Karin

Karin, a character exclusive to the 2003 anime, was a beautiful young flower seller living and working in rural Amestris. She had been celebrated in the area both for her beauty but also for cultivating an extremely rare hybrid of blue rose. These roses became her main source of income, and Karin was taking a large shipment of them before a cart accident twenty years ago pitched her over a cliff. Although her body was never found, her friends all believed that she had died. However, she survived the fall, but - due to a serious head injury - lost her memories, including those relating to her young sweetheart Majhal. Karin was found at the bottom of the cliff by residents of another nearby town, who brought her back to their settlement for treatment; there, she eventually recovered her physical strength and, despite her memory loss, resumed working as a flower seller nearby.

However, as time stole her beauty away, her memories returned and, longing to see Majhal once more, she returned anonymously to her old hometown. Unrecognizable even to her lost love, Karin, under the name Lebi, shyly resigned herself to aiding the aging alchemist Majhal as he went about his daily business, never truly attracting his attention no matter how much she tried, for Majhal was too obsessed with her youthful image to make the connection. When the Fullmetal Alchemist arrived in town, however, he discovered that Majhal's obsession had grown into a sinister experiment wherein he would take the souls of village girls in an attempt to create a Karin golem to be his companion. When Ed tried to convince Majhal to stop, she realized that things had gone too far, and Majhal struck her down and took the young village girl Claus to attempt another spirit binding. Ed helped the older woman, and noticed the blue rose in her hair, which caused him to guess her true identity, and he revealed this to Majhal. Majhal, not understanding that his memories of her youthful beauty were blinding him to the woman he had once truly loved, became enraged rather than enlightened and tried to kill Fullmetal for the perceived insult. This back-fired, and Majhal was pierced by the sword he used against Ed. As he lay dying in Karin's arms from a self-inflicted wound, Majhal still refused to accept that the old woman shedding tears for him was actually the beautiful flower seller he had loved. The last view of Karin is her cradling the head of her dead beloved alchemist and wailing for her loss.