Hiromu Arakawa's steampunk adventure manga Fullmetal Alchemist, since its debut in the early 2000s, quickly became one of the most recognizable manga and anime series. Known for its outstanding character development, intense action scenes, and quirky philosophical references, Fullmetal Alchemist has gained the attention of a variety of anime and manga fans, who now have details on how the franchise plans to celebrate a milestone anniversary.
The Fullmetal Alchemist manga is nearing its 20 year anniversary and to celebrate, a special YouTube livestream was announced for July 12th, 2021. The event will highlight some memories of the series and also include some other special announcements.
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The official announcement of the Fullmetal Alchemist event came from the Twitter page for Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangen magazine. Square Enix is known for releasing excellent content for anime and video game anniversaries, such as Mana, Pokémon, and Digimon. The Fullmetal Alchemist anniversary will coincide with the manga serialization, which was first published July 12th, 2001, and ended publication June 11th, 2010. The livestream will take place at 20:00 (JST) or 4:00 p.m. (PT) on July 12th. Fans can follow along either on the YouTube stream or the Shonen Gangen magazine Twitter page.
The anniversary livestream on YouTube will have some special appearances from the voice actresses of the original Fullmetal Alchemist show, Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse Elric) and Romi Park (Edward Elric). Kugimiya and Park will look back on some favorite memories from making the iconic anime series. Hosted by Japanese host Chiaki Matsuzawa, fans can expect some upcoming announcements and the latest information about the show. A 20th-anniversary website will also go live on July 12 at 10:00 a.m. (JST) or 06:00 p.m. on July 11 (PT), hopefully showcasing some of the anticipated but unknown announcements from the livestream.
The anime series has not aired new episodes since the sequel season Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in 2009 and the live-action film made in 2017. The franchise, over the years, has become known for staying true to the stories of the manga and not exploiting the IP for additional seasons of the show just for the purpose of money. Releases for the franchise have been sparse, compared to other popular anime series. However, Fullmetal Alchemist has released video games, artbooks, guidebooks, and merchandise to fuel the fanbase over the past two decades
There's no telling what fans can expect to be announced from the livestream. However, with all the build-up, fans can hopefully look forward to some exciting new developments in the Fullmetal Alchemist series.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
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Source: Monthly Shonen Gangan