So what is the difference between the unabridged edition and the regular edition, you ask?
Great explanation courtesy of Michiyo-!


Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volumes 1 and 2
Release date: 22/6/2011
(Click to enlarge)........................(Click to enlarge)
..............
Volume 1 Cover...................Volume 2 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 1............. Full cover image of Vol. 2
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.1 can be found here and here, courtesy of Michiyo- and redon23.
- Some images of Vol.2 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.
- Translations of the notes on Ed's character design pages can be found here, courtesy of Tombow!
- Translations of the notes on Al's character design pages can be found here, courtesy of Tombow!
- More scans of Vol. 1 are available here with translations, with thanks to hilary, Michiyo- and Tombow!
- Also, depending on where you buy Volumes 1 and 2, you can collect certain, exclusive postcards! Find out more here!

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volumes 3 and 4
Release Date: 22/7/2011
(Click to enlarge)........................(Click to enlarge)
..............
Volume 3 Cover...................Volume 4 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 3............. Full cover image of Vol. 4
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol. 3&4 with info and translations can be found here and here, courtesy of hilary, Michiyo- and Tombow.

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 5
Release Date: 22/8/2011
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 5 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 5
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.5 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 6
Release Date: 22/9/2011
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 6 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 6
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.6 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 7
Release Date: 22/10/2011
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 7 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 7
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.7 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 8
Release Date: 22/11/2011
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 8 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 8
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.8 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.
- Translations of the notes on Scar's character design pages can be found here, courtesy of Tombow!

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 9
Release Date: 22/12/2011
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 9 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 9
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.9 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

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Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 10
Release Date: 21/01/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 10 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 10
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.10 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

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Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 11
Release Date: 22/02/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 11 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 11
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.11 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

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Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 12
Release Date: 22/03/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 12 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 12
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.12 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

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Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 13
Release Date: 21/04/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 13 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 13
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.13 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.
- Translations of the notes on Olivier's character design pages can be found here, courtesy of Tombow!

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Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 14
Release Date: 22/05/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 14 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 14
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.14 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.
- Translations of the notes on Greed's character design pages can be found here, courtesy of Tombow!

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 15
Release Date: 22/06/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 15 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 15
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.15 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.


--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 16
Release Date: 21/07/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 16 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 16
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.16 can be found here, courtesy of Michiyo-.
- Translations of the notes on May's and the Armstrong family's character design pages can be found here, courtesy of Tombow!

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 17
Release Date: 22/08/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 17 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 17
(As posted by Michiyo- here)

- Some images of Vol.15 can be found here, courtesy of DrakoDarko.

--------------

Fullmetal Alchemist Unabridged Edition Volume 18
Release Date: 22/09/2012
(Click to enlarge)

Volume 18 Cover
Full cover image of Vol. 18
(As posted by Kirara here)


=========

According to Amber1003's DA Journal, the unabridged edition of FMA vol.1 and 2 will be released on June 22nd. And...
(from Amber's journal entry)


If anyone see any ads for this edition, please post!

Vol. 1 & 2 can already be pre-ordered from amazon.jp and animate:

Vol. 1:
amazon.jp
animate

Vol. 2:
amazon.jp
animate

Price: 1000 Yen

完全版, finally.

I'll buy the whole set once the whole set is out. XD; It's too expensive to buy them one-by-one... (middleman fee and all that)

Since they are just manga I am assuming they will eventually be available on Yes Asia hence no crazy shipping fees. At least that is how I plan to get them.

ETA: 2 June 2011
Issue 1

Issue 2

Not cheap (wow 17.99 I hope these will be worth that cost) but considerably cheaper than you will be able to get them at Amazon JP or Animate. And there are no special editions on these or anything.

There is also free shipping for orders over $39 (but shipping in general is pretty reasonable at Yes Asia).

Thank you so much for letting us know, kirara! Wow...they really are pretty darn expensive!

Thank you, Michiyo- and Kirara for the info!

Yeah, it's expensive, but kind of expected as this is unabridged version. And, "no shipping fee" deal on YesAsia is really good if we can bundle some other FMA goods also!

Ah man... hope they release these in English... though I wonder if Viz will bother... they haven't even released the final novel yet. *grumbles* Not that I mind having 4 or 5 shelves of nothing but FMA stuff on my bookcases, LOL, but for those prices I'd hope not to have the buy the unabridged versions more than once and preferably in a form I could read easily!! XD

Anyone want to start a letter campaign to Viz to ask them to release these? And while we're at it, how about the new 3rd manga artbook, the upcoming Chronicles and that 6th and final novel they haven't gotten around to yet??? I hate incomplete collections!

http://www.viz.com/company/contact

The covers are out! (From Baidu)





Both covers look great!

They look pretty cool! Thank you for sharing, Michiyo-!

I honestly doubt the unabridged versions will be released here. Why do I say that, because I can't recall these for any series ever being released in the US.

Viz is doing their 3 in 1 thing for FMA but it doesn't look like it is anything special.


However the 3rd artbook & Chronicles might be released here. It would be nice if Chronicles was released here since that has a lot of information I won't be able to read. I know Viz released the 1st perfect guide book but nothing after that unfortunately.


And the covers look really nice. Although I slightly prefer the Ed one. I love Al but I wish he had more color for the cover.

Thank you, Michiyo-!!!!

Oh my, these covers look soooo good!! Especially, Vol 1 with Ed cover!!
Oh how I miss Arakawa-sensei's FMA drawing....

Oh wow, those look amazing! Thanks, Michiyo-!

HQ covers from amazon.jp:

We're getting so much new stuff today!! I seriously don't know what we'd do without Michiyo- and hilary! You guys are too awesome. xP

Thank you for sharing the HQ images, Michiyo-!

Looking at the second one again, I really don't like the shade of blue used for the numbers/some of the lettering.

Vol. 3 and 4 are already up for pre-order on amazon.jp.

Volume 3
Volume 4

The release date is July 22. So it looks like they're going by a 2 volumes per month release.

I wonder who will be on the covers, one of them has to be Roy. ^^

Thank you, Michiyo- for the news!

I'm so looking forward to finding out the covers for Vol 3 & 4!
I agree with Michiyo-, one of them got to be Roy.

Thank you for the news, Michiyo-! And I agree with both you and Tombow. One of the covers must have Roy on it.

Amber1003 has brought news that you can get special collectible postcards with volumes one and two, depending on where you buy them.

From JBOOK you get an homunculi postcard (and two others have question marks on them. )



From Yurindo you get two postcards featuring Ed, Al, the Xingese characters, Team Mustang, Olivier etc.



And from Futaba tosho there's a postcard with Armstrong, Sig, Izumi etc.



Like Amber1003 says, it's a little harsh for those who want to collect them all!

Thanks for posting those postcards, A Pierrot's Aria, they all look great! ^^

A CM promoting the books is up on Gangan's site:
http://www.square-enix.com/jp/magazine/tvc...c_01/index.html
Some screenshots:




Also, here are the full cover images:



There's a special page on amazon.jp with a list of all FMA publications and a small history of FMA.

And, a wallpaper from Gangan Online:

Ooooh, thank you for all the news, Michiyo-!

I have to say, the full covers look even more awesome!

I will be getting them from Yes Asia, unfortunately that means no special gifts but I am in financial straits right now so I have to go with the cheapest option.

I miss when free gifts just came with the book no matter who you bought it from. Well who knows maybe I will get lucky and be able to get something from Yahoo Japan.


Btw I also heard that if you get the all books from Animate they will be giving out a box for the first six volumes.


And does anyone know how many volumes are in 1?

<6 chapters in Unabridged edition Vol. 1., total of 18 volumes. ^^ ~ Board Staff>

Thank you, Michiyo- and A Pierrot's Aria for the news and pics of these cards and bookmarks! They look awesome!!

But, yes, I have to agree that it's cruel that if we want to collect all the cards we have to buy the vol books from all these different sellers!

ETA: I think it's already out in Japan, considering the time difference, and I just checked Amazon.jp and animate, and Vol 1 & 2 are currently all sold out and out of stock!

ETA 2: Yeah, it changed to "stocked" today (June 22, 2011.)
|
|
|/

It's still in stock at Amazon.co.JP

What exactly makes these unabridged versions special and different from the regular manga?

Hi, im_juice_lee, welcome to our board! ^^
The difference between the unabridged edition and the regular edition is that the unabridged edition's size is larger, the covers are newly drawn, they contain color pages (pages that were color in Gangan magazine, but were black & white in the regular edition). Also, they contain 6 chapters instead of 4 (so there'll be 18 volumes altogether instead of 27).
Plus, they're twice the price (1000 Yen, while the regular is 420 Yen).

Here are some photos I found on Japanese blogs:





More pics from this blog:
It is bigger than regular volume books. This one is from Bunkyodo bookstore, and comes with bonus FMA postcards and a bookmark you can get if you buy from Bunkyodo.


The blog entry says it comes with 2 detachable covers, the first one is this full size color poster.


Then on top of that, this clear cover with logo & vol. title goes on


Blog says the first page of each volume is a new color drawing by Arakawa-sensei, done especially for the unabridged version.
Vol. 1 is Ed full-body view drawing, Vol. 2 is Al full-body view drawing.

Inside the main cover, there are rough sketches of characters before she decided on final character design, with newly added comments by Arakawa. Her comment on one Ed sketch says that it took her more time to decide on the design of his Automail than deciding on the design of Ed's face.

Between chapters there are rough drawings of characters in "negative (reversed Black and White)." Vol. 1 has Gluttony, then Roy & Riza, Vol. 2 has Scar, Lust, Maria & Blosch, Barry, then Slicer.

4-koma omake comics that were included in regular volume books are not included in unabridged version of volumes.

Btw, Roy and Riza will be on the cover of Vol. 3 & 4. (Just as I expected )



<Added the translated comments from the blog, as this blog author is known to be trustable with FMA facts. ^^ ~ Tombow>

Thank you, Michiyo-! The pics look good!

I added some translations from the linked Japanese blog site. ^^

A friend of mine posted the Roy & Riza covers on Live Journal (they look awesome)





Sadly with my financial situation I am not sure if I will be able to collect them all (I was kind of hoping it would be 2 volumes in 1). But I guess I will buy what I can.

I wonder who will be on Vol 5, Winry maybe?

Thank you, Kirara! Ohhh, I love these covers! And, that means, we'll probably get full body size new drawings of Roy, and Riza for each edition in these volumes!? That would be awesome!

As for the cover of Vol 5? Hard to guess... we'll have 18 covers in total, and 4 are already filled (Ed, Al, Roy, & Riza) I'd like to see Winry, Olivier, Ling, Hohenheim, Bradley, Kimblee..... hard to decide. xd

Thanks for posting the covers, Kirara, they look awesome!

Also, thank you, Tombow for the translations! ^^

I'd love to see those extra drawings, sketches, and the character drawings between the chapters! Hopefully someone will scan them. ^^

Thank you for the pics, Michiyo- and thank you Tombow for the translation!

And I remember Amber1003 mentioning a while ago that volumes 3 and 4 whould have Roy and Riza and I couldn't wait to see them ever since. And as expected, they look absolutely awesome! I especially love the way Roy is drawn in that picture! Thank you for sharing those, Kirara!

I hope human!Al will eventually be on one of the covers~

Knowing Arakawa, Armstrong will definitely be on one of the covers too LOL XD

kirara thank you for the cover roy and riza look really cool!!

I love the Roy and Riza covers! As usually, Arakawa draws them beautifully.

For five? Hmm... My guess is also Winry.

HQ covers from Amazon:



As I already said, they look awesome, I love the way Arakawa drew them.

ETA: Extra hi-res Vol. 4 cover:
Click to view attachment

So far of the 4 covers, Riza is definitely my favorite. I love how she is holding a rifle and the bullet in the air is such a nice effect.

Anyways I am hoping for Winry, Ling, May, and Ran Fan covers in the future!

Thank you, Michiyo-! Riza cover look awesome in high res!! I see she just shot the gun and she is pulling the lever to load the next bullet, and the spent empty shell casing flying is a nice touch! I love it!

All of the covers look fantastic, but as everyone has already said, Riza's is my favorite. It's such a great composition!

And I feel really awkward asking this because usually I understand the details of what all the merchandise is, but what is this unabridged release? Like, what are the contents? ^^; Though from my understanding it's just a special re-release of the manga, kind of like the omnibus editions VIZ is releasing?

Heza, no worries, I bet there are other FMA fans wondering about that, too. ^^
And, yes, you basically got it right, but Michiyo- kindly explained it very well while back, so let me re-post her explanation. ^^

Hi, last week I get first Volume of this edition, it´s amazing here some pics.





Probably I´ll buy all of them ^^

Welcome to our board, redon23, and thank you so much for sharing those pics!!

Wow, they look awesome! Having larger size book really adds the intensity of this awesome manga, IMO, and color pages really pop up!

I love the newly added Ed drawing!

|
| Two of the posted pics above..
|
These are sketches of early design stage of Ed, with newly added Arakawa-sensie's comments.

I added translations

(Click on the thumbnail pics below, then click again on "+" for full-size view so that you can read the translated comments. )

I'm gonna wait till they are all released and collect the whole set! Shipping is just too much when you buy them separately

Thank you, redon23 for posting pics of Vol. 1, I really like that new Ed drawing and the sketches. Thanks for adding the translations, Tombow!

Volume 5 is up for pre-order on Amazon.jp, the release date is Aug. 22.
My guess is that Winry will be on the cover. ^^

Thank you, Michiyo- for the info! So far all the covers are very nice, and I'm looking forward to finding out the cover for Vol 5!

Hilary has posted a few scans of Vol.1 on Baidu, including new sketches of Roy, Riza and Gluttony. Thank you, hilary!


This is the cover pic with the new original drawing by Aralkawa-sensei just for this Vol. This is a removable cover, and this pic is how it looks when spread flat.



Next two are early original sketches of Ed before decided on the final character design, with newly added Arakawa-sensei's comments.
(For translations of Arakawa-sensei's comments, please see Tombow's post above)




This is new Ed drawing by Arakawa just for this vol book. It seems each vol book will have a full-body drawing of the character of the cover of that vol.



Two pics below are drawings you see in this vol book in-between chapters. The "inverted" print is how they are shown in the book.
(Vol. 2 has drawings of Scar, Lust, Maria & Blosch, Barry, then Slicer in the same "inverted" fashion.)

In the drawing Roy says: "Let me light up your heart with my flame." "Bang."
For that Riza comments: "Mind your age, sir." (both quotes are paraphrasing ^^)




I inverted the two sketches:




<Added some info. ^^ ~ Tombow>

Thank you, Michiyo- (and hiraly!) ! I added some info. ^^

Thank you for bringing those to us, Michiyo-, and Tombow for adding extra info! And also, thank you to hilary for the scans!

I love that picture of Roy and Riza.

Thank you for the translation *_*
[fangirl] Roy can light up my heart anytime [/fangirl]

Thanks for the translation, Tombow!
I love that Roy/Riza sketch! ^^

Wow. Just...wow. So much amazing art. I love the character studies of Ed that are included. Character studies my friends in college did for their illustration classes were some of my favorite pieces to look at. It's just amazing to see the dump of everything that comes to mind. I hope future volumes will show the same for other characters.

And as Puka-chan said, "Roy can light up my heart anytime." 83

Full covers of Volume 3 & 4:



Both look awesome, I really like that Arakawa drew Roy-tachi on Vol. 4 back cover. ^^


Found the pics here.

Those covers are awesome! I especially like the one of Riza and Roy's team