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Fullmetal Alchemist

, commonly abbreviated as FMA or Hagaren, is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is styled after Industrial Revolution Europe and several experiences from the author's life. Set in a fictional universe in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques known to man, the story follows Edward and Alphonse Elric, two alchemist brothers, who want to recover parts of their bodies lost in an attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy.

The manga is serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine and was adapted into an animated television series and a movie sequel. The manga is still running in Japan, and twenty bound volumes have been released so far, while sixteen have been released in the United States by Viz Media. The first TV series has been completed, and consists of fifty-one episodes and a full-length movie sequel, all of which have been released in English in all English-speaking DVD regions. A new TV series was recently announced. In addition, there are several spin-off novels, original video animations (OVAs), and video games. Collectible card games, action figures, soundtracks, and supplementary books, have also been released.

The franchise has seen high popularity in both Japan and North America. As of March 2008, the Fullmetal Alchemist manga has sold over 30 million volumes in Japan. The English release of the manga's first volume was the top-selling graphic novel during the year 2005. The series' animated adaptation won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 2003. In two TV Asahi web polls, the anime was voted #1 most popular anime of all time in Japan. It was nominated in six of the eight categories for which it was eligible at the American Anime Awards in February 2007, winning awards in five of them.

Plot

Edward and Alphonse Elric are brothers living in the village of Resembool in the country of . Their father, Hohenheim, left home when Edward and Alphonse were still very young. Years later, their mother, Trisha Elric, dies of a terminal illness. After their mother's death, Edward becomes determined to bring her back through the use of alchemy, an advanced science in which objects can be created from raw materials. They researched Human Transmutation, a forbidden art in which one attempts to create or modify a human being. However, this attempt failed, ultimately resulting in the loss of Edward's left leg and Alphonse's entire body. In a desperate effort to save his brother, Edward sacrificed his right arm to affix his brother's soul to a suit of armor. Some days later, an alchemist named Roy Mustang visits the Elric brothers, and after discovering they tried revive their mother, he tells Edward to become a member from the State Military of the country to find a way to recover their bodies. After that, Edward's left leg and right arm are fitted with two sets of automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb, created for him by his close family friends Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako.

Edward sets out to become a , an alchemist employed by the State Military of Amestris. Becoming a State Alchemist enables Edward to use the extensive resources available, but it also turns him into a "dog" of the military, who are famous for the annihilation of much of Ishbal's population in a past Civil War. The brothers learn of the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary stone that is said to allow the holder to completely bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange, and set off in search of it as a means to restore their bodies. Throughout their journey, the meet many enemies; those who are willing to do anything to obtain the Philosopher's Stone, Scar, one of the few surviving Ishbalans, who seeks vengeance on the State Alchemists for the destruction of his race, and the homunculi, a group of human-like creatures that carry pieces of the Philosopher's Stone inside themselves. With the stone, homunculi have the ability to heal from almost any impact or damage done. As the story progresses, Edward and Alphonse discover the vast expansion of Amestris was the result of the homunculi, who created and secretly control the State Military. The homunculi and much of the high-ranking military officers are commanded from behind the curtains by the creator of the homunculi, a man known to the homunculi simply as "Father", a homunculus who gained inmortality by using Hohenheim as his new body. As a gift for helping him, Father made Hohenheim immortal by rebuilding his body. By using Amestris as a gigantic transmutation circle, Father plans to convert the entire country into a Philosopher's Stone. When Edward and Alphonse discover Father's plans, and other members of the State Military who are against Father's plan, set out to defeat him.

Differences in anime adaptation

The plot of the manga and anime are very similar for the beginning of the series, but diverges greatly near the middle of the anime series, when the Elric brothers and their friend Winry Rockbell travel to Rush valley. A former lover of Hohenheim, Dante, acts as the series' main antagonist. Centuries ago, the two perfected methods for making the Philosopher's Stone, achieving a sort of immortality by transferring their soul and intellect into others' bodies as they age. Hohenheim was eventually overcome by the guilt of sacrificing lives to make the Stone and left Dante. Although Dante is still able to jump from body to body to cheat death over the centuries, she is able to spend less time in each body as it decays faster with each jump. She uses the Homunculi to spur Edward and Alphonse, along with other Alchemists equally desperate, into creating another complete Philosopher's Stone for her.

When Scar tries to create the Philosopher's Stone, the stone is infused into Alphonse's metal body, making him the main focus of Dante's efforts leading to him being kidnapped. When Edward goes to rescue him, he is killed by the homunculus Envy. Alphonse uses the Philosopher's Stone to revive his brother but disappears in the process. Dante tries to escape but she is killed when the homunculi Gluttony loses control. After being revived, Edward risks his life to bring back his brother in exchange. As a result, Edward ends up in a parallel world, while Alphonse recovers his original body at the cost of his memories of when he was infused in the suit of armor. Determined to return with Alphonse, Edward becomes involved in rocketry research, with the intention to use that technology to try and get back to his home world.

The story is followed in Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa situated two years after the end of the anime. While Edward is working in Germany to find a way to return to Amestris, Dietline Eckhart, a member from the Thule Society, discovers the existence of Ed's world and starts giving him hints to open a portal to Amestris. Alphonse, having been looking for his brother after two years, also discovers the portal and opens it at the same time as his father Hohenheim opens the one from Germany, allowing Dietline to enter Amestris and try to conquer it. Edward reunites with his brother and they join forces to defeat Dietline. Knowing the danger that both worlds are now connected the portal, Edward returns to Germany to destroy it, knowing that he would be trapped there forever. Alphonse secretly follows him by hiding in a suit of armor, having decided to stay with Edward.

Production

In an interview, Hiromu Arakawa said that she became attracted by the idea of using alchemy in the manga after reading about the Philosopher's stone. She liked it so much that she started reading books of alchemy, which she found very complicated due to the fact that some books contradicted others. She was attracted more by the philosophical aspects than the practical aspects. For the Equivalent Exchange concept, she was inspired by the work of her parents who had a farm in Hokkaidō and always had to give all their effort in order to earn the money to eat.

Several social problems were integrated into the story by Arakawa after talking to people who had suffered them, such as refugees, war veterans and former yakuza, or simply by watching news about those issues. 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. As she said, she was especially interested in England during that period and "added to it her own original flavor to turn it into a fantasy world".

When the manga started being serialized, Arakawa had in mind how the story would end. However, as the plot continued, she felt some characters were growing up and so she decided to change some scenes. Therefore, some sketches of the faces of the characters were improvised. In making the characters' designs, she comments that the manga authors Suihō Tagawa and Hiroyuki Eto are her main inspirations and she also mentions her artwork is a mix of both of them. When drawing the series characters, Alex Louis Armstrong as well as the little animals are the easiest for her to draw; 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 the manga is made for entertainment, so she tried not to focus on sad scenes.

During the development of the anime, Arakawa let the anime staff work by themselves and also requested that it should have 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 about how different the Homunculi were from the manga and enjoyed how the staff speculated about the origins of the villains.

Media

Manga

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.

In Singapore, the manga is being released by Chuang Yi. Publishing in both English and Simplified Chinese sixteen volumes have been released in English; fourteen volumes have been released in Simplified Chinese. In Poland, JPFantastica is releasing the manga; as of June 2008, eleven volumes have been released. In France, the manga is being released by Kurokawa. Volume eight, released in September 2006, was available also in a collector's edition, which consisted of the book packed with the original humorous novel Flame Alchemist, focusing on Roy Mustang's schedule. Before that, this novel was only available with the limited edition of volume six in Japan. In Brazil, Editora JBC is releasing the manga.

Anime

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, with a 6.8 percent television viewership rating. 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, 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. The series has been released in a series of thirteen DVDs from December 17, 2003 to January 26, 2005 in Japan. Funimation also released the same series of DVDs from February 8, 2005 to September 12, 2006 in the United States. MVM had released the first eight volumes in the UK; however, Funimation gave the rights over to Revelation Films.

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 series is expected to premier in April 2009 with the same name of the previous series.

Novels

A series of six Fullmetal Alchemist Japanese light novels, written by Makoto Inoue, have been published by Square Enix. The novels are licensed for an English-language release by Viz Media in North America, with translation by Alexander O. Smith. Although Hiromu 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, would be later animated as the episodes eleven and twelve of the anime series. The fourth novel also contains an extra story about the military called "Roy's Holiday".

Novelizations of three of the PlayStation 2 games—Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, Curse of the Crimson Elixir, and The Girl Who Surpasses God—have also been written; the first was authored by Makoto Inoue and the rest by Jun Eishima. None of these have been translated for distribution outside Japan.

Drama CDs

There has been two series of Fullmetal Alchemist audio dramas. The first volume of the first series, , was released before the anime and tells a story similar to the first novel. The voice actors of the Tringham brothers worked later in the anime with the same characters, while the Elric brothers have different voice actors. and are stories based on different manga chapters with the addition of other characters, such as Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Alex Louis Armstrong and Maes Hughes.

The second series of audio dramas, available only with purchases of Shōnen Gangan, consists of short stories. There are two stories in this series, each with two parts. The first, , was included in Shōnen Gangan's April and May 2004 issues, while the second story, , was found in the November and December issues.

Soundtracks

All of the music for the Fullmetal Alchemist soundtrack was composed and arranged by Michiru Oshima, who won the 5th Tokyo Anime Award in the category "Best Music" for Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa.

TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 1 was released on March 24, 2004 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. The Russian track "Brothers" (Russian: Братья, Bratja; Japanese: Burācha) was also recorded in English by Vic Mignogna, the voice actor who played Edward Elric in the series.

TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 2 was released on December 15, 2004 and contained thirty tracks. TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 3, released on May 18, 2005 contained twenty-seven tracks.

Fullmetal Alchemist - Complete Best and Fullmetal Alchemist Hagaren Song File -Best Compilation- are compilations of the soundtracks that were released in Japan on October 14, 2004 and December 21, 2005, respectively. A bonus DVD, included only on the U.S. release, contains a music video for Nana Kitade's "Indelible Sin". Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie Conqueror Of Shamballa OST, which contained forty-six tracks, was released on December 21, 2005. All of them are tracks used in the featured film Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa.

During the month of December 2004, "Tales of Another Festival" was staged in Tokyo and Osaka, featuring performances by several of the musical artists from the television series as well as narrations by the voice actors and actresses. A DVD of the concert entitled Fullmetal Alchemist Festival - Tales of Another was released in Japan on April 27, 2005.

Video games

Video games based on the Fullmetal Alchemist world have also been released. The storylines of the games often diverge from those of the anime and manga and also feature new characters. Square Enix has released three role-playing games (RPG)—Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, Curse of the Crimson Elixir, and The Girl Who Surpasses God—and one fighting game, Dream Carnival, for the PlayStation 2; Bandai has released two RPG titles, Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo and Fullmetal Alchemist: Omoide no Sonata, for the Game Boy Advance and one, Dual Sympathy, for the Nintendo DS; and Destineer released a game based on the trading card game in North America for the Nintendo DS. Of the seven games made in Japan, Broken Angel, Dream Carnival, 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, 2006, and has commented that this will be the first of many titles that they plan to release. On February 19, 2007, Destineer announced the second game in its Fullmetal Alchemist series, the Fullmetal Alchemist Trading Card Game. This title was released October 15, 2007.

For the RPG games, Hiromu Arakawa, the author of the original manga, oversaw the story of the game 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.

Art and guidebooks

The Fullmetal Alchemist franchise has several artbooks for the manga and the anime; two manga artbooks called were released by Square Enix and later by Viz Media. The first contains illustrations made between May 2001 to April 2003, spanning the first six manga volumes, while the second has illustrations from September 2003 to October 2005, spanning the next six. For the anime, three artbooks with the name of were released in Japan, while only the first was released by Viz Media.

The manga also has three guidebooks; each of them contain 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. An anime character guide book called was released Japan as well in the United States. 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.

Trading card game

A Fullmetal Alchemist trading card game was first published in 2005 in the United States by Joyride Entertainment. Since then, six expansions have been released. Cards for this game were sold in booster packs and as decks. The physical game was retired on July 11, 2007; Destineer released a Nintendo DS adaptation of the game on October 15, 2007.

Other merchandise

Action figures, busts, and statues from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime and manga have been created by leading toy companies. The primary of these companies are Medicom and Southern Island. Medicom has created high end deluxe vinyl figures of the characters from the anime. These figures are exclusively distributed in the United States and UK by Southern Island. Southern Island has also released their own action figures in 2007 of the main characters. These figures and a 12" statue were scheduled to release in 2007. Southern Island has since gone bankrupt, putting the figures on permanent hiatus.

Reception

In March 2007, the manga has sold over 27 million volumes in Japan, while as of March 2008, the number increased to more than 30 million volumes in Japan. The series is also one of Viz Media's best sellers, appearing in several polls. The manga also appeared several times in the "USA Today Booklist". The English release of the manga's first volume was the top-selling graphic novel during the year 2005. Along with Yakitate!! Japan, the series won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 2004.

Fullmetal Alchemist has generally been well received by critics. Though the initial volumes were felt to be formulaic, critics noted that the series grows in complexity as it progresses. Arakawa was praised for being able to keep all of her character designs unique and distinguishable, despite many of them wearing the same basic uniforms. The characterization of the protagonist Edward balances between being a "typical clever kid" and "a stubborn kid", successfully allowing him to float between the series more comical moments and its underlying drama without seeming false. Reviewers celebrated the development of the characters in the manga, with their beliefs actively changing during the story forcing them to grow in maturity.

The anime premiered in Japan with a 6.8 percent television viewership rating. In 2005, TV Asahi, a television network in Japan, conducted a "Top 100" online web poll and nation-wide survey; the Fullmetal Alchemist anime adaptation placed first in the online poll and twentieth in the survey. In 2006, TV Asahi conducted another online poll for the top one hundred anime, and Fullmetal Alchemist placed first again. Fullmetal Alchemist was also a winner in the American Anime Awards in several categories. These include "Long Series", "Best Cast", "Best DVD Package Design", "Best Anime Theme Song" ("Rewrite", by Asian Kung-Fu Generation), and "Best Actor" (Vic Mignogna, Edward Elric's English voice actor). It was also nominated in the category of "Best Anime Feature" for Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa. The series also won most of the Twenty-sixth Annual Animage Readers' Polls. The series was the winner in the "Favorite Anime Series", "Favorite Episode" (episode seven), "Favorite Male Character" (Edward Elric), "Favorite Female Character" (Riza Hawkeye), "Favorite Theme Song" ("Melissa", by Porno Graffitti), and "Favorite Seiyū" (Romi Paku, Edward's Japanese voice actor). In the "Tokyo Anime Fair", the series also won in the categories "Animation Of The Year" (Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala), "Best original story" (Hiromu Arakawa, author of Fullmetal Alchemist) and "Best music" (Michiru Oshima).

The series has become one of the top properties of Square Enix along with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The designs of the characters have been praised remarking they are almost unique. Flashbacks has been criticized to be annoying as they are repeated several times. Others reviewers compared the series with an Odyssey and part tragic coming of age story. The plot and the music have been celebrated to be almost rich. The anime has also been praised for having a good balance between action, comedy and deep moments and remarked the emotional core of the development of the two main characters. However, the anime has also had negative reviews in which the large number of sentimental scenes in the series have been criticized, considering them an abuse to make the people who watch it cry. The ending also had a negative review noting that the beliefs of Edward did not change at all as he tried once again to bring somebody back to life.

The soundtracks of the series have also been reviewed. Reviewers praised the fact there are different styles of musics as well as a large number of artists that makes every song enjoyable. The music of the backgrounds has been noted to never distract anybody who listen to it from the story and that are always pleaseant to hear. The first opening theme and ending theme have been considered the best tracks of the series remarking that they make a good combination of anime and song.

The first Fullmetal Alchemist novel, The Land of the Sand was well received by Jarred Pine of Mania.com as a self-contained novelization that remained true to the characterizations from the manga series. He notes that while the lack of backstory makes it geared more towards fans of the franchise than new readers, but he still felt it was an impressive debut piece for the Viz Fiction line. Ain't it Cool News also found the novel to be true to its roots, and that while it brought nothing new to the series, it was compelling enough for followers of the series to enjoy a retelling. As a whole, the reviewer felt it was a "work for young-ish readers that's pretty clear about some darker sides of politics, economics and human nature. Charles Solomon, of the Los Angeles Times, note that the novel has a different focus the anime series, with The Land of Sand "creating stronger, sympathetic bond" between the younger brothers than is seen in its two episode anime counterpart.