The Tour guide
Hello, I have honestly never seen an anime in my life but I got this cute outfit and would like to learn about the show. Like plot, characters ect. I might end up getting into it.
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Basically, both anime series were created based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa, but when the first anime was produced (around 2003) the story hadn't even reached its halfway point. So the director of that series asked to take the story in a different direction. When the manga was nearing its conclusion, the same studio approached Ms Arakawa and asked if they could do it over, this time using her storyline. Hence, two different series that start in the same place.
Fullmetal is a series where Alchemy is a functioning science, even though it looks like magic. It follows scientific laws, and one of the main principles is Equivalent Exchange-- that whatever is gained must be equal to what is given/used to make it happen. There are also a few restrictions that all alchemists are expected to obey, the biggest of which is to not attempt to make a person (i.e., either to create a body for someone who is dead, or to attach someone's soul to another body). Yet every so often, some alchemist is driven by so much sorrow and grief that they try... which is how our heroes, Ed and Al Elric come to try to bring back their mother when they are still children. But each brother has something significant taken from him, and what they gain doesn't live longer than a few seconds (in the manga and Brotherhood, the second anime, titled such to distinguish it from the 2003 version).
That's about as straightforward as I can get. Ed and Al both decide to do whatever they must to "replace what is lost", yet as they are both highly principled types, they learn that there are things they won't contemplate. But they are surrounded by forces beyond their knowledge as well, some of whom try to help, and others who want to use the brothers. The anime touches on how war, prejudice, death and grief affect people, about what makes a family, and even what makes a hero. Ed and Al never intended to become heroes... but when they realize everything they cherish could be ruined, they step up.
Personally, I love it.
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Though the new anime is pretty much a carbon copy of the manga, I still prefer the manga. You should read it. 
