I'm only surprised no one thought of alchemy in anime before. Always with the magic. Then again, from what few reviews I could find of it, I'm thinking alchemy works more like magic in this series than the chemistry-alchemy of old.

I always feel vaguely guilty watching fansubs. Do you think the series will ever make it to the states legitimately? If it's even slightly popular it probably will, since I can find all kinds of obscure stuff in the stores these days. But it might take a while....