What is Full Metal Alchemist about?
Full Metal Alchemist (also called Fullmetal Alchemist) is the story of two brothers, Edward and Alfonse Elric. Their mother dies when they are children, so they study alchemy and attempt to revive her. Human transmutation is forbidden, and they are punished: Alfonse loses his body and Edward loses an arm and a leg. In a last ditch effort to save his brother, Edward ties Alfonse’s soul to an empty suit of armor. (I swear these are not spoilers!) They recognize that they cannot offer anything as valuable as their mother’s life (alchemy works on the principle of equivalent exchange), so they give up trying to revive the dead. What they seek then is to regain their original bodies. For that, they need the Philosopher’s Stone. The anime is about their quest for the Philosopher’s Stone. At the end of everything, it makes sense that something so rare and powerful should have such a dark and twisted history. It makes one wonder about the Philosopher’s Stone in Harry Potter. And Voldemort. And
