News

Shaman King Manga's New Arc Gets 3 Prologue Chapters Before May Debut

The May issue of Kodansha's Shonen Magazine Edge magazine published a prologue for the new arc of Hiroyuki Takei's Shaman King manga on Tuesday. It also revealed the new arc's title as Shaman King The Super Star, as well as its launch in the magazine's June issue on May 17.

The prologue's first chapter is titled "Sandaime Itako no Anna" (Anna, the Third Generation Itako). The second chapter is titled "Death Zero From Flowers," while the third chapter is titled "Dai Butsu Zone" (Great Buddha Zone).

The issue also featured the final chapter of Takei's Nekogahara manga. The manga's fourth and fifth compiled book volume are slated to ship on May 17.

Viz Media published the Shaman King manga in English in the past, and it describes how the story began:

When he takes a shortcut through a cemetery, Manta Oyamada meets a strange kid with headphones — surrounded by ghosts. The kid is the teenage shaman Yoh Asakura. Tapping the supernatural swordfighting powers of samurai ghost Admidamaru, Yoh fights Bokuto no Ryu, a sword-wielding gang member. But an even more dangerous opponent is stalking Yoh and Manta — a Chinese shaman who wants to possess Amidamaru.

Shaman King began in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1998. The series abruptly ended in 2004, although a reprinting of the manga revealed a "true ending" in 2009. Takei drew a series of short stories titled Shaman King 0 in Shueisha's Jump X magazine starting in November 2011, and published a sequel series titled Shaman King Flowers in the same magazine from 2012 to 2014.

Takei has also worked on the Ultimo and Jumbor manga. He began Nekogahara, his first manga with Kodansha, in the then-new Shonen Magazine Edge in September 2015.

Japanese publisher Kodansha is now listed as the trademark owner for "Shaman King" in Japan, Europe, and the United States, though Viz Media confirmed with ANN last August that its license of Shaman King was still active at the time. Hiroyuki Takei's Shaman King manga was previously published by Shueisha.

Source: Comic Natalie