Summaries

Synopsis

Two brothers, Edward (Ryosuke Yamada) and Alphonse (Atomu Mizuishi) Elric live happily with their mother Trisha (Kaoru Hirata), but one day, disaster strikes them, and they lose their mother.

The brothers attempt what Alchemy deems immoral and illegal: human Transmutation. Ed had read about Homunculus or artificial humans in Alchemy, but creating artificial humans was not allowed.When the brothers were young, to bring back their mother, they attempted human transmutation. The results, however, were far from what they expected. Edward lost Alphonse and his leg for attempting the process. He struck a bargain with Truth and lost his arm in the process but gained his brother's soul back.Edward was brought to the Gate of Alchemy to face Truth and the consequences of their actions. Truth seems to be a constant companion to Edward because he occasionally relives through the nightmares of his consequences and has to answer to Truth, who he can contact easily. Alphonse is spared from this, because his soul exists but not in his true body. Therefore, he cannot feel pain or sleep. His body is with Truth intact and waiting for a fair exchange.Ed's missing limbs are replaced with "auto-mail" prosthetic made by the town's auto-mail mechanic whose granddaughter, Winry Rockbell (Tsubasa Honda), is the brothers' childhood friend.

Truth is a metaphysical entity that seems to be portrayed as a conscience that does the moral policing for those who mess with alchemy. Truth simply exists to stop Human alchemists from playing God and going against the destined path of nature. The Gate of Alchemy serves as the visual representation of punishment that the Alchemist goes through if they attempt to play God by experimenting with human transmutation. Truth will then take away their most valued object or person as it sees fit. But it may let the Alchemist go by exchanging either the Philosopher's stone or other equivalent exchanges.Ed and Al joined the State Alchemists to find the answers to the questions they were looking for. They are looking for the Philosopher's Stone to resurrect Al's body. They are constantly watched by Homunculus Envy, Gluttony and Lust.While being state alchemists, they are befriended by Captain Hughes (Natsuki Harada) and are constantly chided by Captain Mustang (Dean Fujioka) for their rash actions. Both the Captains have a soft spot for the brothers and help them out whenever they require it. Hughes especially goes out of his way to help the brothers out with their missions and takes care of them when they are weak. Hughes helps the brother by providing them with leads to the Philosopher's stone, and Mustang carts them back home when they cause a commotion.Hakuro (Fumiyo Kohinata) is Mustang and Hughes's commanding officer and a leader who loved the brothers and would help them out regardless. However, Hakuro did have a dark aura around him that set him apart from Captain Hughes and Mustang, who would help the boys out.While in pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone, the boys get a lead to Dr. Marcoh (Jun Kunimura), who was formerly the leading Alchemist of the military, supervising the creation of the Philosopher's Stone in secret. Marcoh is now retired and in hiding.Ed and Al also meet Tucker (Mei Yokoyama), who seemed to be a promising bio-alchemist who could help Al get his body back. Tucker was conducting experiments in Human Transmutation and is the one person to have successfully created a Chimera.While Ed goes to meet Marcoh (based on information provided by Tucker), Tucker performs an experiment on Al.

As Ed meets Marcoh he is killed by a Homunculus named Lust (Yasuko Matsuyuki). Lust spares Ed as she marks him as the human sacrifice. Before dying, Marcoh gives Ed a clue to the Transmutation of the stone and asked him to locate Lab Number 5.Meanwhile, Tucker Transmutated his own daughter Nina and her dog Alexander to create a talking Chimera. He did this as he was up for evaluation and was afraid that his state credentials would be revoked if he could not produce a talking Chimera. Ed recognized what he did and exposes him.

Hughes found out the real meaning and the exact location of Lab Number 5 (it was Hakuro who pointed them to the wrong location, which was an old, abandoned cannery). Hakuro broke up the team and sent them away separately. Mustang was sent to control the riots. Ed and Al were already at the Cannery based on Hakuro's instructions.Hughes cracked the code Marcoh left behind before he died and found the location of Lab number 5 (which was a prisoner of war camp). Lust attacks Hughes inside his office, but Hughes manages to escape.Hughes was eventually killed by Envy (Kanata Hongo), another Homunculus who can shape-shift. Envy shape-shifted into Captain Mustang and eventually killed Hughes in front of eyewitnesses.Hughes had revealed the exact location of the stone to Mustang before he died.Ed finds this out from Mustang's assistant Ross and they both head to Laboratory Number 5.

The blame of Hughes death fell on Mustang and apparently Ross comes to arrest him. However, Envy reveals himself after being set on fire by Mustang.Ed reaches Laboratory Number 5 and finds Tucker there. Tucker reveals that the Philosopher's Stone Transmutation requires living humans. Marcoh and his colleagues had Transmuted thousands of small Philosopher's Stones and kept them in suspension. Before Tucker can kill Ed, Lust arrives and kills Tucker.

Hakuro then arrived at Laboratory No. 5 to finish the incomplete experiment left by Dr. Marcoh.Hakuro wanted absolute power, which he could achieve only by commandeering the Homunculus, artificial humans. He uses Philosopher's stones to make sure that the new Homunculi could come to life and complete his mission, unleashing terror upon the inhabitants. However, before he could unleash them, the existing Homunculi tore through him and devoured him to gain power. Ultimately, the new Homunculi were wiped out under the command of Mustang's assistant Ross and Mustang's power, while the other half of them were eaten by Gluttony, a Homunculus working with the Ouroboros along with Lust and Envy.

The Philosopher's Stone was the driving force of life behind the alive Homunculi. Lust, Envy, and Gluttony (Shinji Uchiyama), however, were driven by Philosopher's Stones much more powerful than these newborn Homunculi. Therefore, they wouldn't die even after being killed many times. But every stone had its limit. They were ultimately killed after being set on fire repeatedly by Mustang. Lust and Envy lost their lives as humans after being artificial humans for too long. Gluttony had escaped in the meantime, mostly to make sure the organization of Ouroboros was aware of the new threat to their lives.

Mustang, while setting Lust on fire, took hold of the Philosopher's Stone she had inside her body and instead gave it to Ed. Edward had looked for the stone for so long and had finally had the stone in his grasp. The Philosopher's Stone's ugly reality made him hesitate to exchange it with the Truth. The Philosopher's Stone was derived from the torture of various humans imprisoned for various reasons. This experiment was headed by the State Alchemists in secret upon the orders of the State and was led by Dr. Marcoh and his group of alchemists.This reality led Ed and Al to feel absolute despair that they were to exchange their bodies with numerous souls attached to the stone. Edward's conscience simply did not allow him to do such a task. Even though Ed bore the guilt of human Transmutation and was continuously reminded of his past by various enemies, He still could not bring himself to exchange the lives of countless people and instead set out with Al and Winry to find another way.

Ed and Al are unable to get back Al's body and Ed's body parts. They refuse to exchange the Philosopher's Stone, which was made from the sacrifice of human prisoners while locked up in prison disguised as lab no. 5. Ed and Al did not want to exchange their lives for their bodies. Truth was willing to accept the stone, but Edward took a step back because his conscience would not allow him to go forward. Thus, they set out on a quest to find another way of getting Al's body back from Truth.