Fullmetal Alchemist released the last episode of its anime revival, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, in 2010, but even with the anime industry being bereft of the Elrics for decades, the Hiromu Arakawa-created series is still hitting milestones. Most recently, Arakawa’s latest manga, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, has become a hit on the small screen thanks to Studio BONES’s anime adaptation, which surely gave its predecessor a sales boost. As of earlier this week, it appears that the number of manga copies of Fullmetal Alchemist in circulation has once again hit new heights, and there is plenty to celebrate in this world of alchemy.
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Fullmetal Alchemist has reported that it now has ninety million copies of its manga in circulation, which is quite the achievement considering it wasn’t released in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump. While this is far from the same heights enjoyed by the likes of Dragon Ball and One Piece, which have hundreds of millions of copies in circulation between them, this does put it within striking distance of some familiar franchises. Hunter x Hunter has a little over one hundred million copies in circulation, for example, so Edward and Alphonse operating on the same level as Gon and his fellow hunters is no small feat. Even with no future anime adaptations confirmed, the anime world will long remember this world of alchemy.
A Fullmetal Future
As mentioned earlier, Arakawa has moved on from alchemy to wade further into the supernatural with Daemons of the Shadow Realm. While it might not feature Edward and Alphonse as a part of this series, it does feature quite a few pairs of siblings to hammer home its story. Yuru and Asta are a brother and sister hailing from two different worlds, as the anime adaptation has sown plenty of mysteries into its early episodes. Yuru is the de facto protagonist of this story, and while his back is against the wall, he is given two demons, Left and Right, to navigate this unexpected territory. While a second season of this anime hasn’t been confirmed by BONES, the manga is still continuing to release new chapters to this day, meaning there is plenty of source material to at least offer fans a second season.
The last time we saw the Elric brothers in action, ironically enough, wasn’t via its anime adaptation remake, but rather, thanks to the live-action movies that landed in 2022. The trilogy of films adapted the entirety of the original series, though the adaptations weren’t made in Hollywood. With the likes of One Piece and Naruto taking Hollywood by storm, seeing Fullmetal Alchemist receive a similar treatment would make sense.
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