What is the Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal Edition?

The Fullmetal Edition is the prestige English edition of the manga, published by Viz Media in 18 hardcover volumes between 2018 and 2021. It translates Square Enix's Japanese kanzenban, the complete edition first issued in 2011 and 2012, in which Hiromu Arakawa's 108 chapters were repaginated into fewer, larger books with upgraded paper and printing.

Three upgrades define it. The page size is noticeably larger than the paperback tankobon, so Arakawa's dense action and tiny background gags breathe. Color pages from the original Monthly Shonen Gangan serialization, printed in black and white in the standard volumes, are restored in color. And Arakawa drew an entirely new set of covers for the kanzenban, stark character portraits quite different from the busy group scenes on the tankobon, which the English hardcovers reproduce.

The translation was revisited for this edition and the lettering redone, so dialogue reads slightly differently from the 2005 paperback translation in places. Bonus content is gathered generously: gag comics, author notes and, in the final volume, the 2001 prototype material that preceded the series, which standard English editions never collected.

Physically these are sewn hardcovers with matte jackets, built to be the last copy of the manga a reader buys. They are also heavy and priced as premium objects at about $19.99 each in the United States at launch, so a full set cost roughly $360 at the time. Secondhand, early volumes are common while late volumes, printed in smaller numbers, are the ones that climb.

Collectors choosing one edition usually land here for display and rereading, and keep or buy the paperbacks for lending. If a listing shows hardcovers with portrait covers and a volume count heading toward 18 rather than 27, it is this edition, regardless of what the seller calls it.