Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood: Sub or Dub?

Fullmetal Alchemist asks the language question twice, because there are two television series: the 2003 adaptation and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood from 2009. Both were made at Bones, both have a Japanese track and an English dub, and the useful facts are about who stayed in the cast from one series to the next. This page does not judge performances itself; where it describes them, it names the critic.

The short answer

If you plan to watch both series, the English dub is the track with more casting continuity between them. If you want the Japanese performances, the two leads stayed the same in Japanese too, while much of the supporting cast changed. For a single watch of Brotherhood, both tracks are on Crunchyroll's series page (checked October 7, 2026), so the choice can be made per viewer rather than forced by availability.

The two series and their dubs

Production facts from Anime News Network's encyclopedia

	Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)	Brotherhood (2009)
Episodes	51	64
Japanese run	2003-10-04 to 2004-10-02	2009-04-05 to 2010-07-04
Director	Seiji Mizushima	Yasuhiro Irie
English ADR directors	Mike McFarland, Colleen Clinkenbeard	Mike McFarland, Caitlin Glass
US broadcast	Adult Swim, from 2004-11-06	Adult Swim, from February 2010

The 2003 series' encyclopedia entry credits FUNimation Studios as the recording studio and lists FUNimation's license as expired. The Brotherhood entry lists Aniplex of America as a licensor from 2016; ANN critic James Beckett wrote in 2019 that Funimation lost the home video and streaming rights in 2016.

Who carried over in English

When Brotherhood's Adult Swim premiere was confirmed in February 2010, Anime News Network reported that the new series retained the main cast of the earlier English dub except for two recast characters: Maxey Whitehead replaced Aaron Dismuke as Alphonse, and J. Michael Tatum, who had already replaced Dameon Clarke as Scar in the Fullmetal Alchemist: Premium Collection video spinoff, played Scar. ANN's encyclopedia credits bear that out for the principal roles.

• Edward Elric: Vic Mignogna in both series
• Alphonse Elric: Aaron Dismuke (2003), Maxey Whitehead (Brotherhood)
• Winry Rockbell: Caitlin Glass in both
• Roy Mustang: Travis Willingham in both
• Riza Hawkeye: Colleen Clinkenbeard in both
• Maes Hughes: Sonny Strait in both
• Scar: Dameon Clarke (2003), J. Michael Tatum (Brotherhood)

Who carried over in Japanese

Romi Park as Edward, Rie Kugimiya as Alphonse and Keiji Fujiwara as Hughes appear in both series' Japanese credits. Several other principal roles changed: Mustang went from Tōru Ōkawa to Shinichirō Miki, Winry from Megumi Toyoguchi to Megumi Takamoto, and Hawkeye from Michiko Neya to Fumiko Orikasa. Reviewing Brotherhood's first DVD for ANN in 2010, Jacob Chapman noted that while Park, Kugimiya and Fujiwara returned, the majority of the Japanese characters had been recast, and that the entire English cast, with the notable exceptions of Clarke and Dismuke, returned.

What critics and awards recorded

At the 2007 American Anime Awards, Fullmetal Alchemist won Best Cast and Mignogna won Best Actor for Edward; ANN had reported that the winners would be announced at New York Comic Con on February 24, 2007. In ANN's review of the first 2003 DVD, Bamboo Dong graded the dub A- and the sub A, and called Dismuke "one of the shining stars of the dub." Chapman graded Brotherhood's first set B on both tracks, and Beckett's 2019 Blu-ray review gave each track an A-.

Where each track streams

Crunchyroll's Brotherhood page lists Japanese and English audio among its tracks, with English subtitles (checked October 7, 2026). A Crunchyroll search for the title on the same date returned Brotherhood but no listing for the 2003 series. Catalogs differ by country and change, so check your own service before choosing.

Which series to start with is a separate question, covered in our Fullmetal Alchemist watch order. Lines on our Fullmetal Alchemist quote pages record their source, because the two series and the two scripts do not always word a moment the same way.