A Hokkaido farm taught Hiromu Arakawa the central law of Fullmetal Alchemist
In Fullmetal Alchemist, nothing can be gained unless something of equal value is lost. Hiromu Arakawa drew that rule, called Equivalent Exchange, not from old alchemical texts but from watching her parents labour on their farm in Hokkaido to earn enough to eat. The manga went on to sell over 90 million copies.
Arakawa got hooked after reading about the philosopher's stone. The books on alchemy she then worked through often contradicted each other, and she found the philosophy behind the practice more compelling than its techniques. The result was a steampunk world modelled largely on the European Industrial Revolution and on Europe around 1900, where alchemy is a mainstream science that behaves like magic bound by physical rules.
Alchemists sketch transmutation circles to reshape existing matter, and the most talented are recruited by the state and handed code names reflecting their speciality. Anyone who glimpses the Gate of Truth sees all the knowledge in the universe at once; most are driven mad, but survivors can transmute without drawing a circle at all.
Two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, carry the story. Abandoned by their father and then left motherless by illness, they break the gravest taboo by trying to resurrect her, and the attempt costs them dearly. Their hunt for the philosopher's stone to repair their bodies leads, over many volumes, to a being called Father, who founded the nation of Amestris to harvest enough people for a colossal stone and planned to trigger it during a solar eclipse.
Square Enix ran the series in Monthly Shōnen Gangan from July 2001 to June 2010, gathering it into 27 volumes. Bones animated two television versions, in 2003 and 2009, plus films in 2005 and 2011. Honours included the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 2004, Britain's Eagle Award for favourite manga in both 2010 and 2011, and a 2011 Seiun Award as the top science fiction comic.
Source: Fullmetal Alchemist
