If you're watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, or not quite finished reading the manga, you might want to skip this post as there are some visual spoilers. For everyone else, it's just another art book! Arakawa Hiromu Illustrations Fullmetal Alchemist 3 is the final art book in her series of Fullmetal Alchemist illustration collections, containing illustrations from 2005 all the way through September 2010.

Fullmetal Alchemist 3 is A4-sized and 144-pages, making it the largest of her three FMA art books. The cover illustration is newly drawn along with the very last illustration in the book, but everything else has been previously published. The print quality is great, and works well with the hand colored illustrations Arakawa Hiromu still produces.

The illustrations are presented in chronological order divided by chapters, starting with works from September 2005 through March 2007. Chapter.1 runs from pages 4 through 37, and includes mostly full-page and two-page spreads. You really get a sense of how very old school Arakawa Hiromu works, with lines and paint stretching into the white margins that would have been cropped off in the actual magazine publications of these illustrations.

The next two chapters cover April 2007 through March 2010, and take up the majority of the book from pages 39 through 118. Chapter.2 and Chapter.3 also include art works done for the Fullmetal Alchemist: Prince of the Dawn video game. Illustrations for calendars and other Fullmetal Alchemist merchandise appear throughout the collection.

Most of the illustrations would be familiar to even a casual fan of the series. As you go along through the book, the illustrations and poses become more dynamic and action-packed, a far cry from Arakawa Hiromu's early Fullmetal Alchemist works.

The final section is Chapter.4 which features the illustrations done from April 2010 through September 2010. Although it's the shortest period of time for a chapter, there were still several illustrations to mark the end of Fullmetal Alchemist. The book ends with a 4-page index, followed by a short comic between Arakawa Hiromu's and Atsushi Okubo's (Soul Eater creator) avatars.

Arakawa Hiromu Illustrations Fullmetal Alchemist 3 is a great quality book, and it somehow still manages to have a low cover price of just ￥1619, pre-tax. Although the die-hard fans will still want to import this edition, remember that the other two Fullmetal Alchemist art books have had US editions, so it may still be worth waiting!

• Title: Arakawa Hiromu Illustrations Fullmetal Alchemist 3
• タイトル: 荒川弘イラスト集 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST ３
• Pages: 144
• Release date: 04/22/2011
• Buy: Amazon Japan