Avatars and drawing yourself as a symbol are two different things. People might choose avatars to represent themselves but more often than not they choose an avatar of a favorite character. Arakawa actually draws herself as a cow, there in lies the difference. However I don't really think the cow symbol proves whether Arakawa is a male or female, I was just being silly.

Neverthless I do think she is female. I am pretty sure it was confirmed. Although don't ask me where to find this. I am sure some of the Japanese speakers here would have a better chance of finding this information.

^^U.... maybe it was because of the avatar or... your way of speaking? >.<sorry!! don't hit me!!!!!! XDDDD



yup ^^ among other things xD. I usually dub radio "cuñas" and anime characters (a little bit of everything, but right now I'm not moving a single finger because I just started learning "sound")

No. You're mistaking the usual Internet fandome definition of 'Avatar' (pic that appears under the nick in the forums ) than the more generic one: Sth, an image, that you believe that represents you, or with which you want to be associated. Or similiar
Arakawa's Avatar is a cow... Gosho Aoyama's is a pear-headed-with-glasses guy, Akira Toriyama's were a bird, a robot and a masked guy, all through Dr. Slump, etc.

Plus, I was not the one to use the word "Avatar" first.

I think the same. It's just that it's still too ambiguous for me. But until I'm proven otherwise, I'll believe she's a woman too.
As for the Japanese speakers, nothing to say but, "w0rd".

To Reika: We posted at the same time
EDIT: Wow, if you make 2 consecutive posts, the forum merges them into 1. Cool!

Way of speaking? Are?

Oisss.... pero que cosas dicesssss, chicaaa....
-ehem- Perdón.

Oh, but do you do official dubs? For who? Oshiete kure! Wanna hear you, if possible

XDDDDDD por qué no seguimos hablando por privados, sensenic?

I think Arakawa is a female mainly because of this . Would a male draw himself in those?

hahaha XDDD good point XDDDDD

Hiromu Arakawa...

Can boys be named Hiromu, or is it a girl's only name? I don't know, I'm American.

If I'm not mistaken Hiromu is for girls and Hiroshi for guys

I win.

If I'm corret....
I think HIROSHI is solely male name. I'm quite sure of that.
And, HIROSHI is very common male name, so you see lots of them in Japan, though some are using other Chinese characters, and not "弘" as with Arakawa's name.
I think HIROMU is mainly a female name, though not that common, but could be also a male name, albeit an uncommon usage.


"Kowtow" is when people does kneeling and bowing, with arms stretcged in front, and waving them up and down, while usually saying things like "Oh mighty, I bow before your greatness!" or stuff like that.

Not only VIZ mistakes our FEMALE Arakawa Hiromu as a male, the tranlating company here does too T.T

Lol, yeah... male mangakas won't draw themselves in.....those.....

Yes, this is one of those friend of a friend stories, but it is true as far as I know (which is only as far as my classmate)...

I wore my Fullmetal Alchemist T-shirt to Japanese class recently and one of the other students approached me at the end of the class, asking me if I liked the series.

Anyway, apparantly she met Arakawa-san through Arakawa's brother. And, my classmate referred to her as female. If fact, her exact wording was "do you like her work?"

*shrugs* Her choice of fanservice has me convinced. Considering that the only female character showing so much as cleavage in the entire series is named Lust...and considering that a female character named Lust is only showing her cleavage in an otherwise fairly modestly cut (though very form-fitting) gown...

...and considering that the male characters are perpetually getting their clothes ripped off... XD

Excellent point!! XD

Seriously, I think you are dead on right about Lust.

I have read somewhere that her real name is actually 荒川弘美 (in which the last kanji indicates that it is definately a girl's name), but I am not sure whether or not that's true.

So, Hiromi instead of Hiromu? Yup, definitely a female name.

I agree XD I mean, compared to the other shows I like that are written by men (like Bleach), there is more male fanservice than female.

Even with Peacemaker Kurogane (Shinsengumi Imon) which is also shounen and written by a female, there is so much yaoi undertones and pretty boys sometimes it can pass as as shoujo. XD

Maybe its a girl thing, you never know. lol.

XDD we were really really lucky that Arakawa is not a yaoi lover! T^T

Thank god for that.

I would die if EdxRoy ever becomes cannon

AAAAAAAAAHHH!!! <-- Super scream XDD

Don't get me wrong Ed/Roy fans, I don't want to make you feel bad but... I'm a total Royai and cannon fan *sigh*... <--dozzes off to some parallel world where roy and riza are....

Not to be mean to the Ed/Roy fans either but I find it so wrong on so many levels XD

Not to mention Ed was being underage....

*quickly changing subject*

It makes sense IF Arakawa sensei's real first name is "弘美 (Hiromi)", then she dropped "美" part and chose Hiromu.
Hiromi is a very common (mostly) female name, more or less as common as "Hiroshi (弘)" for a male name.
But, Hiroshi is definitely Male name, so (if this theory is true) it's understandable she went for more somewhat gender-nutral Hiromu (but still using the same character "弘".)
Hiromu is rather unuusal name, but I think it works nicely as a pen-name, and IMO, I think it suits Arakawa sensei and her works.

And how are you so sure of that? Because Arakawa sensei doesn't put any yaoi hints in her manga doesn't mean she doesn't like yaoi! I don't remember where but it was stated Arakawa sensei was a doujin reader (Or maybe even drawer) before starting her one shots and FMA. She didn't say which sort but it could perfectly be yaoi.

And, another thing, why do you complain about RoyXEd if you perfectly know yaoi fans are going to get mad and react?

Anyway...Wow, Tombow, you do know a lot of things about japanese! I guess Arakawa sensei is indeed a woman. I never saw any pictures of her though...But I guess it's the same for the majority of mangakas.

Something is to say things calmly because yaoi fans are going to read this, and another thing is to tell us to shut up. I don't like yaoi, and yes, I feel it's wrong in the case of Roy and Ed (their age and all). Does this mean I want to be mean or I disrespectfull to you? No, not at all, it's your choice, you can like whatever you want, but as you can like it and say how marveollous you think it is, you can complain about it too, don't you think? ^_~ This is an open chat, after all.

There is always the reaction of RoyXEd fans...I'm not telling you not to express your opinion (If you don't flame like crazy then it's okay) but, even if it is an open chat, this is not the thread to talk about it (Yes okay, I'm taking part into it too but just to say...).
And it is not the all RoyXEd thing that bugged me. I'm not a fan of this pairing. It's the fact that you stated Arakawa sensei wasn't a yaoi fan. Fortunatly you didn't say it like some people who put comments like 'OMG!!!1! THIS ISH SO GROSS!! ARAKAWA WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHIN LIK THIS!!!'. You know what sort of people I'm talking about, right? Well, that annoys because they think they know exactly what Arakawa sensei is/can do.
But anyway...Peace and love!

XD don't worry, I understand your position.

Perhaps it would be fair to state that whilst she may like yaoi, she seems to be steering away from it for FMA? Not saying that she doesn't like it, or that's a reason for FMA yaoi fans to stop liking it, but she doesn't really seem to be hinting it to the extent other shounen mangas tend to.

Of course, that's just my personal opinion... but it is what I see.

^ Hum hum :nods: You know, I'm a big yaoi fan but since a while I made up my own little manga in my head with my own characters and all the pairings in it are het. Weird, huh? Aha, I found it really weird when I realized this but anyway...
You're certainly right, GaluxKitty. Though, I would have liked to know if she was, yes or no, a yaoi fan but she'll certainly never say it. :sigh:

Am I not freely aloud to state my opinion

Anyway, I'm not a yaoi basher, no, I've got my little yaoi pairings that I (used to) like (which some consider on the level of wrongness as well (more into the realm of jrock) but when it gets down to shoutacon, uh-un, no.

Anyway, lets get back to topic XD

:sigh: Ahem :waves banner 'Read posts above':...

Anyway, yeah, back on topic...

On topic:

I knew it! She's a woman! Girl power! W00t!!

Well, I'm generally a canon fan. I like any pairing as long as I can see it hinted, and actualy happening and the two people caring for one another... regardless of whether it's het, yaoi or yuri. Admittedly I usually prefer het and yuri (I'm attracted to the underdog... go femmeslash! xD) but some of my favourite pairings are yaoi. And I certainly like some FMA yaoi pairs.

Ahahahah... doujin drawers are usually not impartial to any pairing...

as for doujinshi...i just think it must be so bizarre to be in a famous manga-ka's position... whether or not arakawasensei is a fan of yaoi or otherwise...she seems to have made it very clear that neither roy nor ed are homosexual, yah? so how bizarre must it be to see doujinshis drawn in which they are engaged in... erm... fantastically graphic loving in the bum? O_O i mean, doujinshi and fanworks and the like in general are...probably one of the coolest forms of flattery, IMO...but slash art/fiction of heterosexual characters must just be weird.

...and probably pretty amusing, i'd have to think.

Whew... wouldn't it be creepy/funny/downright weird if Arakawa-sensei was writing hentai doujin for FMA under an alias? XD

God, who was that manga-ka that drew hentai doujinshi's under a different alias of her own characters....

... Oh yeah, the Gravitation chick XD

I remember this yaoi doujin I read. The art style was exactly the same than Arakawa sensei's and I was like 'Whoa O_o'. I don't remember the author's name... ~_~
I'm sure Arakawa sensei wouldn't be surprised by all the yaoi out there, I mean, she was a manga fan herself in the past so she must know a lot about the fandom thing. I'm even sure she knew that, when she created Roy, Ed, Envy, Greed etcetera, some fans would pair them up...Héhé.~_~

^Yup, and creating Winry,Ran Fan, and Riza was also a risk for, ahem, you know................*Runs like hell*

^ You perv! No j/k! I, too, am a yuri fan soooo... ;; But she was certainly more thinking about the yaoi fact since I think yaoi is more popular than yuri, at least, in the hagaren fandom.

Which pairing? Summary? Maybe I have it/. *collected like, 1GB of Hagaren doujinshi.*

and yea, maybe Arakawa does like shounan-ai/yaoi in some form (maybe for other series she reads, probably not her own characters?) and not drawing them out doesn't mean not liking them (I like shounen-ai too but I have drawn nothing more explicit than hugging.)

and don't you guys think you are getting off topic, from confirmation of Arakawa Hirumu (or Hirumi? lol) to whether or not Roy/Ed is appriopiate? (I hate Roy/Ed too but there are other shounan-ai pairings in FMA that I like, so I am not going to comment further.)

:is not lazy to post anymore: ~_~


Pairings: RoyXEd and EnvyXEd (I only took it for the EnvyXEd but the only one who has Arakawa drawing style is the RoyXEd one)
Name: Shônen Hanzai
And since I don't understand japanese, I don't know the summary XD


Well, we are 100% (Or 99.9%? XD) sure Arakawa sensei is a woman so...~_~ :sigh: I guess we're in lack of discussion.

Ay ay, off-topic, but Arakawa Hiromu really is a lady... So we reallyhave nothing else to dispute here, do we? O_O;;

Her name is just as misleading as Fumiya Sato (mangaka of Kindaichi & Q), who is also female.

Well, i most say that the first time i heared Arakawa was a she, i doubt a little, but it´s not i think boys are smarter or anything, it´s just that my favorite mangas are from men, not woman...(if you understand what i mean...) but still i think she rocks! because Fullmetal Alchemist is GREAT!! so, I personally think it doesnt matter if it´s a men or a women, if the manga is cool, doesn´t matter...well, that´s my opinion...lol
Off-topic:
all of you know a lot about japanese stuff! cool! wish i could know as much as you do!
Well, maybe i´ll learn stuff...lol...at least i hope so...haha

Yaoi...Yaoi...i don´t know if i like it...but i think i don´t like it too much, Arakawa a yaoi fan? maybe, pretty posible...maybe not...i really don´t know...but doesn´t matter or does it?? would be good to know...but she won´t say right?

Wait! When did VIZ call Arakawa a 'he'? i don't remember that o_o;;



even if you're not a yoai fan you could still have some gayness in manga's....sorry my opinion prolly isn't much wanted/needed o_o;;;

i don´t know very well how to use this wuote thing, so sorry if i did it the wrong way...
and Crimson Sky Alchemist, i really don´t understand what you say...sorry...(i understood you a little, but i don´t know if what i understood is what you wanted to tell me...)well, i will read some yaoi eventually i´m curious now, lol, and i do care about other people opinion if i don´t think they are offensive...or stupid...well you know what i mean! so, don´t think that kind of stuff!!

wt* >.<;

we have already concluded that Arakawa-sensei is a WOMAN so I don't really think any further discussion should be brought here... (go start a yaoi thread if you want that x_x)

In "The Land of Sand" (the novel).

In regards to Hiromu's other works, if someone can find them, i can have them translated and put on readmanga.com

dunno if anyones asked this before but does anyone have a real life picture of arakawa? jsut wondering

Good question. I thought I may have seen one but I don't remember where or if it was really her. I would like to see too.

LOL, sorry for the offtopicness but at first I read: