Envy is a major character from the anime/manga series Fullmetal Alchemist. Appearing in both the 2003 and 2009 series, he is one of the seven Homunculi that antagonises the Elric brothers throughout the franchise. A sadistic psychopath, Envy hates humanity with a passion and takes tremendous joy in human suffering and death. He especially loves using his shapeshifting ability to take on the forms of the loved ones of his victims just as he kills them, taking pleasure from his victims' final moments of shock and despair before murdering them.
While identified as a male, Envy is actually genderless and has a rather androgynous physique. His typical appearance is that of a young, attractive human with a youthful and slender build with long, wiry hair. He wears a black, skin-tight bodysuit and a headband adorned with a triangular symbol. This is merely Envy's chosen form, however. In the 2003 series, his true form is similar to that of Hohenheim's, given that he was created to replace Hohenheim's deceased son. In the 2009 series, his true form is that of a grotesque, dragon-like beast.
Japanese Voice (2003): Mayumi Yamaguchi
Japanese Voice (2009): Minami Takayama
English Voice: Wendy Powell
History[]
2003 series[]
Envy's true form in the 2003 series
In the 2003 series, homunculus origins are far different than in the manga or 2009 anime. Rather than being manufactured with a Philosopher's Stone, they are born from a failed attempt at human transmutation. Envy was brought into being almost 400 years before the series' events when Hohenheim attempted to resurrect his first son who had died of mercury poisoning. However, Hohenheim came to realise that the creature he had created was not his son and abandoned him and his mother Dante. Since then, Envy had come to resent not only his father but humanity as a whole, holding particular loathing for Hohenheim's children - Edward and Alphonse Elric - in the future.
Throughout the series, Envy follows the will of Dante as he, Lust and Gluttony follow the Elric brothers in their travels and seek out skilled alchemists who may be capable of producing Philosopher's Stones. Though he serves Dante's ambitions, Envy only does so because it allows him to torment and murder humans on a regular basis; he did not care about Dante's promise of making the Homunculi human and would have gladly killed all humans in the world if he could.
Over the course of the series, Envy serves Dante by eliminating her enemies and stirring up conflict among different groups, all as part of Dante's efforts to create a new Philosopher's Stone. He takes particular pleasure in tormenting Edward and Alphonse Elric after meeting them at Laboratory 5 and it is later shown that he resents the Elrics above all else due to their relationship with Hohenheim. Halfway through the series, Envy also kills Maes Hughes when the Lt-Colonel's investigation exposes a spy within the military, cornering Hughes in a phone booth and assuming the form of his wife Gracia before shooting him dead. When Hohenheim resurfaces and confronts Dante, Envy almost desperately demands that Dante allow him to kill his "father", showing just how psychotic he truly is. Dante refuses, however, and instead deals with Hohenheim herself by banishing him to the Gate, a mysterious space from where all alchemic knowledge originates.
Towards the end of the series, as Dante is about to perform the ritual to transfer her soul into Roze's body, she is confronted by Edward. Envy attacks Edward and as the two fight, Envy shapeshifts into numerous people that Ed has met that the Homunculi have murdered. He does this in order to distract Ed, but the Fullmetal Alchemist's resolve is unwavering and calls Envy out as a coward who hides beind other people's faces, daring the homunculus to reveal what he really looks like. Envy does so, revealing the form of Hohenheim's first son whom he was created to replace. Shocked by the resemblance to his father and himself, Ed lets his guard down and Envy stabs him through the heart, killing him.
As Envy gloats over Ed's death, Dante is about to engage the alchemic ritual to transfer her soul to Roze's body. She has the now-mindless Gluttony feed on Alphonse's armour which is imbued with the many souls of those who died in Reole, but Al taps into the power of the Philosopher's Stone and frees himself. He then uses the Stone's energy to try and revive Ed and Envy attempts to stop him. Envy is caught in the transmutation and finds himself standing before the Gate alongside Edward. Edward tells Envy that Hohenheim is still alive on the other side of the Gate and Envy allows himself to be pulled inside by the Gate Children into the parallel world -our world - to find Hohenheim and kill him. As Envy passes through the Gate, he transforms into a huge serpentine dragon and then disappears.
The Conqueror of Shamballa[]
In Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, it is revealed that Envy had survived his journey through the Gate and arrived in our world. Since alchemy does not work on the other side of the Gate, Envy loses his shapeshifting power and becomes trapped in his dragon form. Envy was captured by the Thule Society sometime after arriving to Earth to find Hohenheim. With Envy in his massive serpent form, the Society intended to use him as a literal Ouroboros to open a physical Gate and transfer their soldiers to "Shamballa" on the other side.
Around the time of Conqueror of Shamballa, Envy had escaped and took shelter in an abandoned castle, only to cross paths with Edward once again. In their ensuing fight, Envy was attacked on all sides by the Thule Society, who recaptured him and managed to get a small regiment of soldiers to the other side for a short time. During this time, Hohenheim was imprisoned and offered Envy as a sacrifice in order to keep the "Great Serpent" calm as they formulated their plans. In the end, it was Hohenheim who sacrificed his own life, using Envy as his means and enabling Ed to return to his own world in a final act of redemption for his sins. Thus, Envy finally realized his sole desire to kill his father, ultimately at the cost of his own life. After crushing Hohenheim within his jaws, Envy was transformed into a permanent Gate. He is the last Homunculus to die.
2009 series[]
Envy was the fourth Homunculus created by Father, used for the purpose of causing mass slaughter with his shapeshifting powers to induce distrust and bloodshed. One such event was in Ishval, posing as an Amestrian militant to kill an Ishvalan child in the open, causing a massive revolt that led to the Ishval Civil War while the soldier he impersonated was the fall man. Overall, Envy gloated about having enjoyed committing the deed with great zest. Envy was later sent to pose as Father Cornello to oversee the events of Reole after the false prophet was exposed by Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and killed off by Lust.
Envy later meets with Fullmetal when he and Lust both enter the Fifth Laboratory and kill off the younger Slicer brother with his own katana for nearly jeopardizing their plans. Ending up making an enemy out of Edward, Envy takes advantage of the boy's automail arm malfunctioning to knock him out with a knee to the gut while telling him to feel lucky that he and Lust were not going serious on him. Envy later murders Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes when he stumbles in on the planned Day of Reckoning, assuming the form of his wife Gracia to kill him when his guard is down by her. When Greed is captured by King Bradley, which is the alias for the homunculus Wrath, Envy winds up in a "brotherly quarrel" with the rogue Homunculus that almost causes Envy to lose his cool before Father stops the argument.
Envy's monstrous unleashed form
After Lust's death by Colonel Roy Mustang, Envy takes over as the Homunculi representative and Dr. Tim Marcoh's jailer. Later, when Gluttony is captured, Envy attempts to retrieve the Homunculus, but ends up fighting Ling Yao before both he and Edward are sucked into Gluttony's subspace. There, once finding Ling and Edward, Envy states that there is no escape as they admit to the war he caused in Ishval, which provokes Edward to right hook the monster. However, seeing no more need to hold back, Envy assumes his unleashed state to kill the two humans.
During the fight, Envy takes advantage of the captive souls within his body to mess with Edward's mind before knocking him out and swallowing him alive. However, seeing Envy's Philosopher's Stone at their core, Edward placates the monstrous Envy, allowing him to use their Philosopher's Stone to open Gluttony's fake Gate of Truth and pass through the true doors back to the real world. This drains many of the souls from Envy in the process, but it was evidently not enough to kill him. Though Envy promises to tell Edward what they know, he went back on his word while restraining him and his younger brother Alphonse so Father could make Ling the new Greed. When Scar arrives with May Chang, Ed reveals Envy's role in the Ishvalan War to the scarred man, causing a ruckus that almost enables the Elric brothers to escape. Soon after, Envy takes the Elrics to Bradley so that they can be forced to keep their mouths shut regarding what they have learned.
Jealousy in a jar
Envy later releases Solf J. Kimblee from jail to have him work for the Homunculi in tracking down Scar to recapture Marcoh. While in Briggs, Envy is lured into a trap by Zampano pretending to sell out Marcoh. During the resulting fight, Envy enters his unleashed state in a fit of rage, grabbing Marcoh and revealing that his men were sacrificed to create the Philosopher's Stone given to Kimblee. This proves to be Envy's undoing, as Marcoh succeeds in destroying most of the souls in Envy's Philosopher's Stone, reducing the Homunculus into a small, weakened version of his true form. After an unsuccessful attempt to hold Yoki hostage, Envy is placed in a jar and given to May to take back to Xing. However, Envy plays on May's guilt of leaving her new friends to fend for themselves in order to have her bring them back to Central to obtain a new Philosopher's Stone.
As the Day of Reckoning commences, Envy manages to take control of one of the activated Mannequin Soldiers attacking May, using it to assimilate the others nearby to regain his full form. From there, Envy chases down May before crashing through the entrance of the Third Laboratory. There, seeing former enemies working together, Envy reveals himself as Hughes' murderer by transforming once again into Gracia when Mustang refused to believe that his friend's life was taken by a "moron." Unfortunately, due to the Mannequin Soldiers in Envy making them flammable and with Mustang now in a fiery rage, the Homunculus has to escape into the sewers. Finding Lt. Riza Hawkeye, Envy assumes Mustang's form and tries to kill her, but is quickly found out and shot repeatedly with her many weapons. Although Envy does manage to catch hold of her, Mustang arrives and continues the destruction of Envy's new body until he is reduced back to his parasitic form once again.
Envy is saved from execution by Mustang's hands through the combined intervention from Riza, Scar, and Edward in order to cease Mustang's quest for vengeance. After unsuccessfully trying to tempt the group into fighting each other with every horrible thing they have done to the other, Envy is mortified by how former enemies can put aside their hatred and work together. At that moment, Edward reveals to Envy that the homunculus is in fact jealous of human friendships and their ability to support each other. Realizing this truth, and feeling utterly disgraced by it and the fact that Edward sympathized with him, a tearful Envy pulls out his Philosopher's Stone and crushes it. As his decaying body begins to disintegrate, Envy laments not seeing where this ceasefire among former enemies would lead while he whispers, "Goodbye, Edward Elric," with tears in his eyes.