Fans of Shaman King got some incredibly good news yesterday as it was announced that Comixology and Kodansha Comics are teaming up to publish the Shaman King manga in its entirety in English for the first time ever. The original English version had been out of print for a while, and some volumes never made their way out of Japan – the announcement is, therefore, a big one for fans of Hiroyuki Takei’s series, and forms part of a general revival in the series’ fortunes following its 20th anniversary.
All thirty-five volumes of the Shaman King manga are scheduled to drop next week on July 28 via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and Comixology service, with Prime subscribers getting access to them at no additional cost. While the previous VIZ Media release of the Shaman King manga had been missing the last three volumes, Kodansha USA made sure this time around to bring the entirety of the series to the platform – meaning that volumes thirty-three through thirty-five will be available in English for the first time ever.
The Shaman King manga had previously been the subject of a legal row between Shueisha and Kodansha, who exchanged copyright of the series in 2017. Since then, the series has been slowly but surely making its way back into pop culture – firstly with several spinoffs, a 20th anniversary exhibition last year, and now a new, complete anime adaptation. In fact, the series originally came to an end in 2004 due to conflicts between Takei and Shueisha, who disagreed over the future direction of the series (among other things).
This new release of the Shaman King manga also features new cover illustrations by series creator Hiroyuki Takei, who expressed his satisfaction with finally being able to “deliver the true ending… to the fans in America”. While it is disappointing that this release appears to be staying digital-only for the time being, here’s hoping that the upcoming [email protected] panel has some news for those fans wishing to complete their long-dormant physical collection.