For the last eight years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) we’ve started the year by making some predictions on what will happen within the upcoming year. Most years we were a bit off the mark, but let’s first take a look back at how close we got for our predictions for the year 2023!
Incorrect – Shaman King: Flowers Spin-Off Launches
All the hints that a new Shaman King Flowers spin-off were there at the end of 2022, but nothing seemed to have come of it. Shaman King The Super Star manga restarted in April 2023 and had a consistent run until October. Potentially the Shonen Magazine Edge magazine ending put this potential spin-off manga further on the backburner. Or potentially it could change into something new once the anime comes out in January.
Incorrect – Shaman King Sequel Anime Releases in Fall 2023
Only off by a season, the sequel anime series did get it’s formal title of Shaman King: Flowers. From the few images in the trailers, it does hint that there might be some of the other Shaman King series included in this. There hasn’t been too much revealed yet, so we’ll have to watch each week to see the pacing and what could be added to the series.
As for which streaming service has Shaman King Flowers for North American and international fans… that’s still up in the air! A lot is pointing to Netflix NOT having the same international streaming rights as they did with the 2021 anime series. In France, ADN will be streaming the series week. Hopefully we’ll hear which streaming service picks up the series in the next coming days.
Incorrect – New York City Premiere & Related Events
With Netflix likely playing a smaller part in this sequel, them being a driving force for promotion also went up in smoke. Kodansha USA was potentially bringing over another manga-ka for Anime NYC in November 2023, but like that never fully developed. So with the anime airing in January, it hurt the earlier promotion for the new anime series if any company wanted to really run with that at any Fall events in North America.
Correct – 25th Anniversary Events
The 25th Anniversary for the Shaman King franchise was not nearly as large as the 20th, there still was some exciting things that happened in 2023. A new logo for the 25th anniversary was created to help tie-together some of the events.
The summer was the real kick-off for the 25th anniversary events. The “Great Journey in Izumo, the Land of the Gods” tourism campaign was planned to have Hiroyuki Takei in attendance, but they were unable to make that work out in time. Several Pop-up shops also occurred throughout the year, such as the Tsutaya one, to promote the series.
And coming right in at the end of the year, a new Shaman King Exhibition was announced for Taiwan! This came with a surprise look at what a potential reboot of the Shaman King original story could look like.
Incorrect – Shaman King is added to Bandai’s Union Arena Card Game
While Bandai really wanted their Union Arena card game to be successful, it hasn’t been the hit they’ve been hoping for. New card sets are still being created, and it will be entering into the North American market in 2024. So it still could happen down the road!
However in November, fans did have the opportunity to have Yoh play alongside other characters from Weekly Shonen Jump in the Jumputi Heroes mobile game. This game was developed by Shueisha, and was the first time that Shaman King has been alongside other Weekly Shonen Jump properties since Takei changed publishers to Kodansha.
So while even if all the predictions didn’t come true, there were aspects of each that were at least close to what happened in 2023. So let’s now make some more predictions on what will happen in 2024!
The following are predictions for headlines for 2024. These are guesses and are NOT real news stories.
Shaman King Exhibition continues it’s international tour
In the press releases for the announcement of the Taiwan location for the Shaman King Exhibition, it mentioned that it was the “first stop”, which would indicate that more locations would occur in the future! Specifically we are guessing there will be about 2 more locations planned for 2024.
Once it’s finished in Taiwan, the next stop for the Shaman King Exhibition would be Europe. In 2023, Takei drew some exclusive art for the Italian release of Shaman King Flowers volume 4. The French publication of the manga is slowly catching up with the volumes. For the Tokyopop anniversary, a special edition of the first volume of Shaman King will also be released in 2024. There are also continued Shaman King releases in Spain, Poland, and Russia. So having an Shaman King exhibition tied in with the Japan Expo in Paris in July 2024, makes a lot of sense. Hiroyuki Takei was previously a guest at the convention back in 2007, so it can tie into his revisiting of the fans like he mentioned with the Taiwan exhibition.
The next stop would then be for North America. There are several conventions it could be tied with, such as Anime Expo (July), SDCC (July), Otakon (August), Anime NYC (August), and NYCC (October). Assuming that it’s in Paris in July 2024, then it’s likely one of the August or October anime conventions. Hiroyuki Takei was a guest at NYCC in the past, and was going to be a guest at Otakon before being cancelled due to scheduling issues (starting his Nekogahara manga). So any of those places could also be seen as another “revisit” and an avenue for the Shaman King Exhibition to come internationally.
Hiroyuki Takei has an in-person event in Japan
Hiroyuki Takei has been trying to have an in-person event with his fans in Japan for a while, but it just hasn’t been working out. Now that The Super Star has moved to a less time-sensitive publication in Magazine Pocket, it may free up his schedule for some more events.
It will likely be similar to some of the events Takei held with Animate when the Nekogahara manga was coming out. While the exhibition is going international, it may be tied with a pop-up shop, or promotional exhibition for the Flowers anime. This can also be the opportunity for Takei to help pitch his idea for “Shaman King Kai” to his Japanese fans directly to see what their response is.
Shaman King: The Super Star Returns After Flowers Anime
When Shonen Magazine Edge ended in October, it was left up in the air on when The Super Star would continue. From Hiroyuki Takei’s previous breaks, they tend to go a bit longer than expected. So similar to when the 2021 anime came out, The Super Star will likely still be on break for most, if not all, of the Flowers anime broadcast. Assuming that there is a tie-in event, there is a chance that there might be a little overlap, but it’s likely going to be another 12 weeks before we get a continuation of the manga.
Next Shaman King Anime Announced
Just like how the 2021 anime ended, at the end of Flowers we will get a short announcement for the next Shaman King anime series. We probably won’t have a date for it, and likely wouldn’t be this year. However it could be a spin-off series, such as Red Crimson, getting an anime adaptation rather than directly going into The Super Star. We probably won’t get a lot of information, but it could be just a little something for fans to speculate on for the next year!
Another Shueisha Collaboration
The door that opened for future collaborations started with Jumputi Heroes in 2023. Continuing in 2024, were predicting that there will be another surprise collaboration with something tied closely with Shueisha. It might not be something big, such as Shaman King being included in a promotional image/art/poster, but it could be something. Whatever tensions or issues with Shueisha that Hiroyuki Takei had, appear to have eased, or at least now open the door for future projects to work with Hiroyuki Takei on.
Live Action Shaman King Project Announced
With the success of the One Piece live action, and the moderate success of the Yu Yu Hakusho live action, the hunt for more live action adaptations will continue. As the streaming numbers on Netflix for the anime series were strong, a live action Shaman King project could be in the works! We wouldn’t hear much of anything about it in 2024, but it could just be something crazy enough that it could happen!
As always, I would like to thank everyone who has come to this website in the last year, or has been following us on social media. During the first half of the year we had a continued strong output of articles for Funbari Chronicle until the game sadly ended this year. Going into 2024, there will certainly be the flood of news around the new Shaman King Flowers anime. But in addition to that, we are finally set to publish our collection of Hiroyuki Takei author comments. This has been a massive undertaking to gather all of this information and will help provide some new insights into Takei’s daily life while working on the manga series. So please look forward to that, and more to come in 2024!
