Volume 8 is out! As we all know this volume introduces to several new characters, and if you were worried about their names being different in the english translation, WORRY NOT! So far Ling, Mei and Xiao-Mei retain their names unaltered. Another point of contention is what Viz would call Retanjutsu in the English translation. Well as of volume 8 it is Rendanshu. Interesting note is that Ling's bodyguard (the male one I forget his name) refered to transmutation circles as purifacation circles. very interesting.

EDIT: one more thing I should mention. For those people who purchased Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel... you get a bonus at the end of Volume 8, just for YOU

What the-! It's out already? Viz makes fast work these days.

I was surprised too that it came out so early. Still I enjoyed purchasing it, ROD vol 3 and Death Note Vol 6 greatly. Even if my bank account won't

IT'S OUT?! But but...I just went to a bookstore some hours ago and they didn't have it. ;__;

Here's a big YAAAY for the fanon names being used! XD No more "Lin" and "May Chang"!

Question: Do they have any translation notes for how they decided to use "Rendanshu"? Because I can't figure out how they got that. o.o;

o__O Viz is certainly speedy these days.
But.. Rendanshu? D: Sounds like an asian food product to me. (Personally, I prefer Rentanjutsu. XD; Oh well.)

and the Xing characters are introduced with their canon names, yayayay. !

Unfortunately there is no oubeliette of translation notes like we see with Rurouni Kenshin or Excel Saga (Carl Horn is the man with the translation plan). The only thing I can think of is going a chinese route. Sorta like Tao is pronounced Dao. I'm not really sure <.<;;

oh my goodness thanks for the update!! ive been checking the bookstores waiting for the 8th one to come out

yay for Ling! *dance*

*runs off to spend moneeeeeys*

Aw. Oh well, I'll keep hoping for an explanation when they release the second Perfect Guide. XD;

@Wyrd_Raven - Thanks for the news!!


Joining the cheer!! Yay, that makes me happy!!


So, I can imagine that's how "tan" turned "dan", but wonder what "shu" part in "Rendanshu" means...

I was just searching the Borders website (looking at that 'search store inventory' option dealy of my local store) and it says it's not due out until July. ;_;

Now, release dates for manga are rarely well followed at borders in my experience, but I've one of those "person shopping days" coming up, and I don't want to miss out on using it too when she uses it for her manga shopping spree in another day or two...

ANYWAYS, enough about me, where did you get ahold of it? Not all stores get new releases in stock at the same time...

Hey! If they really want to translate Rentanjutsu the Chinese way, do it properly! It is Liandanshu!!! (煉丹術)

Yeah, Liandanshu makes sense!!

But Volume 7 said it'd be out in July!

But then again, I'm not complaining. The 8th volume is one of the best.
Off to the bookstore for me, it seems.

And I'm very happy that their names stayed Ling, Mei Chan, and Xiao Mei

Its out?!? YAY! ... im going to go have to get it now, along with the perfect guide... *wishes she had her liscense*

Mileage may very but I know that Michigan Borders got their books in this week. Benefits of working there I guess ^^;

*distracts people away from his TARDIS*

You can also try checking amazon.com's site, their 'in store pick-up' option is through Borders, and you can use your zip code to see if amazon shows any available near you even if amazon still lists the book as pre-order. Today amazon isn't showing in-store pick up yet, but it should soon.

(neither vol 8 or the guidebook is near me in CA yet *cry*)

Borders will just put the books out as soon as they can after they arrive- with small titles like manga there is no worry about street dates, so the books getting to your neck of the woods is mostly a matter of shipment time.

It's out already!? Didn't they just release the last one? Oh well, not complaining. I might get that volume, because I really like Ling! But I did just go their yesterday for the guidebook...

Question: Is Ling spelled as Ling or Lin in vol 8??

It's out!? o_O....(runs off to bookstore)..lol

I thought it didn't come out until July..man...must go find it...though I just got the Profiles...fun, fun...

i knooooow i was sad...being at the bookstore and not seeing that glorious volume 8....


soi may just get it online then ^^

@MasterKris - According to Wyrd_Raven, it's translated as Ling!! Yay!!

Yep!

Keep in mind that in the original version, the kanji for "Ren" is the same as in Renkinjutsu.

That is, 錬丹術 (is a happy camper for being able to write in kanjis finally ).
Maybe in Chinese this is pronounced Rendanshu, indeed? If it's the case, thumbs up for the Viz translators.

Wish here in Spain we had translators half as respectful to the original as that T_T (exaggerating a little, but...)

@Sensenic - You beat me to it!! I was thinking about that character whole day!!
Tho, the Chinese pronounciation of 錬丹術 (Rentanjitsu) is still Lian. dan. shu.

Well shows Viz IS on their game plan though they missed the first part of it. Oh well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Arg! I did some shopping today and lurched around for a copy of Vol. 8 and the Profiles book, but to no avail! At least I came a way with a 2-for-1 deal on some Samurai Champloo DVDs, but still...I need my FMA.

It's actually kind of odd. Isn't Viz located in San Francisco? Well, as a fellow California, I figured this meant we'd get stuff just as early, if not earlier, than everyone else.

I wrote 煉丹術 because it is the proper Chinese way to write Liandanshu. Search both 煉丹術 and 錬丹術 in google and see. Pages which use 金 (gold, also symbolize metal) as the radical of Liandanshu are written in Japanese. Pages which use 火 (fire) as the radical of Liandanshu are written in Chinese. And there are more 煉丹術 than 錬丹術 in the internet.

The goal of Liandanshu in real-life history is to refine and get the Elixir of Life, not gold. (And so you see both Ling and Mei came to Amestris for a way to immortality.) Therefore it has nothing to do with metal but very closely related to fire, because "boiling" things in a pot for hours or even days is a important step in the process of Liandanshu. (It is the common way to "cook" chinese herb medicine. And Elixir is medicine.) You need fire to "refine" things right?

As a sidenote, the correct way to write "lian" with "gold" as the radical in Chinese is 鍊, not 錬. 錬 is a purely Japanese kanji.

Oh well, I did (nor could) not know that \( u_u)/

I just mentioned the possibility that maybe Viz's translators translated it "right" in the sense that maybe that kanji, which is the one used in the original (I couldn't know whether it was right or not), was pronounced "Ren" in Chinese.

Tombow proved me wrong. Oh well... maybe next time. But that's about it.

Thanks for the for the explanation about "Liandanshu", tho'. I knew what it was about (elixir of eternal life, whatsoever) thanks to Yebyosh's notes, but you added more info which is always welcome.

! I haven't gotten around to picking up 7 yet... I'm so behind T_T

Interesting about the rentanjutsu. I agree with Sen-san, but I'll continue calling it rentanjutsu- it seems to fit with renkinjutsu better.

I just purchased volume 8 from a vendor on ebay. I guess I'd better read it slowly because 9 won't be out until November? (Is that right?) I like your subtitle to this subject, it's got an - um - "xing" to it.

WHAT!? It's out already?! Darn I'm broke right now....

OMG! How did I miss this? Must go to bookstore tomorrow...

@IttyBittyPretty: The Viz-website says it's gonna be out in september... but my local bookstore allways get's them earlier than that. So relax ^^ Not november

Got mine yesterday! And it's great! I love the new characters (Ling, Mei-chan, and Xiao-mei)!!
Did anyone else get it? I wanna know so maybe there can be a discussion about some stuff (like who is this "father"?).

TY, Keoni. BTW: Love your avvy. Mustang and Hughes are friends, not lovers.

I just picked up, seven, eight, and the perfect guide book! It's published as 'Profiles' in the US, apparently. I hope that wasn't a different thing... but some alternative translations in there raise some questions. For example, it implies that Scar 'decides' to stop his alchemy at the deconstructive phase, which then implies that the Terra tattoo might do other things too.

I don't know... I suppose this isn't the right thread to chat about the PGB anyway. The manga are love, though.

I got it and the Perfect Guide today! =D

[spoiler]God, Greed's such a smartass. Calling Father Dad..that made me laugh.

I don't have any complaints about the dialouge this time (A lot of the lines are really awesome...) except I was disappointed they toned down "Ugly b*tch" to just "ugly"...[/spoiler]

and the Perfect Guide is awesome too.

Oh, they also translated 'Xerxes' as that nasty string of consonants 'Cselkses.' They should pay more attention to the fanon translations... Xerxes makes so much more sense, especially when paired with Amestris.

They'll relize their mistake like they have done so with Lior/Reole

I was checking out the omakes, and they call Den a boy! -sobs- (it's the omake with Black Hayate talking about how popular he is)

I noticed a mistake on page 158. On the little chart where Ed is measuring up his and Al's strengths in the left the weight that falls off is "Strength" but I think it should have been "Older Brother's Pride" which makes more sense to me considering the circumstances. With Al being able to perform alchemy without a circle the last thing Ed had that was better than Al is gone (since Al already had height and strength) so Ed has now lost the pride of being the elder. I am kind of upset that they messed this up because it's one of my favorite scenes.

aiiie <3 i got the Perfect Guide Book and the 8th Volume of the manga a while ago, i'm so happy we finally meet Ling~! poor Edo he's always getting annoyed

and the Perfect Guide Book was great~ though i'm not sure why they called it Profiles when only part of the book was profiles :-\ but i'm still happy i got it and i took that personallity test and got Winry XD

Yeah I got my vol 8 yesterday! Is it just me or did that guy Winry was working for seem gay?
To me he seems gay.

I bought the book the day it came out (june) evemn though it said it wasnt to be relaesed until july at the end of volume 7. It was a really good book and i really liked [spoiler] Mei chan's special form of alchemy when she shot out those arrows. [/spoiler] Really good book. i say best yet.

I still beileive that Viz media is still very slow with the translating. they have book 13!!! in Japan now. HAHAHA, thats why i skipp ahead and read online, direct translated manga.!!!!

God be praised! Thanks to the wonders of Amazon, I ordered Vol. 8 and Profiles for the price of approx $20. Arrived just last week. Needless to say, I'm happy.

I see they opted for a more politically correct renunion between Greed and his Father, however. Tsk tsk.

Well they have to go slow or else you'll have to wait more than six months between each volume. That's what happened with Excel Saga right now. Viz caught up, the translation group has to wait for an official collected form release (contract agreement and all that fun stuff) and then it can be translated and printed stateside. Hell this is why Hellsing is stuck at volume 7, they haven't released the volume 8 in Japan yet.

Yay! Its out then? I'll have to bug my friend for it! She's probably got it by now. (ed if you're reading this don't kill me) I will bug her to death!