Fullmetal Alchemist Box Set [Paperback]

Hiromu Arakawa (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 1, 2011 | Series: Fullmetal Alchemist

Breaking the laws of nature is a serious crime!

This best selling series is now available in a complete box set! Includes volumes 1-27, plus extras such as Fullmetal Alchemist Novel: The Ties That Bind and a full-color, two-sided poster.  Over a 20% savings over buying the individual volumes!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in Hokkaido (northern Japan), Hiromu Arakawa first attracted national attention in 1999 with her award-winning manga Stray Dog. Her series Fullmetal Alchemist debuted in 2001 in Square Enix's monthly manga anthology Shonen Gangan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 12000 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Original edition (November 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1421541955
• ISBN-13: 978-1421541952
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 5.3 x 16.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Hokkaido (northern Japan), Hiromu Arakawa first attracted national attention in 1999 with her award-winning manga STRAY DOG. Her series FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST debuted in 2001 in Square Enix's monthly manga anthology Shonen Gangan.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon broke the Law of Equivalent Exchange... in a GOOD way! November 8, 2011

By Corbin Trexler

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I titled my review this because the box set is completely awesome, and it's at least $60 cheaper than the other sites I browsed (at the time of release). It's certainly cheaper than buying all 27 volumes individually!

What you get, and comments about each:
(If I seem to nitpick, then sorry, but I like to be extremely specific and thorough, letting you know precisely what I received.)
I. All 27 Volumes of the Fullmetal Alchemist Manga in Paperback
--1. These aren't new editions or anything, they're the same versions you can already purchase individually from VizMedia, but all in one set for one heck of a price! The set also includes Volume 27, which has yet to be relased by itself. (UPDATE 1/8/12: IN THE COMMENTS, SOMEONE HAS INFORMED ME THAT THE TRANSLATIONS AND IMAGES ARE A LITTLE DIFFERENT IN SOME PLACES COMPARED TO THE INDIVIDUAL COPIES YOU CAN PURCHASE FROM THE SAME PUBLISHER. I HAD NO IDEA, AND I APOLOGIZE IF THIS MISLED ANYONE!)
--2. Three or four of my books had EXTREMELY tiny, extra pieces of the cover hanging off of the corners on the spines of the books. It's kind of annoying just knowing they're there, but I'm guessing it's normal for paperbacks. But believe me, it's probably not even worth mentioning.
--3. The first 3 books have holographic covers, and the rest do not.
--4. They're right-to-left style, to preserve the orientation of Arakawa's original artwork. I'm an American and have been reading left-to-right my entire life, but I, personally, haven't had an issue with this. I THOUGHT I would, but I simply haven't.

II. A 2-Sided Poster
--1. Both sides can be viewed on this product's homepage in the photo section.
--2. It's folded in fourths, so there's creases. I have mine hung up though and it looks good to me.... I barely-to-don't recognize the creases.
--3. Approximately 10"w x 15"h.

III. The Light Novel "The Ties that Bind"
--1. I'm honestly not sure what this is. I did a little research and I guess it's a novelization of some of the manga chapters?... I really don't know. It IS a novel though, meaning pages full of paragraphs of words. There's only like 3 pages with actual pictures.

IV. The Box Itself
--1. Approximately the size of the poster, and 5 inches deep.
--2. Has 2 shelves (one above the other) that house the books quite snugly. It's kinda hard to get them out sometimes.
--3. Has a hinged "door" that protects the books from dust when closed, stays shut with small velcro circles on the right side, and has a handle on top making it much easier to carry around.
--4. You can see the outside design of the box on this product's home page. The inside of the box is basically the same design as the back of the box.
--5. My box arrived with a few small creases and dents in it, but I suppose this is practically unavoidable when shipping across country.
--6. I'd have preferred a horizontally-orientated version of the box and its contents, but it's a very nice box nonetheless, I must say.

Overall, this product is definitely well worth its price and worthy of being passed down the Armstrong line for generations!!! Read more ›

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read before making the investment. November 3, 2011

By Christian Matthew

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Fullmetal Alchemist is arguably one of the most well developed stories since the beginning of time. Everything about the series is perfect. This box set, though nice, is not.

The boxing is perfect. It's colorful, durable, and just looks and feels awesome. It has a handle to let you pick up and carry its heavy self around. It also has a velcro cover that you can open to reveal all the books hidden inside, and seal em back in once you're done. The box is just awesome overall. The only bad side to it, is that the velcrow that holds the flap comes off fairly easy, and you'll probably have to hot glue it to the box to keep it from coming off. Now to the manga.

This is the point where I became slightly disappointed in the package. The mangas are new edition prints for the most part, but Viz did not fix the few translation/other errors from previous issues. By translation issues, I mean translating some of the character names wrong (In one manga it's spelled Dr. Knox, in another other it's Dr. Knocks ect...) The prints decided to use Ishbal as the translation for Ishval too (I was hoping they'd fix this translation in the boxset because Ishval is the correct translation). Besides name inconsistencies, some names are butchered. Xerxes in the manga is a mess of a word that's something like Cselcesse now. There are a decent amount of typos in the manga too, which I can't understand how they still exist in the newest prints. Randomly words will be missing, and blank space will take their place. The words are for the most part easy to predict, so you basically know what should be there, but that's not very professional. Also, there's a time where Edward calls Alphonse Ed. Don't they read the translations before they ship em haha?...

Note that the more serious vocal profanities are censored. Those words are replaced with random assortments of symbols like $%&#! "Because I'm #%$&ing Greed!" is an example of when it was used. It kind of ruins the professionalism of the series, but it's in no way a deal-breaker. I must commend Viz on realizing that this boxset is solely for hardcore fans though; They no longer censored the greed on a crucifix scene. Besides an assortment of various typos/translation messups, the actual set is pretty good. The manga itself is so good, that you'll probably ignore Viz's somewhat inconsistent job.

Overall, I think the boxset is worth it. Though, Viz didn't put enough time into fixing previous mistakes (I say they should have contacted Ms. Arakawa for the correct English translations like Mel Bay did with Fairy Tail), new fans won't notice much, but may get confused by some name inconsistencies in the manga. The physical quality of the set is great! Looks awesome in my room, and it's super easy to grab and put away the chapters without dust getting in!
At a much cheaper price then other sites, get it at amazon! Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value! December 27, 2011

By RGallagher

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been a fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist series for years now. I loved both animes, the movie, the games, and especially the manga.

This box set is a great bargain for any fans of the series. The box it comes in is beautiful and holds all the books nicely. It's sturdy and even has a handle for easy carrying. And not only do you get the entire series, you get a bonus novel and poster as well. That makes it even more of a bargain!

At 27 volumes and the sticker price of $9.99 a volume, you're looking at a total cost of $269.73. Considering Amazon currently has it listed for $135.82, you're saving $133.91 and that's not factoring in the nice carry case box, novel, and bonus poster either.

Not matter how you look at it, this box set really is a great bargain and well worth it for any anime/manga fans!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Deal for a great Manga series November 5, 2011

By Just~a~Dude

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I wont get into the content of the manga, but I will say that it is one of the best I have ever read and you have to at least check it out if your into manga.

The packaging is phenomenal, the outer case is very durable and has a nice glossy finish to it. It has a nice handle on top to carry it around if you'd like. All the original manga are divided into 2 sections with volumes 1-14 on the top and volumes 15-27 and the light novel "The Ties That Bind" on the bottom, as well as the two sided poster. The poster is of decent size, a little smaller than the box's width and height and is of very nice quality. My only complaint with the entire box set is with the poster though. It was folded twice so that it would be the size of the manga volumes. I don't understand why they would decide to package it like this as I will never hang it up because of the god awful creases in it that you can't completely get rid of, at least I don't know how. This really kinda sucks as I would have loved to frame it and hang it up but this is by no means a deal breaker. The volumes were in excellent condition which is too be expected.

So all in all I say if you haven't been collecting the manga and are a huge fan/collector then this is a must buy, heck even if you have like 10 volumes it's worth it as your getting them for half the price individually as well as the light novel and poster. So go buy it and support the industry.