Edward Elric

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Edward Elric
Fullmetal Alchemist character
Edward Elric by Hiromu Arakawa
First appearance	Fullmetal Alchemist manga chapter 1 Fullmetal Alchemist anime episode 1
Voiced by	Japanese Romi Paku[1] English Vic Mignogna[2]
Profile
Known relatives	Alphonse Elric (brother) Hohenheim (father) Trisha Elric (mother, deceased)

Edward Elric (エドワード・エルリック, Edowādo Erurikku^?), commonly nicknamed as Ed is a fictional character in the Fullmetal Alchemist universe created by Hiromu Arakawa and developed into a media franchise, consisting of a series of manga, anime, soundtracks, OVAs, movies, video games, and even collectibles. Edward is Fullmetal Alchemist's titular character. The story chronicles the journey made by Edward and his younger brother, Alphonse, to find the mythical Philosopher's Stone after they are left as orphans.

Numerous publications for manga, anime and related media have written on the subject Edward's character. IGN praised Edward to be the balance between the typical clever kid and the stubborn kid persona.^[3] His comedic moments have been celebrated by Anime News Network as the best moments in the series.^[4] Both of his voice actors, Romi Paku and Vic Mignogna have been praised for their acting as Edward Elric and have won several prizes for it.^[5][6] Numerous pieces of merchandise have been released bearing Edward's likeness, including keychains^[7] and action figures.^[8]

Contents 1 Creation and conception 2 Character outline 2.1 Background 2.2 Personality 2.3 Abilities 3 Plot overview 3.1 Manga 3.2 Anime 4 Appearances in other media 5 Reception 6 References

[edit] Creation and conception

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[edit] Character outline

[edit] Background

Edward is born in a small town named Resembool in the Amestris countryside. He lived with his younger brother, Alphonse Elric, and both of his parents, Trisha Elric and Hohenheim, until Hohenheim embarked on a journey when Edward was still a small child. Shortly after Hohenheim's departure, Trisha falls ill and dies, leaving the two young boys as orphans. Their neighbor, Pinako Rockbell, then begins looking after them. During that time, they diligently study alchemy in the hopes that they will be able to bring their mother back to life. After a chance meeting with a skilled alchemist named Izumi Curtis, Edward and his brother become her apprentices. When they return home from their training, they proceed to try the taboo art of Human transmutation in their father's study. The brothers not only fail to bring their mother back to life, but it also costs Edward his left leg and costs Alphonse his entire body. Edward then performs a second transmutation, sacrificing his own right arm to bind Alphonse's soul to a nearby suit of armor. Edward becomes a State Alchemist in order to find a way to recover their bodies through use of the legendary Philosopher's Stone. Winry Rockbell, his childhood friend, also outfits him with prosthetic automail limbs to replace those that he lost. It is because of these metal parts, Edward is nicknamed the "Fullmetal Alchemist".

[edit] Personality

Edward Elric is an alchemical prodigy. He is the youngest State Alchemist to be selected by the Amestris State Military, having achieved the rank of Major at age twelve. His father's disappearance when Edward was young, the death of his mother, and a failed transmutation play a key role in his story. Edward's motivation stems from a love for his brother Alphonse Elric, for whom he is desperately seeking a way to restore to a human form after their alchemy accident. Due to this, he is also generally perceived to be very independent; he feels that he's the only one who can solve a problem. He is reluctant to accept help unless he feels it is absolutely necessary. Often, he feels a heavy guilt that the problem is his fault to begin with, and thus his responsibility to solve. This gives him a selfless inclination.

His automail limbs are made by his childhood friend Winry Rockbell. She's always kept busy with them, as Edward regularly breaks them during fights. She is constantly looking for new ways to improve them, whether it is an attempt at extending their lifespan or simply lightening the weight. In both the anime and manga, Winry is an extremely important person to Edward. In the anime series, no romantic feelings are ever explicitly stated, but in the manga, Winry is in love with him. Edward has also exhibited similar feelings, but constantly denies them.

Edward is extremely short for his age, but despite his small frame, he is compactly muscular. He is very sensitive about his height, and will humorously overreact to any comment about it. He makes a habit of breaking out into rants and frenzied outbursts. Despite all of the obstacles that Edward tackles in the story, he still displays a childish personality when it comes to things he despises, such as needles and milk. He is extremely idealistic--often to a fault--and strongly believes in Equivalent Exchange, using it as his personal philosophy. Despite his occasional bouts of immaturity, he is a selfless, strong, independent young adult that gains a reputation as a "hero of the people". During his early teens, he catches serial killers, robbers, and helps different types of communities throughout the country. A running gag in the manga series is that Edward has very poor taste in art. Whenever he transmutes an item, he tends to make it over-the-top, including spikes, skulls, or other demon-like touches. Many characters become angered when he fixes their broken items to suit his own odd taste.

[edit] Abilities

Ed has the special ability to create alchemical currents in his body simply by connecting his hands. This is a direct result of seeing the Gate of Alchemy, the source of all alchemical knowledge, while attempting human transmutation. His body creates a transmutation circle when he puts his hands together, and he himself is the required rune. With this, he can perform alchemy without the use of the transmutation circles that regular alchemists require. This ability greatly increases his speed and alchemical potency. He most often uses this power in battle, in order to change the shape of his automail arm into a blade or to make weapons from the areas around him. He is also adept at changing substances from one thing to another, such as changing water into ethanol, etc. As the story progresses, these skills reach a point where he is able to transmute the elements of an enemy's body to injure them. In the manga, this knowledge is great enough to save his own life, as he heals a fatal wound.

Even without alchemical ability, Edward is a formidable fighter. He has extraordinary speed and strength--particularly for someone of his size--and is well-trained in hand-to-hand combat. Edward often fights using his automail blade, but is perfectly capable of handling enemies without it, having trained under the skilled alchemist/martial artist Izumi Curtis. Edward often spars with his brother Alphonse to keep his martial arts skills sharp.

[edit] Plot overview

Although Edward has the same background and characteristics in the manga and the anime, Edward meets different people and fight against different enemies. In both stories, he and Alphonse search for the Philosopher's Stone, thinking they will be able to recover their bodies using it. During their search they become the target of an Ishvalan nicknamed Scar and of the Homunculi. Since meeting their teacher again, the manga and the anime go through different plots:

[edit] Manga

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[edit] Anime

After finding his master, Edward fights against the Homunculus Greed, who kidnapped Alphonse, and kills him.^[9] Having heard of Scar's creation of the Philosopher's Stone, Edward saves the people from Lior from being sacrificed due to the creation of the stone.^[10] During his fight against the Homunculus Edward is killed by Envy, Alphonse uses the power of the Philosopher's Stone to heal Edward's body and to reattach his soul. After being revived, Edward risks his own life to bring back his brother in exchange. As a result, Edward ends up on the other side of the gate, while Alphonse recovers his original body. Determined to return with Alphonse, Edward becomes involved in rocketry research in the country of Transylvania, with the intention to use that technology to try and get back to his home world.^[11]

[edit] Appearances in other media

In the featured film of the series, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, set two years after the end of the anime, Edward has been living in Germany and looks for a way to return to his world. At the film's end, he decides to stay in our world along with Alphonse so that they may try to protect both worlds.^[12] Edward also appears in almost all the Fullmetal Alchemist OVAs. In the first one as a super deformed version of himself at the movie's wrap-up party,^[13] in the second, he appears shortly as an old man living in modern-day Tokyo,^[14] and in the fourth OVA, he plays a part in the battle against the anime's Homunculi.^[15] As the series' titular character, Edward is playable in all Fullmetal Alchemist video games on all platforms.^[16][17][18] He is also featured in several of the Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game^[19]

[edit] Reception

Vic Mignogna, who does the voice acting for Edward in the English dub was a winner in American Anime Awards in the category "Best Actor" for making the voice of Edward.^[5] He has stated that making the role of Edward may be his biggest voice acting achievement since fans do not compare him with Romi Paku, the seiyū for the character.^[20] Due to his popularity, Edward won Twenty-sixth Annual Animage Readers' Poll in the "Favorite Male Character" category as well as his seiyū, Romi Paku, in the "Favorite Seiyu" category for her acting as Edward.^[6] Several pieces of merchandise have been released in Edward's likeness, including plush toys,^[21] action figures,^[8] and patches.^[22]

Several publications for manga, anime, and other pop culture media have provided both praise and criticism on Edward's character. IGN praises Edward as the perfect balance between the typical clever kid and the stubborn kid persona, explaining that this allows the character to float between comical moments and underlying drama without seeming false, something they comment that most manga fail to do.^[3] Anime News Network praises Edward's facial expressions to as one of the most humorous highlights of the series, including also the moments in which he reacts quite violently to comments about his small stature. They also praise him for not being a stereotypical shōnen character as it is noted that he has very real skills, relationships, and personality.^[4] T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews comments that the interaction between the Elric brothers as they travel is interesting, since humor is quite frequent rather than the constantly grimness of many series.^[23]

[edit] References

v • d • e Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa Franchise Chapters • Episodes • Movie • OVAs • TCG Video games (Broken Angel • Curse of the Crimson Elixir • Kami o Tsugu Shōjo • Dream Carnival • Dual Sympathy) Characters Edward Elric • Alphonse Elric • Winry Rockbell • Roy Mustang • Maes Hughes • Scar • Izumi Curtis • Hohenheim • Dante • Father • Ling Yao • State Military characters (Manga · Anime) • Homunculi (Manga · Anime) • Minor characters (Manga · Anime) • Video game characters