Fullmetal Alchemist Watch Order: Including Anime, Movies & Live-Action
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In this article, we are going to give you a thorough insight into the Fullmetal Alchemist anime series. You’re going to get all the necessary information, as well as a complete guide to watching the whole series, including the anime movies and the live-action movies. In case you want to finally start with one of the best anime series of all time, we have you ready with the complete Fullmetal Alchemist watch order, which doesn’t only include the major two anime series, but also movies and a live-action movie.
How many Episodes does Fullmetal Alchemist have?
The original Fullmetal Alchemist has 51 episodes and 4 OVAs, each around 24 minutes long. These episodes follow the brothers on their quest to find the Philosopher’s Stone and uncover the dark secrets of alchemy. Along the way, they encounter various interesting characters, including other alchemists, military officers, and villains.
In addition to the 51 episodes, there are also four original video animations (OVAs) that were released with the series. These OVAs expand on some of the side stories and characters that are introduced in the main series.
and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has 64 episodes and 4 OVAs. Putting both Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood together amounts to 115 episodes and 8 OVAs in total.
How many Episodes does Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood have?
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has 64 episodes and 4 OVAs. The 64 episodes of “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” cover the entire story of the manga series, from beginning to end, and include more character development and plot points that were not present in the original anime series. The series is well-known for its action-packed scenes, engaging storylines, and emotional character moments. Both Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood amount to 115 episodes and 8 OVAs in total.
Fullmetal Alchemist watch order by release date
In this section, we are going to bring you an overview of the Fullmetal Alchemist works in the proper release order:
- Fullmetal Alchemist (anime, 2003–2004)
- Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (movie, 2005)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: “Chibi Party”, “Kids”, “Live-Action”, and “Alchemists vs. Homunculi” (OVA, 2006)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (anime, 2009–2010)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: “The Blind Alchemist”, “Simple People”, “The Tale of Teacher”, and “Yet Another Man’s Battlefield” (OVA, 2009–2010)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011)
- Fullmetal Alchemist (live-action, 2017)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Chapter – The Avenger Scar (live-action, 2022)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Chapter – The Last Transmutation (live-action, 2022)
In the next part of this article, we are going to tell you how you should watch the series in chronological order.
Fullmetal Alchemist chronological watch order
In this section, we are going to give you a chronological Fullmetal Alchemist watch order. The order is going to be divided into three larger sections, and you should watch the series according to these three sections, and the subsections provided inside:
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist (anime, 2003–2004)
The Elric brothers (Edward and Alphonse) inherited their talent as alchemists from their father, who left the family home without ever returning. Following the death of their mother, the two young people try to revive her through alchemy, by performing a human transmutation despite the ban. The operation fails and the two brothers suffer the backlash.
Al disappears and Ed loses his leg but saves his body-deprived brother by fixing his spirit in the metal body of medieval armor with a transmutation circle drawn with his blood, but must sacrifice an arm for it. Subsequently, he will use mechanical metal prostheses, mecagrafts (1st dubbing) or automails (second dubbing). Ed then passes the exam and becomes a State Alchemist, so he can travel and find the Philosopher’s Stone, for his brother and him to find their bodies.
Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (movie, 2005)
The Elric brothers find themselves in two different worlds, separated by “the door”: Edward finds himself in a world where technology replaces alchemy (a world supposed to be ours, and featuring Hitler’s failed putsch in 1923, then that Alphonse is still in the world where they were born, ruled by alchemy.
Having been able, thanks to research carried out by an occult group close to the Führer called the Thule Society, to get in touch, the two brothers will do everything to find each other. Unfortunately, the powers of alchemy fascinate, and Edward is not the only one who wants to cross “the door”.
This episode is deeply rooted in the German interwar period and the historical references evoked are numerous and often correct, with the presence of various well-known characters from this period.
Thus Hitler or Fritz Lang play their own role, as well as Karl Haushofer, a Munich geopolitical scientist whose theories were taken over by Nazism, while Dietrich Eckart, one of the founders of the German Workers’ Party, finds himself in the female version in the character of Dietlinde Eckart.
Fullmetal Alchemist: “Chibi Party”, “Kids”, “Live-Action”, and “Alchemists vs. Homunculi” (OVA, 2006)
This is a series of four non-canon OVA episodes that can be watched at any time, or also skipped. They contain different stories which somehow fit into the context of the original anime, but are not canon.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
“The Tale of Teacher” (OVA) – set before the events of Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood starts when Izumi was eighteen years old, she came to the North to become an apprentice to the alchemist Silver Steiner. He demanded that she spend a month alone in the mountains of Briggs, with only a knife, after which she could begin training with him. Already on the second day, Izumi was discovered by the soldiers of Briggs Fortress. She defeats them and takes away food rations. On the eighth day, Izumi was close to starvation, but gathering her strength, she decides that she cannot die and must survive, no matter what.
On the 16th day, she came to the conclusion that the strong and cruel survive in the world. On the 24th day, Izumi decided that she knew how the world worked. By the end of the month, the girl understood the meaning of alchemy, expressed by the phrase “one is all, and all is one.” However, when she returns a month later, Izumi learns that she was not talking to an alchemist who had died long ago, but to his older brother, Gold Steiner, a master hand-to-hand combatant. Angry, Izumi hits him and leaves. On the way back, she met Sig Curtis. They fell in love at first sight and carried their love throughout their lives.
“Yet Another Man’s Battlefield” (OVA) – set before the events of Brotherhood
The 18-year-old Roy Mustang enters the Military Academy. There, he encountered xenophobic manifestations toward an Ishvalan cadet named Heathcliff Erbe. Later, Mustang meets cadet Maes Hughes. They soon became rivals, competing in training and combat training. One day, Roy sees the upperclassmen insult Erbe and stand up for him.
A fight breaks out, but Hughes unexpectedly comes to Roy’s aid, sharing Mustang’s views. So Roy, Maes, and Heathcliff become friends. They later discuss their reasons for enlisting in the military. 1908, the order is given to clear Ishval. Mustang and Erbe clash on the battlefield. Heathcliff shoots Roy, but is saved by a silver watch, the mark of the state alchemist. Hughes, who was covering for a friend, kills Erbe. The surviving Mustang falls into despair, not understanding why he is killing the citizens of his country, for whose protection he joined the army.
Hughes arrives. Maes explains to Roy that he learned one thing during the war: the greatest happiness is to live peacefully with the woman you love, and for this he will survive, no matter what the cost. Hughes will not forget what he did in the war, but he will hide his sins deep inside himself and make his wife happy. Maes managed to shake Roy, because the war is not over yet. Upon his return, Mustang witnesses Hughes’ reunion with his wife and becomes jealous of his friend.
“The Blind Alchemist” – set directly before the events of Brotherhood
Edward and Alphonse heard about a blind alchemist named Jude in the employ of the Humbergang family who allegedly successfully performed human transformation. After meeting with him, Ed learns that Jude really resurrected the daughter of his master, Rosalie, with the help of alchemy, having lost his eyes in return. However, Jude refuses to train Edward. Rosalie takes Al to a room where she shows him the mummy of a little girl.
She explains that this is the real daughter of the Humbergangs, resulting from Jude’s human transformation, while she herself is a girl named Amy, who was adopted from an orphanage for her resemblance to Rosalie. The Humbergangs, feeling guilty about their alchemist who lost his eyes, could not tell him the truth, so they passed off the orphanage girl as the animated Rosalie.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (anime, 2009–2010)
In the country of Amestris, a country where alchemy is elevated to the rank of universal science, two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, travel the country in search of the legendary philosopher’s stone. Their father left them and their mother, Trisha Elric, died a few years later of an illness, leaving her two young children behind.
Sometime later, the two brothers try to bring her back thanks to alchemy, defying the law which formally prohibits human transmutation. They will pay a heavy price. Edward, the eldest, will lose his left leg, his little brother his whole body. Ed will sacrifice his right arm by sealing the soul of his little brother Alphonse in armor.
Edward decides to enlist in the army at the age of 12 as a State Alchemist, passes the exam with flying colors, and obtains his alchemist name: Fullmetal. Helped by Edward’s state alchemist status, the two brothers will seek, at the risk of their lives, the stone that will give them back what they have lost, but the secret of the philosopher’s stone is well kept.
“Simple People” – set between episodes 1 and 3 of Brotherhood
The Elric brothers are going to Resembool to fix Ed’s armor. To appease Winry, they decide to buy her silver earrings as a gift. Later, Edward fights the assassin and his auto-armor breaks again. To avoid Winry’s wrath, he buys earrings again. Winry explains that she decided to get her ears pierced after meeting Hawkeye the day Edward decided to become a state alchemist.
The brothers are surprised by such a simple explanation. Meanwhile, Hawkeye, who always cut her hair short, decided to grow her hair out. She told her friend and colleague Rebecca Catalina that she decided to do this after meeting with Winry. Rebecca is surprised at such a simple reason. In response, Hawkeye says that the reasons are always simple, because they all live in a simple world in which every pull of the trigger ends the enemy’s life.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011) – watch anytime after episode 20
The two young brothers and alchemists Edward and Alphonse Elric are assigned by the Amestris military to capture the escaped alchemist Melvin Voyager from the military prison in Central City. They are fascinated by its abilities and hope that it can be of use in their quest for the Philosopher’s Stone.
They follow him to Table City on the border of Amestris and Creta, where upon arrival they are attacked by Chimeras and a fight ensues between Bat Soldiers and Amestrians. Melvin escapes and the Elric brothers follow him to a prison. In this, Melvin wants to find Julia Crichton, who had just been captured. There the three meet Miranda, the leader of the bat soldiers, who wants to free Julia.
Edward and Melvin fight while Juliet is freed and falls into the ravine surrounding Table City with Alphonse. In the fight, Melvin reveals that he is actually Julia’s brother, Ashleigh, before Edward can follow his brother into the ravine. Below, Edward learns from the poor residents here that they were once the people of Milos.
But when this was conquered by Creta and later Amestris, the inhabitants were driven into the gorge and the city above became Table City. Those who want to free Milos and its population have gathered at the bat soldiers. But they are fought by the Cretan commander Herschel with his chimeras, as well as by the Amestrian military.
Miranda says that they want to use Magma in their fight, summoning it with a red stone, the Star of Milos. The Elric brothers realize that it is a Philosopher’s Stone and explain that it was made through human sacrifice. But the Milosians still want to use it for their goals. Ashleigh also wants to help them and Julia.
Fullmetal Alchemist (live-action)
Fullmetal Alchemist (live-action, 2017)
The story unfolds during the first decades of the twentieth century, in an alternative reality in which alchemy (an ancient esoteric science which has the transmutation of matter as its main objective) constitutes a real experience, and is also extremely developed and respected. . Edward Elric and his younger brother Alphonse live in the rural town of Resembool with their mother Trisha.
After the woman’s death, the children commit the taboo act of “Human Transmutation” with the intention of bringing her mother back to life. But this backfires on them and the brothers end up paying the price of retaliation through the Law of Equivalent Exchange: Edward loses his left leg while Alphonse’s entire being is dragged into the “Door of Truth”. Edward then also sacrifices his right arm to save his brother’s soul and binds it to armor.
Edward is then entrusted with the mechanical prostheses known as “automail” in place of his missing limbs, and later decides to become a “state alchemist” to find a way to restore Alphonse’s body. By passing the entrance exam and being awarded the title of “Fullmetal Alchemist”, Edward begins his search with Alphonse to find the legendary philosopher’s stone that could repair their bodies. A mysterious group of artificial people with strange powers, the “homunculi”, plot in the shadows.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Chapter – The Avenger Scar (live-action, 2022)
Since the movie is not yet available in the West, we only have an official synopsis for the movie: “When a mysterious figure starts to target State Alchemists for their sins against God, Alchemist Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse are at their most vulnerable, meanwhile the homunculi begin to unveil themselves once again.“
Fullmetal Alchemist: Final Chapter – The Last Transmutation (live-action, 2022)
Since the movie is not yet available in the West, we can only confirm that this movie is going to be the final part of the live-action trilogy that started back in 2017. The movie is going to conclude the live-action story as it was told and will bring the series to an end.
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