Alphonse Elric is Edward Elric’s younger brother in the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist.
Hiromu Arakawa created Fullmetal Alchemist, which was serialized in Square Enix’s Monthly Shōnen Gangan from 2001 to 2010. Edward and Alphonse attempt human transmutation to bring their dead mother back, breaking one of alchemy’s central taboos. The attempt costs Edward limbs and leaves Alphonse’s soul attached to a suit of armor.
Alphonse’s armor body is one of the series’ most recognizable images, but the character is not the armor itself: his soul is bound to it by a blood seal. This distinction is important to the story’s questions about identity, memory, bodies, and the human cost of forbidden alchemy.
The manga inspired two major anime adaptations, Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Brotherhood follows the manga’s overall plot more closely, while the earlier series eventually develops an anime-original storyline.