'Shaman King' Teases Major 2018 Announcement
Shaman King is one of the key anime series released in the late 90s and early 200s for a lot of [...]
Shaman King is one of the key anime series released in the late 90s and early 200s for a lot of fans in the West, but not much has been heard about the series after its abrupt end in 2004 and follow up finale in 2008.
But Shaman King could make a big comeback in 2018.
Previously published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, the license for the series has been picked up by Kodansha in Japan, United States, and Europe. In the January issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Edge magazine released a teaser silhouette of Shaman King's Yoh Asakura with the website URL "https://comic-sp.Kodansha.co.jp/skg20th/."
The website currently only links to Kodansha's home page, but will open on January 1, 2018. The silhouette teaser appeared on the last page of Takei's currently running manga, Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai, which was the first project he's published with Kodansha.
The teaser could allude to a few things. It could be a re-release of the manga under Kodansha's label, or it could even be a sequel series. Though Takei worked on an official end after Shaman King's original end, a "Perfect Edition," and even a sequel series years after the main series had ended. Shaman King fans would most likely love to see a new Shaman King series, or even a re-release of the original manga in its most complete state so any announcement coming from this teaser will be good news.
For those unfamiliar with Shaman King, the series was originally created by Hiroyuki Takei. The story follows Yoh Asakura, a shaman who is a medium between the worlds of the living and the dead. He enters into the Shaman Fight, a tournament between shamans held every 500 years, in order to become to contact the Great Spirit and become the Shaman King, one who is able to reshape the world in any way they wish.
The series was initially published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from 1998 to 2004 and has been collected into 32 volumes. The manga was licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, and was adapted into an anime series by Xebec. The series was licensed for an English language broadcast by 4Kids Entertainment and ran for 64 episodes. Creator Takei returned to the series in 2008 due to the series' abrupt ending. He had originally ended the manga due to a mix of fatigue and the feeling that his story fell into common shonen traps. His newly released "Perfect Edition" finally put an end to the story in the way Takei truly envisioned.