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Full Metal Panic! Family Novels Get Manga

The X (formerly Twitter) account for Kadokawa's Dragon Age magazine announced on Wednesday that Shoji Gatoh's Full Metal Panic! Family light novels will get a manga adaptation by Ohige Kamisori, beginning in the magazine's January issue on December 9.

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 2023 issue of Kadokawa's Dragon Magazine published the opening excerpt of the new story, and the September issue published the full first chapter in July. Kadokawa shipped the second compiled volume on Wednesday.

The original science-fiction battle story began with Kaname Chidori, a girl who enjoys fame and notoriety in her high school for her striking personality. She is unaware that numerous groups are targeting her due to her being suspected as one of the "Whispered," a group of people with special abilities. The counter-terrorist unit Mithril sends elite soldier Sōsuke Sagara as her bodyguard, posing as a high school student the entire time.

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.

Source: Dragon Age's X/Twitter account