Izumi Curtis

nihongo|Izumi Curtis|イズミ・カーティス|Izumi Kātisu is the name of a character from "Fullmetal Alchemist". She is voiced by Shoko Tsuda in the Japanese version of the anime, and by Christine Auten in the English dub.

Anime

Izumi Curtis is the powerful alchemist who took on the eager Elric brothers as students shortly after their mother's passing. The red Flamel crest on her chest is the same insignia that appears on Edward's coat and the left shoulder of Alphonse's armor which is the sign of an alchemist.

Izumi is an extremely strong woman, both emotionally and physically: along with her talent for alchemy, Izumi is also an accomplished martial artist. The Elric brothers are taught with her own unique form of sparring combined with philosophy to gain a fuller understanding of alchemy.

Izumi is married to Sig Curtis, a husky and well-built butcher of few words. Like many others in the series, she despises the military and particularly State Alchemists, so when she encounters Edward "Fullmetal Alchemist" Elric again, she beats him up for his becoming a "dog of the military". Alphonse is scolded as well for helping. She lives in the town of Dublith, which has occasionally been mispronounced due to spelling errors in the translated manga (much like the Ishbal/Isvar confusion), and has even been incorrectly referred to as Resembool (Ed and Al's home) in chapter 62.

Like Edward, Izumi is capable of alchemy without a transmutation circle; she gained this ability from seeing the inside of the mysterious "Gate" while attempting to revive her stillborn son with alchemy. This attempt not only created the Homunculus Wrath, but cost Izumi all the organs in her abdominopelvic cavity (the implication being that it is her womb, the symbol of her connection to her stillborn son, and all the organs surrounding it); in other words, her reproductive system and part of her digestive system. Her incredible strength of will allowed her to miraculously survive, with her remaining organs picking up the slack. Her body is failing, which leaves her physically weak and drained, and causes her to cough up blood at inopportune moments, often while attempting a transmutation. Izumi saw Dante as her teacher, and it is likely that she was originally a candidate to be Dante's new body - in which case, her illness due to her human transmutation actually saved her life.

Last Words: "Take good care of them for me, Winry..."

Izumi dies between the series' end and "Conqueror of Shamballa", only making a cameo as a spirit to receive Wrath at the Gate when he sacrifices himself to open a physical gateway to the Other World for Al. Wrath embraces Izumi and seems to made up. How exactly her spirit lingered in the gateway after death for so long is left unexplained. Ironically in the OVA Chibi film they seem to be arguing once more

Manga

In the manga, Izumi takes Edward and Alphonse Elric as her apprentices in alchemy, and has a personality just like her counterpart in the anime. However, she suffers tremendous guilt believing that she had killed her son twice, once at birth, and once on the transmutation circle (human transmutation in the manga does not result in Homunculi, but a corpse-like being which has no connection at all with the human that the alchemist intended to transmute). Later, Edward learns that revival of the dead is impossible, and informs Izumi that what she created on the transmutation circle could not have been her son. Izumi, after verifying this fact, is very grateful to Edward for relieving her of the guilt of her son's second death.

Izumi cares very deeply for Edward and Alphonse, and acts as a mother-figure to the two, despite her unique methods of discipline. For instance, after punishing Edward and Al for trying to revive their mother, she draws the boys into a comforting hug.The fact that Izumi opened the Gate is of great interest to King Bradley, as it means that she is a qualified "human sacrifice" like Edward and Alphonse. However, she isn't a State Alchemist and is therefore beyond the Homunculus' control. Edward also suggested the Fuhrer forget the idea of recruiting her, or "prepare to lose the whole army" in order to subdue her. In recent chapters, Father is shown considering her to be one of the five "human sacrifices". In chapter 74, a pair of soldiers arrive in Dublith presumably to pick her up, but Mason tells them that she and Sig are on a trip. After a bout of questioning, the soldiers leave. In chapter 75, Izumi and Sig run into Van Hohenheim on their trip and strike up a conversation, during which Izumi once again begins to cough blood. After sending Sig to fetch a car and assuring the Curtises that he knows a bit about medicine, Hohenheim questions Izumi on how she came to see the "Truth" and what she sacrificed. After she explains, Hohenheim plunges his hand into her abdomen and rearranges her organs to improve her blood flow. He states that the flesh she had lost is a symbol of her sin and cannot be returned (perhaps suggesting that things taken directly by the gate are beyond his control), but tells her that it is not yet time for her to fall. It would seem from this turn of events, that Izumi will not be suffering from her symptoms any longer.In chapter 83 she travels to Brigg 20 years later, and attacks the outposts in order to be captured and pass on information to the Elric brothers regarding the "Promised Day."

According to the Gaiden "The Tales of Master", her name before she married was Izumi Harnet. When she was 18, she traveled to the north of Amestris to become an apprentice of famous alchemist Silver Steiner. However, because Silver Steiner had died some time ago, she met with his elder brother (who was famous for his Hand fighting technique) Gold Steiner. Izumi received a test for apprenticeship, which entailed surviving in the Briggs mountain for one month with only a knife. During this time, she discovered the philosophy of "One is All, All is One", which she later passed on to the Elric brothers. She also was attacked and ambushed by a number of patriots thinking she was a spy. When she found out that the Steiner she had met was not the Steiner she was looking for, she became very upset, and proceeded to beat him up (despite his martial art ability). Yet she reveals that "Steiner" didn't even put a scratch on her.