Funimation Entertainment has announced the acquisition of digital, broadcast, DVD and merchandising rights to the new Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime series, which debuted in Japan at 5pm on April 5th.  FMA: Brotherhood is the sequel to the original 51-episode Fullmetal Alchemist series that received mega exposure on the Cartoon Network and dominated the first annual American Anime Awards (see “American Anime Award Winners”).

The Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime series was directed by Yasuhiro Irie (Kurau Phantom Memory) and written by Hiroshi Onagi (RahXephon).  Viz Media is releasing the18th volume of Hiromu Arakawa's Full Metal Alchemist manga (the basis for both FMA anime series) in May.

Starting at 10 am on Thursday April 9th Funimation plans to begin streaming subtitled episodes of the FMA: Brotherhood for free on its Website.  Funimation’s President and CEO Gen Fukunaga was pleased that his company was able to simulcast what he called “the most anticipated series of 2009,” and indicated that Funimation was “working toward the simulcasting of more series this year.”

It should be interesting to see if an English language-dubbed version of FMA: Brotherhood will be aired on the Cartoon Network (where the first FMA series was a major hit on Adult Swim) or some other prime cable venue.  Will the near simulcasting of subtitled anime series become the new paradigm for anime distribution, or will there be a mixture of simulcasting subtitled versions and broadcasting dubbed versions of the most popular series such as FMA?