How can you tell a first printing of Fullmetal Alchemist?

Japanese manga printings are identified at the back of the book. Every Square Enix tankobon carries a colophon page, the okudzuke, listing the title, author, publisher and, crucially, the printing history in Japanese: the date of the first edition and, for later copies, the printing number and date of that impression. A first printing shows only the first edition line with its original issue date. No Japanese numeral knowledge is needed beyond matching the format, since later printings add extra dated lines beneath the first.

The obi, the paper advertising band around the jacket, is the second signal. First printings of popular volumes frequently shipped with campaign obi announcing anime adaptations, sales milestones or bundled offers, and because obi were designed to be removed, surviving first printings with the correct obi intact are scarcer than the books themselves. An obi alone proves nothing, since bands can be swapped between copies, so treat it as supporting evidence beside the colophon, never instead of it.

English Viz volumes use the North American system: the copyright page carries a number line, and a first printing ends at the number 1. Viz first printings of early Fullmetal Alchemist volumes date from 2005 and also carry the era's Viz Media colophon design and pricing. Later Viz reprints keep the same covers, so the number line, not the jacket, is the evidence. The Fullmetal Edition hardcovers follow the same number line practice on their copyright pages.

Sellers photograph the wrong things constantly: front covers, which are identical across printings, and spine shots, which show nothing about impression. Ask for the colophon or copyright page, the last printed page of a Japanese volume and the front matter of an English one. A listing that cannot produce that page is selling an unverified printing whatever its title claims.

Manage expectations on value: Fullmetal Alchemist sold in the millions, so first printings are a completeness pleasure rather than a rarity play, with the meaningful premiums attaching to volume 1 in either language, obi complete Japanese copies, and the late, smaller run English light novels. The printing check costs thirty seconds and separates a documented copy from a hopeful one.