How do the Japanese and English Fullmetal Alchemist covers compare?
Hiromu Arakawa drew a cover illustration for every one of the 27 tankobon, typically a character group arranged around Edward and Alphonse Elric, and Viz Media used those same illustrations for the English paperbacks. Unlike series whose Western covers were redrawn or recomposed, Fullmetal Alchemist reads as the same shelf in either language: the art is the constant, everything printed around it changes.
The Japanese volumes wear the Square Enix Gangan Comics dressing: a Japanese title logo, the volume number in the house style, and, on early printings and special releases, an obi strip, the paper band around the lower jacket carrying advertising copy and sometimes a campaign offer. Obi are fragile and were often discarded, so a Japanese volume that still wears its original obi is a small collecting premium and a useful first printing signal.
English volumes replace the logo with Viz's English masthead, add the Viz Media and Shonen Jump style spine furniture, and carry English back cover copy, ratings and barcodes. The spines align into a uniform red accented run designed for American bookstore shelving, where the Japanese spines carry the Gangan Comics branding and Japanese author credit. Neither edition alters Arakawa's line art, though English covers are sometimes cropped a few millimeters tighter.
The kanzenban changed the art itself, and both countries followed. For the complete edition Arakawa drew new single character portrait covers, minimal and painterly, and the English Fullmetal Edition hardcovers reproduce them with only the logo and author name localized. Side by side, the tankobon covers sell the ensemble and the kanzenban covers sell the individual characters, which is why many collectors keep both runs.
For identification in photos, look past the illustration: Japanese text on the spine means Square Enix, an English logo and rating box means Viz, a portrait cover means the complete edition in either language, and a paper band at the jacket's foot means a Japanese copy that kept its obi.
