Shaman King was a notable anime and manga series for fans growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but after its abrupt ending in 2004 — and brief return for a finale a few years later — the series is no longer the center of conversation.
But Shaman King is setting up for a huge return in 2018.
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First teased by Kodansha, as they recently acquired the rights for the series from former publisher Shueisha, Shaman King is getting a new manga arc to be published in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Edge magazine.
The nature of the new manga arc is unknown, but Kodansha has opened up a new website for the series celebrating its 20th Anniversary that features new artwork of series main character Yoh Asakura and his fiance Anna Kyoyama along with some peaceful music in the background.
You can check out the website here, and the new arc will begin in Kodansha’s magazine in the Spring. Series creator Hiroyuki Takei had started his first manga with Kodansha, Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai, in September 2015 and is currently running to this day. Shaman King‘s return will surely be a big moment for fans, and is a good way to garner new fans for the series.
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.
