Character Profile: Izumi Curtis

Note: This description is spoiler safe!

Izumi Curtis is Edward Elric's alchemy teacher. After the death of their mother, Ed and Al were cared for by Izumi for about a year (Ed was 10 when they stated, and 11 when they did the first human transmutation) while she taught them alchemy's finer points. Izumi emerges in the series nearly halfway through and becomes a key character in unlocking the secrets of the series. Izumi herself can also use alchemy without the aid of an obvious transmutation circle, something that was, until that point, specific to Ed.

As a person, Izumi is generally caring. She helps all the children that live near her, and many of them refer to her as sensei. She is knowledgeable, not only in the ways of alchemy, but in most things relating to life. She is against using alchemy to fix all of the world's problems, and thus does most things by hand. She teaches all of the children these same values.

Deep below all of that is a strong woman with a sense of duty and loyalty. She intends on cleaning up all of her own mistakes, and caring for everything she can.

Overall, Izumi is one of the most developed characters in the entire series, and sadly one of the most overlooked.

Editor's Note: In the manga, it's stated that they trained with Izumi for only 1/2 a year (volume 6, page 55).

Izumi Curtis is Edward and Alphonse's teacher. Just like Edward, she's rough and short-tempered. She's a lot more violent though. She first met the Elrics during a little disaster that was occurring in Risembool when Ed and Al were still amateurs at alchemy. She stepped in when Ed and Al's alchemy skills proved to be useless against the storm. Edward and Al, impressed by her skills, asked her to be their teacher.

Izumi attempted Human Alchemy also and created Wrath. She had tried to bring her unborn son back to life using his remains. But the baby came back a monster, and Izumi lost some of her internal organs as her "equivalent exchange". Izumi was somewhat horrified by what she saw, and sadly fed the crying baby back to the gate. For this reason, Wrath hates her.

Izumi's actions are very unexpected and is rough with a lot of things. Because of her attempt at Human Alchemy, she can't become pregnant anymore, and she is constantly coughing up blood. Her actions can sometimes never be explained. She knows a lot of things even though Edward thinks that she doesn't know much. Izumi tends to face problems in an aggressive way, be it a small problem or a big problem, like when she tried to make Ed and Al leave her alone. (She threw knives at them from her bed...) Though she seems so angry on the outside, she's really a sad person who tends to blame herself when it came to a lot of things.

Izumi may be a woman, but she is tougher than a lot of guys out there-- with one slap, you'll be sent to the hospital! Ed and Al learn this the hard way a bunch of times and so they fear her greatly. Of course, a strong woman like her married a strong man too: Sig Curtis. He follows her around, making sure she is okay. She may be tough, but deep down she's very caring and takes care of Edward and Alphonse Elric like a second mother figure. She hates the Military and beat up Edward for joining it.

But deep down, they both share a terrible secret... Izumi tried giving birth to a child, but it died before it was born. She suffered from depression and try to use forbidden alchemy to bring her poor child back. Instead, she was given a homunculus, Wrath, and in the process lost most of her internal organs. Most of the organs she lost were her reproductive organs, preventing her from ever giving birth to another child. She later beats Ed and Al really hard after hearing they tried to bring their mother back with the forbidden alchemy.

When she and the Elrics discovered Wrath on the island she left them to train when the Elrics were children, she began to take EXTRA care of him because she thought he was her son. She was almost killed later when Wrath regained his memories and tried to murder her.

Her teacher is Dante.

Izumi is one of the most important characters in the show. She taught Ed and Al alchemy for a while, and started to grow attached to them. When Al was kidnapped by Greed, she reached them before Ed did. She quickly defeated Greed's henchmen, but was unable to beat Greed. In fact, she broke several knuckles with her first attack on Greed.

Also, she tried to hide the fact that Wrath was a homunculi from Ed. She is a powerful alchemist, and sometimes loses her patience with Ed and Al. Her husband is one of the physically strongest characters in the series.