Megumi Hayashibara will sing the opening and ending themes for the reboot of the anime series Shaman King, it was announced on Wednesday in Japan. She previously provided ‘Over Soul’ and ‘Northern Lights,’ the OP/ ED for the original 2001 series. TV Tokyo will broadcast the series, starting in April 2021.
On Wednesday (Japan Time), the series also released a new promo video:
Hayashibara played Anna Kyoyama in the original series. And she will return to that role in the reboot. She’s had a diverse bunch of memorable roles over the years, including female Ranma ½; Rei Ayanami; Lina Inverse; Faye Valentine; and Musashi (Jessie) from Pokémon.
In addition to Shaman King, she’s provided music for several other anime series as well, including a version of ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ from Evangelion.
About Shaman King
The series is based on a 1998-2004 Shonen Jump manga series which was made into an anime series in 2001. In the manga, the shaman Yoh Asakura competes in the Shaman Fight in order to fulfill his desire to become the Shaman King. Instead, the title goes to Yoh’s twin brother Hao, who wants to eradicate humans.
In the 2021 version of the anime series, Yoko Hikasa (Mio from K-On!) will take over the role of Yoh. Yoh was previously voiced by Yuko Sato. Other than Yoh, the reboot will bring back quite a few voice actors from the original. The series announced the return of many of these actors on Wednesday: Katsuyuki Konishi as Amidamaru; Minami Takayama as Hao Asakura; Inuko Inuyama as Manta Oyamada; Romi Park as Tao Ren; Masahiko Tanaka as Ryunosuke Umemiya; and Wataru Takagi as Tokagero.
On the Shaman King website, Hikasa stated that she felt ‘a lot of pressure’ playing the role of Yoh. However, she also added: ‘The veteran seniors are the ones I had seen before I became a voice actor. Being surrounded by such people and having a conversation together in a play is a blessed opportunity that I haven’t visited so much in my life as an actor.’