It's been confirmed! The rumor that's been going around since late June/early July is now apparently a fact: there will indeed be a second Fullmetal Alchemist anime series.

According to the Anime News Network, the confirmation of the new series can be found on the wraparound jacket band of Volume 20 of the manga, being released Friday August 22 in Japan. North Americans won't see this volume for some time (Viz Media will only be publishing Volume 17 in October), but the ANN displays a photo of the jacket cover, and credits "2ch via Moon Phase Comments" as its source for the information.

Several weeks ago, a management file appeared to have been leaked from the BONES anime studio, listing staff members who would be involved in doing a second version of Fullmetal Alchemist as well as another series, Darker than BLACK. The studio, at the time, denied that this file was a company document, and vowed to investigate where it came from.

But when the Anime News Network asked BONES president Masahiko Minami if there might in fact be a possibility that the studio could do those series anyway, he had replied, "It hasn't been decided yet. We are interested in doing them."

And now, it seems, it has been decided.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the new series is simply a continuation of where the previous anime left off, or whether it retells the story following closer to the manga. Both versions had similar plots for quite some distance, until the anime veered off in a completely different direction, probably because it needed to bring its own story to a satisfactory close, long before the manga could be completed.

The fact that the announcement is being carried in the manga volume, accompanied by a picture of one of the manga characters who never appeared in the first anime, suggests to many fans that this new series will be much more manga based. But reading through various discussion forums dealing with this topic, it is clear that the vote is about 50-50, half the fans wanting a retelling of the manga, with the other half wanting a continuation of the original anime.

There would be problems with either scenario. If the manga story is retold, the new anime would mostly be a repetition of the original anime series for the majority of its first season's episodes, since that was how long the anime and manga plots paralleled each other. Fans' enthusiasm could possibly wane, the longer they're just watching the same story all over again.

On the other hand, even fans who want a sequel to the first anime, rather than a brand new one, tend to wonder how such a continuation might be managed. The original series and movie tied up the loose ends and finished off their story pretty thoroughly.

Still other fans aren't even sure this is a good idea, because if the new series is not done extremely well, it could drag the pleasure and reputation of the whole Fullmetal Alchemist phenomenon down with it. But these people, so far, appear to be in the minority. Most seem to be greeting this news with either wild enthusiasm or, at the very least, cautious optimism.

More details will emerge as BONES' plans get underway. Another rumor suggests that the new anime could begin running in Japan as early as next April, so those plans will have to advance quite quickly. But for the time being, this bombshell is quite enough for fans to feed on, and will keep them speculating (and salivating!) for some time to come.