Episode 27: Teacher (2003 series)

Synopsis
Ed and Al's childhood teacher, Izumi, ships the boys back to her hometown for a frightening interrogation.

Episode Notes

 * This episode is adapted from content in Chapter 20: The Terror of the Teacher, Chapter 21: The Brothers' Secret and Chapter 25: Master and Apprentice.
 * The idea for Chiko's role in the episode was approved due to the staff wanting to practice cat anatomy.
 * There is a rather significant difference in this version of Ed and Al's reunion with Izumi and their declaration of how they chose to perform Human Transmutation despite her direct forbidding given during their apprenticeship.  In both the manga and the 2009 anime version, although Izumi attacks Ed and Al, she stops soon after she declares that she already knew their bodies had been affected by some tragic accident (recognizing that there is no body inside Al's armor, and that Ed's left leg and right arm are automail). However, in this version, she beats Ed until he collapses, covered with bruises and cuts. It is only after he pulls himself up to his knees, expecting the beating to continue, that she surprises both brothers by embracing them gently and allowing them to finally grieve. While the manga/Brotherhood version still began this harshly, she embraces them much sooner and comforts them, but her attack in this version lasts much longer, and is seemingly merciless.
 * In series director Seiji Mizushima's words, the purpose of displaying Izumi beating the brothers before apologizing was to portray "a great paradox [...] in order to properly display Izumi's "weakness."