Few manga get adapted to anime, and even fewer get to do so twice. What made Fullmetal Alchemist worth adapting into two different anime series?
While both the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime and Brotherhood are praised as being works of exceptional quality, many newer fans are surprised to find that there are two completely different anime at all. How did the series end up getting adapted twice, and why are they so different?
The manga for Fullmetal Alchemist began running in July 2001 and rapidly grew in popularity, such that the series' creator Hiromu Arakawa was approached about an anime adaptation, which wound up at Studio Bones. The first anime debuted its premiere episode on October 4, 2003, and ran for 51 episodes to its end a year later. At the time of its debut, the manga was only on chapter 28 out of what would be a 108 chapter run, so the ending was still far off in the distance. The manga finished its run with that 108th chapter in June 2010, an impressive nine years after its debut.
Arakawa has said that while she had the ending for the Fullmetal Alchemist manga in mind from early on, she asked that the animation studio create its own storyline based on what had been published so far. In an interview for Newtype USA back in 2006, Arakawa said that she saw "little point in having a cross-media story if everything is exactly the same in all versions." So, from the very start, the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist was destined to be different from the manga. In the same interview, Arakawa said that she found it fascinating to wonder about the anime's version of the Homunculi and how their stories would end since they were so very different from her take. The first series was a smash hit and was later followed up by a completely original film, The Conqueror of Shamballa, in 2005.
Brotherhood Exists to Adapt the Manga Properly
In September 2008, the 20th volume of the manga was released in Japan, and inside was a note from Arakawa announcing that a second anime was being developed. This second series, now known as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, was being done by Studio Bones once more, would be produced in widescreen, and would feature much of the cast of the first series returning to reprise their roles, in both the Japanese and English dubs. Brotherhood debuted in April 2009, this time running for 64 episodes before reaching its finale in July 2010. Since the manga's final chapter had only been released in June, Brotherhood was still close to catching up. Some fans did worry about this at the time, but Studio Bones actually put those fears to rest in May, stating that the final episodes were already under production and that the series would indeed end the same way as the manga. Brotherhood was a critical and commercial hit, and was also popular enough to get an original anime film, known as The Sacred Star of Milos, which debuted in Japan in July 2011.
The reason that there are two versions of Fullmetal Alchemist is simple: it's just that popular, and always has been. The manga was popular enough to create an anime so early in its run that it had to create an original ending, and then that anime was popular enough that it spawned films of its own. It's even continued to be adapted, with a live-action Fullmetal Alchemist released in Japan in 2022. It was only natural to adapt the series again once the manga was (nearly) finished, especially since the two had diverged so massively.
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Source: Newtype USA
