News
Kodansha Comics Hosts Shaman King Panel at Comic-Con@Home
posted on by Adriana Hazra
San Diego Comic-Con International's official website announced on Friday that Kodansha Comics will host an online panel to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the finale of Hiroyuki Takei's original Shaman King manga series. The panel will feature Kodansha Comics' Misaki Kido, Ben Applegate, and Ivan Salazar.
The panel will include "exclusive announcements [and] sneak peeks" for the Shaman King franchise. The manga series is inspiring a new anime series that will adapt all 35 volumes of the manga's new complete edition (pictured right), which Kondasha started publishing in print volumes in Japan on June 17.
Shaman King debuted 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.
Viz Media published all 32 volumes of the original Shaman King manga from 2003 to 2011, but it no longer holds the license to the manga. Japanese publisher Kodansha is now listed as the trademark owner for "Shaman King" in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Shueisha originally held the rights to the manga in Japan.
Separately, Viz Media will host a panel at the convention featuring manga artist Junji Ito. The artist's most recent work Genkai Chitai (Disturbing Zone) launched on the LINE Manga service on April 15.
Junji Ito won an Eisner Award for his manga adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Ito's Uzumaki manga (pictured left) is inspiring mini-series television anime by Production I.G, which Adult Swim will release in the United States before Japan.
The organizers of San Diego Comic-Con announced the "Comic-Con@Home" event to replace the physical version of the convention. The organizers canceled this year's in-person event due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This year's event was originally scheduled for July 23-26 at the San Diego Convention Center. Customers who purchased badges for Comic-Con 2020 will have the option to request a refund or transfer their badges to next year's event, which will take place on July 22-25, 2021.
