OT:
Which of them was made first? The Anime or the Manga?

Note: The Xing people encounter happened AFTER the Izumi/flashback and Devil's Nest/Greed sub-sagas, when the bros were heading back to Central to research about homunculus, of whom they had just learned of their existance from Greed. So... you were wrong there ;



Hey, why don't you try and read the manga, for a difference? Sorry for the [All hail lord Xenu] comment , but the series of tests was done in the manga too, as they comment at some point (Someone says "He did pass the written test and the medical exam" or similar). It's just that nothing significant happened there.



Manga. FMA is an original story by Arakawa Hiromu sensei herself, the anime was decided to be done later and, funny, it helped the magazine's and the manga's sales go up a lot. Since it is how it worked for me too, from my point of view, that's what the anime is there for in this case:

The first chapter of the manga was published in Shounen Gangan in 2001 and one chapter every month thereafter (at this current moment, up to chapter 48).

The first episode of the anime was aired over Japanese TV in 2003. At that point in time, the manga was dealing with its Devil's Nest arc.

<Merged "Editing a post in Help With Manga/anime Differences" thread to this thread. 01/21/07 ~Tombow>

I heard there are a lot of major differences with FMA manga and anime. Since I only have read the English translated volumes, a little of the most recent stuff online, and seen the anime dub and read spoilers of it, I am not familiar with the differences.

Could someone make a list of the anime/manga differences? My computer is so slow, that me trying to read the manga online would take me....like, too long for someone of limited patience like I am.

I've heard that some of the differences are:

-The character who is Pride in the anime is Wrath in the manga

-Envy is not the "brother" of Ed and Al like in the anime

-The humunculis are not failed human transmuatations, well some are but not all are

-Rose was never raped in the manga (I hope that's true, I hate rape stories!)

-Scar is gay in the manga. (!....cool......XD)

So, manga experts, help please!

No none of them are. homunculus are created in a completely different way in the manga.



We haven't seen Rose since the second chapter so who knows what is going on with her.



I don't know where you heard this but Scar's sexual orientation has not been revealed to us. The only thing we know for sure is Scar likes cute things.


There are a lot of differences besides that. A lot of the differences are subtle and kind of hard to explain. Character personalities are different (for example Al isn't as naive in the manga.) There are also some wonderful characters that never appear in the anime. Although the manga has its share of angst I find it to be overall more fun than the anime.. It never gets too depressing. Also at this point the plot has gone off in a completely different direction than the anime. Events happen in the manga that never happened in the anime and vice versa.

I am sure others can point out a lot more differences.

This thread could go on for ages...

Not quite sure where you'd have picked that up, but anyway...

SPOILERS!

• Furher King Bradley is Wrath, not Pride. The Kid does not exist.
• Sloth is not Trisha.
• Frank Archer does not exist.
• Kimbley is still incarcerated. Appears only in Scar's flashbacks and at the destruction of Lab 5.
• Yoki lives no as Scars "Servant."
• Fletcher and Russel Trigum do not exist in the manga.
• Greed was never trapped in Lab 5 in the manga.
• Basque Grand has not yet appeared in the manga, if ever. He is supposedly dead from the start.
• Shou Tucker is killed by Scar right after his experiment is discovered. He does not get transformed into a chimera.
• Scar killed Winry's pared
• Dante does not exist in the manga.
• Ling & fellow Xingians do not appear in Anime
• Homonuculi are created artificial humans in the manga, NOT failed human transmutation side-effects.
• Homonuculi can only be destroyed via the stated biblical/inferno punishment for each of their respective sins.
• Homonuculi are created by someone known as The Father.
• The Psiren and Other Brothers Elric parts do not exist in the Manga.
• Number 48's head is killed by Lust and body killed by Envy, both before they can reveal the truth to Edward.
• Barry's true manga body is nothing like his anime body, and is revealed after the fact, not before. Also, Barry is more important.
• Maria Ross is a scapegoat.

My figers are growing tired, or I'd type more. This should suffice for now, though.

CsakuraS posted a comparison of the Ed & Al manga vs anime timeline here.

While the rest of your statements are facts at the moment, the one above is only a theory/postulation.
A more correct statement would be "Homunculi currently can only be totally destroyed by breaking them down into their basic components through some distilling process (like Greed), or killing away all the lifeforce contained in their core/PS (like Lust)."

This one, I disagree. I still believe he didn't.

What we know for sure is that some arm-tattoed face-bandaged Ishvalian killed Winry's parents and that, for whatever the reason (maybe because it was his brother? That's my theory for now, at least), Scar takes the blame for it.

Another difference, BTW:
- The tattoo in Scar's arm has naught to do with the Philosopher's Stone, it's some form of modified Rentanjutsu (alchemy from Xing, specialises in medical fields) that was used for fighting by people called "Ishval Warrior Priests". Scar's brother had it, he didn't.

Presumably he got his arm from his brother, but this hasnt' been stated either.

Someone told me there was a statement by Scar in the manga about having once been in love with a man who died in the Ishbalan war. Thus where the rumor he's canonically gay came from.

So in the anime, Envy's motivation for being so nasty is anger at Hoehnheim and Ed/Al over being abandoned. So if that's not true in the manga, what is his motive? Something else? Or nothing?

BWUH? Now where did that come from?



I don't think Envy really has any personal motives; as far as I can tell he just does what Father tells him and enjoys being malicious to people. He seems self conscious of his true appearance and hates being insulted or degraded. At times like these he shows he has quite a temper, but doesn't want to fight otherwise because he doesn't like feeling pain. He just seems like an overall cowardly, manipulative, mean-spirited creature, rather befitting of his name.

About the Scar thing. Very unlikely.

As for Envy, I think his only motives are to serve Father and have fun being an evil little boy ... uh, person ... whatever. He enjoys causing misery and killing people, and is proud of himself for starting the Ishbal massacre. But he doesn't have a grudge against anyone in particular, he just likes being evil.

I kind of think Envy's true form is its motivation (in the manga Envy is neither male or female). to be so malicious. I kind of feel Envy hates its apperance that it takes that hatred out on others.

Whoever told you that Scar is gay in the manga was either fooling you or had no idea what they were talking about. Or they could have been talking about Scar's older brother who was killed in Ishbal and were confused. I am sure Scar did love his brother but not in a romantic sense.

I was hoping the Scar thing was true. That would be romantic, not to mention I'd give the author a lot of credit for making a major character gay, particularly one who doesn't fit the usual stereotypes of a gay man.

No child Wrath, eh? So the whole Izumi story is different then? She didn't try to revive a dead child?

No Izumi does try to revive her unboard child but since human transmutation does not create homunculus, Wrath is not connected to Izumi. Izumi also still loses her internal organs.

Izumi's story is still the same, just minus the annoying kid. She still had a failed birth and tryed to revive her child resulting in her organs being taken. But since the creation of homunculi differ in the manga, there was no humonculli as a result.

Edit: Ahh, Kiara beat me to it

*Gasp!*

Wikipedia hath forsaken me, then.

I'm trying to post since yesterday >.<

SPOILERS!!!!!!!

More differences: In the manga:
-There's no "red stone" nor "red water"
-Al's soul was first transmutated into the "thing" they made without even knowing, then it died because of a body+soul rejection and Ed took Al's soul from the door consciously and transmutated it into the armor.
-Doc Marcoh is not dead (yet)
-the thing they transmutated is male (suggested in vol. 11)
-Armstrong has a big sister (recently stated by Arakawa XD)
-Al knows and does transmutate without a trans. circle by palming, like ed
-There's some whity thingy called "Truth" who has Ed's limbs
-The door is not like the "hell" done by... *can't remember who ^^U, don't kill me*, it's more like the tree of life
-Pinako didn't kill the thing, it was already dead and she buried it in the garden.
-The exam to state alchemist wasn't done with other people transmutating things at the "street", it was done in a room with pretty much people and Ed tried to attack the fuhrer by transmutating a lance and said "assassination could have been made as easyly"
-Scar killed Tucker and is dead, never transformed into a chimera
-Hughes was pressent in Ishval's war, and didn't stay in central in a desktop
-Roy's already 30
-They burned their home in 1911, not in 1910
-Roy's promoted to Colonel before than the anime, he was already a colonel when Ed went to central in the train (chap. 4? I think the title is "Battle of the train")
-There's more romance (specially ed/win, royai)
-Ed and Al aren't pressent at Elysia's birth
-Al remembers what happened at the door when Martel's blood touches the trans. circle of his armor.
-There's technique to cure some wound without the need of the PS (used by the Xing's little girl)


There are more, but I gotta go ^^U

---EDIT---
-There are some called "Candidates to sacrifice"
-Trisha made a promise to hohenheim and she asked Pinako to tell him that she couldn't fullfill it, before she died.
-Animals hate Hohenheim.
-Kimbly hasn't made any kind of great aparition after 12 volumes yet
-The higher-ups know that the fuhrer is a homunculus
-Gluttony is a fake door to the truth that "Father created", it's a fail that couldn't become the real "Door", and inside of him is a fake truth.
-The story of Lust and Lujon has never been shown nor mentioned, nor the story of the homunculus spreading out any kind of illness
-The story of the woman and the blue rose doesn't exist either
-The homunculus do not need to puke the red stones nor the PS they have inside, nor be in front of their original's bodies in order to die
-Roy never stole Havoc's girlfriend.
-Ed didn't kill Greed, he's killed by "The Father"
-it's stated that Winry is indeed in love with Ed
-Havoc dated Lust
-Havoc was injured severly and he can't walk anymore
-Roy's team has been splitted up, Riza's now the Fuhrer's personal asistant
-Riza was pressent when Roy went to Ed to convince him to join the military
-The conversation between riza and winry about the person Riza must protect takes place when they are at Pinako's place while Roy is trying to convince ed to join the military
-In the anime, Al only had a cat inside of his armor once
-Al didn't try to become a state alchemist
-The first two episodes of the anime happen in Ed and Al's "future", after the next episodes.

And a large etc about things and facts that are happening lately and since the anime has ended they can't happen, as well as some things that are explaint and in the anime were never explained.

So the Wrath character from the anime is based on this "Truth" character from the manga?

Specifically,

Manga
- There's no "red water" ("red stone" is another name for PS)

Novel
- The "red water" is for another purpose and has nothing to do with PS (from the novel Land of Sand)


Actually, in Perfect Guide 2, Arakawa says that alchemical healing is practiced in Amestris as well (just not as well as Xing). There is Organic Transmutation, where healing is done, even growth of limbs. Even chimera research would fall under this, which is why Tucker was allowed to practice it. However anything involving human creation or human-animal chimera hybrid is illegal and falls under Human Transmutation, the Forbidden Act. Therefore Marcoh never commited any crime in healing, but the Elrics broke the law for attempting to create a human (they thought it was ressurection) and Tucker broke it for making human-animal chimeras.


Actually, in the Flame Alchemist (written by Arakawa), Roy stole a girl Havoc was interested in.


No, the only similarity they share is them possessing Ed's limbs. Otherwise anime Wrath was basically a bunch of plothole inducing mess. Manga's Truth remains an egnimatic and mysterious figure who will definitely have a future role to play.

*I'm Reika*


No, that's from a gaiden where he's dumped by his girlfriend because he said that work was more important than her. In the flame alchemist he went out with the florist if I recall it right, (I'll read it later on, I'm at class)

Thanks for clarifying the rest! ^^

That was me, yeah, I reread it and no, he goes on a date with the florist who he met that morning. The only mention to havocs "girlfriend" is when it's said that he has 203 love letter and that one of them was even of the girl that Havoc liked. there's no such as that he stole his girlfriend.

Remember Cornello's incomplete red stone? And Dr. Marcoh's red water? That's the same stuff that was in the anime/novel...

There wasn't any mountain with red water, was it? O.o

No, but red water still exists >_<

I see

Get your facts straight. Cornello's ring was an incomplete PS. Dr Marcoh showed a semi-liquid to Ed and Armstrong which he said was a incomplete PS as well. There is no mention of red water in the manga.

They are saying it is in the novel, I haven't read it yet so... >.< Gods, I really want to read it

NeoKakashi was implying red water was in the manga, which it never did.


He is wrong since the 'red water' in the novel was never used for PS construction as in the anime, i.e. not the same stuff.
Since 'red water' is not a PS construct, it never existed in the manga as well, unlike what he implied.

I see, thanks ^^

Hmmmm....yes, there are a LOT of differences between the Manga and Anime.....but I still love both of them.

I don't think anyone mentioned:

-There's no Ling or Ran Fan in the Anime ...I wish, they're awesome!

I think that one was already stated

^^ Yea, probably.......but most things have, hehehe.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that's exactly what the rings and red waters were (in the anime); incomplete Stones. Hence why the rings shattered after extended use (Cornello and Lejon's).

And how was the red water in the novel different than those incomplete stones? They had the same powers that Cornello's ring had (ie: bypassing equivalent exchange and other nifty stuff).

mmmm... since we are talking about the anime and manga differences, the fact that in the anime the red stone was an incomplete PS doesn't need to mean that in the manga was too, so that's still a difference. I don't know what happens in the novel, so I can't say they are different either.

I would say they used practically only their ideas, I mean, there's not much of anything coincident from episode 37 on. I think the anime started at volume 2 and started separating somewhere between volume 4-5.

I would love to see some kind of ova where ling and ran fan appear : P

We are talking about the manga as the constant talk about the manga, and the board's title in bold have stated.

The novel's red water is "Water of Life" and has nothing to do with the construction of Philosopher's Stone. The anime decided to make them into a base component for the Philosopher's Stone as shown in the anime's 5th Laboratory arc. The fact that in the novel, it wasn't used as such means the Water of Life is not related to the Philosopher's Stone for the novelized version of FMA. The manga only stated living human beings are used to make Philosopher Stones. Nowhere did 'red water' or 'Water of Life' come into play. So note that such drivel presented in the anime are misrepresentative of facts in the manga.

Another little difference:

-Manga's cars are like in england, they are driven on the other side and by the other side.

They don't do that in the anime?? Hmm, now that you mention it, I remember seeing Havoc driving around before in the anime. The steering wheel is on the left side of the car, just like in America. In England the steering wheel is on the right and the cars drive on the left side of the road. Those wacky Brits!

haha, not only that, they drive it in the other side of the street too (in the manga), in the anime nope, see episode 37 where you can see Riza and Roy in the car ^^

Actually Japan's cars and driving is following the Commonwealth (England) system.

I know, but it's different from the anime

i havent seen all the mangas yet... but this helped i guess

oh another difference:
Lust death/Gluttony's reaction
-In the manga Gluttony mournw and actually CRIES when he hears of her death, followed by attacking her killer, Roy. While in the anime Gluttony is in denial of her death right to the end, ironically though, he attacks her killer aswell. In both he takes his true form to do the deed however his true form differs in the anime/manga significantly.
-On that note: Envy's true form is significantly different in the anime/manga. In the manga its a enormous creepy basilisk while in the anime its... a blond guy Oo

If it has not been mentioned before,
[spoiler] Homunculii are created in the anime by an incomplete human transmutation fed shards of the Philospher's tone, and are created in the manga by injecting a still-living human with the red liquid, and another personality takes over, while the original soul struggles and dies (except for in the case of Ling, where as he manages to survive within his body).[/spoiler]

If it has, how unfortunate.
My apologies, for I'm a lazy bastard.

actually people did explain this earlier but not as well as you did since their responces were old and some actually wrong.

PS to this:
Greed 1, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Sloth were created by 'Father' probably with his own body since in ch57 Gluttony is seen sprouting from his chest (which suggest that how he created the others aswell)

I think the confusion over the red water/PS being the same thing is because he thought (whoever thought they were) Marcoh's stone was red water as well because you see it as liquid in the bottle before it gets poured out onto the floor and becomes solid. But that's just how the stone is, it hasn't anything to do with red water in the Manga.

Another difference from the Manga to Anime, in the first Chapter, Rose hides in Al's armour in the Manga and overhears Cornello's plot, but in the anime Rose is already in the room when Ed and Al rush in.

Could someone explain when the manga and anime 'splits'? As far as i know, it happens after they go seek their teacher. But what happends in the Manga after this? Is their father in the parallel 'real world' as well in the manga?

Kaken, the manga and the anime pretty much split after volume six of the manga series where Edward and Alphonse visit Izumi. After volume six of the manga, the plot diverges from the plot of the anime series. Kaken, I could not even begin to explain what happens and what is currently taking place in the manga in a short-length post. (Much of what I would say, has already been answered in this thread.) However, you can read the manga series up to chapter sixty-three at the Fruit Tree Alchemist. I apologize for not being of much help. This thread contains a great deal of spoilers (well duh), so just make sure that you don't ruin everything for yourself.

Ps- Manga Hohenheim is different from Anime Hohenheim in my opinion. Manga Hohenheim seems more much more other-worldy than this anime counter-part and it appears as though his reason for leaving his family differs from the anime.