Well, when I watched
Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (subtitled FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, which is an interesting translation), I assumed the ending was just one of those that the animators tacked on to deal with the fact that
the comics hadn't ended yet, like they did in
HELLSING*. But then I saw
this (spoiler if you haven't seen the whole series, but it didn't spoil
the movie for me, even though it still sits unwatched on Mother's hard drive).
*Speaking of HELLSING, I never did figure out what
the Rescripts were. Too lazy to read up about it myself.