before it would be too much of a distraction from the main plot.
    • Much earlier in the series, after the double whammy of episodes 7 and 8, 9 and 10 are much lighter in tone and have little to nothing to do with the overarching plot.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Maes Hughes is either this or Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Burning the Ships: When setting out on their journey, the Elric brothers burn down their childhood home so there will be no turning back.
  • But Now I Must Go: Whenever the Elrics leave an Adventure Towns.
  • Call-Back: Just like its source material, this series loves its Call Backs. Expect nearly everything that happens in the first half of the series to be referenced at least once at some point in the second, if not sooner. Even a filler episode. (See Chekhov's Gunman)
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Ed to Hohenheim.
  • Canon Foreigner: Lyra, Frank Archer, Dante, Wrath, Sloth, many of the single-episode characters (e.g. Majahal and Lujon), Rick's older brother Rio, and every new character introduced in The Movie.
  • Came Back Wrong: Every single homunculus and Nina Tucker.
  • Central Theme: A few:
    • No matter how much you sacrifice, you can't expect an equivalent reward.
    • Actions have consequences, and they don't just affect you alone. Big or small, you have an effect on other peoples lives.
    • Holding onto the past will only cause you suffering.
    • Faith, whether in religion or ideology, is something people hold onto to make sense of an unfair world.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The anime starts out pretty lighthearted but eventually becomes dark. Just when it seems like it's going to get lighthearted again, it goes back to being dark and just gets worse from there until there are little to no comedic moments.
  • Characterization Marches On: Part of Ed's character arc is about how he becomes more jaded and prepared to kill than he was earlier in the show. For instance, when he accidentally kills Greed, he breaks down sobbing over Greed's corpse, yet later on he kills Sloth, the homunculus of his own mother, with cold efficiency. However, this character arc completely ignores the fact that he accidentally killed a one off villain in the 4th episode of the show when he was only about 12 years old, but it didn't seem to phase him at all. It is established later that he did in fact feel guilty about it, but this isn't shown at all within the episode that it occurs in at all.
  • Cheerful Child: Nina and Elicia, although the latter is a lot more subdued after her father's death.
  • Chekhov M.I.A.: Hohenheim, the father of protagonists Edward and Alphonse Elric, and a very skilled alchemist. He returns just in time for the start of the third act of the story.
  • Chekhov's Gunman:
    • Lyra, a wind-using alchemist and Yoki's lackey, is a seemingly innocuous addition to the anime's Youswell episode; she later becomes the container for the Big Bad via Grand Theft Me.
    • Minor example, Majahal. He is essentially a Filler Villain who appears to never be mentioned until after episode 4... however, much later in the series, Edward reveals that he still feels guilty for having been responsible for Majahal's death.
    • Also, the Tringham brothers, Russell and Fletcher. They first show up in Episodes 11 & 12, impersonating the Elric brothers and mentioning their father's research. They show up again much later, and, after a quick gag involving Russell trying to imitate Ed again, their father's notes come in useful for helping Ed find Dante's lair.
  • Children as Pawns: When trying to get the location of Ed, Elric had a young newspaper seller eavesdrop Ed at the railway station, promising this seller he would get his little sister back.
  • Child Soldiers: Ed became a "dog of the military" at age 12. It's not standard practice, though; he's just a Child Prodigy. If not for Roy's string pulling, he would have been simply turned away.
  • City of Canals: Aquroya, which much like its inspiration, Venice, is sinking into the mud it's built on. Unlike Venice, which has several hundred years left without intervention, Aquroya has a mere five.
  • Classy Cat-Burglar: Psiren, whose high-profile heists have revitalized the trade industry in the sinking, Venice-like city Aquroya.
  • Code Name: Every state alchemist gets one; Ed's is where the series gets its title.
  • Coming of Age Story: Ed's character arc is about growing out of a childish naiveté about the world; along the way, he learns how his actions have unforeseen consequences, how war or others' suffering aren't far-off things he can ignore, and how the world is too complex and unfair for Equivalent Exchange to explain everything that happens in it.
  • Composite Character: A location example: the underground city can be seen as one for Father's lair and the nation of Xerxes, two important settings in the Manga and Brotherhood. The City is both the Big Bad's HQ hidden beneath Central City and, like Xerxes, a deserted civilization whose inhabitants were transmuted into a Philosopher's Stone.
  • Content Warnings: In America, [adult swim] ran its "American Cowboys" disclaimer about graphic violence before airing the final episode, probably because of the scene where King Bradley kills his son Selim.
  • Continuity Cameo: Ling Yao, a character who was exclusive to the manga at the time, made one in episode 15, as a state alchemist in the Ishvalan War. Interestingly he's depicted as wearing sunglasses that look suspiciously like Greed's.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Since the Achilles' Heel of the Homunculi in this version are their remains from the person they were transmuted from, this means almost all of them were conveniently people the main characters knew when they were alive, so they know whose grave to dig. In Pride's case, it was because he kept his skull in his house instead of burying it somewhere.
  • Convenient Cranny: At one point Ed manages to survive being crushed by a rolling ball of death due to his small size allowing him to squeeze into the corner of the hallway he is walking down... then he feels relieved about being the height he is before he starts complaining about himself accepting that fact.
  • Cooldown Hug: Ross does this to Ed when he's exposed to red water and gets a power overload.
  • Creator Cameo: Director Seiji Mizushima makes a blink-or-you'll-miss-it appearance in episode 13; manga author Hiromu Arakawa's bovine self-caricature makes several stealth appearances throughout the series.
  • Creepy Child: Wrath looks innocent enough at first, but quickly veers into this territory once he starts making weird comments ("Everyone's dead! Wanna play?") and then gets revealed as a Homunculus.
  • Criminal Found Family: Marta mentions that Greed and the other chimera from his gang were the closest thing she had to a family.
  • Crippling Castration: While never directly stated, it's heavily implied from the blood pool on his crotch that Scar's brother lost his genitals in exchange for creating Lust.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Hughes is a goofy Doting Parent, but figures out Dante's conspiracy before almost everyone else, and he gets to show off his combat abilities when the Homunculi catch up to him.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Cornello's cult has their clothing based off of Catholic priests.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Pretty much every fight with the homunculi is this unless you have a body part belonging to the person they were transmuted from.
  • Culture Chop Suey:
    • At least one scene has Ed eating rice out of bowls with chopsticks in what is otherwise a setting based on early twentieth century Europe.
    • They tend to sit and bow in a Japanese manner, despite being European. You can see Japanese flags in early episodes, despite Japan being non-existent, and the modern flag not even having been thought of yet, assuming the dates given correspond to a real world calendar.
    • In one episode, Breda is playing shogi with several of Mustang's men, explaining that it's a game from "a country in the east". So yes, the Fullmetal Alchemist world does have a Wutai (which presumably is where Izumi hails from); it's just not directly shown or named.
  • Cursed with Awesome:
    • Edward's automail, Steampunk prosthetics which offer full mobility but presumably require constant maintenance. They give him an advantage in combat, as they are sturdy, disposable, transmutable and throw off opponents, but they are still prosthetics—meaning he had to lose his right arm and left leg to begin with—and a constant reminder of the price he and his brother paid for trying to resurrect the dead.
    • Scar's right arm, which is tattooed with a transmutation circle, but which can only take apart things, whereas a normal alchemical circle deconstructs something and puts it back together in a desirable shape. Scar dislikes it due to how the arm is a transplant from his brother, who thus sacrificed himself to save Scar, and how it utilizes alchemy which is taboo to Scar's people, the Ishbalans.
    • The homunculi, who are practically immortal and possess amazing superpowers, yet bitterly resent their existence and supernatural forms. Likewise with Al and the other souls-bonded-to-suits found in Laboratory 5, who are likewise, almost immortal and yet, with the exception of Al, see themselves as not-human. Lust even compares the two situations when trying to explain to Ed why she wants to become human.
  • Cute Kitten: The episode "Fullmetal VS Flame" features them.
  • Damsel in Distress: Rose when Dante takes her under a trance.
  • Darker and Edgier: Compared to the manga and Brotherhood:
  • A Day in the Limelight:
    • Episode 25 focuses on Hughes' investigation into Laboratory 5 and ends with Envy killing him to stop him from revealing what he learned.
    • Episode 35 focuses on Lust, explores her desire to be human, and lays the groundwork for her Heel–Face Turn.
    • Episode 37 focuses solely on the hijinks within the military, with the Elric brothers making no appearances whatsoever. Even the opening is altered to focus on Team Mustang instead of Ed and Al.
  • Death by Adaptation: Yoki, Scar, Doctor Marcoh, Selim Bradley and Izumi Curtis (though she technically dies after the series, before the movie) all die here but live in the manga.
  • Death Means Humanity: Lust angsts quite a bit about her existence as a homunculi and longs to be human again. Re-establishing connections with Scar, the brother to her human self's deceased fiancee, slowly pushes her to make a Heel–Face Turn and eventually decide to help the Elric brothers defeat Wrath. He finds out however and stabs her to death for betraying him. Dying, Lust realizes, makes her feel more human than anything and she accepts her death.
  • Deconstruction: Interestingly, the series serves as something of one for the source material: many of the manga's underpinnings are interrogated more, and the answers provided are often rather cynical.
    • Equivalent Exchange is true for the process of alchemic transmutation, but not outside of it. All life ends in death, no matter what you do while you live, while the world is filled with unjust suffering and unearned privilege. And even then, alchemy is fueled through the deaths of people on the other side of the gate, suggesting there's "waste" that needs to be made up for with Life Energy.
    • The Elric Brothers' Thou Shalt Not Kill rule is portrayed more as naivete, and Ed eventually abandons the principle. The Slicer brothers point out to Ed that sparing an evil person's life can result in greater suffering down the line, as Al discovers firsthand when he saves Kimblee from Marta.
    • Mustang's quest to become Fuhrer is as much about assuaging his own guilt as it is redeeming the sins of Amestris. It's also nigh impossible for a single man to reform an institution designed for evil, while climbing the ranks will mean doing evil yourself.
    • Scar's arc is not about breaking the cycle of revenge like it is in the Manga/Brotherhood; instead of renouncing his vengeance, he continues opposing the Amestrian military until the end. To hammer this in, the series spends more time spotlighting the persecution that Ishvalans face, showing how it's impossible for a besieged minority to placate their oppressors and that resistance is the only option for survival.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Team Mustang is less fleshed out in this version, with Hawkeye having only a fraction of the focus and backstory her Manga/Brotherhood counterpart does and the others being little more than comic relief.
    • Some supporting characters, such as Greed, Dr. Marcoh, and Yoki have less focus in this series than in the Manga/Brotherhood, owing to Death by Adaptation.
    • Selim Bradley, who becomes a major character in the manga, appears in only a few scenes and has a completely different identity in this.
    • Lt. General Grumman, who also ends up being an important character in the manga, only appears briefly in a few scenes and has less than five minutes of screentime total.
  • Death Course: Played for laughs (also as a Shout-Out to Raiders of the Lost Ark) when Ed sets off a series of traps in Lab 5.
  • Death is Cheap: Very much Averted. The fact that it is not cheap (in a literal sense) is the reason Ed and Al are missing body parts. They didn't pay enough when trying to bring their mom back.
  • Death Seeker:
    • Hohenheim shows shades of this, as he rarely fights back against his aggressors, though it may have something to do with said aggressors being "changed" members of his family.
    • Considering the fact that Wrath is revealed to be willing to walk straight into Gluttony's jaws to help Al reach Ed, he has shades of this as well. Then again, at this point, he knows his background as a homunculi.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: A subtle example. Scenes set in our world are decidedly more muted and faded, emphasizing how mundane and realistic Ed's new home has become. This is in contrast to the more fantastical and radiant trappings of Amestris.
  • Depending on the Writer: Some of the episodes written and/or directed by staff outside of the core team have odd visual/setting/plot/tonal inconsistencies. The most egregious example is likely episode 10, which feels like it belongs to a different show altogether.
  • Determinator: Ed is going to figure out how to make The Philosopher's Stone no matter what. And when he realizes the price it takes, he will take down the conspiracy made to create the stones by any means necessary.
  • Disappeared Dad: Hohenheim, who left the family while Ed and Al were in the single digits because his body was starting to decay and he refused to let his wife and the children see.
  • Disconnected by Death: Hughes is killed by Envy after the homunculi discover he knows too much about their plans.
  • Distant Finale: The (non-canon) Kids OVA shows Ed in 2005 in our world, having just turned 100 years old.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Obvious allusions to Nazism, Catholicism, imperialism in the Middle East, and to colonialism tout court. Ishbalans even offer striking parallels with Native North Americans. The Ishbalans were originally based on the Ainu, but also seemed to have allusions to the Middle East and Islam (Ishbalans are monotheists and have similar beliefs). Odds are that they were based on several different Truth in Television parallels.
    Despite the similarity of certain Amestrian religions to Christianity, it is mentioned that Christianity ceased to be practiced in Amestris several centuries ago, presumably around when alchemy first became successful, causing the split between their timeline and that of the world on the other side of the gate—that is, early-20th-century Europe.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Played straight on several occasions.
    • Winry is often seen hitting Ed with a wrench for breaking his automail.
    • Ed and Al are beaten bloody by their former teacher Izumi Curtis. What makes it worse, she is a grown woman and they are children/young adolescents. This one is very much lampshaded.
      Ed: Nearly dying of starvation and getting our asses beat was supposed to "toughen us up"?
      Al: How can you do that to kids?! What kind of monster are you?!
  • Driven to Suicide: It's shown at one point that a Mustang anguished by following orders to kill the likes of doctors and civilians nearly went there. Hughes' support kept him from it, and eventually he became determined to never follow such orders again.
  • Dramatic Irony: When Marcoh explains the deaths of Winry's parents to Ed and Al, the audience sees in flashback who killed them — Roy Mustang. Ed, Al, and Winry don't learn this until much later.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Izumi dies offscreen between the end of the show and the start of The Movie.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Which causes a Broken Aesop in the final episode: Ed is said to be "not dead for long" rather than Only Mostly Dead, meaning Al succeeds at the task that he and Ed had spent the whole show learning to accept was impossible.
    • However, it must be noted that Al was basically a walking Philosopher's Stone at this point. This allowed him to perform the world's first perfect human transmutation.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady:
    • Envy, who looks almost perfectly female (and has a female, albeit androgynous-sounding, voice actress) save for his lack of breasts. His outfit doesn't help matters. Though, to be fair, anyone watching for the first time could easily pass this off as just saying Envy morphed into a female form so as to further distance himself from his Elric roots. He does call it "adorable" when he's first shown morphing into it, after all.
    • Barry the Chopper was a fairly convincing crossdresser when he was human.
    • Wrath is a rather androgynous Wild Child with long hair and a midriff baring shirt.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • Barry the Chopper is dealt with by the Elrics in the flesh well before they encounter him as a possessed armor at Lab 5, and Lyra shows up as Yoki's lackey in Youswell and later becomes Dante's servant...and body.
    • Easier to miss: Izumi and Sig can be spotted with their backs to the camera at a train station in an early episode, Frank Archer can first be seen as one of many soldiers at Hughes' funeral, and Envy's dragon form and Haushofer show up in the final episode before going on to play larger roles in The Movie.
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Hohenheim and Kimblee hadn't properly debuted in the manga yet when the series aired. Thus, their appearances here were based on early concept art from Arakawa and look different from the manga and Brotherhood note .
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • For the first dozen episodes or so, the writers don't all seem to be on the same page regarding the laws of alchemy and particulars of Amestris, leading to such oddities as alchemy being used on remote targets, Ed knocking Al into a river without concern for his blood seal, signs appearing in Japanese, a reference to alchemy use causing physical exhaustion that is never mentioned again, and Ed transmuting flowers out of snow. One particular error in the broadcast version, wherein Ed discovers he can use alchemy without a transmutation circle by punching his fist, was even modified for the DVD release (to a shot of Ed clasping his palms together).
    • In the fourth episode, "A Forger's Love", Ed ends up killing the villain, Majhal, by flinging Majhal's sword into the air, where it then impales him when it lands. Ed has virtually no reaction to having committed manslaughter, despite later having a screaming meltdown when he accidentally kills Greed. It is possible that since Majhal's death was a freak accident, and Ed wasn't actively trying to kill him like he was with Greed, it didn't affect him as much. However, his complete lack of reaction is still atypical given his previously established morals.
    • Early episodes have obvious leftovers from the manga. For example, Edward appears to have a crush on Winry in early episodes, but they are later depicted as being Like Brother and Sister, though you could argue in-series it went away due to lack of being together and aging.
    • A tiny example would be how in an early episode, when you see Ed reading a book, his eyes are going from right to left, like the Japanese read. However, it is a European setting, and we later see writing in English. Later still, we see him reading with his eyes going left to right.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: In the last episode, Hohenheim tells Ed that this is what he and his brother have been doing all along.
  • Easy Impersonation: The Tringham brothers, who get a town believe they're the Elric brothers despite Russell clearly being taller than Ed, and place the real Elric brothers in quite the predicament for it.
  • Eating the Enemy: We are given Gluttony, an Extreme Omnivore will eat anything and can never be satisfied. Needless to say, he has no qualms about making a snack out of people and devouring enemies is his method of choice for eliminating them. He even has a One-Winged Angel form where he turns into a horrifying Belly Mouth.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Used to take down Cornello as he admits his religion is nothing but a sham in a concealed microphone. All of Lior hears it.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Trope Namer, The foundation of alchemy and what Edward and Alphonse believe as a philosophy: to make something, something of equal value must be paid in return. Though ultimately the events of the story disabuse them of that notion, making them realize that life is too chaotic and messy for such an idealogy to be practical.
  • Esoteric Motifs: All the homunculi have Ouroboros tattoos. In the movie, Envy, the last homunculus, becomes a literal one when transformed into a serpent.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: When Dante erases Gluttony's mind, turning him into a creature of pure hunger, even Envy looks a little bit horrified. Keep in mind that Envy is even worse here than he is in the manga.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Played for Laughs with Envy in the Chibi Wrap Party OVA. Though, considering his EXTREMELY feminine voice and appearance, it's not too hard to believe.
    Envy: (pouting) You nearly broke my neck when you made me run into the wall... You're such a bully!
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: Winry for Ed and Hawkeye for Roy.
  • Everyone's in the Loop: As soon as Marta learns about Fuhrer, she tells Al (which is good as immediately afterward, Bradley kills her).
  • Evil Is Petty: Dante to an outrageous degree. She is perfectly content being a Manipulative Bastard responsible for the genocide of millions of people so long as she can keep living for another few years.
  • Evil Mentor: Dante, the elderly pharmacist introduced as Izumi's alchemy teacher, turns out to be the Big Bad.
  • Express Delivery: Writers Cannot Do Math variation. There was enough time for Rose to become pregnant and give birth, even though only a few months are shown to have passed since Ed and Al last saw her during their initial visit to Liore.
  • Expy: The police inspector in Episode 10 is an obvious Shout-Out to Inspector Zenigata of Lupin III. Long gray coat, long bearded face, old-fashioned hat, preference for handcuffs - Ed even calls him "Ossan" in Japanese.
  • Extradimensional Power Source: The power source of all alchemical reactions is those who died in another universe, or more specifically, ours.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Gluttony, a homunculus who is not only always hungry, but is seemingly capable of eating anything.
  • Eyepatch of Power: King Bradley, the Fuhrer of the country the series takes place in. Roy Mustang gains one near the end of the series as well. Though it turns out Bradley only wears it to cover up the Ouroboros mark on his eye.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Falman, a soldier in the manga even calls him "Squinty Eyes".
  • Eye Scream: In the finale, Hawkeye arrives too late to protect Mustang from Archer. He doesn't die, but he was shot in the eye.

    F - O 
  • Faint in Shock: Ed faints after seeing the corpse of a murdered woman as it reminds him of his deceased mother, and of how she Came Back Wrong.
  • Fake Memories: Barry the Chopper suggests to Al that his memories aren't real, that Ed created him himself, and that Alphonse Elric never existed.
  • Fanservice:
    • Psiren, Lust, and Winry's skimpy outfits
    • Ed and Armstrong's constant shirtlessness.
    • Izumi's revealing attire.
  • Fatal Family Photo: Hughes' death, where Envy uses the photograph to morph into his wife.
  • Femme Fatale: Lust is practically the archetype of this.
  • Femme Fatalons/Wolverine Claws: Lust again.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In episode 12, we learn that the knock off philosopher stones can be mass produced using the life force of dead babies killed by red water. This can be seen as foreshadowing that the real Philosopher's Stone requires human lives to create. Thousands of them.
    • In one of the first appearances of Sloth, before we know anything about her, after she says something, Al says he thought he just heard his mom speaking. Ed tells him he's just shaken up since they just survived a near death encounter. Also, Ed spends a few seconds staring at her in shock the first time he sees her, clearly noticing her resemblance to Trisha.
    • Both Lyra and Hohenheim are noted to wear strong perfume/cologne that have the same nauseating smell. The smell is not from a perfume, but rather from their bodies rotting.
    • For the twist that the show is set in an Alternate History and the Gate of Truth leads to our world:
      • When Ed is dragged into the Gate of Truth, many of the images he sees are historical events from the real world, including an American flag.
      • During his sparring match with Ed in Fullmetal vs Flame, Roy quotes The Art of War. One could initially assume that it's a case of Orphaned Etymology, but with later revelations...
      • When Dante takes Rose underground, they enter what is clearly a Christian chapel, complete with crosses. Dante says it belongs to a religion that was abandoned long ago.
      • In a later scene, Izumi also describes Christianity as a dead religion. She in turn reveals that the Anno Domini calendar system is no longer in use and has to explain to Ed who Christ was.
    • While many details and context are different, the series wound up foreshadowing plot elements from the Manga that hadn't been revealed yet when it aired:
      • Pride is Fuhrer Bradley and Wrath is a Creepy Child. In the manga and Brotherhood, Pride is a Creepy Child and Wrath is Fuhrer Bradley.
      • The Homunculi consume Philosopher's Stones to gain their powers and regeneration. In the manga and Brotherhood, each Homunculus is made from a Philosopher's Stone.
      • The Homunculi orchestrated the Ishvalan genocide as part of their master's Evil Plan.
      • Kimblee is pardoned, has his state alchemist license reinstated, and becomes an agent of the villains.
      • Scar turns Lior into a giant transmutation circle. In the manga and Brotherhood, all of Amestris is a giant transmutation circle.
      • A Homunculus asks for Scar's true name and he tells them that he abandoned it when he began his quest for vengeance. Here it's Lust, in the manga/Brotherhood it's Wrath/King Bradley.
      • Al is made into a living Philosopher's Stone, just like Hohenheim and Father were in the Manga and Brotherhood.
      • The Homunculi's master has an underground base hidden beneath Central city.
      • Lust is pinned to a wall by Dante via metal shards inserted in her nodes. This is quite similar to Greed's first demise in the manga and Brotherhood.
      • Hohenheim reappears while visiting Trisha's grave. He also turns out to be immortal and has a Dark and Troubled Past with the Big Bad that goes back centuries.
      • Ed excavates his mother's grave.
      • A Homunculus gets inside Al's armor and controls him. Here it's Sloth, in the Manga and Brotherhood it's Pride.
      • Envy turns into an enormous green dragon when crossing the gate. This is similar to their lizard-like One-Winged Angel form in the manga and Brotherhood.
      • Mustang's defeat of Pride in the final episode has a lot in common with his defeat of Lust in the Manga and Brotherhood. Both homunculi impale him with their respective weapons during the battle, and both are ultimately killed by Mustang burning them with a transmutation circle drawn on his hand until their regenerative powers are burnt out. Hawkeye emotionally shoots Archer to death after thinking Roy is dead. She does the same in the manga to Lust, but it doesn't work in the latter case.
      • At the end of the anime, Mustang loses an eye. In the manga, he goes completely blind.
      • In the Grand Finale, Al sacrifices himself to save Ed's life then Ed transmutes himself to bring Al back. In the manga and Brotherhood, Al sacrifices his soul to restore Ed's arm in the final battle with Father, then afterward, Ed gives up his ability to perform alchemy to get Al back.
      • Both versions of the story end with Ed riding a train on a new quest for knowledge.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • Anytime someone is reading a piece of paper and there's a close-up shot of it, take a minute to read it. They have the most random things written on them.
    • In the fourth opening, Rewrite, Mustang's desk has a picture of him and Hughes on it.
  • Funeral Cut: Hughes gets shot and injured by Envy before the show cuts to his funeral.
  • Future Imperfect: An odd example where the "future" is set in our past. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is in a world parallel to the real world, and the energy for Alchemy comes from our world. And it seems that the story takes place during the time World War 1 was happening in our world. The diverging point seems to have been when humanity decided to focus on Alchemy instead of other sciences. Though it has long since become a forgotten religion, Christianity used to exist, and the various Christian cathedrals have become forgotten ruins with even the heavy reading and researching Ed not knowing who Jesus was.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Winry and her automail skills. Edward seems to prefer her automail over everybody else's.
  • Gaining the Will to Kill: Greed teaches this to Edward when he makes Ed kill unwittingly kill him.
  • Gecko Ending: Famously so, though the details are a bit more complex than just "first half faithful, second half original." The anime diverges from the manga from the beginning, though the differences are more subtle at first note . The Greed/Dublith arc is where the first significant changes happen note , and after that arc ends in Episode 34, the series' narrative becomes totally original. Still, plot points and beats from the manga continue to show up in the anime until the last few episodes note . The context of these points is merely altered more significantly in the second half of the series than the first.
  • General Ripper: Frank Archer, who manipulates conflict in Lior so he can become a war hero.
  • Genius Ditz: Sheska, who's saved from death under the weight of her countless collapsed books. She's shown to be something of an airhead, but can literally rewrite anything she's read to its exact word. This finally allows Ed to find out the truth about the Philosopher's Stone.
  • Gentle Giant: Al and Armstrong: the former has a very sweet heart (since he is a kid), but he's bound to a giant set of armor that can intimidate others; the latter is more than willing to fight for the side of good and he has the large, muscly build to prove it.
  • Geometric Magic: Alchemy requires tracing shapes and diagrams into a flat surface to perform spells.
  • Ghostapo: The Thule Society in The Movie is a nod to mystic Nazi hijinks, though it's more of a precursor given the time period.
  • Gilligan Cut: When Ed asks to battle Roy for his exam to remain a state alchemist, Roy scoffs that there is no way Fuhrer Bradley would allow it. Cut to Fuhrer Bradley allowing it to Roy's surprise.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars:
    • For Scar. It's not just a pun; that's how he got his name.
    • King Bradley/Pride.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: It cuts away for a second when Wrath finishes off Lust. But oddly we see her fully intact with no obvious wounds or blood afterwards.
  • Government Conspiracy: The homunculi have infiltrated the upper echelons of government in order to conduct large-scale experiments and incite conflicts in the hope of obtaining more and better Philosopher's Stones for Dante. They even caused the Ishbalan war.
  • Grand Theft Me: Dante. Hohenheim used to do this, but apparently stopped after meeting Trisha Elric and having kids.
  • Graying Morality: As the series progresses, it starts to deconstruct its original premise and begins painting both the protagonists and antagonists in grayer light (quite literally in some cases, as the color palette becomes noticeably more muted and less vibrant towards the end). Al, the arguably most innocent and naive character, is continually punished for his strict adherence to forgiveness and attempting to find decent means to resolve his problems. Ed, meanwhile, becomes more pragmatic and jaded after killing Greed and obtains greater success in his efforts. On the flip side, the Homunculi, especially Lust, are given significantly more depth and understanding in their motivations, several of them even completely abandoning their original allegiances in order to carve out their own paths.
  • Green Rocks: Red rocks, actually: the red stones. Their abilities include healing injuries, amplifying alchemical power (temporarily bypassing equivalent exchange, though not without the risk of a rebound; the alchemic equivalent of a backfire), and giving the homunculi extra "lives".
  • Grey-and-Grey Morality: While the state military have definitely done a crime bordering genocide, the Isvhalans too have very intolerant worldviews almost bordering on fundamentalism that cause them to shun any of their members who attempt alchemy, and apostates in general.
  • Groin Attack: Scar’s brother lost his genitals when he tried transmuting his girlfriend, creating Lust. It’s not stated explicitly, but flashbacks show him bleeding heavily from the area after the fact, and later, when he discovers the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone and walks out of his house naked and Laughing Mad, the skin on his lower belly (which is as low as the frame goes) is noticeably discoloured.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Armstrong and Sig Curtis have a "flex off" in the episode Assault on South Headquarters.
  • Hard Truth Aesop: Equivalent Exchange is considered to be the law of the land. Dante, in one of the most memorable scenes of the anime, flat out explains why Hard Work Hardly Works and that it's a lie.
    "Consider the state alchemy exam that you passed with flying colors. How many others took the test that day? Spent months, years preparing, some working much harder than you. Yet you were the only one who passed. Where was their reward? Is it their fault they lacked your natural talent?"
  • Healing Factor: The homunculi can recover from any injury thanks to the Red Stones they consume.
  • Hellish Pupils: The homunculi's eyes have needle-like pupils, which gives the burgundy or purple color of their eyes even greater eeriness.
  • Hermetic Magic: Yet again, alchemy.
  • Heroic BSoD: Ed gets one for a little while after learning that one of the main ingredients for the Philosopher's Stone is human souls. Thousands of them.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Scar went from a victim of genocide by alchemy to hunting down and killing every state alchemist he could find; with alchemy. He eventually becomes aware of this... which does not stop him from murdering 7,000 Amestrian infantrymen as his dying act.
  • He Will Not Cry, so I Cry for Him: Ed irritably asks Winry "What are you crying for?" after she admits to having opened his pocket watch. She replies "Because you won't, neither of you will! So now I'm crying for you both!"
  • Hidden Villain: We technically meet their most well-known form quite early, but don't know it.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Fuhrer King Bradley. King is his actual first name.
  • Historical Hilarity: Fritz Lang shows up in The Movie and acts as a genial comic relief mentor to Ed. He correctly guesses that Ed is not a native of Earth and discusses the subject of parallel words with him at one point, wondering what his otherworldly double would be like. Ed gives him a sideways look but doesn't let on his counterpart is a genocidal war criminal dictator: King Bradley aka Pride. Makes sense, given that Lang was Jewish and his counterpart is basically the alternate universe version of Adolf Hitler. The alias he uses is even "Dr. Mabuse."
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Dante, in trying to get Gluttony to get over Lust and help make the Philosopher's Stone. She transmutes away all his reason, turning him into a mindless monster. When the Elrics ruin her plan to create the stone and she tries to escape, Gluttony eats through the floor of the elevator she's on and goes after her despite her trying to reason with him.
    • Also when Bradley reveals his most treasured possession (the skull of the man Dante created him from) to his son Selim, imparting its importance, but not its meaning on the boy. Selim later rescues it from the family safe and brings it to his father during Roy's attack on the Fuhrer's mansion. Bradley freezes up in the presence of the skull and loses his regenerative capabilities, allowing Roy to immolate him.
    • Mugear. He tried to get red stones processed so they could be used as alchemic modifiers and killed Nash Tringham when he objected. He's killed in a cave-in after the mining of the red stones causes the cave to collapse.
  • Housewife: And God knows Izumi won't let you forget it!
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Sig and Izumi. She is of average size, but Sig makes up for it by being utterly enormous.
  • Hypocritical Humor: When Ed fights the Slicer brothers, he knocks the head off, thinking that will immobilise them... when he is called out on it, he says "There are no dirty tricks in a fight." Then the second one surprises Ed, and he says "That's a dirty trick!" He gets called out on it.
  • Iconic Item: Ed's watch, red coat and armblade, Roy's gloves, and Al's armor.
  • I Choose to Stay: Despite spending a lot of time trying to find a way back home, in The Movie, Ed and (our) Al ultimately stay in the Earth side of the Gate.
  • Identical Grandson: The (non-canon) Kids OVA gives use Ed's three great-great-grandchildren, who are identical to Edward, Alphonse, and even Winry.
  • Identical Stranger:
    • The Earth versions of several Amestrian characters: Fritz Lang (King Bradley), Maes and Gracia Hughes, Alfons Heidrich (Alphonse Elric), Noah (Rose) and the two gypsies driving the truck that pick Ed and Al up at the end of the movie (Scar and Lust). Official art also shows Riza's and Roy's Earth counterparts but they don't appear in-series.
    • Heidrich's coworkers are human versions of Greed's chimeras, and one of them bears a strong resemblance to Yoki.
  • Idiot Ball;
    • Wrath takes Ed's sample of Mrs. Elric's remains into himself to deny Ed using them on Sloth. Wrath fuses with Sloth. Ed and Sloth figure out what is very stupid about this immediately. Sloth even lampshades it!
      Sloth: Wrath... you fool...
    • Pride when he strangles Selim for bringing in his Achilles' Heel - giving Mustang the chance to use it against him - rather than telling Selim to run away with it. The fact that he had it in his house and trusted Selim with the key to the safe holding it without any knowledge that it could kill him is full-on Bond Villain Stupidity Unless, of course, he truly believed no one would ever guess his son has his secret, so it would be safer with him.
    • Al has two of these in the final third, like stopping Martel from killing Kimblee, thus making him responsible for everything Kimblee does afterward, and holding on to the idea that Sloth is his mother long after it's clear that she's trying to kill both him and Ed. To be fair on the second one though, even though he knows it's not his mother, Sloth still looks and has memories of her. She even acts like her to toy with the Elric brothers and it happens to work far better on Alphonse. Another instance was in Conqueror of Shamballa. Why didn't he just transfer his soul into a suit of armor again and seal the gate on the other side? It's not like there weren't any lying around. It would have seriously saved the Elric Brothers the trouble of having to leave their loved ones behind (to be fair, this is somewhat justified in that if he had done it, he could have died or end up in horrible condition if his soul was kept split).
    • Dante gets this near the end. When Gluttony's constant whining over Lust's death annoys her, she decides it would be a great idea to sap him of his sentience and turn him into a mindless animal. That in itself isn't too dumb, until you realize that she does this with no fail-safe to keep the cannibal Homunculus who already lacked self-control with sentience docile in-case he got a little hungry. Can you guess how Dante met her demise?
  • If You Can Read This:
    • Any book on alchemy shown onscreen is copied from Dungeons & Dragons player's manuals on alchemy. Evidently, Amestris runs on a D20 system.
    • On the other hand, the letter Ed is writing to Winry in episode 7 actually does consist of him boastfully describing his exploits in the State Alchemy Exam (albeit in slightly questionable English) and reveals quite a bit about his character at that point in the story.
  • Image Song: In order; Ed, Roy, Al, Winry, Hughes. There's also a few group songs, two with all five.
  • Immortality Immorality: Ed is left seeing his father and Dante's lives and subsequent actions like this.
  • Immune to Bullets: Lampshaded by Al, who's left going, "It'll richoch—oh, drat."
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
    • An accidental example occurs with Majahal in Episode 4.
    • Edward towards the end. He does get better though, folks.
    • This is how Ed unintentionally kills Greed.
  • Imposter Forgot One Detail: Pointed out to Envy by Hughes when the former is trying to imitate Maria Ross. Hughes is able to realize she is fake because Envy's version of Ross does not have a mole underneath her right eye.
  • Improbable Age: Edward becomes a state alchemist at twelve.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Riza Hawkeye. She earns her name.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Trisha, Izumi Curtis, and Alfons Heidrich in The Movie.
  • Ingesting Knowledge: Scar is able to do this with his arm.
  • In Medias Res: The story begins in the middle of Ed and Al's search for the Philosopher's Stone and Ed's career as a State Alchemist. The next seven episodes are a flashback to show how they got there, building up to the time period of the first two episodes. It's framed as Al explaining his and Ed's backstory to Rose.
  • Innocuously Important Episode: Episode 9, "Be Thou For The People." It's an adaptation of one of the manga's early one-off chapter note  and like the source material a self-contained Adventure Town episode with little impact on the plot. However, this episode also introduces Lyra, who winds up serving as the host body for the Big Bad much later on.
  • Instant Runes: Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight.
  • Interrupted Suicide: Marcoh talked Roy out of shooting himself.
  • It Gets Easier: Ed breaks down crying and does a How Dare You Die on Me! after killing Greed, but kills Sloth, who looks like his mother, with cold precision. He actually discusses this with Al a couple episodes after Greed's death, hating the fact that it's gotten easier.
  • It's Always Spring; With the exception of snow in episode 6, the weather seems to stay the same throughout the course of the series, with the characters wearing the same outfits year-round. This is in contrast to the manga, which has characters gradually wear warmer clothing up until the Time Skip.
  • It Will Never Catch On: During the epilogue with Ed and Hohenheim in pre-World War II Germany, Ed is looking into rockets as he thinks perhaps there is something in space that will be like the Gate to get him back to Amestris. Hohenheim asks if he's studied Albert Einstein's work, but Ed says nobody believes him.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Pinako, apparently, was pretty hot back in the day.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Edward, Roy, Izumi, and Greed.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Psiren, the Phantom Thief. Subverted Trope: She was stealing for a benevolent cause, but not the one that she pretended to be stealing for.
  • Just Between You and Me: Causes Cornello's downfall in an Engineered Public Confession.
  • Just Friends: Ed pulls this off with three different women: Winry, Rose, and Noa.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: Catburglar (and local celebrity) Psiren. it's all an act, and she's only stealing them for her own selfish desires... in a sense, as she does give the people in the city some interest so that they won’t be overwhelmed by the impending doom of their slowly-sinking city.
  • Karmic Death: While it is never explicitly shown, it is very heavily implied that Dante was killed after being attacked by Gluttony, whom she had turned into a mindless, hungry monster.
  • Keeping the Handicap: In the finale, Ed regains his lost arm and leg, only to give them up again to pull Al out of the Gate, in contrast with the manga and Brotherhood, in which he gets his right arm back but his left leg is still metal and he gives up his ability to perform alchemy to restore Al's body.
  • Kill It with Fire: Roy Mustang, codenamed the Flame Alchemist. Go on, guess what he does with his alchemy.
  • Killed Off for Real: Trisha (illness), Cornello (eaten by Gluttony), Majahal (fell on his own sword), Nina (Mercy Kill via Scar), Basque Grand (via Scar), Mugear (cave-in), the younger Slicer Brother (suicide), the older Slicer Brother (seal destroyed by Lust), Marcoh (eaten by Gluttony), Yoki (stabbed by Lust), Barry the Chopper (via Scar), Maes Hughes (shot by Envy), Law and Dorochet (killed by Lust and Gluttony), Lujon (stabbed by Lust), Lyra (body taken over by Dante, eviscerated by her in her body), Greed (impaled by Ed), Marta (impaled by Pride), Kimblee (via Scar), Scar (gunshot wounds), Lust (stabbed by Wrath), Sloth (evaporated by Ed), Selim (strangled to death by Pride), Pride (burned by Mustang), Archer (gunshot wounds from Hawkeye), Dante (eaten by Gluttony) and in the movie, Izumi (succumbed to illness), Wrath (sacrificed by Al), Gluttony (sacrificed by Al), Envy (sacrificed), Hohenheim (suicide), Heidrich (shot by Rudolf Hess), and Eckhart (shot by a Hughes Expy). Basically, this is a show where Anyone Can Die.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • Shou Tucker is spared death from Scar and therefore a trip to Hell for fusing his daughter Nina with his dog, Alexander. But that doesn't mean he escapes karma beyond jailtime. It's revealed that he was horribly mutated into a chimera himself after one of his experiments rebounded on him. Even more poetic is that accident was one of his many failed attempts to bring Nina back from the dead, showcasing a sense of empathy that his manga lacks. When his attempt to use the Philosopher's Stone only succeeds in creating a souless shell of Nina, Shou suffers a massive mental breakdown and he is last seen scribing Alchemy arrays on the wall and cradling the lifeless Nina doll in his arms, in complete denial that Nina is gone for good and he could do nothing to undo it. A fitting Fate Worse than Death for man who overrode his small conscience for his selfish wants.
    • Perhaps a case of Sidewinder Karma - Wrath kills Lust, the only person the manchild-like Gluttony ever cared for. Then Dante inadvertently turns Gluttony into a mindless monster and he gets trapped in the sunken city beneath Central, supposedly never to be seen again. Between the end of the series and The Movie, Wrath pulls a Heel–Face Turn and helps Al to get back to the last place The Gate was seen: the sunken city. Upon their arrival, they're attacked by a monstrous and mutated Gluttony, who's out to kill Wrath for what he did to Lust. Gluttony inflicts a mortal wound on Wrath, but that was Wrath's plan all along. While Gluttony munches on Wrath like a chew toy, Al transmutes both of them to summon the Gate, and Wrath freely accepts his fate.
  • Life Energy:
  • A Light in the Distance: Edward and Alphonse's mother, Trisha Elric, would light a lantern to use in order to help guide her sons home.
  • Locked Out of the Loop:
    • Roy hides Hughes’ death from Ed and Al to keep them focused on their mission. Only when Sheska happens to inadvertently spill the beans near the end of the series does Ed find out.
    • Roy also hides the civil war in Liore from Ed and Al. In his words, overthrowing Cornello was one of their first real victories, he wasn't ready to take that away from them with the knowledge that they indirectly caused all that suffering.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Ed, Envy, and Al in The Movie
  • Long Song, Short Scene: The ending themes were further truncated in the American broadcast.
  • Loony Librarian: While we don't get to see her actually working as a librarian (courtesy of her quirks having gotten her fired), Sheska counts: not only is she an obsessive bookworm (to the point that when Ed and Al go to her home, she has been buried for a couple of days under an avalanche of books) who has read all of the Central library's books, but she also has a perfect Photographic Memory. After she helps the Elrics by transcribing the book they were seeking (which got burned alongside an entire wing of the library courtesy of the Homunculi trying to keep information away from the brothers), Colonel Roy Mustang hires her to copy all of the other burnt literature and from what little we see of her afterwards she spends the rest of the series in this role.
  • Loophole Abuse: Armstrong directly calls Scar out on it when he says that Scar gets around committing the Ishbalan-labeled sin of alchemy by only stopping at the second step (Deconstruction).
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Majahal's plans were a result of (apparently) losing a woman he loved.
  • Loss of Identity: To an extent, the homunculi. the memories of the original people they take the likeness of can overcome them, for a while, or for a very long time. Sloth strongly fears this effect.
  • Lost Voice Plot: Rose ends up losing her voice after the military captured and raped her before she returned as the "Holy Mother" with a child in tow. Fortunately, she was able to get her voice back and help Ed.
  • Lower-Deck Episode: "Flame Alchemist", in which the Elrics do not appear and Mustang and his crew take the spotlight.
  • Made of Iron: Al, in a quite literal sense.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: This trope lies at the very core of the show and of its reveals.
  • Magic from Technology: Alchemy is used as an explanation for the Steampunk setting.
  • Magical Realism: Hints of it in Earth. While Alchemy doesn't work, it's hinted in The Movie that if there's something akin to Alchemy present, it's very subtle.
  • Mandatory Line: Parodied in Created Human. The episode opens with Hughes on the phone with Colonel Mustang, who complains that "[he] hasn't made an appearance lately." The camera then pans out to show all of his support staff before Hughes hangs up and Team Mustang isn't seen for the rest of the episode.
  • Manly Tears: Armstrong does it a lot. Ed and Roy to a lesser extent.
  • Master-Apprentice Chain: Dante trained Izumi, who in turn trained Ed and Al. All of them display the flamel symbol somewhere, though for Dante it's not on her person but on her wall.
  • Meaningful Name: The Fuhrer is named King Bradley although in his case it's justified. There's also sharpshooter Riza Hawkeye and, on a subtler level, Roy (Roi means "king" in French. Guess who wants to replace King as Fuhrer?). Scieska is Polish for 'path', and she is a living path to lost documents.
  • Mercy Kill: Scar does this to Nina and Alexander.
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Whether we're talking about the Elric Brothers' human transmutation attempt to revive their mother or Maes Hughes getting killed because He Knows Too Much, we end up coming into some horrifying revelations not only about the power in Amestris being secretly controlled by a body-snatching bitch and her set of homunculi created from such attempts at bringing loved ones Back from the Dead as Ed and Al's own mother, but also about the very nature of alchemy in itself being Powered by a Forsaken Child.
  • Mistaken Identity: Al is almost always mistaken for Ed by someone they are meeting for the first time due to Ed's code name and Al's appearance.
  • Mood Whiplash: This is more common early in the series. Later, things become much more consistently unfunny.
  • Mortality Phobia: Dante's wish to never die is what runs the military agenda and what makes the homunculi do what they do.
  • Motive Rant: When Ed busts Tucker for human transmutation, the latter babbles justifications for it. Ed tells him to shut up with his fist.
  • The Movie: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa. It wrapped up some of the anime's loose ends.
  • Musical Spoiler: Dante's leitmotif should be a big tip off that not everything about her is as it seems. It sounds like its being played on an old record player and sounds distant and distorted. It sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the OST. And for good reason since she secretly is the Big Bad.
  • Mysterious Parent: Hohenheim starts out as one.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Ling Yao and Xiao-Mei appeared as cameos.
    • Hiromu Arakawa's self-caricatures (in which she depicts herself as a bespectacled cartoon cow) make cameo appearances in a couple of late episodes.
    • Episode 43 is titled "Stray Dog," the same title as Hiromu Arakawa's 1999 one-shot manga, which is widely regarded as a Fullmetal Alchemist prototype.
    • Envy taunts Ed and Al by falsely implying that Hohenheim is the Homunculi's master. When this series first aired, it seemed like that was indeed the case in the manga, but it turned out to be a Red Herring.
  • The Napoleon: Ed, and he is not happy about it. He does get visibly taller over the course of the series, and in the The Movie, he's only slightly shorter than average-sized characters.
  • Necromantic: Trying to bring back the dead with alchemy is a bad idea.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands:
    • Scar's arm. It's initially introduced as simply having the power to deconstruct matter but it also has other functions such as decoding information and feeding it into Scar's brain. Justified as in this adaptation it is an incomplete Philospher's Stone, so it's more complicated than in the manga.
    • The homunculi a couple of times.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The first half of the series is all about Ed and Al unwittingly doing the legwork for Dante and the homunculi, the second half is about them trying to undo all the damage. Examples include creating Sloth; overthrowing Cornello and causing a civil war in Lior; shitcanning Yoki, which leads to Lyra going to work for Dante; encouraging Hughes to look into Lab 5/the homunculi; accidentally setting Greed free; finding Dr. Marcoh and exposing him to the homunculi; finding Wrath and letting the homunculi get their hands on him; ect.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Near the end, Envy kills Edward, so that no one will ever get in the way of Dante obtaining the Philsopher's Stone and transfer her soul into Rose. However, Alphonse uses alchemy with the stone to revive Edward, although Alphonse sacrifices himself to save him and Envy fails to stop him as he gets sent to the Gate. Dante lost the Philosopher's Stone because of her own son, Envy.
but Alphonse his alchemy with the Philsopher's Stone to
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Homunculi are not impervious to damage anymore than a normal human is, but can regenerate it right away. (Though the rate of regeneration seems to vary between them, e.g. Pride is able to regenerate almost instantaneously, while Wrath's regenerative abilities seem considerably less developed, and Lust falls somewhere in between.) They don't have great armor, just tons and tons of Hit Points, with the specific exception of Greed, whose special trick is turning his body into super-armor.
  • No Fourth Wall: One of the OVAs casts the audience as a new alchemist.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing:
    • Although Mustang and Hawkeye have a brief Ship Tease at the end of the series when Mustang talks about how the imperfect nature of the world makes it beautiful.
    Hawkeye: Just shut up and eat.
    • In fact none of the couples from the manga get together in the end. Ed doesn't end up with either Winry or Rose due to being stuck on the other side of the gate at the end and Al's love interest from the manga doesn't exist in this adaptation.
  • No Name Given: Scar's real name goes unrevealed, and his brother's is never mentioned either.
  • Nosebleed: Havoc has one when Mustang declares that when he becomes Fuhrer he will require all female officers to wear tiny miniskirts.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent:
    • The Earth scenes in The Conqueror of Shamballa, where everyone speaks without an accent (despite taking place in the Weimar Republic). Possibly justified in that having the cast speak with German accents might distract from the plot and that it could be a case of Translation Convention.
    • Though it's averted with the ending of the series, which does have Dr. Haushoffer speaking with a clearly German accent. It's justified there as he's meant to be speaking accented English.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: This happens often throughout the first part of the series. In order: Cornello, Majhal, Bald, Tucker, Barry the Chopper, and Psiren. Ed eventually lampshades it. Wrath also invokes this trope a few times, gleefully pointing out how he wound up with Ed's sacrificed arm and leg and how Izumi more or less took him (and Al) on as surrogate sons and Replacement Goldfishes for Wrath—her actual son. Lust also invokes this to counter Ed's not believing her desire to be human since being a homonculi comes with benefits of power and immortality, well so does Al's armor body which Lust points out and how Ed is trying to make him human again despite that.
  • Ocular Gushers: Al, despite not having any tear ducts. Also Armstrong whenever he sheds his Manly Tears.
  • Ode to Family: The soundtrack contains "Brothers". a Russian language song about the Elric brothers' relationship.
  • Older Than They Look: Marta looks like she's in her 20s, but is actually old enough to be Ed and Al's mom.
  • One Degree of Separation: In this version, a large degree of the characters are tightly interconnected, in part due to a massive difference in how Homunculi are "born." To whit, for major spoilers among some major players, Roy has a connection with Winry, Lust and Scar are in-laws, Wrath is related to Izumi, and Ed and Al have a shocking connection with at least one Homunculi. Hell, even Nina and Elicia are connected by the sheer coincidence of Nina being invited to Ed's birthday party!
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Envy towards Hoenheim.
  • Opening Narration: There are two different ones; the first is by Alphonse, the second is by Edward (in the dub at least, Al did the second narration originally).
  • Our Homunculi Are Different: Homunculi here have a different origin than that of the manga, being the artificial body created when a person attempts human transmutation for the purposes of resurrection. They start off as deformed, miserable beings, but after Dante feeds them fragments of Philosopher's Stones, they grown into humanoid forms with unique powers and a strong Healing Factor that makes them nearly immortal.
    • In addition, the artificial Ninas created by Tucker are even closer to more usual depictions of homunculi, being created inside large test tubes. Just like the actual Homunculi, they are said to be soulless.
  • Out of Focus: Lampshaded and Played for Laughs by Scar and Lust in the Chibi Wrap Party OVA. They complain about how their entire appearance in the film amounted to a cameo, and reveal that they even had to play Faceless Goons just to make some extra money.
  • Out of the Inferno: Pride does this several times during his final battle against Mustang. He even states he's invoking the trope on purpose to test his Healing Factor, since he's never had an occasion to do so before.

    P - Z 
  • Path of Inspiration: Cornello's cult.
  • Parasitic Immortality: Dante and Hohenheim are immortal former lovers who used the Philosopher's Stone to cheat death by jumping into new bodies. Each time that they do this, parts of their souls chip off, causing the new bodies to decay faster and necessitating quicker transfers. Eventually Hohenheim got tired of this existence, opting to use his last life to settle down and raise a family as best he could. Dante had other ideas.
  • Parental Abandonment: Poor Elric brothers, their mother died when they were younger (and then tried to revive her), and their dad abandoned somewhere along the line before this event happened.
  • Phlebotinum Breakdown:
    • If you don't know your stuff, alchemic reactions can backfire on you pretty spectacularly. Even if you do know your stuff, alchemic reactions can backfire on you pretty spectacularly. As ANYONE who committed taboo can attest...
    • Roy Mustang forgets he can't make fire in the rain when he first encounters Scar, and another character has to jump in with pistols to save him.
  • Piggybacking on Hitler: In The Movie, the Nazis and Thule Society seem to be piggybacking on each other. The former see their Thule comrades' plans to open Shambhala/Amestris as a key in forging their thousand-year Reich while the latter generally considers them a grand distraction preventing the outside world from interfering with their scheme.
  • Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: Hohenheim's face is obscured on the only family picture the Elric's have.
  • Pocket Protector: A boy is saved from a bullet by having a locket with a picture of his deceased mother hidden underneath his shirt. Made more poignant by the fact that this locket had been a point of strife between the boy and his brother, who had held a grudge against their mother for a certain misunderstanding. Adding to the Emotional Torque is that the bullet causes the locket, which was stuck up to that point, to open, its contents clearing up the misunderstanding.
  • Possession Burnout: Those possessed by Dante or Hohenheim.
  • Post-Episode Trailer: A brief one at the end of each episode, narrated by Al.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: Used as The Reveal no less than three different times.
  • The Power of Blood: Used in Ed and Al's attempt to bring their mother back.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: To mitigate the risk of overtaking the manga, the first half of the anime adapted light novels and bonus gags and added several well-received original episodes. As it became clear that the anime would actually outpace the manga, Arakawa pitched in to guide the show's storyline in its own direction so it could stand on its own merits.
  • Product Placement: In episode 26, there's a blink-and-you'll miss it appearance of... Snyder's of Hanover. Yes, the pretzel company. Apparently Amestris has very modern snack foods.
    • The Snyder's packages use the current designs, as opposed to the (much simpler) packaging they would have had so soon after their founding in 1909.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Gluttony has the intelligence of a small child and needs Lust to mind his behavior. He's also a voracious, man-eating Homunculus.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack:
    • The old chestnut, the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth, is used to surprisingly great effect for The Reveal of what's on the other side of the gate. It really gives you the feeling that you've suddenly been transported from the fantastic world of the anime to the "real" one.
    • Chopin's "Tristesse" shows up in the denouement of the final episode.
  • Putting on the Reich: Amestris is a military dictatorship modeled on 20th century Germany. The leader is King Bradley, a man titled "Fuhrer" with a prominent moustache.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: Greed's chimeras, most of whom don't last long.
  • Ragnarök Proofing: The underground city beneath Central looks positively pristine for having been abandoned and buried for 400 years. The opera house even has all its electrical wiring working and not a speck of dust.
  • Raiders of the Lost Parody: In the 5th Laboratory episode of the 2003 anime series, there is a Giant Rolling Ball of Doom sequence a la Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Rape as Drama: Rose's rape turns her into a catatonic mute.
  • Real Is Brown: The scenes on Earth at the end of the series are in much duller colors compared to those seen in Ed and Al's world.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Hohenheim, Dante, and most of the homunculi.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Scar, Lust, and Wrath.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • All Ishbalans have red eyes, but it's subverted because they're nice (if bitter) people.
    • At first this seems to be played straight with Scar, but Ed later realizes that being scared of Scar's red eyes was a racist reflex.
    • More fitting into the trope, the homunculi have reddish-purple eyes.
  • Replacement Goldfish:
    • The homunculi. Wrath and Sloth are a particularly poignant example, as they were made as Replacement Goldfish, and then adopted each other as replacement goldfish for their creators.
    • Earlier, Barry attempted to convince Al that he is one of these, created by Ed.
    • Shou Tucker's guilt over what he did to Nina makes him desperate to make a copy of her. He ends up creating a soulless chimaera that looks like her, and carries it around like a doll.
  • Reusable Lighter Toss: Done by Roy with Havoc's lighter. His ex-wife gave him that lighter!
  • The Reveal: Many, some shared with manga, others original.
    • The Philosopher's Stone is created by harvesting human souls.
    • Mustang is the one who (reluctantly) killed Winry's parents during the Ishbalan war, on the orders of Basque Grand.
    • The Homunculi are created from human transmutation and many of them are connected to the main cast in their previous lives.
      • Lust was Scar's sister-in-law.
      • Wrath was Izumi's stillborn son - who happens to be attached to Ed's stolen limbs.
      • "Juliet Douglas," Führer Bradley's attendant, is not only Sloth, but also the Homunculus of Trisha Elric who Ed and Al created when trying to revive their mother.
      • Führer Bradley himself is Pride.
      • Envy was Hohenheim's first son and Ed & Al's half-brother.
    • The Homunculi's master is Dante. She's also a Body Snatcher and whenever Lyra has appeared since episode 34, that was really Dante inhabiting her body.
    • The other side of the Gate of Truth is our world; the souls of the real world's dead flow through the Gate and power alchemy in the world of Amestris.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Black Hayate, Riza's adorable puppy.
  • Sacrificial Revival Spell: Ed is killed by Envy, then Alphonse transmutes his own life into Ed's, then Ed transmutes his life and body into Al's life and a new body for him, to boot. Alphonse can't repeat the process after that because Ed gets stuck in a parallel universe.
  • Sand In My Eyes: Or rather, "It's raining," which is said by Roy at Hughes's funeral.
  • Save Both Worlds: What ultimately transpires, mainly via the Amestris cast, in The Movie. From Nazis.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: This is one of the first clues that Shou Tucker isn't benevolent.
  • Schizo Tech:
    • The world mixes 1920s tech with alchemy and cybernetic limbs. And full-body prosthetics.
    • Clothing and morals are also (relatively) modern, where turn-of-the-century outfits coexist with gender equality.
    • Also, there's a lack of aircraft. Which serves as a plot point in the ending as well as The Movie.
    • Firearms are also reminiscent of both The '50s and the Vietnam War, compared to the WW2 guns in the manga.
  • Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Riza Hawkeye in the "Ready Steady Go" opening scenes.
  • Self-Deprecation: The Chibi Wrap Party OVA, where everyone jokes about the events of The Movie, usually poking fun to their characters, and actions, and cameos.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The homunculi represent each of them although the identities of some vary from the original source, due to it being still published at the time the anime reached its climax.
  • Shadow Archetype:
    • The homunculi are largely the "shadow" of the deceased person whose human transmutation backfired.
    • Several characters have other characters who parallel or mirror them in some form. Examples include:
      • Tucker to Edward
      • Dante to Edward
      • Scar to Alphonse
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Envy loves this tactic, but it's subverted hilariously when Envy takes Roy's form against Edward. "I don't think you could've picked an easier target!"
  • Ship Tease: This anime is particularly (in)famous for providing enough material to ship everyone.
  • Shirtless Scene: Armstrong is a mobile Shirtless Scene. Ed has a tendency to tear his shirt in order to show off his arm.
  • Shooting Superman: Note to train hijackers - shooting Al won't help; all that happens is the bullets will ricochet off him and hit you. He DOES try to warn them... twice.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • Conqueror of Shamballa is a fairly accurate portrayal of the political climate in 1920s Germany. Although there were some obvious deviations from the actual history, they were clearly intentional. The Munich scenes were based on photos taken from the city itself. Also, the firearms used in the same scenes are models that were more or less available in 1923.
    • The World War I scenes towards the end of the series are likewise based on the fact that Zeppelins did bomb London at the time. In fact, Ed's "Earth-death" is based on a historical account of one of the airships crashing in the city.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Gate heavily resembles "The Gate of Hell" sculpture minus some of the Biblical figures.
    • The two Protagonists' last name is Elric.
    • The first scene of the fourth opening animation is likely a visual homage to a similar scene in Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
    • One of Mustang's female admirers gives him two tickets to a play with a title suspicisously familiar to There's Something About Mary.
    • When Ed goes into Laboratory 5, he trips a number of traps just like the ones in Indiana Jones. There's even a giant boulder!
    • Coincidentally, The Movie itself wouldn't be out of place in the Indiana Jones continuity, what with the presence of Nazis and otherworldly beings which technically includes the Elric brothers.
    • Shou Tucker's tank of soulless Nina husks resembles the tank of Rei's in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Ed gives one to Shou Tucker when the later tries to justify his human transmutation.
  • Sibling Murder: Near the end, Envy kills his half-brother Edward. In fact the reason Ed was impaled was because he was so shocked by the reveal that the villainous Envy is his brother that he freezes up and leaves an opening. He is later revived.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: Hughes for his daughter. They even have an Image Song together! How much cuter do you get than that?!
  • Silent Credits: Right after Hughes' Meaningful Funeral.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: This series is more towards the center of the scale rather than the idealism of the manga. The central thesis of the series is that you may work very hard, but you might not get what you want in the end. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth it to try, and that the struggle is an inherent part of life.
  • The Sociopath: Mugear is a businessman who was perfectly willing to poison a nearby town to make the Red Water, and had his lead scientist eliminated to keep that fact quiet.
  • Sociopathic Soldier: Kimblee used to be the second type during the Ishbalan war.
  • Solemn Ending Theme: The credits for the episode where Hughes is killed are different from the rest. Instead of the usual ending theme set over animation, we just get the credits scrolling over a black background set to a rather serious song without lyrics. Fittingly, it's the indicator that the tone of the series is about to change for the darker.
  • The Soulless: Homunculi are said to have no souls, which prevents them from using alchemy as they lack a connection to the Gate of Truth. The artificial Ninas are also evidently soulless, though more evident than Homunculi as they don't speak and barely move.
  • Spared By Adaptation: Shou Tucker dies in the manga, but lives in this version, and becomes a fairly important secondary character. Not that living is a much kinder fate for him.
  • Special Effect Branding: Justified; the transmutation circles's designs vary depending on what's being transmuted, whether the alchemist has seen the Gate, and other factors.
  • Specifically Numbered Group: The Big Bad employs a maximum of seven homunculi at any one time, giving them codenames based on the Seven Deadly Sins. This is in contrast to the original manga, where the homunculi are literal embodiments of the Seven Deadly Sins which split off from the Big Bad and thus cannot gain new members (though they can be "rebooted" to some extent).
  • Spiritual Antithesis: Interestingly, the series serves as this to the manga (and by extension Brotherhood). The manga's central theme is supportive of equivalent exchange: You can only grow stronger through sacrifice, and the lessons you learn through this pain will make you into a stronger, wiser person able to overcome the obstacles in your path. This series has a more cynical message, one that paints equivalent exchange as a flawed ideology: No matter how much you sacrifice, there is no guarantee that you will be rewarded in kind. However, sacrifice is an unavoidable part of life, and even if the world is unfair, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make it a better place.
  • Spot the Imposter: "The Other Brothers Elric".
  • Stab the Scorpion: When Marta is with the brothers in the desert, she throws a knife at them after Ed calls her a criminal. They jump out of the way, and then see that she actually stabbed a snake through the head.
  • The Stoic: Hawkeye rarely shows much emotion.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Ed and Al look a lot like their father but in differing ways; Ed resembles him the most while Al looking more like a mix between Trisha and Hohenheim. Envy looks like an even bishier version of an older Ed (which is peculiar considering Hohenheim has been jumping between hosts for centuries) but the reveal is no less effective to his horrified half-brother.
    • In the movie, Al takes to dressing like Ed which helps to highlight his resemblance to his older brother.
  • Stock Sound Effects: Some Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. and Series 4000 Hollywood sound effects are heard, according to Sound Effects Wiki. Shizuo Kurahashi, the SFX editor of this anime, is very good at using cartoony sound effects, isn't he?
  • Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Basically, the plot of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa. Hitler only has a minor cameo in the story, and it's actually his backers, the occultist Thule Society, that are responsible for the crazy plot.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Hawkeye and Sloth can appear cold, but they have some softer moments, too.
  • Thanatos Gambit: When Greed realizes that he's going to die anyway, he provokes Ed (who had never killed anyone up to this point) into killing him. As he's dying, he reveals the Kryptonite Factor of a homunculus so that Ed will be able to take out the other homunculi.
  • Theme Naming: Most of the military characters are named after weapons, vehicles, and companies from around World War II. The homunculi, meanwhile, are named after the seven deadly sins, and their master Dante is named after Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy.
  • Theotech: The show involves an extradimensional portal known as the Gate of Truth, which is emblazoned with the Arber Sephirotheca and implied to house God itself, though Christianity itself is implied to be a dead religion due to the proliferation of Alchemy allowing anyone to perform seeming miracles. This coincides with the advanced technology like armblades and advanced artillery.
  • 13 Is Unlucky: Warehouse 13 is fodder for a ghost hunt episode. It actually turns out to be Warehouse B, and Mustang's men are just a bunch of panicky idiots.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: In The Movie. Taken to disturbing levels by Earth's Hughes, who's simultaneously a comic relief character and a Nazi supporter.
  • Title Sequence Replacement: The [adult swim] run used only two of the series' four Title Sequences.
  • Together in Death: Wrath finds Izumi in the afterlife in The Movie.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Al, once Barry screws with his mind.
  • Traintop Battle: It ends with Ed turning the locomotive's tender into a water cannon.
  • Transformation of the Possessed: Dante's physical deterioration although with Empty Shells instead of hosts.
  • Trapped in Another World: What happens to Ed in the end. An even bigger twist? It's a version of our world. Al joins him on Earth at the end of the movie.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Ed has one near the beginning of the series when in short succession he learns the man he has been living with for a while transmuted his own wife and later daughter into chimeras, he runs into the gory remains of said daughter, learns that the whole debacle is being swept under the rug by the Military, and then has the bad fortune to get grabbed by a serial killer who very nearly kills him. In the course of like 2 days. At the age of 12. Its no wonder he was a sobbing mess after all was said and done.
  • A True Story in My Universe: If The Movie and Kids OVA are anything to go by, it's implied that either the Elric brothers eventually had their experiences made into a movie in our world or their story inspired Arakawa to make the franchise in the first place. Alfons in the movie even lampshades it by suggesting to Ed that he become a novelist.
  • Tsundere: Winry and Izumi. Ed can sometimes be viewed as a male example.
  • Vain Sorceress: The reason why Dante usurped Lyra's body? To keep her beauty intact, even though her body was starting to rot right away once she transferred into it. And she was already used to it due to her immortality.
  • Villain Episode: "Reunion of the Fallen", which is damn depressing to boot.
  • Villain Song: "Trance to Homunculus" from the official soundtrack is this for the Homunculi, though it's mostly just a creepy techno beat set to quotes from the titular characters. Still awesome, though.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Quite a few of them.
    • Envy flies into a homicidal rage after Dante sends Hohenheim through the Gate, depriving him of the chance to kill him.
    • Wrath flips out after Edward kills his "mother", Sloth (with his help, no less). Gluttony falls into a depression when Ed tells him Wrath killed Lust.
    • In The Movie, Eckhart just loses it all together once she crosses over to Amestris and has her paranoid delusions "confirmed".
    • Dante, the main villain, has one after the final confrontation while trying to flee the scene. She rants angrily about how the Elrics have squandered the Philosopher's Stone, knowing full well that she most likely won't have enough time to create a new one before her current body rots away. To her credit, though, she manages to restrain herself well, even when a mindless Gluttony decides to pop in for a visit...
    • Pride gets into a rage after his adopted son, Selim, brings his remains to him when he was fighting Roy. He proceeds to strangle him, and breaks his neck.
  • Villainy Discretion Shot: During the several centuries he lived with his lover Dante, Hohenheim joined her in killing people and stealing their bodies in order to remain young. He did repent, though, and planned on dying of old age in his current body.
  • Villainous Crossdresser: Barry the Chopper in his first appearance. It's really creepy. Also played with with Envy.
  • Walking Spoiler: The Big Bad. It's very difficult to talk about Dante without revealing Lyra's fate, her relationship with Hohenheim (and Envy by extension), and her role as Father's replacement, among other things.
  • Welcome to the Real World: Near the end of the series, it is revealed that on the other end of the Gate can be found our world, from which the souls of the dead flow to power alchemical transmutations.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Maes Hughes' death in episode 25, which plays out similarly to the same scene in the manga, but with different dialogue, marking it not only as an important event in the story, but also as an important point of story divergence.
    • Episode 40: Ed learns that Scar is planning on luring the military to Lior to transmute them into a Philosopher's Stone and that Rose was captured and gang-raped by a group of soldiers sometime during the previous raid (impregnating her and traumatizing her to the point that she can't speak). Lyranote  returns and plans to help Scar and Rose with the endeavor. King Bradley is revealed to be a Homunculus (Pride, specifically) and kills Marta. Yeah, this is the point where things start looking really grim...
    • Episode 42: Kimblee turns Al into a bomb. Scar manages to sacrifice his arm and transfer it onto Al. Scar then completes the Philosopher's Stone within Alphonse, sacrificing 7000 soldiers in the process. Ed then finds Al and Lust tells them they should go, since she cannot intervene, as Scar gave Alphonse her locket. Thus the boys go on the run, kick-starting the final arc.
    • Episode 50, simply because Ed DIES. So far in this anime, anyone who has died stays dead, period. So when Ed gets stabbed by Envy, a lot of people thought he was really dead. The scenes shortly before that are also a huge game-changer, as they finally reveal what's at the other side of the Gate: our world. Specifically, London in World War I.
  • Wham Line:
    • An infamous one from "Night of the Chimera's Cry".
    Ed: (to Shou Tucker, after he presents him with his new Chimera) Now tell me this...where exactly have Alexander and Nina gone to?
    • From episode 18:
    Ed: The last ingredient to the stone...is live human beings!
    Ed: (after Rose comes in holding a crying baby) What did [the military] do to Rose?
    Scar: Several soldiers took her back to their base when they captured her. Whatever they did to her, it traumatized her to the point that she could no longer speak.
    (Ed makes an expression that easily mirrors that of the viewers)
    • And later:
    Fuhrer Bradley: (to Marta) Your agile moves won't work against me, snake-chimera. I have the Ultimate Eye!
    • From episode 44:
    Lyra: Have you come with valiant efforts to save me?
    Hohenheim: Not this time, Dante.
    • From episode 50:
    Ed: (to Envy) Y-You're...his son!?
  • Wham Shot:
    • The blue rose petal on the old woman from episode 4, proving that she's actually the presumed dead Corrine.
    • King Bradley's secretary killing a man with a jet of water formed from her hand, signaling to the audience that she isn't actually human.
    • In episode 50, Envy's true form, which looks like Hohenheim.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: With Envy, Pride and Greed as the only unambiguous exceptions, a lot of the Homunculi are alluded to be "replacements" for previous ones; Envy refers to Wrath as "the new Wrath" and Lust informs Greed that she's the second among them to bear that name. Greed also implies that there used to be another Sloth, and Envy even states that if Edward kills any of them "you-know-who" will just replace them. We are never shown how the previous ones died.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Homunculi and chimeras. The question is a central part of the homunculus Lust's character arc.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: Ed changes the color of his hair and wears platform shoes at one point in the series.
  • Wrench Wench: Winry, a childhood friend of the Elric brothers and the mechanic responsible for keeping Edward's automail prosthetics in working shape.
  • You Can't Go Home Again:
    • At the end of the movie, Edward and Alphonse elect to remain in our world, sealing off the gate back home behind them.
    • Earlier, Ed and Al invoke this by burning down their house, so that they have nowhere to return to.
  • Zeppelins from Another World: Literally. At the end of the anime, they're Ed's cue that he's not in Amestris anymore. He's in London during World War I.

"But nothing's ever perfect; haven't you realized that yet? Earth turns on a tilted axis, just doing the best it can."

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Tomato + Potato = Pomato

Havoc assumes that Alex's little sister will be a giant like Alex and his parents. He's gobsmacked when she turns out to be a lovely young woman.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (12 votes)

Example of:

Main / TheUglyGuysHotDaughter

Media sources:

Report