A second Fullmetal Alchemist anime series from Studio Bones is set to debut in Japan in April.  The original 51-episode FMA anime (released here by Funimation) aired on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and quickly became one of the top anime releases of the decade--it dominated the first annual American Anime Awards in 2007 (see “American Anime Award Winners”). 

The Fullmetal Alchemist anime is based on the FMA manga created by Hiromu Arakawa and published here by Viz Media.  Viz Media has published 17 volumes of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, but the series has reached 20 volumes in Japan.  According to the Anime News Service, the new FMA anime series was teased in a band wrapped around the recently published twentieth volume of the manga, and more details about the new anime series will be included in the next issue of Shonen Gangan, the magazine in which the FMA manga is serialized.