Well, FMA fans, we now have a time frame. April is one of the two biggest months for anime releases in Japan (the other is October), so April of 2009 it is, for the new Fullmetal Alchemist series to start its TV run in that country.

When will it appear in North America? There's been no announcement on that schedule yet. The assumption among fans, at least, tends to be that FUNimation will pick up this version of the series, as it did the first one, but no one can say anything for sure at the moment.

The official website for the new series has now launched (in Japanese), and features a "teaser trailer" to get your enthusiasm roused. The site also indicates that more news is coming on December 12, in the January issue of Square Enix's Shonen Gangan magazine (again, the site is in Japanese). Hiromu Arakawa's serialization of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga that started everything is still going on in that publication, and gradually nearing a conclusion.

According to the Anime News Network, the trailer from the website ran at the end of the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 season two episode last Sunday in Japan, with the voiceover saying, "New training...a fullmetal artificial limb, a body of armor...the brothers' journey begins. Fullmetal Alchemist: April 2009 Training. In this palm, is there hope or despair?"

And while the trailer doesn't give much direct information, it does at least hint at one or two possible answers to fans' questions that have been voiced ever since the new series was announced. The brief glimpse of the artwork suggests a style closer to the manga style than to that of the original anime. This could mean nothing more, though, than simply that there are different animators involved in this production. There's still not enough information there to indicate whether the series will somehow follow the first anime and movie, or will go back and tell the manga story instead. (The two diverge considerably after the episodes involving the Greed character.)

There are three other hints, though, that may be significant. The first is that the character of Alphonse is shown in his armored body instead of the human body recovered at the end of the first anime. And the character of Roy Mustang does not look as he did at the end of the anime and in the movie. These two things could hint that we'll be going back to the manga story, or they could indicate merely the background of the anime story, which would then be further developed in the second anime. We just can't say yet.

However, the voiceover itself, quoted in the ANN post, may give the strongest hint: "the brothers' journey begins." (Italics mine) Combine that with Alphonse's armor, and it may indeed be telling us that we're going to see a story that goes back to the beginning, therefore likely closer to the manga than to the first anime.

The Fullmetal Alchemist story still intrigues thousands and thousands of fans all over the world. Now the information being gradually (tantalizingly!) revealed about the new series is kindling fresh enthusiasm, as FMA fans speculate about and anticipate the next stage of this marvelous adventure we're all on.