Arakawa was attracted more by the philosophical aspects than the practical aspects. Arakawa wanted to integrate social problems into the story. She gathered information watching news programs and talking to people, such as refugees, war veterans and former yakuza. Several plot elements expand on these themes, such as Pinako Rockbell caring for the Elric brothers after the death of their mother, and the brothers helping people all over the country, to gain an understanding of the meaning of family.
When creating the fictional world of Fullmetal Alchemist , Arakawa was inspired after reading about Europe during the Industrial Revolution period; she was amazed by how different the people from different countries were, in terms of their culture, architecture, and clothes.
She was especially interested in England during this period and "added to it her own original flavor to turn it into a fantasy world". When the manga began serialization, Arakawa had in mind how the story would end. As the plot continued, however, she felt some characters were maturing and decided to change some scenes, resulting in some sketches of the faces of the characters were improvised.
The easiest of the series characters for her to draw was Alex Louis Armstrong , as well as little animals. Due to the fact she likes dogs, Arakawa added several of them in the story. Arakawa made comedy central in the manga because she thinks it is intended for entertainment, and tried to minimalize focus on sad scenes. During the development of the anime , Arakawa allowed the anime staff to work independently from her, and requested having a different ending from the one in the manga.
She said that she would not like to repeat the same ending in both media, as well as to make the manga longer to work more in the development of the characters. When watching the ending of the anime, she was amazed at how different the Homunculi creatures were from the manga and enjoyed how the staff speculated about the origins of the villains. The series explores social problems, including discrimination, scientific advancement, political greed, brotherhood, family, and war.
Scar's backstory and his hatred of the state military references the Ainu people, who had their land taken by other people. This includes the consequences of guerrilla warfare and the number of violent soldiers a military can have.
Some of the people who took the Ainu's land were originally Ainu; this irony is referenced in Scar's use of alchemy to kill alchemists even though it was forbidden in his own religion.
The Elrics being orphaned and adopted by Pinako Rockbell reflects Arakawa's beliefs about the ways society should treat orphans. The characters' dedication to their occupations references the need to work for food. The series also explores the concept of equivalent exchange; to obtain something new, one must pay with something of equal value.
This is applied by alchemists when creating new materials and is also a belief the Elric brothers follow. Serialization began in August and finished in June , with a chapter in every issue. The first volume was released on January , and as of November 22, , 27 volumes have been released, being volume 27 the last one released. A few chapters have been re-released in Japan in two "Extra number" magazines and Fullmetal Alchemist, The First Attack , which features the first nine chapters of the manga as well as other side stories.
The series is being republished on kanzenban format starting on July 22, , and as of October 22, , 7 kanzenban volumes have been released. Viz Media is releasing the manga in North America. The first volume was released on May 3, , and the latest volume they have released is volume 17 on October 21, The content of the manga released by Viz in the United States was mostly consistent with the original material.
As of August , the only edits that have been made were 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. This change in the manga was made with the approval of Arakawa. In Singapore, the manga is being published by Chuang Yi.
Publishing in both English and Simplified Chinese, seventeen volumes have been released in English, while fourteen volumes have been released in Simplified Chinese. In Poland, JPFantastica is publishing the manga - as of November , thirteen volumes have been released.
In France, the manga is being released by Kurokawa. Volume eight, released in September , was available also in a collector's edition, which consisted of the book packed with the original comedic novel Flame Alchemist , focusing on Roy Mustang's schedule. Prior to this, this novel was only available with the limited edition of volume six in Japan. In Brazil, Editora JBC is publishing the manga with thirty-four volumes equivalent to the first original seventeen volumes having been released currently.
The animation studio Bones adapted the manga into an anime series of 51 episodes and 4 seasons. Character designs were handled by Yoshiyuki Ito and the script by Sho Aikawa.
The anime's later story and conclusion by Bones are different from the manga which at the time was still ongoing due to a request by Arakawa. During the making of the anime, Arakawa was present in meetings to give the staff insight into 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, A series of five original video animations OVAs were also released.
The majority of these OVAs are side stories and do not expand on the plot. It will include the first anime of 51 episodes, the film, the CD soundtracks, and guidebooks from the series.
In the 20th manga volume, Arakawa announced that a second Fullmetal Alchemist anime television series is currently being produced. Bones produced the new series with Yasuhiro Irie as the series director. The title series premiered in April with the same name as the previous series which was given the title Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in the international releases to distinguish it from the first series.
This new series intended to follow the original manga storyline more closely, and ended in July 4, , after 64 episodes and 5 seasons. Although Arakawa did not write the novels, she did illustrations for them, including covers and frontispieces. The novels are spin-offs of the manga series and follow the Elric brothers on their continued quest for the Philosopher's Stone.
The first novel, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Land of Sand , were animated as the episodes eleven, twelve and the last part of episode 37 of the anime series.
The fourth novel also contains an extra story about the military called "Roy's Holiday". The first was authored by Makoto Inoue and the rest by Jun Eishima. None of these have been translated for distribution outside Japan. There have been two series of Fullmetal Alchemist audio dramas. The first volume of the first series, Fullmetal Alchemist Vol.
The Tringham brothers reprised their roles in the anime and are stories based on different manga chapters with the addition of other characters from the State Military from the series. There are two stories in this series, each with two parts. TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 1 was released on March 24, , in Japan and contained thirty-three tracks, including several of the background sounds used during key points in the main series and the first opening and ending theme songs.
A bonus DVD, exclusive to the U. It featured performances by several of the musical artists from the television series as well as narrations by the voice actors and actresses. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Original Soundtrack 2 from the anime was published on March 24, , also contained thirty-one tracks.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Original Soundtrack 3 the third and final CD soundtrack became available on July 7, , also contained thirty-one tracks. Finally, Fullmetal Alchemist Final Best , a compilation of openings and endings songs, was released on July 28, Games based on Fullmetal Alchemist have also been released. The storylines of the games often diverge from those of the anime and manga and feature new characters. Of the eleven games made in Japan, Broken Angel , Curse of the Crimson Elixir , and Dual Sympathy have seen international release; the others have not been released internationally.
Funimation licensed the franchise to create a new series of Fullmetal Alchemist related video games to be published by Destineer Publishing Corporation in the United States. Destineer released its first Fullmetal Alchemist game for the Nintendo DS, a translation of Bandai's Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy , on December 15, , and has commented that this will be the first of many titles that they plan to release.
This title was released October 15, For the RPG games, Arakawa oversaw the story and designed its characters, while Bones, the studio which would be responsible for the anime series, produced several animation sequences. The developers looked at other titles for inspiration, particularly Square's action role-playing game Kingdom Hearts , in addition to other games based on manga series, such as Dragon Ball , Naruto or One Piece games.
The biggest challenge they had to overcome was to try to make the title a "full-fledged" game rather than a simple "character-based" game. Tomoya Asano, the assistant producer for the games, noted that development spanned more than a year, unlike most character-based games.
The Fullmetal Alchemist franchise has several artbooks for the manga and the anime; three manga artbooks called The Art of Fullmetal Alchemist were released by Square Enix and the first two by Viz Media. The first contains illustrations made between May to April , spanning the first six manga volumes. The second has illustrations from September to October , spanning the next six.
The third has illustrations from the remaining volumes. For the anime, three artbooks were released in Japan, while only the first was released by Viz Media. The manga also has three guidebooks; each of them contains timelines, guides to the Elric brothers' journey, and Gaiden chapters that were never released in a manga volume. Only the first guidebook has been released by Viz Media, under the name of Fullmetal Alchemist Profiles.
A series of five fanbooks have also been released with the name of containing each one information of the anime as well as several interviews with the staff of the series. Action figures, busts, and statues from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime and manga have been created by leading toy companies; primarily Medicom and Southern Island.
Medicom has created high-end deluxe vinyl figures of the characters from the anime. Southern Island has also released their own action figures in of the main characters. These figures and a 12" statue were scheduled to release in Southern Island has since gone bankrupt, putting the figures on permanent hiatus. A trading card game was first published in in the United States by Joyride Entertainment. Since then, six expansions have been released. The physical game was retired on July 11, Destineer released a Nintendo DS adaptation of the game on October 15, The series has been highly popular in both Japan and around the world.
In March , the manga has sold over 27 million volumes in Japan, while as of March , the number increased to more than 30 million. Along with Yakitate!! The English release of the manga's first volume was the top-selling graphic novel during the year You've rejected analytics cookies.
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