Regarding October 3rd in manga canon

I know, this is a day late, so shoot me. :( But someone on fm_alchemist brought up a question on why the date of October 3rd is different in the manga and anime. So, being the dork that I am and procrastinating on schoolwork I looked up the timelines for both the manga AND anime!! ...Well actually, I used the manga timeline from here, but I actually did go back and rewatch the anime on my own (mostly- Zrana helped too; YAY MOD POWER!).
So I am posting my findings here, because it's just so interesting how many small differences there are in the two canons. I guess people can use this as a reference when writing fics based on manga canon, because it does get confusing with what age the brothers are at what event taking place when. (Did that make sense...?) On the other hand, if you've never seen the anime, feel free to skip this. :D


Anime Timeline
1899- Edward & Winry are born
1900- Alphonse is born
1902- Hohenheim leaves
1905- Ed & Al's first transmutation (Ed: 6 yrs old, Al: 5 yrs old)
1907- Rockbells killed (Ed: 8, Al: 7)
1909- Trisha dies (Ed: 10, Al: 9)
Apprenticeship with Izumi
1910- February, Failed transmutation (Ed: 11, Al: 10)
February-October, Automail surgery & rehabilitation
October 3rd, Ed & Al burn their house and leave Resembool
1911- State Alchemist exam passed (Ed: 12, Al: 11)
1914- Present Day (Ed: 15, Al: 14)

Manga Timeline
1899- Edward & Winry are born
1900- Alphonse is born
1904- Hohenheim leaves
Ed & Al start doing alchemy (Ed: 5, Al: 4)
Trisha dies
1908- Rockbells are killed
Summer, apprenticeship with Izumi (Ed: 9, Al: 8)
Winter, Ed & Al return to Resembool
1910- Failed transmutation (Ed: 11, Al: 10)
Automail surgery & rehabilitation (takes aprox. 1 year)
1911- October, State Alchemist exam passed (Ed: 12, Al: 11)
October 3rd, Ed & Al burn their house and leave Resembool
1914- Present Day (Ed: 15, Al: 14)


So...things we can get from this. First of all, Hohenheim leaves sooner in the anime. Next, in the manga, Ed and Al start messing with alchemy a whole year before they did in the anime. Impressive. O_o And also...oh god, Trisha dies FIVE YEARS before she does in the anime. That means Ed and Al were orphaned for a much greater amount of time and had to mostly raise themselves, though it seems they had meals with the Rockbells. Also, Ed and Al were intensively studying alchemy on their own for 4 years, all the while going to school (even though they didn't really need to). The brothers had a LONG TIME to think about this human transmutation thing, while in the anime they were at it for only about a year.

The Rockbells are killed a year later in the manga than they are in the anime. I'm not sure if there's that much of a difference in the Ishbal timeline- I won't be checking that at the moment unless someone requests it. (Ed and Winry are the same age, in case anyone wants to know how old Winry was when her parents died.)

On the other hand, Ed and Al start training with Izumi a year earlier in the manga than in the anime. They stay with her for about half a year. And then, with more knowledge and wisdom under their belts, they continue independant study for about TWO years until they finally perfect their theory, all while still attending the school they really don't need. In the anime, they don't study on their own as much, but still end up attempting human transmutation in the same year as the manga.

And then the night of horror and childhood trauma. Poor kids. :( In the anime, Roy ends up visiting the Rockbell house shortly after Al brings Ed in, while in the manga, I'd say at least a week has passed since That Night, since Ed isn't looking so bloody and on the verge of death (though he's very miserable and pathetic-looking indeed).

Roy leaves, Ed decides he wants to become a State Alchemist and get automail. In the manga, Pinako tells him that the surgery and rehabilitation would take about three years. Ed declares, "One year!" So we'll say it takes about one year, because Edward is one determined little kid, during which time he grows out his hair. In the anime, the surgery and rehabilitation takes about 8 months.

So now we come to October 3rd!! No, wait, actually we don't, because some more stuff takes place in the manga BEFORE that day. Ed travels to East City to meet Roy, and then they travel to Central so Ed can take his (rather brief) State Alchemist examination. He didn't need to study for this at all unlike the anime (but then he got all his independant study in the years before, so they're even). (EDIT: Upon rereading the manga, I've noticed that Bradley mentions Ed taking a written and psychiatric examination. So really, the exam in the manga may have resembled what was shown in the anime, except for the final part, which was the demonstration.)

And THEN it's October 3rd! But...in the manga, it's October 3rd 1911, and in the anime it's October 3rd 1910. In the manga, Ed and Al burn their house after the State Alchemist examination, while in the anime they burn their house before setting off, and then there was the side adventures in episode 4 and 5, and then a month or two studying at the Tucker household, and finally the examination. But how does that help explain the difference in the dates?

Maybe it was because Ed's rehabilitation took longer in the manga, but presumably only by about four months. So that's not it, either. Hmmmm. Okay, wait, so maybe the date of the transmutation IS different in the anime and manga after all! In the anime, it was in February, in the manga it was...actually, it looks like in the manga they did it during the FALL. There's a page in Chapter 23 where it shows the passing of the seasons since the Elric brothers returned to Resembool in the winter of 1908- we see winter, spring, summer, and it ends with Ed completing his theory with the WINDOW OPEN. ...Yes, I'm going to assume this was in the fall, because not many people would leave their windows open in the winter.

NOW we're getting somewhere! So if we say Ed and Al performed the transmutation in mid-to-late September of 1910, and it took a year for Ed to get his automail after that, and then spent some days traveling to take his exam, then it would bring them to October of 1911. In the anime, they performed the transmutation in February of 1910, took 8 months to get automail, and then burned the house on October 3rd of the same year. MYSTERY SOLVED!! :D


...God, that IS confusing. X__x

EDIT: Oh yeah, this would also mean that Ed's birthday in the manga is not necessarily the same as in the anime, because he was 12 years old when he became a State Alchemist. His birthday might come before October. And in the anime, after October, Ed turns 12 on a snowy day. So his birthday is probably sometime in the winter in the anime. (I'm not sure about Al's birthday in the manga- whenever I list his age corresponding with Ed's, I'm just assuming, because the manga rarely says it directly like the anime.)

EDIT 2: Arakawa has stated that Ed's birthday is in the winter.