| Season Name: | Fullmetal Alchemist | ||||||||||
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| Num Episodes: | 51 | ||||||||||
| Network: | JNN (MBS, TBS) |
Fullmetal Alchemist is an anime television series loosely based on the manga of the same title by Hiromu Arakawa.[1] Set in a fictional universe in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques, the story follows two alchemist brothers named Edward and Alphonse Elric, who want to recover parts of their bodies lost in an attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy.
Produced by Bones and directed by Seiji Mizushima, Fullmetal Alchemist was first aired on TBS Television in Japan from October 4, 2003, to October 2, 2004. It later aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block in the United States from November 7, 2004, through March 19, 2006.[2] [3] A theatrical release titled , a sequel to the television series, premiered in Japanese theaters on July 23, 2005;[4] and it premiered in the U.S. on August 24, 2006.[5] 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.[6] In 2009, a new anime, titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood for the English release, started broadcast on MBS and TBS, being directed by Yasuhiro Irie.[7] [8] [9] Brotherhood is an independent second anime series adaptation that directly follows all the events of the original manga, and is not related to the first anime series.
The first series has been released in a series of thirteen DVDs from December 17, 2003, to January 26, 2005, in Japan.[10] Funimation also released the same series of DVDs from February 8, 2005, to September 12, 2006, in the United States.[11] [12] MVM had released the first eight volumes in the United Kingdom; however, Funimation gave the rights over to Revelation Films.[13] In March 2006 a DVD featuring the OVAs was released in Japan with the name of Fullmetal Alchemist: Premium Collection.[10] Funimation acquired and dubbed the Premium Collection, which was released on August 4, 2009.[14] During January from 2009, Bones released a "DVD box archives" of the anime. It includes the first anime of 51 episodes, the film, the CD soundtracks, and guidebooks from the series.[15]
Eight pieces of theme music are used for the episodes. Each of the theme songs was performed by artists under Sony Music Entertainment Japan's label, whose anime distribution unit, Aniplex, handled the production and music production for the series. The music score was composed and arranged by Michiru Oshima.[16] For episodes 2–13 the opening theme is "Melissa" by Porno Graffitti and the ending theme is by Nana Kitade. Episode 1 also uses "Melissa," but it uses it as an ending theme, and it doesn't have an opening theme. For episodes 14–25 the opening theme is "Ready Steady Go" by L'Arc-en-Ciel and the ending theme is by Yellow Generation. For episodes 26–41 the opening theme is "Undo" by Cool Joke and the ending theme is "Motherland" by Crystal Kay. For episodes 42-51 the opening theme is "Rewrite" by Asian Kung-Fu Generation and the ending theme is "I Will" by Sowelu (except the finale episode, which has a voiceover with the credits instead of an ending theme song). All episodes that originally opened with "Melissa" and "Undo" had "Ready Steady Go" shown in place of those songs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and YTV's Bionix. The DVD releases from Funimation include all openings in their original places and format.__TOC__
| Volume | Discs | Episodes | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1–2 | December 17, 2003 | |
| 2 | 1 | 3–6 | January 21, 2004 | |
| 3 | 1 | 7–10 | March 24, 2004 | |
| 4 | 1 | 11–14 | April 28, 2004 | |
| 5 | 1 | 15–18 | May 26, 2004 | |
| 6 | 1 | 19–22 | June 23, 2004 | |
| 7 | 2 | 23–26 | July 28, 2004 | |
| 8 | 1 | 27–30 | August 25, 2004 | |
| 9 | 1 | 31–34 | September 29, 2004 | |
| 10 | 1 | 35–38 | October 27, 2004 | |
| 11 | 1 | 39–42 | November 26, 2004 | |
| 12 | 1 | 43–46 | December 22, 2004 | |
| 13 | 1 | 47–51 | January 26, 2005 | |
| Premium Collection | 1 | 4 OVAs | March 29, 2006 | |
| Volume 1: The Curse | 1 | 1–4 | February 8, 2005 | |
| Volume 2: Scarred Man of the East | 1 | 5–8 | April 5, 2005 | |
| Volume 3: Equivalent Exchange | 1 | 9–12 | May 31, 2005 | |
| Volume 4: The Fall of Ishbal | 1 | 13–16 | July 26, 2005 | |
| Volume 5: The Cost of Living | 1 | 17–20 | September 20, 2005 | |
| Volume 6: Captured Souls | 1 | 21–24 | November 15, 2005 | |
| Volume 7: Reunion on Yock Island | 1 | 25–28 | January 10, 2006 | |
| Volume 8: The Altar of Stone | 1 | 29–32 | March 7, 2006 | |
| Volume 9: Pain and Lust | 1 | 33–36 | May 2, 2006 | |
| Volume 10: Journey to Ishbal | 1 | 37–40 | June 27, 2006 | |
| Volume 11: Becoming the Stone | 1 | 41–44 | August 1, 2006 | |
| Volume 12: The Truth Behind Truths | 1 | 45–48 | September 5, 2006 | |
| Volume 13: Brotherhood | 1 | 49–51 | September 12, 2006 | |
| Boxset Part 1 | 4 | 1–16 | September 18, 2007 | |
| Boxset Part 2 | 3 | 17–28 | November 20, 2007 | |
| Boxset Part 3 | 3 | 29–40 | February 5, 2008 | |
| Boxset Part 4 | 3 | 41–51 | March 11, 2008 | |
| Complete Series Part 1 | 4 | 1–25 | January 27, 2009 | |
| Complete Series Part 2 | 4 | 26–51 | March 10, 2009 | |
| Premium OVA Collection | 1 | 4 OVAs | August 4, 2009 | |
| The Complete Series on Blu-ray | 6 | 1–51 | September 15, 2015 |
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