One of the biggest surprises of the last few days was when Kodansha Comics USA announced that the complete run of Hiroyuki Takei’s Shaman King manga would finally be getting an English language release, and now unfortunately, this 35 volume release has been delayed a day before their initial launch date. Kodansha Comics USA planned to digitally release the entire 35 volume series (featuring the final three volumes that have never gotten an official release in English) through comiXology as part of the comiXology Originals line of content. Unfortunately, this release has been delayed to make some final touches to the production quality of these releases.
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As Kodansha Comics USA explains in a press release on their official website, “In an effort to give Shaman King the production quality it deserves and its fans the best manga experience, Kodansha USA Publishing regrets to announce a delay in the digital release date. We sincerely apologize for this last-minute hold-up, as we are well aware how excited fans are for this release, but we also know fans will appreciate the final results.”
Because of this release delay, Kodansha Comics USA will also be holding back the digital releases of the planned Shaman King sequels and spin-offs — Shaman King Zero, Shaman King: Flowers, Shaman King: Super Star, and Shaman King: Red Crimson — so that fans unfamiliar with the series will not accidentally read through one of these selections and spoil events from the main series or mix up events in the franchise’s timeline.
Unfortunately, a new release date for these digital releases has yet to be revealed but fans will be updated “shortly” on the matter. But the good news is that this digital delay does not have an impact on the planned print releases for the series coming in 2021 and 2022. When the series does release digitally the titles can be read upon release with no additional cost for members of Amazon Prime via their Prime Reading benefit, Kindle Unlimited and comiXology Unlimited, and will also be available for purchase on Kindle and comiXology.
How do you feel about this unfortunately timed delay? Were you planning to check out Shaman King’s complete run digitally or were waiting for the physical volume release? Are you hoping to catch back up in time for the new anime series coming in 2021? 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!
