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I just finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 series. I would like to
read/watch the manga/Brotherhood anime now. Does anyone know at what chapter
the story of FMA2003 and the story of the manga/Brotherhood anime go their
separate ways?


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fullmetal-alchemist-series fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood fullmetal-alchemist-2003 fullmetal-alchemist-manga
At what point does the 2003 series and Manga/Brotherhood series start to diverge?


**tl;dr: there is no exact point where the stories go "different ways".
Depending on how strict you are with the plot divergence, there are several
candidates.**

# Minor differences

**There are differences even at the beginning.** For instance:

> In the Lior arc, we see an failed "resurrection" of Rose's boyfriend in 2003
> that was created from some birds, whereas this never shows up in the manga.
> Al never even attempts the state alchemist qualifying exam in the manga, and
> the train and Shou Tucker incidents happen _after_ Ed becomes a state
> alchemist. Roy finds the brothers because of reports of there having been
> skilled alchemists, not because of a letter.

There are also slight differences in character details (e.g. being a minority,
Rose is darker in 2003). 2003 also has some blatantly non-manga content at the
beginning (e.g. episode 4).

# When do major differences start to appear?

Looking at the Wikipedia
[chapter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fullmetal_Alchemist_chapters)
and 2003
[episode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fullmetal_Alchemist_episodes),
we have several candidates:

  * Ep. 7 (chapter 6, or ep. 5 of Brotherhood)

> In the manga continuity, it is specifically stated that Shou Tucker is
> killed. He is arrested, _not_ killed in the original anime, and he shows up
> later.

  * Ep. 11:

> The Tringhams appear later in the anime so they can't just be regarded as
> "filler" material. But they're not in the manga continuity.

  * Ep. 14, 15 (thus, ch. 8/vol. 2, or ep. 4-5 of FMA:B)

> Grand is killed very early on in the manga, and only appears in Ishval
> flashbacks. Moreover the details about Ishval (which isn't discussed until
> chapter 58) and Scar are different.

  * Episode 21 (thus, ch. 11, or ep. 7 of FMA:B)

> Scar makes no such appearance in the manga, and the role of his brother is
> different. The events at Laboratory 5 are different.

  * **Ep. 25, where the 2003 plot completely diverges (so ep. 10 of FMA:B or ch. 15).**

> The details of Hughes' death are different. The homunculi are different in
> the manga continuity.

**FMA:B and the manga plots seem unrecognisable from a 2003 perspective by
around ep. 12-14 or vol. 8.** However, important differences will have come up
before that even though most of the events might be recognisable to someone
who saw 2003. **There's no single point before which everything is identical
and everything afterwards is not.** Moreover, some details in later chapters
(e.g. the Elrics' childhood, in ep. 3 vs. part of vol. 5) are covered
relatively early on in 2003, so there's going to be some duplication unless
you specifically avoid those chapters.

# Recommendations

**If you want to be aware of all small deviations, starting from the first
chapter/episode of the respective adaptation is best. If small differences
aren't much issue and you want to reduce the amount you read/watch, vol. 2,
ep. 4 (FMA:B), or ep. 10 (2003) seems like a decent points, although opinions
will vary.** Keep in mind that later plot will still be similar or even
identical. If you skip stuff, it may be useful to read summaries and make sure
you know the chronology of the adaptation in question.

Incidentally, _The Sacred Star of Milos_ should not require much manga
knowledge. I did not watch _Conqueror of Shamballa_ closely, but my impression
of it was that it required knowledge of the 2003 ending (ep. 48 onwards).


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