Full Metal Panic Creator Shoji Gatoh Is Working on a New Project
Kadokawa has announced that Shoji Gatoh, the author of Full Metal Panic!, is launching a new project under the publisher’s Fantasia Bunko imprint. The announcement came during the Fantasia Bunko autumn livestream event on Saturday. Additional details about the project will be shared on November 20, which is also the date the third volume of Full Metal Panic! Family is scheduled to ship.
Gatoh’s original Full Metal Panic! light novel series launched in 1998 and ran to 12 volumes in the main series, with the final volume arriving in 2010. The franchise has over 11 million copies in print. J-Novel Club has published the complete main story in English in four omnibus volumes, following earlier releases from Tokyopop that covered the first four entries.
The franchise has had a rich anime history. The original 24 episode television anime by GONZO aired in 2002. Kyoto Animation then produced two follow-up series: the 12 episode Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu in 2003 and the 13 episode Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid in 2005, along with a video anime installment in 2006. A more recent series, Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory, premiered in May 2018. The franchise has also inspired multiple manga and light novel spinoffs, including Full Metal Panic! Another, written by Naoto Ōkuro from 2011 to 2015.
The newer Full Metal Panic! Family continuation began in Kadokawa’s Dragon Magazine in 2023 and also has a manga adaptation running alongside it.
My take: Gatoh returning to Fantasia Bunko with a completely new project is exciting news for longtime fans. After spending recent years revisiting the Full Metal Panic! universe, seeing what he builds from scratch feels like something genuinely worth looking forward to.
