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Full Metal Panic! Novels Get 25th Anniversary Sequel Set 2 Decades Later
posted on by Egan Loo
Kadokawa announced on Friday that Shoji Gatoh's Full Metal Panic! light novel series will launch a new story as it approaches its 25th anniversary this year. The new story is set in the present day about two decades after the climax of the main story, which concluded with a volume published in 2010. The sequel follows the daily family life of the main leads Sōsuke and Chidori, now all grown-up.
The July issue of Kadokawa's Dragon Magazine published the opening excerpt of the new story on Friday, and the September issue will publish the full first chapter on July 20.
Update: Gatoh posted on Friday that the new sequel story will have some comedy, but will not be as slapstick as another followup story, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. It will be a collection of short stories for light reading. He plans for "various characters" to appear after the first chapter. He half-seriously mused that the sequel could end in just one volume, keep going for around three volumes, or "depending on how things go, become an epic saga lasting over 20 volumes."
In January, Gatoh posted on Twitter a survey, asking if fans want to see Sōsuke when he is around 40. After about 75% of respondents said they did, Gatoh gave the sequel a shot. Before, he had personal reservations on depicting Sōsuke and Kaname after the main story's finale. However, when he heard the 25th anniversary was coming up, that strange hangup went away.
Gatoh added that he is also developing a completely new work unrelated to his previous projects.
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 four volumes in English, and J-Novel Club retranslated and published the entire main story in four omnibus volumes.
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. A new television anime titled Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory premiered in May 2018. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub.
Funimation released the first 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 the first 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. Naoto Ōkuro published the Full Metal Panic! Another spinoff novel series from August 2011 to February 2015. Shikidouji illustrated both the original Full Metal Panic! series and Full Metal Panic! Another.
Update: The story is titled Full Metal Panic! Family. The first volume will release in January 2024.
Sources: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, PR Times
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
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