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'Full Metal Panic! Another' Light Novel Series to End Next Week
posted on by Egan Loo
The official Twitter account of Fujimi Shobo's Fantasia Bunko imprint confirmed on Wednesday that the imprint will publish the 12th and final volume of Naoto Ōkuro's Full Metal Panic! Another spinoff novel series on February 20. It will also publish a Full Metal Panic! Another Short Stories collection that same day. The Fantasia Bunko Hōsō-kyoku program on the Niconico streaming service will commemorate the ending on February 18.
Shoji Gatoh's original Full Metal Panic! light novel series centers around a mercenary group called Mithril on a parallel Earth in which the Cold War did not end in 1991. The Full Metal Panic! Another spinoff novel series is set over a decade after the story in the original light novel series, and it centers around a boy whose destiny is changed after an encounter with a D.O.M.S. Arm Slave robot operator named Adelina.
Full Metal Panic! Another began publishing in August 2011. Shikidouji illustrated both the original Full Metal Panic! series and Full Metal Panic! Another.
Fujimi Shobo announced last October that plans for a new anime adaptation in the franchise are underway.
The original Full Metal Panic! light novel series debuted in 1998, and Fujimi Shobo published the series' 12th and final novel in the main series in 2010. The novels have more than 11 million copies in print. Tokyopop published the first five volumes before the company shut down its North American branch in 2011.
The franchise inspired the 24-episode Full Metal Panic! TV anime series in 2002, the 12-episode Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu TV anime in 2003, and the 13-episode Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid TV anime series in 2005. Additionally, the light novels inspired the Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid video anime episode in 2006. Gonzo animated the 2002 anime series, and Kyoto Animation animated the two sequel series and the video anime.
Funimation has released all three TV anime series and the video anime on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, and ADV Films released the first two anime series on DVD before Funimation relicensed the series. Kadokawa released all three television series and the video anime on Blu-ray Disc in Japan with an English dub in 2013 to celebrate the franchise's 15th anniversary.
The original novel series has also inspired several manga spinoff series, as well as several light novel spinoffs (including Another) and short story collections. Like the original series, Full Metal Panic! Another received more than one manga adaptations.
[Via Yaraon!]
