Shaman King and Fullmetal Alchemist Director Addresses the Shows’ Divergent Endings

Hiroyuki Takei’s Shaman King and Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist surprisingly have a lot in common in that both of their anime adaptations eventually progressed with original material, but did you know the two anime actually share a director? In fact, that director recently addressed how these two first adaptations came to their wildly divergent endings. Like Fullmetal Alchemist, Shaman King will soon be coming back with a brand new anime adaptation that will be sticking much more closely to the manga series rather than the truncated end it came to the first time around.

But it’s apparent that fans must have been either complaining or questioning director Seiji Mizushima about Shaman King‘s original 2001 anime ever since as the director addressed the topic with fans. Reacting to the first footage and information for the new anime series, Mizushima confirmed that he didn’t make the changes to the original on his own.

He might not be involved with the new Shaman King anime series, but Mizushima revealed he’s excited for the new series as he’s seen how many digital technology improvements have been made overall that still somehow capture the spirit of the other from nearly 20 years ago.

He then later went on to describe some of his experiences with the original, and confirmed that the changes to the anime’s story was not something he did of his own accord, but instead were choices made by the publisher, Shueisha. He then went on to mention that it’s the same situation for his work with the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime series in 2003. He didn’t change anything on his own, but instead those were decisions made by those higher up on the chain.

Excited to see Shaman King get another chance with anime fans? Do you think it will be as successful as Fullmetal Alchemist‘s anime reboot? What are you hoping to see in the new series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!