Absolutely, Alchemist takes place in the early 19th century and sets the stage for Jacket by establishing WWII, which leads to a global arms race that culminates in the US invading Vietnam in Jacket, which sets up the military obsessed themes in Panic. Watching Panic first is doable, but it’s a lot easier to understand when you have the baseline story set up by the other two
There was a noncanonical alternate version of Alchemist called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood which explores a sort of alternate history where WWII never happened, and unfortunately it got more popular than the original series, which I think is what really causes the confusion with the watch order
Absolutely, Alchemist takes place in the early 19th century and sets the stage for Jacket by establishing WWII, which leads to a global arms race that culminates in the US invading Vietnam in Jacket, which sets up the military obsessed themes in Panic. Watching Panic first is doable, but it’s a lot easier to understand when you have the baseline story set up by the other two
There was a noncanonical alternate version of Alchemist called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood which explores a sort of alternate history where WWII never happened, and unfortunately it got more popular than the original series, which I think is what really causes the confusion with the watch order