From the Anime News Network:
The new television adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa’s “dark fantasy” manga will premiere in Japan in April. Aniplex producer Ryo Oyama said that the production began on the series around last spring, and Irie added that the script for the 18th episode had been written as of December. Irie said that the project will be the first work by the BONES animation company’s new D Studio and that the creators are still casting the voices.
Irie had previously directed Kurau: Phantom Memory, opening animation footage for the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime and Soul Eater, and episodes of Alien Nine and RahXephon. Hiroshi Ohnogi (Kekkaishi, Noein, Macross Zero) is supervising the scripts, while Hiroki Kanno (RahXephon, Yu Yu Hakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report) is designing the characters. Akira Senju (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Red Garden, Rampo) is composing the music. Besides Oyama, MBS’ Hiro Maruyama, Square Enix’s Nobuyuki Kurashige, and BONES’ Noritomo Yonai are producing.
Mike’s Take
Interesting: they are taking the route that Hideaki Anno took with the new Evangelion movies–starting up a new studio/group rather than sticking with the original folks that did FMA (it looks like another department within Bones in this case, which has a fine track record, I might add). It’s also interesting how this was one of the things supposedly leaked by the “internal document” from Bones that actually turned out to have a lot of truth.
I saw FMA a number of years ago, and it quickly became one of my favorite series. It was frequently unflinching in its portrayal of terrible ethical and emotional dilemmas, as well as the sincere love between brothers; though it had filler from time to time, the core story was one of the most engaging and compelling I’d seen in some time. I wonder if the new series is going to basically pick up where they had to stop adapting the manga in the first version, or if they are going to start over again but with more of the manga to adapt than before. And it’s awesome that’s it coming out so soon, in the next spring season. We shall certainly try to review it.
(Yay…this is the news filler type post I said I would do in lieu of any other articles if I couldn’t come up with anything. Look at me trying to keep those resolutions!)
Its a great news.
Kate
Here’s a question… Is it gonna be based after the movie when there looking for the uranium bomb? Or is it a whole different account?
@Animation and Production: yes it is! At least I hope it will be, depending on how good it is.
@Natasha Walker: that’s my question too. There’s no word on whether this is a restart, picking up where they stopped adapting the manga, or continuing with the semi-original story that started in S2 of the older anime and ended in the Conquerer of Shambala movie.