Fullmetal Alchemist: The Prototype

This piece is the trial draft of what would become the manga's first chapter, drawn by Hiromu Arakawa back in 2001. Rather than releasing it at the time, Square Enix held onto it and finally ran it in the July issue of Monthly Shonen Gangan in 2011, offering it to readers as a token to mark one year since the main series had wrapped up.

At its core the draft retells the same beats that later opened the published work, presenting a rougher pass at the encounter that would grow into the series' launching point.

Even in this earlier form, the two Elric brothers already read much like the versions fans would come to know, and the plot tracks close to its final counterpart. The material essentially reworks the Cornello storyline under a different guise, with the villain here being Major Arzen, who blends qualities later split between Cornello and Yoki.

The transmutations, however, break sharply from the rules the finished series would enforce. Edward reshapes a dinner knife into a full sword and expands a handful of tears into an entire sea, feats that ignore Equivalent Exchange, though the draft explains this by having him swallow a Philosopher's Stone beforehand.

Because it was never part of the official numbered run, this chapter stands apart as a curiosity rather than canon. It gives readers a window into how Arakawa's ideas shifted between her first attempt and the story that eventually reached print.

Its release timing, pegged to the series' anniversary, framed it as a thank-you gift rather than new continuity.