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As an anime fan of a certain age, I have a huge soft spot for the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime. It has almost nothing to do with the original manga, but I didn’t mind at the time because the manga was still new and I liked the idea of the anime doing its own thing with the world. Fans love to throw around the idea that Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa was angry about the changes, but the truth is that she was consulted throughout the adaptation process and even laid out some rules that the studio couldn’t break when adapting Fullmetal Alchemist.

In a post on social media, the main scriptwriter for the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime, Sho Aikawa, explained a little bit about how the writing process for the anime was always overseen by Square Enix, which published the original manga. “To add my own two cents, the original author gave us clear guidelines on what to avoid. For example, stuff like ‘no flying with alchemy,’ or ‘don’t put the main characters on a motorcycle.’ Square Enix and the manga’s editorial team were present at every scriptwriters’ meeting without exception, and on some occasions, they would even consult the original author on the spot.”

The original Fullmetal Alchemist anime started in 2003, just two years after the manga began its run in 2001. This meant that studio Bones quickly ran out of material to adapt and, rather than bloat the show with nearly endless filler, chose to tell a unique story in the world created by Arakawa. While she wasn’t directly involved in this adaptation, it is clear that she had at least some influence on anime. Enough to lay out some strict rules for the scriptwriters to follow.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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