History

Written and drawn by Hiromu Arakawa, the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series is serialized in Square Enix's monthly manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Gangan. It began its serialization in January 2001 and is still ongoing, with a new chapter in every issue. The individual chapters are also published in bound volumes by Square Enix. The first volume was released in January 2002 and as of August 2008, twenty bound volumes have been released. Viz Media began releasing the manga in North America in May 2005; as of March 19, 2008, sixteen English-language volumes have been released. So far the content of the manga released by Viz in the United States does not differ much from the original material. As of August 2007, the only edit that has been made is to a set of twelve panels from volume 8, depicting the Homunculus Greed tied to a cross-shaped stone slab in crucifixion style. In the U.S. version the stone was redesigned to become round in each panel, as commented by Viz to avoid references to Christianity. This change in the manga was made with the approval of Hiromu Arakawa.

The animation studio Bones adapted the manga into a 51-episode anime series, directed by Seiji Mizushima and co-produced by Bones, Mainichi Broadcasting System and Aniplex with character designs by Yoshiyuki Ito and scripts by Sho Aikawa, which ran on the Mainichi Broadcasting System, TBS, and Animax in Japan from October 4, 2003 to October 2, 2004. The English dub of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime debuted on the Adult Swim block of the United States cable channel Cartoon Network in November 6, 2004. A year and a half later, Canada's YTV began airing it on March 3, 2006. The anime's later story and conclusion by Bones is different from the manga, which is still ongoing due to a request by Hiromu Arakawa. During the making of the anime, Hiromu Arakawa was present in meetings to give the staff insight in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, though she did not actively take part in any writing for the TV series.

A movie sequel, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, was made by the same studio, and premiered in Japanese theaters on July 23, 2005. A series of five Original video animations (OVAs) were also released. Most of them are noted to have little to no plot continuity. These OVAs also include a live action segment with Alphonse Elric travelling around a city. In March 2006 a DVD featuring these OVAs was released in Japan with the name of Fullmetal Alchemist: Premium Collection. In the 20th manga volume, Arakawa announced that a second Fullmetal Alchemist anime television series is currently being produced. Earlier speculation from a purported document leaks has Bones again acting as the production company and Yasuhiro Irie taking over as the series director. The title of the new series and the expected premier date have not yet been released.


Summary
Main Characters