Fullmetal Alchemist series 2

[timepiececlock]

http://www.hagaren.jp/

It premiers in April, 2009.

Holy shit dudes!

The teaser looks like old footage from the series, but I'm not sure. I am amazed at how tightly clamped the anime industry is about spoilers compared to US television industry. It airs in two months and even now nobody knows if it will be a continuation of the movie storyline or a total AU version that follows the manga. I hope it follows the manga, for two reasons.

1) I feel strongly that the story of the Elrics and alchemy was concluded in the movie. The story of their lives is just beginning (gypsies! world war! whee!) but as far as what we need to see in terms of their quest, the journey is done. They have their lives ahead of them, and they don't need alchemy any more.

2) I haven't read the manga, and I'm almost totally unspoiled for it, so it would be a completely new storyline for me. I also get a little squealy at the idea of a totally separate adventure that's got all the characters I love... an AU fanfic version of my favorite anime. Except, of course, that "AU" is a term to be used judiciously when discussing anime canon or things get very confusing very fast, and in a way the original anime series is already more like the AU fanfic of the manga. Sort of? It's confusing. But either way I'd love to have two separate but parallel anime series both featuring my favorite anime cast, with different versions of the same quest. Like giving two authors the same bookjacket paragraph to work from, and the result is two unique novels filled with the same flavors of awesome.

Comments

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

I've read and watch both versions, and love them equally. They're very very different in tone, and I think there is no way that they could suddenly switch to the manga. I mean, beyond the tone, characters are different and the entire point and existence of homunculi is radically different. That being said, I'm with you in that the anime!Elrics have a complete story. I'm curious to see what they are going to do with the second series.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite choice would be fore them to continue from where the manga and anime separated--which I'm told is episode 25, the end of season 1, and about volume 15 of the anime. By that point the only thing we'd learned was the Soilent Green is made of people, and we still didn't know the origins of the Homunculi.

While that would be the best way to work with the manga storyline, I've never heard of an anime or a tv show that goes back to the middle of the series and branches off into a completely separate verse from that point onward. The closest thing I've seen to that is shows that have a "lost" year, where the timeline is reset at the end of the season as if it never happened, and I've only seen that on Sailor Moon. That wasn't a total separation either because the characters eventually regained their memories from that year.

[flutingfrenzy.livejournal.com]

I think if FMA just reset itself to episode 25 and started following the manga from chapter 15, and then everybody suddenly had memories from the second half of the first anime, there would also have to be a shark-jumping moment somewhere in there. So I'm hoping that's not what happens. I feel like my sources say it's a manga adaptation, though. Unfortunately, I can't remember what my sources might be. Perhaps the voices in my head.

And to echo what clodia_risa said, the manga is very very different, but very very good. If it is in fact a manga adaptation, they really can't go wrong. There are some manga-only characters (one in particular) that I'd love to see animated.

I am so excited for this, and it's coming out so soon! Even earlier than the damn Harry Potter movie!

I have those voices in my head too. Or maybe I'm just wishing hard.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

What if they resent to ep 25 / chapter 15, but then treated it as a complete alternate story (no memory relapses or crossovers)? I can't imagine there's enough story material for more anime without utilizing the manga storyline, and it seems pretty silly to make a whole second season from scratch when the manga is so popular. But it also seems silly to start from scratch with the manga since 15 chapters of that was already animated before.