~ Group Fan Letter To Hiromu Arakawa Pt 2 (major Update), Project is done and over, thread closed ~

Hi everyone I just wanted to give everyone a little update on the letter to Arakawa. As of today we have 146 names from all over the world (although the majority is from the US). I have created an E-mail exclusively for this project fullmetalalchemistfans@gmail.com which I plan to put down as our main contact E-mail in the letter.

Now for the updates:

1) I am also opening up fan art submissions today. Please submit your fan art to the above E-mail address. My only rules are I need to limit it to 1 submission per person and the fan art has to be manga related. Sending old fan art is fine of course. If you want to be recognized for your work it is your responsibility to add your signature to your piece of work. Fan art submission for now will be closed on Sunday December 11. Please keep the fan art PG.

Umeko has very kindly offered to print out the fan art. So it’s thanks to her that we are sending fan art in the first place.

2) Now on to the actual letter, I am going to need people to help me compose the letter and to help translate. Below I listed people who have already volunteered if you are still interested E-mail me at the G-MAIL address and let me know exactly what you want to do. For translators we need someone to translate the questions, the actual letter, and the countries where everyone is from (I think we will keep the names in English unless someone disagrees)

Reika- Composing
Oki Chan- Composing
Umeko and CSakuras- Translation (questions)
Lady Mercury- Translation
Kinchi- Translation

3) As for the composition of the letter I would like people to write in this thread something they would like to say to Arakawa. It can be anything, why you love the manga, why you love a certain character, etc. Please make it short and sweet. From this information I am going to try to compose the letter (hopefully with the help of some other people). Of course we won’t be able to get everything everyone says in the letter but I hope to get as much as possible (condensed into about a page)

4) Since I got 35 questions I closed off question submissions. Please vote for your top 10 questions at http://zomgfta.duelstandby.com/viewtopic.php?t=63 . I don’t think you have to register to post so please vote.

5) Cool Neko Chan suggested including some fan sites in the letter. If you would like your website to be included please either E-mail me the link or reply in this thread. You can also recommend sites but if it isn’t your own give me that person’s E-mail so I can ask permission. Please only recommend sites that are somewhat manga related and please no sites with scanlations or episode downloads. If we get to many websites I'll probably have people vote for the top 10.

Finally if you have not already done so and you want to be a part of this letter please give me your name as you would like it to appear in the letter and the country where you are from. If you did this in the other thread than you don’t have to send me the info twice. Thanks for everyone’s help.

And again I want to give credit to Senefen for coming up with this great idea XD

I'd just like to leave my name ^^
Marissa, NY, USA

Wow, gosh! What should we say?? I guess I'm most curious about what she thinks of the anime and the movie, and how far or close the directors came to her plans, or if she's even seen much of either! That's the best question I can think of right now, if I come up with any others I'll add them.

Thanks for the question

Now remember don't forget to leave your name and country.

I'd also like to know what she thought of the anime and the movie. Also, I'm curious who her favorite character is. I know it's a stupid question, but I want to know!

Everyone thanks so much for contributing but please don't forget to leave your name and location. Unless you already posted it at LJ you don't have to leave it twice.

Cristina, Ohio, USA.

Hey yeah, I'd also like to know what she thought about the movie (but I bet she will just sort of be evasive of an actual response). As a result, I would like to know how long she plans to continue the manga.

June, Australia.

wo!!!!! Add me!!! XDDDD (and my friends)

me: Oihane, Spain

My friends:

Dani, Spain
Dani, Spain
Ane, Spain
Jorge, Spain

(that's all for now XD)

oh! and I will help with whatever! I could ask my japanese teacher to translate me the letter if you want, I would like to help with the composing or editing too, just tell me what you have in mind! ^^

PS: Where... did you find the addres?? O.o

*points at page 21 from Chapter 53* =O
(If I'm not wrong it was page 21 XD)


I'm not posting anything~ I already did at LJ yay :3

I have no burning questions to ask Arakawa-sensei as of yet, but I would like to include my name on the list if that's alright. ^-^

Maicy, USA

And if we start a new thread with questions, will only a select few questions be used or all of them??? If we ask too many, it might get complicated. O_O

And I'll probably go talk in the ZOMGFTA forums about this as well. ^-^

The address was in Chapter 53, page....21 was it?
As I said in the ZOMGFTA forums I'll be joining!

Susan, Cairns, Australia.

I have a translator on my computer! anything you want to put in the letter I'll type it in!

Senefen and Kirara, I officially love you!

name: Joan, Barcelona, Catalunya (katakana wa: "katarunya" for the translator/s), Spain.

Comment: I love this manga, I'm buying all the original volumes and have been asking publishers if they've the intention of publishing it. Also, that I'm telling all my friends to read it. I really like Arakawa sensei's sense of humor, storytelling and so... And most specially the detail she puts in her work, with all those characters that appear for the first time long before they're introduced (Scorch...) all the research she does (going to a bookstore and buying books about Military, weapons, psychopaths' minds... XD ), etc.

OT EDIT: ElvishVamp, your Avatar is so great.

**get someone to write it in japanese.**

it's a good idea, but I would like to mention something tho...

1) most mangaka, especially popular ones like Arakawa Hiromu, don't reply fan mails because they just don't have the time to. Maybe they will read it... from reading a bunch of shoujo that i own, most of them usually put replies on their personal webpage... but some of them don't even update their webpage often. Some shoujo mangaka said in their manga that usually, an assistant will read out the letters during work time so that everyone can hear it...

2) even if there will be answers, it's most likely going to be in the magazine, and most scanners won't bother to scan in those.

3) English letters might be hard to read. Japanese would be optimal. (as mentioned in the topic starter already)

4) Just use gmail. I don't think you need a website e-mail since it's not likely you will get a long reply... (I think there is a chance of getting a short reply tho.... I doubt you will get all your answers answered.)

5) @_@ Don't write TOO MUCH. It may make people feel overwhelming.

Name:: Fah (katakana = Fu-aa ), Country:: Thailand

Comment:: I love your manga very very much. Its the GREATEST manga I have ever read (I'm serious) and it teaches so many things about life. AND its hilarious and action at the same time ^-^! I have bought ALL 12 volumes of your manga, your artbook, your HagarenDX, and both PerfectGuide 1 & 2(have also begged my friend who is Japanese to buy me your one-shot mangas too). Also appreciate the researching on the military part, and in alchemy, and also with human composition..(Yup, I love Hagaren)

ohps! thanks for telling me where was it! ^^ I'm still offering my help for anything ^^

Just to let everyone know the letter Will be translated into Japanese we already have volunteers.

As for will Arakawa reply or not who knows? Though I think we have a better chance of getting a reply if we send her a letter from everyone then the chance that individual letters will get a reply. But even if we don't this is just to show that Arakawa has fans outside of Japan (though I have one sig from Japan so far )

May as well join in the fun.

Put down my name as well:

Andrew, Michigan, USA

great idea! put me into it to!

Arne, Sweden

Yarr, I posted in LJ too, bu whatever

Maria, Indonesia.


Are we still up with the idea of posting her some of our fanarts?

Well, it looks like a very interesting idea! ^^ I'll join:

Fiona, Corsica, France.

Jimmy, Oregon, USA

HUZZAH!! I want to be part of the letter...PLEASE!!! I would ask her about her thoughts on the anime adaptation of the manga series...but that seems a bit redundant at this point But it is because of FMA manga/anime that most of the people (my sister included) that I know got into anime to begin with...so her work has opened soo many doors and crossed soo many language barriers--HEY, you can ask her if she ever imagined her series would have ever became the world-wide phenomenon that is has. Also, in the series she chose to use alchemy (which in-turn makes scientists cool, yeah!)...is there any reason inparticular that she decided to use "alchemy" instead of "magic", or any other similar genere of science/religion?

This is an awsome idea!!! Kudos to the one who thought it up!!!

~Michelle, New York, USA

Matt, Maine, USA

Christine, Margaret, Grace, USA

I already did this in the LJ community but just to make sure...

Daria, North Carolina, USA

Hey! Maybe we can ask what mangas she likes to read and which ones influence her the most. From what I've read about her manga is her life!

hey! I would love to send her a fanart! ^^

Valérie, France
I would love too.^^

Nicole, New York, USA.

Detail about submission of fanart will probably come soon. Although I hope everyone will be able to send fanart we might have to limit it somehow but I'll figure that out.

There is 110 of us so far <yay>

WOW THAT'S SO COOL!!! sending a letter to the one-and-only-totally-awesome-and-cool-and-genius-and-wonderful-hiromu-arakawa is a great idea!!! (i hope she will remember it or at least take some note of appreciation when she reads it) and thus, my lil info thingy:

Angela, Texas

woooow... my name's actually gonna go on that letter??? whooaaa... *feels so honored* and if you're gonna leave lil bits of stuff in the letter, please mention something like a whole bunch of crazed fans (like me) really look up to her and reading the manga has touched our lives and made us better people. (at least with me lol) YIPEE!!

Sign me up! XD

Cat Segota, Chicago, U.S.A.

Are you accepting fanart already or not?

Sorry not yet

Oh, I would love to send fanart too *gets started drawing instead of doing biology project*

hmmm.... 110 people already, this IS going to be a HUGE mail...for Arakawa - sensei to sensei no tomodachi (Arakawa and her friends/ work mates ) to read

Sign me tooooooo

Steve Kwan
Altoona, Pennsylvania

Sign me up as well:

Dylan, Texas, U.S.A.

Lots of people signing, it's going to be one big list...

Mabye we should have a list of questions and vote the top five and include it in our letter...

I agree

what a cool idea !

sign me up !

Nina ,new york

and my friends

Sunnie,ny

Amy,ny

Pattie,ny

Erin,ny

and Pheobe,ny

oh yeah and i also want to thank Himoru arkawa-sensei for making such an awsome manga which inpired me and my friends to study and do better in life science !

Can you also sign my sister up as well? (I had already requested for myself to be put on the list )

Liz, New York, USA Gratzi

I was thinking about 10

I have been collecting all the questions from both this forum and LJ and I am keeping them in a word document. I was actually planning on people voting on the best questions but I was thinking of doing it at the ZOMGFTA forums since there is a smaller group over there and I think the voting will be more controlled. We got some really good question IMHO but also some that I would hestiate asking (even if they were popular). There are a lot of questions about Arakawa's views on the anime/movie for instance and while I would personally love to know I think we should stick to asking her questions solely about the manga. I also wouldn't ask her any questions about "will this happen in the plot..." because as the words of Robert Jordan (only people who read Wheel of Time will get this) the only think we are going to get from those questions is RAFO Aka as Read and Find Out.

My main problem is what exactly should we put in the letter? I was thinking of starting another post in about a week asking people to write something they would like to say to Arakawa and from that compile a letter. But if anyone has any better suggestions please let me know.

There WAS this question I ALWAYS wanted to ask... when is Ed's birthday??

Actually that is already on the list of questions. I like that one so there is a good chance that will stay.

Sign me up too!!

Lauren Hughes
Downingtown, PA USA

[offtopic] !!!!!!!! you are a Hughes!!!!!!!! [/offtopic]

...yes I am....

Sign me up aswell.

Tony Coria
California, USA

O_O;; How could I, a lowly and unworthy fan, possibly write anything to the great and powerful genius mangaka, Arakawa-sensei.

But please, please include my name on the letter:

Tiffany V., Los Angeles, USA

Tifanii in katakana