Fullmetal Alchemist

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, FMA, Fullmetal Alchemist Novel, Sareki no Daichi, The Land of Sand, Toraware no Renkinjutsushi, The Abducted Alchemist, Shiroi Hana no Mau Tani, The Valley of White Petals, Tooi Sora no Shita de, Under the Faraway Sky, Sorezore no Kizuna, The Ties that Bind, Arata na Hajimari, A New Beginning

Japanese: 鋼の錬金術師

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Information

Type: Light Novel

Volumes: 6

Chapters: 35

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 28, 2003 to Mar 22, 2007

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

Theme: Military

Serialization: None

Authors: Arakawa, Hiromu (Art), Inoue, Makoto (Story)

Statistics

Score: 8.47¹ (scored by 6,620 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #193²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1189

Members: 18,985

Favorites: 481

Resources

Wikipedia

8.47

Ranked #193Popularity #1189Members 18,985

Light NovelArakawa, Hiromu (Art), Inoue, Makoto (Story)

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Volumes: /6

Chapters: /35

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Synopsis

The mining town of Xenotime has seen better days. Once renowned for its skilled goldsmiths, it now lies forgotten in a sea of sand, its mines empty and its fields barren. The townsfolk's only hope lies with the talented state alchemist Edward Elric and his brother, Alphonse. But who is the real Edward Elric? When the Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother arrive in Xenotime searching for the Philosopher's Stone, they discover that two strangers have stolen their names and their reputations! Will the real Elric brothers set things right, or will the battle between the true and false brothers shatter Xenotime's only chance for survival?

(Source: VIZ Media)

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BackgroundFullmetal Alchemist was published in English by VIZ Media from October 4, 2005, to October 12, 2021.

The first novel in the series, subtitled Sareki no Daichi, inspired episodes 11, 12, and part of 37 in the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist TV anime.

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Reviews

Jul 5, 2011

ss4gojetanks

Recommended

Preliminary (5/35 eps)

I noticed no one has reviewed this yet, so I thought I might as well do it myself. I have read all the volumes released in the USA (5 of 7).

These stories aren’t in the Manga and weren’t written by Arakawa (creator of FMA manga). However, Arakawa supervised the creation of the novels and helped create the stories. So, I would consider the information in these books to be an actual part of the FMA world and not just "filler." One of the stories even was animated in the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime.

These are a series of light novels. Each novel is about ... 220 pages or so and are an easy read. Don't expect some literary masterpiece that you can analyze; these books are to be exclusively read for fun. Also, the series is not necessarily continuous in the sense that you can pick up the 4th novel without reading any of the other ones. Each novel is independent and has its own story. Also, you don’t really need to have watched or read FMA to understand these books. The books give no spoilers and each book spends a few pages describing Ed and Al, their bodies, their journey, etc. However, I don’t think it introduces the characters enough to make them as loveable as the manga and anime do. So, it’s possible to read these without knowing about FMA, but I would mainly recommend it to FMA fans.

There are 7 books in total in the series. So far, 5 have been translated into English. The fifth book was translated in 2007, so I'm unsure whether or not they'll ever be fully translated. It's shame really because these books are not bad at all. Some of the books are one full story (full 200+ pages), others have a long story (180 pages or so) and a short story (40 pages or so), and others have two stories (100ish pages each).

The plot for these stories isn’t very complex or mind-bending. Usually you can see what’s going to happen from the start. Usually it goes like this, Edward and Al are out looking for a philosopher’s stone, notice something seemingly good, learn the true bad side of the situation/person/thing, and save the day. Some of the stories do, however, reveal some information about FMA that wasn’t in the manga or anime. For example, in book 4, we learn about one of Ed’s best childhood friends named Pitt.

As for extras, every book has a full color image as the first page, and a few black and white sketches throughout the book. There is always a humorous prologue from the author (Makato Inoue) and sometimes a short, 1 page, funny manga strip.

The US translation occasionally has some grammatical errors and awkward sentences. The most grammatical errors were found in the first book and much fewer can be found in later books. The books read in a very informal manner as if one were talking. I highly recommend this if you can’t get enough FMA.

For information purposes, here is the ISBNS for the books:
Book 1: The Land of Sand ISBN 978-1-4215-0155-0
Book 2: The Abducted Alchemist ISBN 978-1-4215-0222-9
Book 3: The Valley of White Petals ISBN 978-1-4215-0402-5
Book 4: Under the Faraway Sky ISBN 978-1-4215-1397-3
Book 5: The Ties that Bind ISBN 978-1-4215-1431-4
Book 6 (Japanese): A New Beginning ISBN 978-4-7575-1984-8
Book 7 (Japanese): Daughter of the Dusk ISBN 9784757528666

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Feb 6, 2025

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

Not to be confused with the manga, this is a collection of short stories outside of the main plot of FMA. The stories themselves are independent on each other, so much that you could read the volumes in random order and it wouldn’t matter. Expect the level of content as you would from a side story OVA, just in the form of a novel. So no, there isn’t anything important to the overall FMA plot contained here, but it’s okay, because that’s not expected in the first place.

I would in fact commend this for capturing the essence of FMA writing quite well – if you ...

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