For Trivia about the first anime, see Trivia.Fullmetal Alchemist 2003.
Manga/Brotherhood trivia
- Actor Allusion:
- The first thing Envy says upon meeting Ed is "Arara", an expression of surprise and interest. It is often uttered by Conan Edogawa when he's playing dumb.
- Nana Mizuki played Wrath in 03 who was a bad tempered black haired homunculus who seemingly acquired Ed's limbs through the gate. Come Brotherhood she was cast as Lan Fan who is... a bad tempered black haired girl who sacrifices her arm in emulation of Ed.
- Acting for Two:
- As was the case in the 2003 anime, Romi Park (Ed) and Rie Kugimiya (Al) also retain their roles as Armstrong's mother and Catherine Elle Armstrong respectively.
- In the English dubs of both anime, Colleen Clinkenbeard voices both Riza Hawkeye and Rosé.
- Franchise-wide example: many of the actors who voiced Canon Foreigners in the dub of 2003 anime were brought back for different parts in Brotherhood:
- Monica Rial: Lyra in the 2003 anime, May Chang in Brotherhood.
- Luci Christian: Wrath in the 2003 anime, the Truth in Brotherhood.
- Troy Baker: Frank Archer in the 2003 anime, the second Greed in Brotherhood.
- Kent Williams, who voiced Villain of the Week Majhal in the 2003 anime, now voices Father in Brotherhood.
- Adored by the Network: Brotherhood has essentially replaced the original anime, which has not aired ever since Adult Swim started airing Brotherhood (and which AS no longer has the rights to). It stayed when [adult swim] Action was replaced by the revival of Toonami, and so far, as of January 2014, Brotherhood (along with the long-running Bleach) has the distinction of being the only show on Toonami that has managed to stay on the lineup ever since the block was revived.
- Crossdressing Voices:
- On the Japanese side of things, aside from the returning Romi Park as Ed and Rie Kugimiya as Al, we also have Selim voiced by Yuko Sanpei and Envy voiced by Minami Takayama.
- In the dub's case Al is voiced by Maxey Whitehead in Brotherhood; notable since he was actually played by the male Aaron Dismuke the the first time around. Selim Bradley is voiced by Brittney Karbowski, and Wendy Powell retains her role as Envy from the first anime.
- Cross-Regional Voice Acting: Brotherhood for the most part is recorded in Texas where Funimation is. However, the voice of Kain Fuery, Kevin M. Connolly moved to Los Angeles, but was allowed to record his lines at Bang Zoom.
- Dueling Dubs:
- In 2021, the Brazilian feed of Funimation announced that they would release a dubbed version for Brotherhood, which later was discovered that it would be a new dub to be released ten years after the original dub broadcast in the country in late Sony Spin (formerly Animax). This was because Televix Entertainment bought the rights of the original dubs shortly after the respective broadcasts and still has those rights as of this year. And currently there are no official accesses for the original dub since streaming service Claro Video lose the rights from Televix.
- The same goes for the Latin American Spanish dub, as a new one was announced, this time done in Mexico, rather than Venezuela compared with the dubs of the 2003 series and the original dub of Brotherhood. However, the original actors from the Spin dub appear reprising their roles in this dub. It also has few actors reprising their roles from the live-action also dubbed in Mexico by Netflix, such as Montserrat Aguilar as Winry Rockbell.
- Fandom Nod:
- 503 as shorthand for Ed/Winry shipping, Ed calling the new Greed "Gree(d)ling".
- Pride attempting Grand Theft Me on Ed may be a nod to Fullmetal Alchemist: Bluebird's Illusion, where Ed is made into the homunculus Pride.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes:
- Funimation lost the license to Brotherhood on March 31, 2016. Hope you didn't put off buying it before then. It's still available for streaming on Crunchyroll, though. And as of January 1st, 2018, the full Brotherhood series is on Netflix. As of January 2020, the series is back on Funimation's website.
- Aniplex USA is now making two new Blu-Ray sets for the series that include both the show and the OVA, though as expected of their releases, you can expect to spend a lot of money on them. Used copies of the out of print Funimation sets remain cheaper, at least, though prices may vary.
- Late Export for You: Out of a total of 6 sidestory light novels, the first 5 were released in English in rapid succession from 2005 to 2007. However, the 6th volume, A New Beginning, wasn't licensed by VIZ Media until February 2021
for an October 2021 release. - No Dub for You: Netflix's Latin American feed removes the Spanish and Portuguese dubs, so the only language versions used there are the original Japanese and the English dub.note
- The Other Darrin:
- While a majority of the original English dub cast reprise their roles from the 2003 series, Alphonse Elric, Scar, and Hohenheim had to be recast. Aaron Dismuke couldn't reprise Al's role thanks to hitting puberty and was replaced by Maxey Whitehead. Scar was originally played by Dameon Clarke, who was unavailable and was thus replaced by J. Michael Tatum. Scott McNeil likewise could not return to reprise his role as Hohenheim and got replaced by John Swasey.
- Marcoh and Breda also received new voice actors in Brotherhood. Marcoh was voiced by Brice Armstrong in '03 and Jerry Russell in Brotherhood (Armstrong having coincidentally retired the same year Brotherhood aired), while Jeremy Inman replaced Josh Berry for Breda.
- Brotherhood replaced a good deal of the Japanese voice actors from the first anime, with the exceptions being the Elric brothers of course, as well as Hughes, Armstrong, Tucker, Yoki, Pinako, Trisha and Izumi. And two others who did return ended up playing different characters. In contrast, the English dub retained nearly all of the original voice actors; the changes basically amount to Al, Scar, Hohenheim, Marcoh, and Breda.
- This was by necessity in Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile, since Keiji Fujiwara, Kenji Utsumi, Iemasa Kayumi and Unshō Ishizuka have all sadly passed away. Hughes, Armstrong, Father and Hohenheim are voiced in this game by Kenjiro Tsuda, Jiro Saito, Akio Ōtsuka and Kenyuu Horiuchi respectively, and this'll apply to Pinako as well since Miyoko Aso has also passed on.
- In the new Latin American Spanish dub of Brotherhood done in 2021 by Funimation, and excluding the Elric brothers, none of the voice actors from the previous adaptations and dubs from the manga (2003, the Venezuelan dub from Brotherhood and the live-action film) returns, through some Mexican voice actors from the live-action film are now voicing different roles in the new dub.
- Playing Against Type: Both Kikuko Inoue and Laura Bailey when voicing Lust.
- Predecessor Casting Gag: Aaron Dismuke portrayed a young Hohenheim, having previously played Hohenheim's son Alphonse in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) (he was unable to reprise his original role due to having gone through puberty).
- Role Reprise:
- In Japanese; only Ed note , Al note , Hughes, Armstrong, Bradley, Tucker, Yoki, Pinako, Trisha and Izumi have their seiyuu from the 2003 anime, everyone else was replaced.
- The Japanese Brotherhood cast also reprises their roles in the 2021 Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile game with the obvious exceptions any cast members who died in the intervening years note .
- In the new Latin American Spanish dub of Brotherhood done in 2021 by Funimation, both Jose Manuel Vieria and Jhonny Torres reprise their roles as Edward and Alphonse Elric respectively. This is especially relevant in both cases, as none of them are living in their home country, Venezuela, with Vieria living in Spain, while Torres is now working in Mexico. Even more considering that Torres has been the only Latin American actor which had worked in all the adaptions of the manga (2003 series, Brotherhood and the live-action film).
- Screwed by the Network: Important bits of the plot have been cut for time from the [adult swim] broadcast, particularly regarding Mustang and his group after he makes his move just before the Promised Day.
- What Could Have Been: Lan Fan's voice actress wasn't available for the final episode of Brotherhood (due to Nana Mizuki going on tour at the time to promote her then-newly released album Impact Exciter), meaning we miss the end of her character development from the manga.
Live-action film trivia
- No Dub for You: Averted by Netflix, which produced dubs in Latin Spanish, European Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Korean. This is especially relevant, as Netflix rarely dubs non-Hollywood live-action works, and this film is a big aversion of that policy. Interestingly enough for Latin American viewers, unlike the anime, which was dubbed in Venezuela, this one was dubbed in Mexico, albeit with a glaring exception (see below).
- Role Reprise:
- A cross-country version of this trope: Jhonny Torres, the Venezuelan voice actor who voiced Alphonse in the anime dubbed in that country, reprises his role in the film, despite being dubbed in Mexico. This is because Torres moved to Mexico due to the social and economic crisis in his homeland (as of 2018).
- The European Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese dubs also kept most of the anime cast. Averted in Italian, as the dub moved from Milan (anime) to Rome (the movie).
Unsorted
- Acting for Two:
- Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya, Edward and Alphonse's voice actresses in the Japanese version, voiced two of Major Armstrong's family members who are his mother and his younger sister Catherine for one episode in both anime series (episodes 37 and 45 respectfully). Kugimiya also voiced Xiao-Mei in Brotherhood as well. Averted in the English dub of both series, however, where the five are portrayed by different voice actors.
- The English dub of both series has Caitlin Glass voicing both Winry and her mother Sara, and Colleen Clinkenbeard voicing both Rose Thomas and Riza Hawkeye. Averted in the Japanese version, however, where the four are portrayed by different voice actresses.
- Portmanteau Series Nickname: Hagaren for "Hagane no Renkijutsushi," meaning "The Alchemist of Steel".
