Lyra

Lyra (ライラ, Raira), is a young woman who appears only in the 2003 anime and is first introduced as the highest ranking subordinate of Yoki. Yoki holds her in high esteem for her powerful alchemic abilities, and as such makes her his personal bodyguard and enforcer. She also served as his and Edward Elric's maid when dining in Yoki's mansion. An ambitious but somewhat misguided woman, Lyra aspires to one day become a State Alchemist and serve her country. She uses a necklace that bears a small transmutation circle to condense air into a liquid state and vaporize it again, forcing it at high velocity toward her opponents.



The shockwave created has the power to destroy buildings. When she is defeated in battle by Edward, she learns her mistake in following Yoki and becomes the apprentice of Dante three years later in an effort to improve her alchemic abilities and to become more like Edward by helping others with her alchemy rather than blindly being loyal to someone in authority. Edward and his brother Alphonse meet her again in Dante's mansion and are surprised to see her.

She apologizes to Edward and Alphonse for her actions when they last met and tells them that they were the reason for her kinder change of heart and outlook on life. Edward comments that she has done a 180 when she expresses her admiration of them. She is knocked unconscious by one of the chimeras led by the Homunculus Greed when they are kidnapping Al. She is later shown using alchemy to fix the dishes that the kidnappers broke. The aging Dante however, selfishly performs a body switch with Lyra by using the Philosopher's Stone soon afterwards, then proceeds to kill her so that her secret would remain hidden.

Throughout the latter half of the series, Lyra's appearance (albeit possessed by Dante) becomes the face of the central antagonist.

A parallel version of her serves tea to Edward and Fritz Lang in the film that concluded the story of the 2003 anime, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa. She dismissively turns away when she catches Edward staring in dismay at her.

Trivia

 * In the English dub, her name is pronounced with an 'ee' sound instead of 'ai' in Japanese.
 * Lyra's alchemic attack is similar to a force known as inertial cavitation.
 * Lyra is a constellation and is Latin for the lyre, a stringed musical instrument.
 * Lyra and Isaac the Freezer (a character exclusive to the 2009 anime) share a similar Transmutation Circle. They might have the same ability of freezing, with Isaac freezing water and Lyra chilling the air around her.
 * Her English voice actress, Monica Rial, also voices May Chang in the 2009 anime.
 * Lyra-dead.png Lyra is waiting on Ed in Yoki's mansion, she fawns over him and states that she wants to be just like him, although she then refers to his being a State Alchemist.  She does seem distraught by Ed's actions to both protect the townsfolk of Youswell and to cheat Yoki, but he counters that if "you really wanna be like me", she needs to take a closer look at what he's all about. So it's interesting that later, when the Elrics encounter her as a disciple of Dante, she still states her intention to become like Ed.  Her alternate self in Conqueror of Shamballa may have acted on more on her first impression of him, for when Yoki arrives at the inn in Youswell, it is Lyra's voice that demands Ed and Al get out of her way.  However, she only had a physical impression to go on at that point.