Two brothers break the one rule of alchemy trying to bring their mother back, and pay for it with Edward's arm and leg and Alphonse's entire body. Their search for the Philosopher's Stone pulls them into the machinery of a military state built on things nobody was meant to find out.
5 titles · 119 episodes + 2 movies · ~52.5 hours
Two separate anime adaptations of the same manga, each with its own ending and its own companion film. Watch Brotherhood first, then the 2003 series if you want the other version. Do not mix them.
Start here. Sixty-four episodes covering Arakawa's manga from the first chapter to the last. The opening stretch moves fast because the story is retreading ground the 2003 series already covered, but from roughly the tenth episode onward it is telling something the earlier anime never got to.
Four shorts adapting bonus chapters from the manga: Edward and Alphonse as children before the accident, an episode built around Lust, a brief detour told from Xiao-Mei's point of view, and a gag piece. None of them advance the plot. Watch them after the series, when you know who everyone is.
A 111-minute original film using Brotherhood's version of the world. It follows a new cast in a border territory and connects to nothing in the manga or the series, so nothing you learn here matters later and nothing later depends on it.
The 2003 adaptation. It follows the manga through roughly the first half and then leaves it behind entirely, arriving at a different antagonist and a much darker ending. Arakawa asked the staff to write their own conclusion so she could keep the manga's ending for herself. Watch it as a second, separate telling rather than a first pass.
⚠ Harder to watch legally than the rest of this list. Funimation's licence lapsed in 2016 and the rights moved to Aniplex of America; availability now varies sharply by country and it is absent from several major services. Check what your region actually has before committing.
Not an extra. The 2003 series ends on an unresolved note and this film, released the following year, is where that story finishes. Watch it straight after the last episode.
⚠ Only makes sense after the 2003 series. It follows from that ending specifically and has no relationship to Brotherhood.
Fullmetal Alchemist exists as two complete anime series, and neither continues the other. The 2003 series went into production while Hiromu Arakawa was still writing the manga, and at her request the staff built their own ending rather than wait for hers. The result tracks the manga for the first half and then leaves it entirely — different villain, different revelations, different final chapter. Brotherhood, made in 2009 once the manga was near its end, adapts the whole thing faithfully.
Brotherhood is listed first because it is the complete version of the story the author wrote, and because it is far easier to actually watch. The 2003 series is not a rough draft — it is a genuinely different work with a bleaker register, and plenty of people prefer it. But it is a harder recommendation to make to someone new, since finding a legal copy is its own project.
Whichever you pick, finish one before starting the other. The two share their opening stretch almost beat for beat, and watching them interleaved turns that overlap into confusion rather than contrast. Each path has a film attached: Conqueror of Shamballa is the actual ending of the 2003 series and is not optional, while The Sacred Star of Milos and the four Brotherhood shorts are extras you can take or leave.
Across both versions, Fullmetal Alchemist has 2 seasons, 2 films, and 1 other entry — 119 episodes altogether.
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood | TV Series | 64 episodes | April 2009 |
| Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood OVA Collection | OVA | 4 episodes | August 2009 |
| Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos | Movie | July 2011 |
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fullmetal Alchemist | TV Series | 51 episodes | October 2003 |
| Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie – Conqueror of Shamballa | Movie | July 2005 |
5 titles · 119 episodes + 2 movies · ~52.5 hours
Where each part of the anime lines up with the source, so you know where to pick up reading.
Brotherhood adapts the manga in full, so there is nothing left to pick up afterwards — the anime and the 27-volume manga end in the same place. The 2003 series is a different matter: it follows the manga through roughly its first half and then leaves it, so reading the manga after that series means starting over rather than continuing, and the second half will not match anything you watched. Viz Media publishes the English edition, including a nine-volume omnibus that collects three volumes per book.
Brotherhood, for most people. It adapts the manga from start to finish, and it is far easier to find legally. The 2003 series is not an inferior draft — it is a different story with a bleaker ending that many people prefer — but it works better as the second thing you watch, once you know what it diverged from.
Brotherhood's 64 episodes, then the four OVA shorts and The Sacred Star of Milos if you want them. Then, as a separate path, the 2003 series' 51 episodes followed by Conqueror of Shamballa. Do not alternate between the two series.
For the first half, close to it. After that they separate completely — different antagonist, different explanation for what is happening in the country, different ending. The 2003 series went into production while the manga was still running, and Arakawa asked the staff to write their own conclusion rather than pre-empt hers.
Sources disagree on the precise point. It is somewhere in the middle stretch of the series — commonly cited as around episode 25, or as late as episode 34 — and the split is gradual rather than a clean break, with manga material still surfacing occasionally afterwards. What is not in dispute is that the second half is its own story.
Yes, if you watch the 2003 series. That series ends without resolving where it leaves its characters, and this film is where it finishes. It is the ending, not a bonus. It has no bearing on Brotherhood.
No. Milos is an original film set in Brotherhood's world with a mostly new cast, connected to neither the manga nor the series. The four OVA shorts adapt bonus chapters and gag material. Both are for people who want more, not for people who want the story.
Yes. Each is a complete story with its own ending. Watching only Brotherhood is the most common route and leaves nothing unfinished. Watching only the 2003 series works too, as long as you include Conqueror of Shamballa.
Yes. The opening episodes compress material the 2003 series had already covered at length, on the assumption that much of the audience knew it. From around the tenth episode the pacing settles and the series starts covering ground the earlier anime never reached.
All five entries come to about 52 and a half hours — 119 episodes plus two films. Brotherhood on its own, with its OVAs and Milos, is roughly 30 hours of that; the 2003 series and Conqueror of Shamballa make up the remaining 22 or so. If you only ever watch one path, budget for half.
Brotherhood is widely available — Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll all carry it, and Crunchyroll has an ad-supported tier. The 2003 series is the difficult one: Funimation's licence lapsed in 2016 and the rights went to Aniplex of America, so it is missing from several major services and availability differs sharply between countries. Conqueror of Shamballa is on Crunchyroll for premium subscribers, and The Sacred Star of Milos is generally purchase or rental only. Physical releases exist for everything.
Yes, for both series and both films, all produced by Funimation. Vic Mignogna voices Edward throughout. Alphonse was played by Aaron Dismuke in the 2003 series and by Maxey Whitehead in Brotherhood, since Dismuke had outgrown the role by 2009. Much of the supporting cast carried over between the two.
Brotherhood has essentially none — it adapts the manga straight through. The 2003 series is a different case: its entire second half is anime-original, but that is not filler in the usual sense. It is not padding inserted to wait for the manga; it is the series telling its own story deliberately.
Both anime are complete and the manga finished long ago — 27 volumes and 108 chapters, ending in June 2010. There is no continuation planned or plausible. Three Japanese live-action films exist and are on Netflix, but they are a separate adaptation rather than part of this franchise's anime.
Neither is in the list above. Reflections is a 55-minute recap of the 2003 series, made to be watched between that series and Conqueror of Shamballa; it contains no new story. The Premium OVA Collection is three shorts — an alternate-reality battle, a chibi wrap party for the film, and a three-minute piece about Edward's grandchildren in the real 2005 — none of which adapt anything. The 4-Koma Theater shorts and the Milos bonus footage are the same kind of thing.
