Hiromu Arakawa's hit anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood explored themes of redemption, atoning for past mistakes, creating one's own future, and the cost of ambition and success. The franchise featured a varied cast of characters, from the titular cyborg Edward Elric and his armored brother Alphonse, to the ambitious Colonel Mustang, the sadistic Solf Kimblee, and the vengeful monk-warrior known as Scar. The 2009 anime ran for 64 episodes and had a tightly plotted narrative, and a 2017 live action movie, Fullmetal Alchemist, tried to make that plot even more concise and linear.
Does the 2017 live action movie hold up to the popular action-fantasy anime series? That's a matter of opinion, and the reworked, altered narrative may feel odd to longtime fans while new fans might not mind so much. Whether a viewer loves this CGI-loaded action movie or can't stand the sight of it, this film certainly takes some liberties with the original material and rewires it all into a new story. Here are 10 differences between the 2009 anime and the live-action film. Note: spoilers, and lots of Shou Tucker. This movie really liked Shou Tucker.
10 Winry Goes on an Adventure
In the original anime, Winry Rockbell, the mechanic friend of the Elric brothers, lived in Resembool with her grandmother and worked hard to fix up Ed's steampunk-style metal limbs. She joined the brothers on their adventure up north with Kimblee, but not so much willingly.
In this film, meanwhile, Winry gladly comes along with the brothers right into the den of evil, putting up a brave front the whole time. Brave, or naive? Either way, a wrench won't do much against a homunculus assassin, that's for sure.
9 Shou Tucker is KIA... Courtesy of Lust
The reviled "stitching life" alchemist meets a grisly end in all versions of Fullmetal Alchemist. Here, Lust impales Shou Tucker with those stabby fingers of hers near the film's end.
Lust racks up quite a body count in the live action adaptation, and Mr. Tucker certainly isn't spared. Fans will probably cheer at his death all the same (he's the monster who made the dog-girl, after all).
8 Shou Tucker's Plot Upgrade
Mr. Tucker was a minor character in the 2009 anime, mostly serving to show the dark side of alchemy early in the series (and creating the nightmare fuel that is his dog-daughter chimera).
Here, he's practically the central villain, going from villain of the week to Darth Vader, just like that. Long-time fans will either find it hilarious or absurd to see a minor, detestable villain becoming the maestro behind a villainous plot like this.
7 Only The Three Homunculi Musketeers
In the 2009 anime, three villainous homunculi showed up as a mini-squad: the stab-happy Lust, the shapeshifting Envy, and the all-devouring Gluttony. More homunculi join them in the anime to form the Seven Deadly Sins, but the 2017 movie is happy to leave it at these three.
Given how packed this movie already is, three is plenty. Still, one can't help but wonder if live-acton Sloth, Wrath, Greed, and Pride would have looked better than the odd-looking three found here. Envy's wig is less than convincing, and Gluttony's live-action face is creepy beyond words.
6 Envy Takes Mustang's Form
Maes Hughes meets his end at Envy's hands in both the anime and this movie, so the homunculi can protect their secrets. This time, though, Envy assumed the form of not Maria Ross, but Colonel Mustang.
To be fair, movie adaptations typically consolidate characters to keep things linear, and 2017's Fullmetal Alchemist does much the same. In fact, Maria Ross doesn't even appear in the movie, anyway.
5 Marcoh Meets His End
Dr. Marcoh doesn't fight, but he plays a big role in the Fullmetal Alchemist lore as the researcher who developed the Philosopher's Stones. This makes him Scar's target in the anime, but here, Lust takes matters into her own (pointed) hands.
Instead of just bullying and threatening Marcoh like she did in the anime, she kills him outright. This girl doesn't take prisoners, it seems.
4 Alphonse Elric, Research Subject
Here comes Shou Tucker again. In both the 2009 anime and the live-action movie, the Elric brothers visit Mr. Tucker to hunt a lead for recovering their original bodies. But now, Alphonse takes things a step further: he doesn't just browse Mr. Tucker's library, he lays down and lets the "stitching life" alchemist study him in great detail.
That is, before he creates Nina-dog and horrifies the brothers and viewers alike.
3 Mustang and the Stone
In the live action movie, Colonel Roy Mustang gets his hands on a Philosopher's stone and hands it over to Ed, so Ed can recreate Alphonse's body then and there. Ed declines, and the brothers resolve to find another way to restore Al's body (presumably in a future film).
The 2009 anime has no such scene, and Ed and Al get their bodies back when they meet Truth face to face. What's similar is that, in both iterations, the brothers refuse to use the Stones to recover their bodies after learning about the gruesome way those Stones are made.
2 Scar Doesn't Kill Tucker... or Anyone
Not only did Tucker's killer transition from Scar to Lust, but Scar isn't even in this movie at all. This is understandable, given how this film reworks the material into an even leaner narrative and there's no room for vengeful Ishvalan monks here.
Still, a live-action Scar would look pretty scary and tough. Who would play him? We can only imagine.
1 Meet General Hakuro
While the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist streamlined the cast of characters, it also added someone totally new: General Hakuro, whose Japanese name stands out a bit among the German-inspired and other Western names.
He's put to good use, too, when he activates the monstrous mannequin homunculi soldiers and unleashes them... only for them to proceed to slaughter him. Oops.
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